Bob Whelan wrote:
The anal part of me occasionally would like to know exactly how many
times I've heard the following 2 positions (usually in opposition to
some sort of proposed fleet change in a club) espoused (with varying
degrees of vehemence):
1) flaps (not the landing kind, merely the camber-changing efficiency
kind) are definitionally 'too complex' to even be considered as a new
club ship, and...
2) ditto retractable landing gear.

Related comment.

Today I was chatting with a pretty experienced instructor who has
specialized in air experience and early instruction of young people
(Scouts, etc) in a variety of aircraft: Rotax Falke, DG-500T, Blanik
L-13. We were discussing the L-13, which I've never flown, and he was
saying that both its retract gear, which you can safely land on when its
up, and its flaps, which he thought were pretty ineffective, are made
the way they are and fitted specifically to give student pilots
experience flying a glider with retracts and flaps.

One solution would seem to be to use an L-13 or L-23 for pre-conversion
training.

From my experience of converting to an ASW-20 (read the POH a few
times, get in and take an aero tow), I'd have appreciated a flight or
two in an L-13 or DG500/22 first. My club doesn't own any flapped duals
and the only private ones on site are big-wings.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |