Peter.

 

A long time ago several old/new sailplanes eg. Mosquito’s, Cirrus etc.. 
suffered water leakage from their tanks into surrounding foam structure to such 
a degree lower skins separated from the foam.

 

As a result  a test was required to check the integrity of ballast tanks at 
each Form 2 inspection.

 

I can only suppose the tanked sailplanes you’re referring to failed the test.

 

Noel.

 

From: Aus-soaring [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
Peter Champness
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 6:40 PM
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Cc: Gliding Australia Forum; Bruce Taylor
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] [gfaforum] RE: water bags and tanks

 

With respect to ballast bags, can anyone tell me why so many older gliders 
(without ballast bags) can no longer carry water?  What is the problem?

 

On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 10:38 PM, Noel Roediger <[email protected]> 
wrote:

The best ballast bags I ever used were made by Clipper Plastics – a Melbourne 
based company.

 

They had patterns for all sailplanes requiring such and the bags were 
reasonably priced.

 

Noel.

 

From: Bruce Taylor [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2017 3:32 PM
To: 'Justin Sinclair'; 'Gary Stevenson'
Cc: 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.'; 'Anthony Smith'; 
'Gliding Australia Forum'
Subject: RE: [gfaforum] RE: water bags and tanks

 

Hi Gary and all,

 

In regard to sourcing ballast bags, there is a company at Currumbin in Qld 
called Turtle Pac who make all kinds of water and fuel bags for aviation and 
marine use. You will find them at http://www.turtlepac.com/ 

 

I have used them in the past, as have a number of other gliding people, and 
they appear to provide a good quality product and are very pleasant and easy to 
deal with.

 

Speaking of “Super ships” and matters of weight and balance, it is my 
experience that as weights and wing-loadings inevitably increase, then the 
chance of getting the loading wrong enough to matter also increases. The JS1 is 
a beautiful glider to own and fly, but it is the first glider that I have been 
involved with that has a real potential to be loaded well outside of its C of G 
limitations. Particularly in 21m span, the large wing ballast load, two 
separate tail tanks, jet fuel load and of course various pilot weights require 
that you do actually sit down with the supplied loading spreadsheet and put all 
the correct numbers into the calculation. Wing-loadings close to 60kg/sq m are 
a real hoot to fly with, but need to be treated with much respect.

 

On the upside, the EASA-specified certification flight testing is now 
incredibly rigorous, so you can be assured that if you do get the numbers 
wrong, or have a ballast-dump malfunction, the glider will be doing its best to 
keep you alive. Things have changed since gliders like the Cirrus were 
certified! Spinning the JS1C/21m with a fully asymmetric ballast load, with the 
C of G WAY behind the aft limit, makes for particularly exciting viewing! It’s 
on Youtube somewhere.

 

Cheers, BT.

 

From: Justin Sinclair [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2017 7:38 AM
To: Gary Stevenson
Cc: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.; Anthony Smith; 
Gliding Australia Forum
Subject: Re: [gfaforum] RE: water bags and tanks

 

My only comment having been involved as  CFI of a club that has had an 
asymmetric balance accident would be that "if" you can pick that you have 
asymmetry make sure do a fast landing.

 

I am not sure of the speed or flap setting but logic would dictate something 
above your normal fully ballasted/slow thermalling speed. The idea would be to 
lower the wing onto the ground before you lose aileron effectiveness, but do 
not do the traditional stall it on landing otherwise you get a big surprise as 
the heavy wing drops first.

 

The issue with asymmetry should be structural not aerodynamic. Even if one wing 
has 200lts of water in it you average wing can easily develop enough angle of 
attack to pull 3G or 600lts/kg, so as long as you have speed/AoA you will be 
fine. 

 

My only other advice would be if you use tape to cover the vent holes instead 
of wing sticks make sure you do a proper ABCD walk around just before you jump 
in the seat and use any colour tape other than white.

 

Justin

 

Justin Sinclair 

17 Queen St

Scarborough Qld

 

0421061811


On 28 Aug 2017, at 12:18 am, Gary Stevenson <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Noel,

Tend to agree with you here.

 

Re “twisted” I am sure that this does not apply only to the bags. Think about 
some of the pilots you know!

 

You say “Generally a sailplane will not display an imbalance until stalled. One 
wing doesn’t know it’s heavier than its partner until then.” A very interesting 
point, which I have had the misfortune to inadvertently explore a little bit, 
but – thank  God – never seriously in the air.

 

Without doubt  the use of water ballast  introduced a whole new dimension to 
gliding, as, just co-incidentally Mike B mentioned in a concurrent post. 
However it use is something that should never be treated lightly [groan].  A 
couple of hundred litres of ballast will turn your pussy cat into a tiger:  In 
the glide;  into a missile  ..... almost.  Take care that you are not lined up 
on one of your mates.

 

You say “A number of prototype sailplanes have been lost while testing their 
ability to remain controllable at the stall with max. Imbalance”  I have never 
had the chance to own/fly  a current “super-ship”, but from the literature , 
they have (as a minimum), inboard tanks, outboard tanks, and fuselage tanks. It 
would seem to me that the situation could become somewhat  fraught, if the 
slightest thing goes wrong with the dumping arrangement. 

 

Would any knowable person like to make comment here?

 

Finally we come to the important practical question of “good ballast bags”. It 
would seem that these are becoming hard to source, due to potential liability 
issues. Who  in Australia, or elsewhere, are making new replacement  bags?

 

Regards,

Gary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: Aus-soaring [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
Noel Roediger
Sent: Sunday, 27 August 2017 10:18 PM
To: 'Anthony Smith'; 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.'; 
'Gliding Australia Forum'
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] [gfaforum] RE: American Soaring Symposia

 

Thanks Anthony.

 

The final question asked of Wil re assymetric water ballast merits further 
comment particularly for those who fly sailplanes with bags instead of tanks.

 

I believe good ballast bags far outweigh the problems exhibited by rigid tanks 
which often leak into the surrounding structure.

 

Having said that I don’t know of any “bagged” tank that is not extended and 
held in place by a rear cord.

 

In reality bags should be held by two cords. One at its rear as is the norm but 
also one at its front to eliminate the possibility of its leading edge falling 
over the aft edge and becoming twisted.

 

 

 

Regards

 

Noel.

 

From: Anthony Smith [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2017 6:32 PM
To: 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.'; 'Gliding 
Australia Forum'
Subject: [gfaforum] RE: [Aus-soaring] American Soaring Symposia

 

Part of the Wil Schumann paper is here:

 

http://www.betsybyars.com/guy/soaring_symposia/72-modif.html 

 

From: Aus-soaring [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
Ron Sanders
Sent: Sunday, 27 August 2017 6:22 PM
To: Gliding Australia Forum <[email protected]>; Discussion of 
issues relating to Soaring in Australia. <[email protected]>
Subject: [Aus-soaring] American Soaring Symposia

 

Any body got any idea where is can get any of these publications from  the 
seventies??

Wil Schumann did a clean up of a libelle that i would like to read about again.

 

Ron

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Gliding Australia Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at 
https://groups.google.com/a/glidingaustralia.org/group/gfaforum/.

 


 
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient>
 Image removed by sender.

Virus-free.  
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient>
 www.avg.com 

 

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Gliding Australia Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at 
https://groups.google.com/a/glidingaustralia.org/group/gfaforum/.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Gliding Australia Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at 
https://groups.google.com/a/glidingaustralia.org/group/gfaforum/.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Gliding Australia Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at 
https://groups.google.com/a/glidingaustralia.org/group/gfaforum/.


_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.base64.com.au/listinfo/aus-soaring

 

_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.base64.com.au/listinfo/aus-soaring

Reply via email to