Terry Neumann wrote:
Sideslips were of course, a common, almost mandatory practise on approach with the early ES52's and especially with the ES57 Kingfisher. They were lots of fun, but fell out of favour (and properly so) when gliders with serious airbrakes came along. I have been occasionally asked to demonstrate a sideslip in more recent check flights, a curious request given the excellent airbrakes in most gliders these days - especially in the AS-K21 in which the directive was uttered. ("You want me to do a what??! .... Oh.... OK, here we go .....(sigh)"). Personally I think they are best left alone in most - if not all - modern gliders, unless of course it's a B-767.
Hmmm
I would have to disagree about using sideslips being a thing of the past. Admittedly, I trained in the UK in the '60s, where small paddocks were pretty common (and on gliders that had ineffective spoilers let alone ineffective airbrakes) and so sideslips were an integral part of the training I received (and eventually was giving as an instructor).
Even in Alice, I still sideslip (although with her lack of rudder she doesn't slip too well in a straight line) on occasion to keep in practice in case I need it some time. With full landing flap, full airbrake and the max straight line sideslip, Alice's rate of descent is high and the angle of approach is really steep (think clearing obstacles and maximising ground roll space in a short paddock). I know that if I need it, the skill/knowledge/experience are there ready to be pulled out. I last used a sideslip during a busy arrival at this year's Easter comp so I could land short and quickly get off the runway, out of the way of a stack of traffic behind me in the circuit.
I would also maintain that we should teach sideslips - one of these days being able to do it safely could prevent a marginal outlanding from becoming another outlanding accident.
As a general principle, I believe pretty strongly that, with the exception of full aerobatics that scare quite a few people, if there's a safe manoeuvre that your glider can do, you should know how to do it safely - that way, if you need to do it, it's part of your skill set.
-- Robert Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED] +61 (0)438 385 533 http://www.hart.wattle.id.au _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
