At 01:42 PM 24/08/2010, you wrote:
If high performance machines is so important for training and
gliding has got it so wrong, why are so many Cessna 172's still in
use as a basic trainer and why are new ones still selling?
Just wondered
-Cath
Various reasons: The 172/182 are the machines many people will
continue to fly. They aren't the fastest but the combination of load
carrying, speed, comfort, range and short/rough airfield performance
make them very useful aircraft for the tasks they do. Powered
aircraft have many more design points than just flat out speed.
The Cirrus SR20/22 people though reckon if you are going to buy one
of their aircraft and you can't fly, that you may as well train in
it and do 100 hours before flying solo in it. Then you'll have your
licence and enough hours to get insurance on it to fly it solo. I
can't think of a good reason not to do that.
As for gliding having it so wrong, ask the 1000 a year turnover
people. Just the size of that number tells you there is something
wrong. There seems to be a general recognition that something is
wrong but gliding people seem to want the rest of the world to change
its thinking instead of changing gliding.
Performance is THE main selling point of any glider. We know how to
make them all handle well nowadays and the detail differences amongst
composite gliders are negligible.
Try selling any single seat glider that isn't at the top of its
competition class or making one that doesn't fit a class. Or making
one that doesn't perform very well in absolute terms(PW5). The sales
of these types has been very low historically even though the
majority of the customers for gliders aren't top contest pilots.
There's also a performance threshold for gliders. It seems to be at
around the old 1970s Standard Class level. L/D 35 or better and high
speed performance such that the 4 knot sink rate is in the 82- 85
knot range. With that performance or better you actually don't have
to take every thermal you encounter and you don't land out all that
often. The K21 isn't quite as good as that.
Putting a motor in the K21 for training is good. I wouldn't be too
confident about that rotary motor though with the service history in
Australia over the last few years. I suspect you could buy 3 Jabs for
one ASK21Mi and servicing would be cheaper too. Maybe a 2200 Jab
engine on a fixed pylon on a K21 would work for training.
BTW Jabs fly just like gliders. Adverse yaw and rudder co-ordination
required. I flew one on Sunday and the owner let me land it.
If you are training glider pilots in one you'd think about tailoring
the training towards gliding techniques. Lots of steep turn practice
during upper air work, nice tight circuits etc.
Going solo should not be the aim. I believe early solo flying is a
hangover in aviation from nearly 100 years ago. Suddenly WW1 happened
and it was necessary to train thousands of pilots and there was only
a small cadre of "experienced" aviators to act as instructors. As a
lot of flying is repetitive practice it was considered an acceptable
risk for much of this practice to be done solo. It was also
acceptable to lose lots of students in training either by rejecting
them or they would kill themselves. The same thing happened on a
larger scale in the second world war and after both wars who were the
civilian instructors ? Yep, the pilots who survived the war. So guess
what they based the civilian flying training system on? They knew
nothing else in aviation, however do we let student drivers practice
solo before a licence test?
That's why I advocate ultralights for landing practice at least and
high performance gliders for gliding training. There should be no
hurry to go solo. There's lots to learn and enjoy in high performance
soaring. I doubt those really interested in soaring would mind doing
it dual right up to and including cross countries as long as it was
fun. The popularity of the Duo Discus, including significant private
ownership of them and other high performance 2 seaters seems to be
evidence that this is correct. Schleichers didn't expect to sell 250
ASH25 did they?
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - manufacturers of quality soaring instruments since 1978
phone Int'l + 61 746 355784
fax Int'l + 61 746 358796
cellphone Int'l + 61 428 355784
email: [email protected]
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