Our club some years ago (VMFG) sold our IS28's and bought a Puchaz. Having gone from instructing on the 28's to the Puchaz, I can tell you the spin characteristics of the Puchaz are far superior to that of the 28. The 28's depending on C of G had an alarming (for the pupil and sometimes even experienced pilots) habit of tucking under in the spin giving the impression of an almost inverted spin. The Puchacz is far more predictable and docile and in my view an excellent trainer. Harry's comment that we should not be importing them makes no sense to me at all. Of course being an aerotow club we don't do any spinning below 1500 ft AGL, at a winch operation where you may only get 1200 ft AGL there is far less safety margin and unless I am mistaken most of the Puchaz spin accidents have been at winch sites.
To get to the point, there is no way I would intentionally spin an IS28 at 1200ft AGL, and were I to be in the position of spinning at that altitude I would much rather be in a Puchacz! Unfortunately the real issue with the Puchacz is its limited service life, and for that reason our club has spent a lot of time researching alternatives and have decided on the DG505 John Parncutt VMFG -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Kittel, Stephen W (ETSA) Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 5:49 PM To: 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.' Subject: RE: [Aus-soaring] IS28 ADs (was Reasons NOT to spin for fun) > -----Original Message----- > From: Jason Armistead > There ARE more than 3 ADs for IS28s. You need to be careful > how you look for > them ! Whoops, should have realised that myself. > Some are filed under "IS-28" (rather than "IS28") - another 9 > in fact, > including AD 374 "Fatigue Life Limits" which I think is the > one that explains > the trade-off between aerobatic flights and lifetime, ... Thanks for that heads up on AD374. It may be of interest to some here in SA with Twin Astirs (not the direct application of the AD but how it came about). Anyway, I note that it is a GFA extension _beyond_ the manufacturers limits. You basically can't have it if you do more than 8% aerobatics (which I would have thought was plenty, even for the most spin happy clubs) *OR* 500 non aerotow launches, which pretty much excludes this extension from being available to any winch clubs (I reckon 500 launches would be about a year or so worth even for a small country winch club). So as far as this analysis goes, it would appear type of launch is far more important than any aerobatics a club may do. Regards SWK ********************************************************************** This email and any file attachments are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please tell us immediately by return email and delete the document. The information in this email expresses the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of ETSA Utilities. ********************************************************************** _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
