At 06:01 29/11/2007, you wrote: >Yes. I have thermalled with eagles and I have ridged soared with all >sorts of birds including magpies (the worst) and pelicans. And I >have done this in the open, au naturel so to speak, and in a >tupperware glider. > >You accuse me of being sour. Not at all! > >"I turned south and whispered for home at 40 knots. For 20 miles I >flew, gaining height at half a knot, everything so quiet that it was >not the Dart which was moving, it was the dreamy earth below which >was being drawn silently backwards." > >When I read this from Phillip Wills, I think something has been lost >in modern gliders. If you have experienced flying in the open, >really slow and quiet, or whispered along in an old, slow glider, >than I doubt you would attempt to challenge the idea that while >soaring with eagles in a modern sailplane is OK, naked is better. > >DMcD
That article was in the very first issue of "Sailplane & Gliding" that I received when I joined a civilian gliding club after learning with the Air Cadet movement: October 1966! The Dart in question was about the prototype or first production Open Class version, the Dart 17R. It was very high performance - about the best they ever achieved with wooden gliders - 36:1 best glide and a low min sink rate around 140 - 150 ft/min. The Standard Class Dart 15 won the OSTIV prize at the 1965 World Championships but only about 2 had been produced at the time, and the later 17R was far more popular. I never flew one, but was told they were not particularly easy to fly and had a few sharp corners to the envelope with a high aspect ratio tapered-chord wing and quite a high wing-loading for the day. Certainly not an open-cockpit slow-flying 1930's vintage aircraft - it would out-perform many Standard class gliders still in common use today that we would not call vintage at all! (at least at speeds below about 75 kt). Wombat _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
