On 24/12/2014 8:41 PM, Colin Collum wrote:
G'day All,
One of the ironies of gliding seems to be that modern sleek gliders
are not only faster in virtually every sense, they are also safer in
that many of them are much less likely to spin, but unfortunately our
novice pilot can't be guaranteed to always fly an aircraft that won't
spin.
I was instructing a girl in the front seat of a Twin Astir and said to
her: "Twin Astirs just mush instead of spinning" To my surprise, she
managed to spin it easily (because of her light weight) and it required
full opposite rudder to stop it as well as easing the stick forward and
a very steep dive enough for a loop.
I was in a Ventus 2b on a Xcountry having lunch in a thermal. I reached
behind me to grab the water tube; the bottle was strapped on parcel
shelf above and behind me and the tube had slipped down beside me out of
reach and I was going to find it from the bottle. When I looked round,
the paddocks were in my direct field of vision rotating. I absolutely
had no idea I was in a spin. Full opposite rudder took a loooong time to
stop the rotation and the height lost was significant but fortunately
did not end in an outlanding.
I recite this to all my students when instructing on spins.
PeterS
So we need to teach them in aircraft that can be spun safely, but we
also need to keep them keen and I must say that when I was learning 10
years ago, even then the IS28s gave the impression of being way too
out-of-date in their performance and appearance. After going solo I
graduated to the giddy heights of a Junior---the novelty wore off that
pretty quickly when from 8,500' AGL I couldn't make it 40km home at
best LD into a light breeze without another thermal!
It's no use saying I learned in one of those, and if it was good
enough for me then it is good enough for the current generation of
learners. We need to keep them interested, a little excited, able to
progress quickly enough for it to be satisfying and also very safe.
I don't claim to know the answers, but I doubt if it is IS28s, K13s,
K6s and Juniors. K21s? Probably, but I don't know what to recommend
for a first single-seater.
Merry Xmas,
Colin
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