At 20:06 29 October 2004, Nafod40 wrote:
Todd Pattist wrote:

I had my doubts about using this technique in a slippery
glass ship, but I found it to work fairly well, except
I use
trim back. I have tried this in my Ventus C, once
for a
total of 10,000' descent, once for 8,000' descent
and once
for 5,000' (a real waste of altitude, but each was
after a
wave flight and I was cold). I found that trim back
(thermal setting), flaps at -1 (one notch negative
- zero
and positive flap settings are limited to 80 knots),
wheel
out and brakes full open worked best. The 10,000'
and
5,000' descents were entered level, became a gentle
stable
turn and remained fairly stable with some phugoid
speed
oscillation. The turn would sometimes steepen, sometimes
shallow or even reverse.

When flying in the military, we used to play games
and see what we could
fail and still fly the plane IMC. I found I could get
by with a turn
needle, an AOA gauge, a balance ball (or a balance
string) and an ASI.
The turn needle coupled with the balance string could
be used to
maintain wings level. Basically use rudder to keep
the turn needle
centered, and wing to balance flight.

The AOA with the airspeed, oddly enough, worked fine
for pitch once you
got used to it. The AOA responded instantly to pitch
inputs, and let you
immediately correct them. From a controls standpoint,
it gave great
derivative information. The airspeed then let you dampen
the slow pitch
deviations. It was a great integrator. One could replicate
an AOA
indicator by a string on the side of a cockpit.

I could fly a PAR to mins using this technique. Tiring,
but doable.

So the turn needle is the only thing seriously lacking
in a glider.


Speak for yourself, I have a turn and slip AND a horizon
in my panel and consider them minimum equipment for
wave soaring on cloudy days in a slippery glider.