On Jul 9, 3:44 pm, Bob Kuykendall wrote:
Earlier, "Ken Kochanski (KK)" wrote:

A Sparrowhawk is kicking butt... handicapped...

It's handicapped, right? So wouldn't it be more precise to say that
some pilot, who is flying a SparrowHawk, is kicking butt? Three cheers
for the pilot!

BTW, the handicap for the SparrowHawk seems to be 1.17. For
comparison, the CH05 handicap for the PW-5 is 1.206 and the Russia
AC-4C is 1.185.

Bob K.

Hi Bob,

As the scorer for the contest in question, I can vouch for the
pilot. He's good. But, the legitimate question is: Is he THAT
good? More to the point, does the Sparrowhawk have an overly
generous handicap. On the surface of it, the Sparrowhawk has a polar
which is closer to the Standard Cirrus (and other 1.0 handicap ships)
than it is to the AC-4C. This is based on the polar published on the
Windward Performance Website. Unforutunately, I have misplaced my
copy of Soaring Magazine where Dick Johnson published his results, and
the flight test doesn't seem to be up on the SSA Website yet. Note
that with such a very small wing area, the Sparrowhawk is very
sensitive to wingloading (or, rather, Pilot Loading). I suspect that
there may be something to look at there...