At 18:24 10 June 2008, wrote:
Jim, Interesting stuff. For the reasons stated previously that the
flight envelope of comparison favors the Std. Cirrus and not
necessarily the Diana, is there a plan to do a comparison between a
detubulated Std. Cirrus vs another random 38yr old Std. Cirrus?





I addressed the question of the differnce in best speeds of the two
aircraft earlier and concluded that it is essentially negligible.

However, in fact, all things permitting, I will try a Std. Cirrus vs. Std.
Cirrus flight this Saturday. The other aircraft is owned by Jim Maye. It
is serial number 30, whereas mine is #60. That is significant because
around #150 Klaus Holidhaus gave the wing an additional .75 degree twist.
Both gliders in the planned test will be the same. Both pilots too are...
ahum...well fed.

The main reason for this test is that people like to see differences
directly rather than implied. So, I am expecting to see #30 sinking
relative to #60. Then the problem will be that we will no longer be
flying in the same air and we will need to restart the test. So we may
have a series of short runs. I hope so at least.

If you don't hear from me early next week, it will mean that something
prevented the test, or it didn't work out as expected and I'm stalling
for time to figure it out and/or stage another engagement. I much prefer
reporting our successes than failures.

JEH