On Sunday, May 27, 2012 10:21:35 PM UTC-7, Roel Baardman wrote:
After speaking with an instructor about my Pilatus B4 landings, he argued that
the angle of incidence on this glider has a great influence on the landing
characteristics.
I looked it up, and it was only 1.5 degrees. With the tailplane oriented at -3
degrees.

However, I cannot figure out what other gliders have as the angle of
incidence. I have 6 degrees in my head somehow, but I'm not sure where I get
this from. Searching on Google does not give me figures, only stories about
changing it (from Ls6 to Ls8 for example).

I'm therefor wondering: can you tell me the angle of incidence on your glider
if you know it? And how does it effect take-off and landing characteristics?
For example: some people in my club argue that the Discus2 take-off
characteristics are also to be blamed on its angle of incidence.

regards,

Roel

I remember a long final glide that I made with a friend (both flying LS-6's). We were dead even, flying best L/D, we had to make it over a lake with enough altitude to clear the ridge. After a few minutes my buddy said; "Watch this" and slowly, but surely, he started gaining altitude on me. After 10 miles he was a good 50 feet above me. So, I asked, "OK, what did you do"? He replied, I went to one notch of positive flap. Why did that work? Because the wing on the LS-6 is attached at zero incidence so as to make the fuselage align with the relative wind when flying fast, but at best L/D, the nose was up and selecting +1 flaps brought the nose down a tat and alighned it better into the relative wind. Good trick to remember.
JJ
JJ