Pity we cannot fly it in Europe!

At 04:23 30 October 2013, wrote:
Having fun in the DuckHawk 15m sailplane=20
By: Daniel Sazhin

In early September, I had a fantastic day of flying at Blairstown
Airport,
=
the culmination of which was having the opportunity to fly Windward
Perform=
ance's new DuckHawk. I had just flown the club Grob Twin Astir with my
brot=
her, promptly falling out and not exactly having one of my best landings
in=
it. It seems that Bill Thar did not see it and upon greeting him, he
offer=
ed me to fly the DuckHawk! I was flabbergasted and immediately agreed.
The
=
glider was already assembled, so Bill promptly introduced me to the
cockpit=
and gave the pre-flight briefing. We pushed the glider out to the line,
wh=
ich was easy because at its 440 LBS empty weight it is just like pushing
my=
club's 1-26E around!

While I have not flown any high performance single-place gliders before,
my=
many years of flying the Condor Soaring Simulator have allowed me to be
fa=
miliar with most of the composite sailplanes in the field. I did not feel
n=
ervous about being able to control the plane and I was excited to try it
ou=
t. The first takeoff was very easy and the DuckHawk had great control
autho=
rity and responsiveness. There was no need for any of the takeoff tricks
fo=
und on some other sailplanes such as negative flap settings prior to
takeof=
f or open spoilers for increased aileron effectiveness. The visibility
was
=
great and it was easy to stay behind the tow plane because the DuckHawk
did=
n=92t get thrown around in the turbulence. Unfortunately, upon releasing
I
=
was unable to find much lift except for one light thermal which amounted
to=
zero-sink for a while. Pulling into that thermal, it was quite a
fantastic=
sensation bringing the flaps to 10-15 degrees and feeling the glider
=93gr=
ip=94 the air. The DuckHawk was able to slow down to a tad over 40 knots
an=
d provides the pilot with a lot of feedback from the air. What was
definite=
ly noticeable was that the glider does everything you want it to. There
is
=
no feeling of =93fighting the glider=94 like in some other gliders I had
fl=
own. The DuckHawk handled great at the low speed end and the controls
were
=
not twitchy, but yet very responsive. I liked the fact that there is no
ele=
vator trim; instead wherever one places the stick, it stays in that
positio=
n. The electric flaps are easily controlled in manual mode using a switch
o=
n the stick. The flaps move at a brisk rate, but there is no tendency
for
=
the glider to =93drop=94 such as when the flaps are moved between notches
i=
n other gliders. This DuckHawk is fitted with a prototype automatic flap
co=
ntrol system but it was not used on this flight. I returned to the field
pu=
t the flaps down and opened the spoilers to land just like you do in
other
=
gliders and the nice thing was to put the gear down I just moved the
gated
=
switch and out came the gear. Everything went easily on landing and the
flo=
ating piston oleo shock is wonderful as there is no bounce and it does
its
=
job very nicely and the wheel brake is very effective.

One week later, I took the DuckHawk up for another flight on a day when
the=
ridge was working and had the opportunity to experience this glider's
exce=
llent cross country capability. Since there were thermals present as
well,
=
I had more time to fly the plane and it was a good opportunity to do some
s=
talls and get a feel for the plane throughout more of its envelope. The
sta=
lls were benign and had very little tendency to drop a wing. The DuckHawk
i=
s much like a chameleon in the way it can be thermalled. For instance, at
5=
0 knots it requires very little control in maneuvering in a thermal and
cli=
mbs very well with little effort. However, unlike other sailplanes, this
gl=
ider really does not seem to have a narrow and sensitive =93drag
bucket=94
=
and as a result, it can be thermalled even down to 40 knots without a
signi=
ficant sink rate penalty. It was quite interesting that the pilot is
given
=
quite the latitude in how one wants to go about thermalling, which bodes
we=
ll for different conditions and pilot styles. Prior to the flight, Bill
Tha=
r also told me that I should consider bringing the glider up to its 160
kno=
ts maneuvering speed, which I did after thermalling it for a while. I
dived=
away and got up to around 155 knots and then pulled up, heading like a
roc=
ket toward the stratosphere. That pull-up was such a rush that I decided
I
=
just had to do it again going the other way! One must also consider that
th=
is was even done under convective conditions in the vicinity of a ridge,
no=
t in smooth air. However, the DuckHawk was absolutely solid and it felt
abs=
olutely safe bringing it to a speed that is over the VNE of most other
sail=
planes around. The plane was flown dry with a light total flying weight
aro=
und 620 LBS and when I got onto the ridge, I immediately noticed that
even
=
for its light weight it did not get particularly kicked around by the
dynam=
ic air. Unlike my trusty metal steed (1-26), the DuckHawk seemed to
=93plow=
=94 through the air and handled beautifully on the ridge. The ridge
transit=
ions were quite easy and I flew over 400 km with an average speed of 105
mp=
h on the ridge, without doing any turns other than doing some more
thermall=
ing practice at the end of =93our=94 mountain. The glider was flown with
t=
he prototype automatic/manual flap control system and I think that this
wil=
l be an exciting system for the future of the plane as the automatic mode
s=
moothly adjusts the flaps throughout their range and gives you the
optimum
=
flap setting all of the time. The fast roll rate is conducive to rolling
in=
and out very quickly with little adverse yaw. As far as all of the other
f=
eatures of the plane you can check them out on the manufacturer=92s
website=
.. It is quite a testament to the design of the glider that someone with
as
=
little high performance glider time as myself would be able to transition
s=
o easily to a world-class racing machine. Windward Performance's DuckHawk
w=
as an absolute delight to fly and it would be an honor to fly it again.