On Friday, October 17, 2014 8:27:04 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
Years back a friend and I were asked to
perform the FAA mandated Phase I flight tests for a newly imported
PW-5.* .... In fact, the only short
coming we could find was in its appearance.* It did not attract
the expected (and hoped for) crowds of chicks...

Dan Marotta
On 10/16/2014 8:20 PM, wrote:

Did catch the fancy of at least one bull:

Donald Ingraham
3/11/99
From Charlie Spratt's write-up of Day 2 (yesterday) at the Senior's
in Florida....

snip
" I have heard some great land-out stories over the years but few
beat the one that happened to Francois Pin in his PW-5. Francois go
low on the second turn and had to pick a field to land in. It was a
good field, and he had no problems with the landing.

Soon after landing cows began to show up around the glider. They
began to lick the glider, and slobber all over it. Francois makes
several attempts to run them off with little luck. His biggest
problem showed up soon after. A very large and aggressive bull comes
on the scene. The bull put a horn under the stab and raised the
glider off the ground. Francois was able to back him up a little
but he continued to have great interest in the glider. After a couple
of runs at Francois the bull seemed to claim the glider as part of
his harem. The bull moved to the front of the glider and began to
tear at the canopy cover. Soon it is in shreds on the ground. Now
the bull suddenly raises up on its hind legs, and to the horror of
Francois tries to mount the glider! The crunch of the canopy is loud
and long as the bulls hoofs penetrate the Plexiglas. Francois
continues to try and run the bull off, but he appears to be in love
and won't budge. Just in time the crew shows up and the bull seems
threatened by the four-wheeler and retreats from his new found love.
As I write this Francois and team are in the hangar supergluing
pieces of the canopy back together in hopes that he can fly tomorrow."

(Note to self: add mace to off-field landing kit. :-)

Don
__________________________________________________ _____
Don Ingraham
Silicon Graphics Friends help you move.
Real friends help you move bodies.

Very docile stall-spin characteristics, easy to handle on the ground as when empty it is almost balanced on the main wheel, very directionally stable on take off and landing due to weight on the nose wheel though this does make it harder to change direction on rollout if needed. Very light and well harmonized controls and easy to assemble. As previously stated it climbs very well but starts coming down pretty quickly if you put on the speed.

There are some calendar life limited parts on the ship which may or may not have been replaced in accordance with the maintenance manual as referenced in the type certificate so that should be checked on any PW-5 being considered for purchase.

The big problem this glider (and others in the same performance class) faced was that the number of glider pilots is not increasing and glass ships have a very long life. This results in a fairly good supply of older standard class ships which could be purchased for less money and which offered better performance while still having acceptable flying characteristics. I really liked flying the PW-5 but when it came to my own money I bought an old, but very nice ASW-15b.