On Thursday, June 18, 2015 at 5:47:18 PM UTC-5, son_of_flubber wrote:

You sir are dangerously uninformed about aerobatics in Schweitzer gliders

Service Bulletin 'SA-003 Aerobatics in Schweizer Sailplane 25 Mar 1987'

supersedes the POH. Aerobatics are not approved.

Did you actually read the Service Bulletin? It says "Aerobatics are not approved or RECOMMENDED" - because "the structural design levels of the sailplane could be exceeded".

Really? A lot of pilots exceed the structural design levels of their gliders without having to resort to fancy aerobatics - plain old takeoffs and landings seem to do just fine!

As has been posted elsewhere in this thread, this was just a cop-out by Schweizer to limit liability. Probably a good business move in the US, but it has NOTHING to do with the suitability of Schweizer gliders to do some aerobatics. The 2-32 is an excellent case in point - anyone who ever watched Les Horvath's airshow act in his yellow 2-32 can attest to that! And there is plenty of video of 1-26s being happily looped and rolled.

That being said, I'd be more concerned with the age of some of those horrible beasts!

Do yourself a favor and get some acro training (if you haven't already) - perhaps you will understand better what the load limits of an aircraft really mean. If you can't loop a glider safely within it's load and speed limits, you are the one who is "dangerously uninformed about aerobatics"!

Kirk
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