On 3/29/2013 5:45 PM, wrote:
Great thing about the sport of soaring is the enjoyment of it is whatever
you want it to be. Top dollar high tech fiberglass or aluminum and cloth
wings, fly safe and have fun.


"What rstutzmann said."

Way back when, there I wuz soaring a 1-26, learning how to go XC. Made my
first land-out (in a 1-26, of course) in MD...about 2 air miles from the
airport. Made my next 3 (in a different 1-26) in UT. UT land out #1 was ~4 air
miles from the T.O. field; UT #2 was ~1 air mile from the T.O. field; UT #3
was ~48 air miles from my T.O. airport. Musta been learning SOMEthing (other
than how to pick good landing fields, I mean!)...

One of the things I thought I'd learned in UT - which has a fair amount of
tiger country, even for a short-field-lander such as a 1-26 - was I might be
able to learn XC faster - or at least do more of it - with a flatter gliding
1-26. That was because a lot of UT/inter-mountain-Rockies lift tends to
develop along mountain range spines, and reaching it was - on some days, for
me, with my skills then - effectively impossible without taking risks I was
unwilling to take. IOW, longer legs would've definitely assisted nurturing my
nascent XC skills in that part of the world, IF longer legs could be obtained
without giving up the (postage-stamp-sized) field choices available to 1-26s.

And that's how I ended up becoming a fan of large-deflection landing flaps.
Had I been soaring in (say) the midwest, I may have never felt the need for a
flatter gliding 1-26, since sheer distance covered is all in one's head.

My 48-mile landout occurred after 2+ hours atop the same field, after a
tailwind became a headwind, I wouldn't accept the "all or nothing" risk of
stretching for the lift atop the spine of mountains just to my east, and so -
once my crew was reasonably close & because we had several more hours of
driving to do to get to work the next day - I landed after countless "sawtooth
climbs" reaching for the next field ahead in "my" valley. All I wanted to do
was to be able to GET to the next field. That day, every glide after my climbs
put me back in the pattern for the field I landed on. Great fun...but
simultaneously frustrating. My conclusion was a flatter gliding 1-26 would
likely reduce future frustrational situations, for me, in that part of the world.

In any event, if you're having fun, you're having fun!!!

Bob W.