Michael wrote:
Eric Greenwell wrote

Think for a moment. If you're checking yourself out in a glider,
you're going to do some stalls in it, right? And they're going to be
true approach-to-landing stalls - starting with a stabilized descent
at pattern speed, with a speed reduction to mimic the flare. Gives
you plenty of time to feel what the glider is going to do.

Suppose we didn't teach stalls that way. Suppose we taught them as a
performance maneuver, where the goal was to get the nose high, get a
clean break, and minimize altitude loss at recovery. Would the
student still be prepared to figure out the landing characteristics of
the plane?

If we taught them this way, we would be doing the student a disservice,
even if they never flew any other glider. It's widely understood that
you have to teach turning stalls, as these are the most likely way a
pilot will encounter a spin or spiral dive.


Apparently, I'm still missing the point: why is a 1-26 or ka-8 far
better for soaring flight?


Because it doesn't handle like a truck.

Maybe it's a matter of preference. I think it it's a nice handling
glider, not truck like at all, though it is heavier than a 15 meter
glider. It SOARS just fine, and I'm not tired from flying it after a few
hours, as long as I can sit in the front seat.

Because it's relatively
(compared to an L-23) easy to reg and derig. Because it's a single
seater, which makes it easier for the student to cut the apron strings
and for the club to let him go, whereas the two-seater is needed to
train more presolo students.

These are good reasons to have a glider that is easier to retrieve from
a field, but aren't related to the soaring or cross-country ability of
the glider. Also, The L13 can be safely tied down outside, unlike the
Ka-8, which is important for some clubs. Our members generally preferred
to fly the already assembled L13, rather than rigging the Ka-6E we had
for year. A hangar to keep the Ka-6 in would have likely reversed this
choice.

In our area, it is practical to do nice cross-country flights and still
stay within reach of an airport. Aerotows retrieves were not expensive,
but still the members were reluctant. What made a difference was taking
them cross-country in the L13, so they could see how it is actually done.

--
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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA