Duck Hawk Kudos

On Feb 28, 12:27*pm, Bob Whelan wrote:
Am I the only one who remembers from the
Albuquerque convention Greg Cole's intention (then, anyway) to stress
the Duck Hawk for 'useful' dynamic soaring speeds and maneuvers (and
concomitant stresses)...as in enabling it to be capable of dynamically
soaring (say) the fringes of the jet stream?

I agree with the sentiment of the post. The effort deserves a lot of
credit.

That said, my personal feeling is that the most pilots will take
notice if the ship is able to achieve 5-10+ kts faster cruise speeds
at moderate-to-high McCready setting versus current designs. That's
what moves the market for a new high-performance glider. Performance
that you can only take advantage of in Class A airspace is
interesting, but not many of us want to go to the trouble to fly our
gliders regularly under IFR rules - not to mention the other
challenges of high-altitude flight.

I hope they beef the structure up a bit. I was a bit disturbed that
the canopy on the Sparrow Hawk had the apparent stiffness of a 1-liter
soda bottle. Maybe it's a false sense of security but I'd feel better
under the illusion that I can't push my fist through the side of my
glider. I'd like for the structure to be able to absorb a decent
amount of energy in a pinch.

9B