Speed Astir II B

In article ,
(Flyhighdave) wrote:

In my case "novice" means about 20 training flights & a few solo flights in a
Grob 103 II A. I guess I'm really just a beginner!
David

Since no one so far has offered much in the way of a flight report on
the Speed (dis)Aster. I'll tell you what I remember from my two flights.

Thing is built like a tank. Heavy wings. Maybe heavier than LS-3 wings.
Typical Grob pain-in-the-ass assembly problems. Maybe not too much of a
problem once you get the hang of fitting it all together. Did I mention
that the wings are heavy? I have not flown a PIK-20, but I get the
impression that the PIK and the Grob are somewhat similar in handling
and performance.

Cockpit is long but narrow at the hips due to the control system tunnels
on each side. Sorta pinched my 195 lb butt a little. Otherwise, it was
comfortable to fly.

I thought the Speed that I flew handled pretty well. Lots more stable
than my 301 Libelle. Controls not heavy and not too light. Negative
flaps resulted in rapid acceleration. Both my flights in the Speed were
on very weak lift days, but it seemed to thermal OK for a heavy ship.
Probably not a bad ship on strong days. However, I've been told that the
stiff wings, and they are very stiff, hinder it's performance in rough
air for some reason. Glide path control was pretty typical for a glass
ship. I seem to remember that the divebrakes were not quite as effective
as on the103.

Other stuff:

Grob finish usually holds up better than most.

The two piece canopy is OK except for a couple of annoyances. One is
that if left open, it tends to focus sunlight on the headrest which can
set the glider on fire. Two is that the fixed forward part of the canopy
makes it hard to work on the instruments or work on anything up in the
nose.

The tail dolly is a wheel on a post. It fits up into a hole in the
bottom of the tail boom. Falls off all by itself when the tail is
lifted. This is a good thing if you forget to remove the tail dolly
before flight. Take if from one who knows, leaving the tail dolly on
makes for an interesting start to the ground roll.

Wing skins form the hinge for the wing control surfaces. No mylar needed.

My personal choice was to go for a lighter glider that was easier to
assembly and performed better in weak conditions. The Speed would be
pretty far down my list of preferences. But, for the right price, it
would be an OK ship.

Earlier, Wallace Berry wrote:

...Wing skins form the hinge for the wing
control surfaces. No mylar needed...

A minor nitpick:

That is the way it looks from the outside. However, structurally, the
upper wing skin does not actually support the aileron. Inside the wing
there are several support linkage gadgets that transfer lift loading
between the aileron and the wing. I can't remember if they're four-bar
links or track-and-roller arrangements. However, these gadgets are
carefully arranged so that the effective hinge axis coincides with the
surface of the upper wing skin. There are other sailplanes that use
this sort of system; the flaps of the Slingsby T65 Vega come to mind.

It is a compelling system, since as Wallace points out it needs no
mylar and no internal curtain sealing. However, what I've seen of one
or two Speed Astirs in service is that the control loads tend to be
greater than in more conventional systems, especially as they age.
Also, the flexible skin portion tends not to hold its surface finish
well; I've seen cracking and bubbling in this area on both Vegas and
Speed Astirs. It's also hard to achieve the kind of surface travels
that it takes to make high-aspect ailerons do their job effectively.

Getting off-topic, there _is_ at least one Chris Heintz powered
airplane that does actually support the aileron on a flexible portion
of wing skin. For more information, see:

http://www.zenithair.com/kit-data/ht-aileron.html

Thanks, and best regards to all

Bob K.
http://www.hpaircraft.com