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spins and vintage gliders
In the early 60 s , a kind member at MASA more or less gave me carte blanche to fly his unmodifed LK 10 when ever I wanted; as I was BGA trained and spin aware, I expored it's stall behavior; it dropped a wing so viciously that I did not let it autorotate. It had Clark Y section and no washout as I recall. Did a few croscountries in it including running a cold front squall line with resultant outlanding. I thought it a reasonably well harmonised glider with very modest performance. it would be interesting to revisit some of these early impressions. John Firth + It would be hard to put reliable data together, but I suspect there are other glider types whose numbers have been depleted by fatal spins to an even larger percentage than the Puchacz. The 2-32 and LK-10 come to mind. I seem to recall it being said that 75% of the LK-10's original numbers were lost in spins that killed the pilot. I also remember the IDENTICAL discussion about the LK-10 as we are having about the Owl. Rather than blame the glider, I would point the finger at training that doesn't equip pilots with the skills needed to fly these gliders. Bill Daniels I have quite a few hours in a flat topped LK-10. It was the second glider type I flew and the first I flew in a contest. Yes, there were concerns about the LK-10 spinning/recovery. It was never deliberately spun and I think all were so concerned nobody ever even let it get to the incipient stage. I think it met its end on an outlanding, something to do with a fence and a ditch, no injuries, not worth repairing. As the LK-10 was designed as a military training glider in wartime I can believe it may have had less than ideal flight characteristics and it may well have killed many inexperienced, hastily trained cadets. This may be regarded as acceptable by the military in wartime. Is this acceptable for civilians in peacetime? I just re-read the chapter by Leighton Collins at the back of "Stick and Rudder". It is called "The Dangers of the Air". Highly relevant to these spin threads and training. It was written in 1946 and we seem to have learned little. Given that the dangers of spinning from a failed launch, on base or final, from low thermalling or in a gaggle are all well known and understood and we all agree that this shouldn't be done ever then the problem becomes not spin recovery but absolute prevention of unintentional spins. Most pilots seem to manage this at least with most modern gliders. What is it about either some gliders or the training that results in some not "getting it"? Mike Borgelt Interesting. There aren't many of us left who flew the LK-10. Did you fly one in OZ or in the US? My primary trainer was a "double-bubble" flat topped LK-10. N22U once graced the cover of the cross country chapter of the SSA soaring handbook. I once heard Jack Laister tell that the LK-10 was itself a modification of his "Yankee Doodle" single place competition glider designed while he was a teenager. The US military asked him to design a two-place trainer in the early 1940's. Jack said he just straightened out the gull wings and stretched the fuselage behind the wing to make room for a rear cockpit and the Yankee Doodle became the military LK-10 or TG-4. I spun both N22U and another LK-10 still in the original configuration. Both left no doubt that mis-handling them would kill. I sometimes had the hair-raising feeling that the glider was actively trying to kill me. That experience left me with a wariness of low and slow flying that is still with me. I'd like to see that wariness passed along to a new generation of pilots. I think it saved my life on several occasions and might save some of theirs too. Bill Daniels -- What is the meaning of life? Life is trial by computer |
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John Firth wrote:
so viciously that I did not let it autorotate. It had Clark Y section and no washout as I recall. The Baby Ace has a clark Y with no washout, little dihedral, and a similar viscious wing drop. The elevator is so heavy, and C.G. set up so well, that it doesn't really stall well unless loaded real aft. This is another example of an aircraft that would likely spin radically, but is designed to avoid this by making it hard for the pilot to inadvertently stall... |
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