52/1 Performance in a 15M ship at half the weight.

On Feb 26, 1:00*am, Nyal Williams wrote:
Peregrine is already taken in this country by a metal two-seater; why not
just call it Falcon?

Falcon was used by Advanced Soaring Concepts, of California (now
defunct), for the 15m flapped variant of their American Spirit
standard class; both were kit-built fibre-glass ships, very similar in
appearance to a Ventus. (No, I don't want to "go there"!).

Some guys at my club bought the rights and molds for the Spirit/
Falcon, plus got 2 Spirits (and supposedly the first Falcon, if it can
be found). Nice looking aircraft.

Great Article. Having spent some considerable time with Greg while in
Bend in preparation for racing his Sparrowhawk at the 2008 Sports Nats
in Montague last year, I believe Greg is right on the cusp of creating
AND producing a glider that will make many current glider pilots say
"Wow!" and then line-up for one. While finances are tight (but then
again whose aren't), this ship is taking shape very rapidly and I
would not discount its first flight this summer. I've seen the wing
molds and plugs and the cockpit/control mock-up and it is all going to
be first class. From last report parts of the wing were already laid
up last fall. If the numbers are even close to what is calculated,
this ship will be one to watch for sure.

Tim McAllister EY

State of the art performance is what Cole is after here, plus safety
and relative affordability.

Definitely, $92,000 is quite affordable if you are out to win the 15m
nationals and you're willing and able to spend what it takes.

Thanks, Bob K.

This is an informative, important and well-written article, which
deserved to be published in "Soaring". However, IMHO, the chosen name
for this new glider is unfortunate. Not only is the term "Duck Hawk"
obsolete, the word "Duck" hardly imparts the intended image. A
totally unscientific questionnaire (my wife) revealed that the term
implies awkwardness. Checking my Sibley "Guide to Birds", there are
any number of North American birds whose name could be used. "Merlin"
comes to mind: "small, compact, powerful and very aggressive". Oh
well, just my 2 (devalued) cents worth.

Cheers, Charles

It is interesting to see how the discussion is drifting a little bit
off the topic. Many glider manufacturers do not give names to their
products, and yet still have been able to built respectable
reputation. For designer who gave Sparrow Hawk name to his first
glider, it appears almost a natural consequence to name the 15M racer
as Duck Hawk, particularly that both of the gliders will share the
fuselage [at least the outside shell, since Duck Hawk will obviously
have retractable landing gear]. Diana implies beauty, not necessarily
the performance, yet her mark does not remain unnoticed.

In a world of modern, high performance glider design, Greg Cole
deserves huge recognition, for now at least for trying, but doubtful
the Duck Hawk will not deliver on the promise. For those few that had
the privilege of looking at the new wing tools for the glider, I would
dare to say, they already know the answer. Would it not be the subject
of pride to see the top performing racer coming from the US?

At 21:28 26 February 2009, wrote:
It is interesting to see how the discussion is drifting a little bit
off the topic. Many glider manufacturers do not give names to their
products, and yet still have been able to built respectable
reputation. For designer who gave Sparrow Hawk name to his first
glider, it appears almost a natural consequence to name the 15M racer
as Duck Hawk, particularly that both of the gliders will share the
fuselage [at least the outside shell, since Duck Hawk will obviously
have retractable landing gear]. Diana implies beauty, not necessarily
the performance, yet her mark does not remain unnoticed.

In a world of modern, high performance glider design, Greg Cole
deserves huge recognition, for now at least for trying, but doubtful
the Duck Hawk will not deliver on the promise. For those few that had
the privilege of looking at the new wing tools for the glider, I would
dare to say, they already know the answer. Would it not be the subject
of pride to see the top performing racer coming from the US?




Special design features have their own drawbacks - carbon fibre is light
but it doesn't give in a crash, has this been accounted for?

btw, the Diana sailplane is sleek but it seems to almost guarantee a
tailboom snapoff in a mild groundloop.

I think that these forums are more read than the Magazine, but they
would rather print that story when there is some real data behind it.

Very interesting stuff.

The Light Hawk is another Carbon/glass ship that is made in the US in
CA, and costs around $100k.

It has a different mission....minimum sink to be able to soar micro
lift (Search "Garry Osaba" for details and a fascinating story)

It literally can soar on cow farts.

Even at that cost his profit margin is small.

I spoke to the owner/designer Danny Howell a few months back and he
says that most sales are coming from Europe.

Fascinating talk as you start to uncover the posibilities and
different flight regimes.

Ray

Maybe it should be called a Charles, after what he did to Diana?

On Feb 27, 8:00*am, Jim White wrote:
Maybe it should be called a Charles, after what he did to Diana?

how about a w(h)ale?!

Brad

While the DuckHawk sounds interesting, and I hope it works, I'm
surprised that it is being designed as a 15m flapped ship. Most of
the flapped development nowadays is in the 18m class - and while the
15m racing class is still safe, it's probably not where the real
action is going to be in the future (and I say this as a 15m racer
myself).

It would seem that the Duckhawk would have more international appeal
as a Standard class (15m no flaps) ship - wonder how it would perform
without flaps?

Watching with interest....

Kirk
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