Schweizer 1-35 and other flapped sailplanes

I've seen several remarks lately in Soaring Magazine and on my home
club's internet forum about the characteristics of this particular
sailplane. Though not directly bashing this ship, comments made seem to
imply that it's a difficult or dangerous sailplane to fly. I think
that's wrong. Some of these comments imply that low-time pilots need to
shy away from this ship, and that takeoffs and landings are a problem.

I shouild tell you that 128 of my 220 hours in sailplanes are in a
1-35, with another 12 in my PIK-20B. It's as easy to fly as a 1-26, in
my opinion, and we regularly let solo students go in those. My first
flight in the 1-35 came when I had 27 total hours in my log book. I had
mentioned liking the looks of the ship and a desire to fly it. I had
also mentioned my fear of the ship, fostered by comments of some that
had flown it... and those FLAPS... egad!!! Those flaps!!!

Hearing my comments, a fellow TSAer and feminine ASW-20 pilot, told me
there was nothing to fear, that it was just another sailplane. She said
that it had some characteristics that were different from spoilered
ships that had to be respected, that's all. She did me such a great
favor with her comments.

I got an instructor that was familiar with that ship to check me out in
it. He had me memorize the speeds, familiarize myself with the
controls, etc... all pretty normal. Then they had me sit in the
sailplane and lifted the tail to show me the flight attitudes I would
encounter. For my first tow, he had me take off with full negative
flap, and wanted me to take it to thermal position when I had full
aileron control. The tow pilot was instructed not to daudle on initial
acceleration. When I pulled the flaps back to +8, she popped off the
ground and I had a better view of the tow plane than I had ever had
before. Per the instructor, I took a 4K' tow and made 3 mock patterns,
including full flap final approach, with the 4th one to be the first
real landing. I was initially uncomfortable with the nose-down
attitude, but after seeing that those flaps kept the airspeed down, it
became second nature pretty fast. I couldn't believe how well I could
see the airport on final. I was really pleased that by keeping the
airspeed at 60, I could let the flaps off and level the attitude and
clear obstacles... to the other end of the field if necessary.

My first landing in this ship hooked me. I flared by releasing some of
the forward pressure, and at full flap, the airspeed bled away so
quickly that I was amazed. When I heard the first grass touching the
ship I went to full negative flap and touched down on the main and tail
wheel at the same time, at about 35 mph. Where was my fear? Well, it
was where it should have been... gone.

I have heard others bash flapped ships for my whole soaring life. These
comments always seem to come from those that have very limited
experience in these ships, or had bad advise from those that checked
them out in these designs. I recently bought a PIK-20 and it's previous
owner told me a horror story about his first takeoff - with +45 degrees
flap cranked in on advise from an instructor. Was that the fault of the
flaps or the design? I can well imagine the resulting pitch up and
white-knuckled response.

So, my wish is... If you've had a bad experience in such a bird, that
you analyse this experience with someone that regularly flys one.
You'll probably find that you didn't get good instruction, or didn't
follow it. I'm living proof. If I can survive 140 hours in a flapped
ship and not just survive but love it... so can you. They're not
dangerous, just different. Not to be feared, but respected. Let's face
it, if you don't respect a 1-26, it'll kill you.

Stop kicking my old friends... the 1-35s.

Jack Womack