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#1
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Sparrowhawk 300 km in Utah
I note that a downwind flight of over 300 km from Parowan to just
south of Provo, Utah, by a Sparrowhawk has appeared on OLC. This is the first decent cross-country flight I've seen using this ship. Comments? |
#2
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Sparrowhawk 300 km in Utah
Mike the Strike wrote:
I note that a downwind flight of over 300 km from Parowan to just south of Provo, Utah, by a Sparrowhawk has appeared on OLC. This is the first decent cross-country flight I've seen using this ship. Comments? This is on the News section of the Sparrowhawk website: September 6, 2006 - Long SparrowHawk flights in California Three SparrowHawk pilots fly over 500K flights during the Western Division ESA Workshop held in Tehachapi, CA. Flying conditions were superb over the Owens Valley. |
#3
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Sparrowhawk 300 km in Utah
On May 3, 12:24 pm, Mike the Strike wrote:
I note that a downwind flight of over 300 km from Parowan to just south of Provo, Utah, by a Sparrowhawk has appeared on OLC. This is the first decent cross-country flight I've seen using this ship. Comments? Uhh, guess you're not looking too hard :-) Bill Thar has done a number of very credible flights in the Sparrowhawk of 300km or more. You can find them on OLC. http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0...&pilotId=11117 I also know that a Sparrowhawk holds the US free triangle distance record at over 500K in the ultralight glider class with Gary Osaba at the helm. I've been flying with the Sparrowhawk at Blairstown a fair amount lately, and I'm blown away at how incredibly good this thing is considering it weighs less than my old Schwinn (okay not really) and has less than a 12 meter span (really). I would say it is at least as good as first generation glass (LS1, ASW-15, etc.) at all of the speed ranges we typically fly, plus it climbs like crazy. It simply blows the doors off a PW-5 in all respects. I have no commercial or other interest in the ship; I just think it's nice to see someone innovate to this level and wish Windward lots of success. Erik Mann (LS8-18 P3) |
#4
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Sparrowhawk 300 km in Utah
On May 3, 10:39 am, Papa3 wrote:
It simply blows the doors off a PW-5 in all respects. Would you include crash worthiness? I looked at one and sat in it. I was impressed by how frail the cockpit and canopy seemed to be. Of course I'm comparing it to my ASW-28 not a hang glider, but do you really think it's a crash worthy as a PW5? Andy |
#5
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Sparrowhawk 300 km in Utah
On May 3, 7:03 pm, Andy wrote:
On May 3, 10:39 am, Papa3 wrote: It simply blows the doors off a PW-5 in all respects. Would you include crash worthiness? I looked at one and sat in it. I was impressed by how frail the cockpit and canopy seemed to be. Of course I'm comparing it to my ASW-28 not a hang glider, but do you really think it's a crash worthy as a PW5? Andy Andy, Setting a pretty low bar there aren't ya :-) ? The couple of times I've looked at some of the structures of damaged or wrecked PW-5s I was not overly impressed. Anyway, I quote the following from the Windward specs: "Fuselage cockpit cell utilizes four carbon longerons with four transverse bulkheads in addition to the carbon monocoque shell for crash protection." Given what I've seen with some of the slick engineering that went into the ship, I have to believe they took more than a casual interest in cockpit safety. P3 |
#6
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Sparrowhawk 300 km in Utah
Ummmm...who crashes anyways?
Like they say, any landing you walk away from is a good landing. A great landing is one where you can still use the plane. Andy wrote: On May 3, 10:39 am, Papa3 wrote: It simply blows the doors off a PW-5 in all respects. Would you include crash worthiness? I looked at one and sat in it. I was impressed by how frail the cockpit and canopy seemed to be. Of course I'm comparing it to my ASW-28 not a hang glider, but do you really think it's a crash worthy as a PW5? Andy -- Scott http://corbenflyer.tripod.com/ Gotta Fly or Gonna Die Building RV-4 (Super Slow Build Version) |
#7
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Sparrowhawk 300 km in Utah
On May 3, 4:03 pm, Andy wrote:
On May 3, 10:39 am, Papa3 wrote: It simply blows the doors off a PW-5 in all respects. Would you include crash worthiness? I looked at one and sat in it. I was impressed by how frail the cockpit and canopy seemed to be. Of course I'm comparing it to my ASW-28 not a hang glider, but do you really think it's a crash worthy as a PW5? Andy Andy how would you compare the inertia of your ASW-28 to that of the Sparrowhawk? George |
#8
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Sparrowhawk 300 km in Utah
On May 4, 12:27 am, bikensoar wrote:
Andy how would you compare the inertia of your ASW-28 to that of the Sparrowhawk? Obviously it's higher. I think the original comparison was with PW5 in which case the difference would be smaller. Sparrow Hawk max GW is 415lb and PW-5 660lb. You asked about inertia but isn't kinetic energy is more relevant to crash survivability. Speed depends more on the accident type than the aircraft type and in a higher speed accident may be more important than the mass. Andy |
#9
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Sparrowhawk 300 km in Utah
On May 4, 8:07 am, Andy wrote:
On May 4, 12:27 am, bikensoar wrote: Andy how would you compare the inertia of your ASW-28 to that of the Sparrowhawk? Obviously it's higher. I think the original comparison was with PW5 in which case the difference would be smaller. Sparrow Hawk max GW is 415lb and PW-5 660lb. You asked about inertia but isn't kinetic energy is more relevant to crash survivability. Speed depends more on the accident type than the aircraft type and in a higher speed accident may be more important than the mass. Andy You are right about the speed factor. If it is going to be a high speed, high energy crash in a Sparrowhawk the obvious answer is the ballistic chute. Having a ballistic chute for the entire aircraft, IMHO, makes the Sparrowhawk the safest glider out there. George |
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