Schweizer 1-26 question

Back in the early 1960s my Dad attended the Schweizer Soaring School in Elmira, NY earning his glider rating as well as his A and B Badges. We were on our family vacation and I was just a tike but remember the field being busy with gliders coming and going. What made this especially fun was that there was this one fiery friendly candy machine that was more than happy to dispense Chuckles (one of my favorite candies) whether you fed it any money or not. dad was happy flying the gliders wholes I was getting fat and happy on the Chuckles.

Anyway, while grounded I've been spending an inordinate amount of time searching the web for pictures and videos on gliders. I was wondering if there is anyone else out there who thinks that a 1-26 with just the right paint job is an absolutely beautiful looking little sailplane? I keep thinking that maybe I'd like to have one of those things! What do you guys think? Can a guy have fun with a simple sailplane like the 1-26 or do you have to buy glass to really enjoy the sport?

Thank you for your input!

Brian Lott

On Friday, March 29, 2013 1:40:48 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Back in the early 1960s my Dad attended the Schweizer Soaring School in Elmira, NY earning his glider rating as well as his A and B Badges. We were on our family vacation and I was just a tike but remember the field being busy with gliders coming and going. What made this especially fun was that there was this one fiery friendly candy machine that was more than happy to dispense Chuckles (one of my favorite candies) whether you fed it any money or not. dad was happy flying the gliders wholes I was getting fat and happy on the Chuckles.



Anyway, while grounded I've been spending an inordinate amount of time searching the web for pictures and videos on gliders. I was wondering if there is anyone else out there who thinks that a 1-26 with just the right paint job is an absolutely beautiful looking little sailplane? I keep thinking that maybe I'd like to have one of those things! What do you guys think? Can a guy have fun with a simple sailplane like the 1-26 or do you have to buy glass to really enjoy the sport?

Thank you for your input!

Brian Lott

Brian,

Click on some of these traces (particularly Ron Schwartz):
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0...&sc= &sp=2013
and you'll see that a 1-26 can be an absolute blast!

-John, Q3

These are all great responses so far! Paul Leal and Gus Johnson each posted 500+ KM flights in 1-26s. Ron Scwhartz is knocking off 200+ KM flights with 5 to 6 hour durations like there is nothing to it. All very, very impressive for a sailplane that has supposedly limited performance capabilities.

I fly / soar primarily for fun. Maybe simpler and more affordable is a better way for me to go.

Great thing about the sport of soaring is the enjoyment of it is whatever you want it to be. Top dollar high tech fiberglass or aluminum and cloth wings, fly safe and have fun.

On 3/29/2013 5:45 PM, wrote:
Great thing about the sport of soaring is the enjoyment of it is whatever
you want it to be. Top dollar high tech fiberglass or aluminum and cloth
wings, fly safe and have fun.


"What rstutzmann said."

Way back when, there I wuz soaring a 1-26, learning how to go XC. Made my
first land-out (in a 1-26, of course) in MD...about 2 air miles from the
airport. Made my next 3 (in a different 1-26) in UT. UT land out #1 was ~4 air
miles from the T.O. field; UT #2 was ~1 air mile from the T.O. field; UT #3
was ~48 air miles from my T.O. airport. Musta been learning SOMEthing (other
than how to pick good landing fields, I mean!)...

One of the things I thought I'd learned in UT - which has a fair amount of
tiger country, even for a short-field-lander such as a 1-26 - was I might be
able to learn XC faster - or at least do more of it - with a flatter gliding
1-26. That was because a lot of UT/inter-mountain-Rockies lift tends to
develop along mountain range spines, and reaching it was - on some days, for
me, with my skills then - effectively impossible without taking risks I was
unwilling to take. IOW, longer legs would've definitely assisted nurturing my
nascent XC skills in that part of the world, IF longer legs could be obtained
without giving up the (postage-stamp-sized) field choices available to 1-26s.

And that's how I ended up becoming a fan of large-deflection landing flaps.
Had I been soaring in (say) the midwest, I may have never felt the need for a
flatter gliding 1-26, since sheer distance covered is all in one's head.

My 48-mile landout occurred after 2+ hours atop the same field, after a
tailwind became a headwind, I wouldn't accept the "all or nothing" risk of
stretching for the lift atop the spine of mountains just to my east, and so -
once my crew was reasonably close & because we had several more hours of
driving to do to get to work the next day - I landed after countless "sawtooth
climbs" reaching for the next field ahead in "my" valley. All I wanted to do
was to be able to GET to the next field. That day, every glide after my climbs
put me back in the pattern for the field I landed on. Great fun...but
simultaneously frustrating. My conclusion was a flatter gliding 1-26 would
likely reduce future frustrational situations, for me, in that part of the world.

In any event, if you're having fun, you're having fun!!!

Bob W.

On Friday, March 29, 2013 8:36:41 PM UTC-4, BobW wrote:
My conclusion was a flatter gliding 1-26 would
likely reduce future frustrational situations, for me, in that part of the world.

That would be a SGS 1-36?

I went through my 1-26 phase of about 25 flights. I look forward to flying one again on a boomer day when there are minimal winds aloft.

It has been a privilege to fly a beautifully restored 1-26e and I thank the dedicated people that keep these gliders in the air. They are wonderfully simple machines and the experience of flying a bit of history is valuable.

On the other hand, the 1-26 quickly sorts out the great pilots who fly badges in them, from the mediocre pilots like me who end up paying for multiple tows to justify a single drive to the airport. Flying a 1-26 when there are strong winds aloft and strong sink is dismal and disheartening.

A 1-34 is a pretty nice “flatter� 1-26! Fun plane to fly.... terminal velocity air brakes!

Great thing about the sport of soaring is the enjoyment of it is whatever you want it to be. Top dollar high tech fiberglass or aluminum and cloth wings, fly safe and have fun.

On Friday, March 29, 2013 at 4:55:59 PM UTC-4, wrote:
These are all great responses so far! Paul Leal and Gus Johnson each posted 500+ KM flights in 1-26s. Ron Scwhartz is knocking off 200+ KM flights with 5 to 6 hour durations like there is nothing to it. All very, very impressive for a sailplane that has supposedly limited performance capabilities.

I fly / soar primarily for fun. Maybe simpler and more affordable is a better way for me to go.

Yeah you see some great distances in 1-26's, but they are nearly always out west along a ridge.. with constant good lift. You'll never see these 500KM flights over here in Florida for example, going thermal to thermal at 2500' AGL.

I remember when I got my 1-26. I had been flying a 1-34 until I purchased my own 1-26. When I got off tow, I took a thermal and thought hey this is great! Then I dropped the nose and headed for the next thermal and once I got the speed up I was basically looking at the ground... and I thought "OH WOW I JUST SCREWED UP BUYING THIS GLIDER!". I felt like I was just falling out of the sky. Once I got a better sense of cruising speed for my 1-26 things were better, and enjoyed flying it, but it was very easy to end up on the ground. Anyway I accomplished my primary goal which was start cross country, land off field, and get over the fear of landing out. That was really the entire reason I started with a 1-26. I admit I do still love the looks of the 1-26 especially with a round tail.

Jim Hard flew many amazing down wind dashes in his 1-26 in MN. In one flight he made it from Stanton MN to Gary IN.