HPH 304 MS Flight Characteristics

I owned a HPH 304cz-17 my first glider. Was a joy to fly. A bit of a handful with full drag brakes out on steep approach. Had no issues. Loved that glider.

My question is are owners of the 304 Shark happy with the flight characteristics?

I would be interested in a MS version. Is yours for sale?

My weight 230, is wing loading of the thinner wing a concern for wing drop?

OneRogueCloud

ALAN

I have flown a number of the HPH Shark gliders... Several of the Jet
varieties and also the Shark FES. The glider has really pleasant
handling qualities. Easy and straightforward to fly and gentle
characteristics around the stall. Performance is really good and
probably a little better than the DG800 & ASH26 gliders. Sadly, I
have not flown the self launching version but do maintain one and it
is really well engineered. The self launch performance, following
some refinements done by HPH is really good. It regularly self-
launches from our short grass strip with an available take-off run of
under 600 meters and over tall trees without any problems, even
with soft grass and zero wind. The engine reliability has been really
good also. According to the owner, who is a very experienced cross-
country pilot, he believes that it scratches really well in weak
conditions and carries the engine weight really well. I think the
304MS is probably the best value new self-launcher out there right
now, and substantially cheaper than others on the market.

Craig Lowrie, UK

At 04:20 16 November 2019, wrote:
I owned a HPH 304cz-17 my first glider. Was a joy to fly. A bit of a
handful with full drag brakes out on steep approach. Had no issues.
Loved
that glider.

My question is are owners of the 304 Shark happy with the flight
characteristics?

I would be interested in a MS version. Is yours for sale?

My weight 230, is wing loading of the thinner wing a concern for
wing drop?

OneRogueCloud

ALAN

I only had a few flights with it, but remember a few items. The 304MS is very well built and it probably has the biggest cockpit of all single seaters available. Self launches were easy, climb rate was above 3m/s. Taking off with one wing tip on the ground was no problem.

In general, the Shark handled quite similar to a Ventus 2cM. But I find the feel for the thermals to be a bit better with the Ventus. The ailerons are lacking some effectivity in positive flap settings and I did not like the landing setting for that reason.

The engine system of the 304MS comes from Binder. It is pretty much the same like with Ventus 2cM, with manual operation of most of the components. The alignment of the engine controls in the cockpit allowed keeping one hand at the stick when going into glider mode, which is not possible in our Ventus. But the propeller brake was a bit flimsy, lacking a handle to pull on.

The 304MS has good performance and allows one-man gliding operations. But it is probably not the right glider if you seriously want to compete.

On Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 12:23:46 PM UTC-8, wrote:
I only had a few flights with it, but remember a few items. The 304MS is very well built and it probably has the biggest cockpit of all single seaters available. Self launches were easy, climb rate was above 3m/s. Taking off with one wing tip on the ground was no problem.

In general, the Shark handled quite similar to a Ventus 2cM. But I find the feel for the thermals to be a bit better with the Ventus. The ailerons are lacking some effectivity in positive flap settings and I did not like the landing setting for that reason.

The engine system of the 304MS comes from Binder. It is pretty much the same like with Ventus 2cM, with manual operation of most of the components. The alignment of the engine controls in the cockpit allowed keeping one hand at the stick when going into glider mode, which is not possible in our Ventus. But the propeller brake was a bit flimsy, lacking a handle to pull on..

The 304MS has good performance and allows one-man gliding operations. But it is probably not the right glider if you seriously want to compete.

Thank you. I enjoyed my CZ-17 but had to sell it as my number was up. Got a relight and now running on all 8 cylinders.

I would even be happy with a non self launching or FES Shark.

On Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 12:40:36 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 12:23:46 PM UTC-8, wrote:
I only had a few flights with it, but remember a few items. The 304MS is very well built and it probably has the biggest cockpit of all single seaters available. Self launches were easy, climb rate was above 3m/s. Taking off with one wing tip on the ground was no problem.

In general, the Shark handled quite similar to a Ventus 2cM. But I find the feel for the thermals to be a bit better with the Ventus. The ailerons are lacking some effectivity in positive flap settings and I did not like the landing setting for that reason.

The engine system of the 304MS comes from Binder. It is pretty much the same like with Ventus 2cM, with manual operation of most of the components.. The alignment of the engine controls in the cockpit allowed keeping one hand at the stick when going into glider mode, which is not possible in our Ventus. But the propeller brake was a bit flimsy, lacking a handle to pull on.

The 304MS has good performance and allows one-man gliding operations. But it is probably not the right glider if you seriously want to compete.

Thank you. I enjoyed my CZ-17 but had to sell it as my number was up. Got a relight and now running on all 8 cylinders.

I would even be happy with a non self launching or FES Shark.

It took me a long time but letting go of the airport was a great feeling.
Pretty much self taught myself to cross-country.