Water Ballast Practice
Inspections
Currently, we are doing yearly condition inspection and inspecting the water system. The bags have not been used for a long time and the current owner has never used them. We decided to start out first by leak testing the bags, pulling them out of the wing and leaving them full for a few hours to make sure there were no signs of leaks. The next step will be checking the fittings, when the glider is assembled we will try filling the system again. The owner is thinking he would wait to fill it on the big day when he wants to use it. What?!?! Potentially wasting a big day because the cockpit is full of water or it took him three hours to figure out how to get 10 gallons per wing in.
Handling
Your first flight with water potentially will not be that much faster if you are used to being dry. Of course, the cruise speed will be faster, but it will take you longer to center and will be more difficult to feel the air. The glider flies very different with water then it does dry. I have more time in a Ventus A and Nimbus 3 with water than without. My first flights also happened to correlate with the first practice days in both of those gliders.
I remember the first time I dumped water in the Nimbus I was blown away by how it now handled like a sports car. The roll rate went from measuring on a calendar to a stopwatch, it was amazing. If you are used to the sports car, the slower roll rate will take some adjusting to.
Practice with water
Most of the pilots here do not because of the extra hassle of putting water in and pushing the glider around. Remember that we are practicing for a contest so we can win. The other task is to practice all of our systems, which include our filling system.
Basic Weather Considerations
Looking at the buoyancy sheer ratio is also going to come in handy because if the forecast is for a B/S ratio of 4 we already know the thermals are going to be very difficult to center. Now if you add water it could put it over the threshold of not possible or take too long to climb to be worth carrying the water.
A good place to start is making sure you are going to average better then 3knt climbs. Some books will mention 4knts, and we will talk about one of those books next week.
Going Straight
The heavier wing-loading really is going to pay off flying straight. Ridge lift is a lot of flying straight and when it is strong you can go a lot faster. Transitions become easier, pull-ups are higher, water in the wings make for a smoother ride, it is all around better unless it is weak. Wave is another time we can go straight a lot, however freezing altitudes becomes an issue so make sure to follow the manufactures instructions on flying in below freezing temperatures. Cloud streets are another great time to be heavy, especially when you can dolphin fly and not turn. I had one amazing flight in my Discus 2ax where between thermals was somewhere around 180miles at around 100mph.
Winning Dry
At one of the standard class nationals. It was a weak broken day and the gaggle struggled along, everyone carrying water to get ready for the final glide, which really wouldn’t be very far because nobody was getting very high. Moffatt dumped his water and made it to the top of the gaggle pretty quickly and was able to set off on final glide before anyone else. Me? I was sitting in a bean field as I had lawn-darted right out the gate.
Remember water ballast is not a full or empty thing.
Banner photo by Mika Ganszauge
COBRA Wing Stand
The wing Stand is made of lightweight aluminum and is height adjustable. The legs fold in and out. The top has a shallow tilt with a stop. Wing stands are sold individually, not as a pair.
Rhön Adler
“Rhön Adler” is far more than just a company history even though Alexander Schleicher Segelflugzeugbau has now published this third edition itself.
Certainly, there is no lack of information about the evolution of the small workshop founded by Alexander Schleicher to the mid-sized company led by his grandsons Ulrich and Peter Kremer at the foot of the Wasserkuppe in the Rhön, the most famous soaring site in Germany and the world.
Valuable source material is offered from important employees and scientific partners of the company. These sections are added at the chronologically correct places of the book.
A sailplane is more than just technology, it is the product of human creativity, ability, and care – as can be recognized in many sections of the book.
The book content significantly increased from 280 to 376 pages, offers a deep insight into the past 88 years of sailplane development.
It ranges from details about the simple wire braced open gliders made of wood and fabric. Then continues to the aerodynamically, ergonomically and structurally advanced designs made with the most modern composite fiber construction techniques.
Garret Willat holds a flight instructor rating with over 8000 hours in sailplanes. His parents have owned Sky Sailing Inc. since 1979. He started instructing the day after his 18th birthday. Since then, Garret has represented the US Junior team in 2003 and 2005. He graduated from Embry-Riddle with a bachelor's degree in Professional Aeronautics. Garret represented the US Open Class team in 2008 and 2010 and the Club Class team in 2014. Garret has won 3 US National Championships.