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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 0081.PDF
FLIGHT International, 10 January 1981 Motorgliders and the American scene Derek Piggott, Chief Flying Instructor of the Lasham Gliding Centre, pioneered the use of motor- gliders in the UK over ten years ago. Here he reports on a six-month trial with two motorgliders in the USA, where they are still little known. THE six-month study on the use of motorgliders for training glider pilots in the USA is over, and it is interest ing to review the results and to see what lessons were learned. Fifteen absolute beginners were trained to solo using motorgliders for all their basic training. They averaged about 312hr of motorglider flying before moving onto the Schweizer 2-33 glider for their first solos. Ten licensed 3 power pilots were also trained, start ing in the motorglider and moving onto the 2-33 for solo. One of the surprises was to find that, after their motorglider training, the beginners were capable of taking off and making the whole aerotow unaided although they had never been in a glider before. Even experi enced pilots usually need help on their first attempts at aerotowing, which is very similar to flying in close line astern formation. It takes several tows to learn to recognise small changes in position and to make cor rections in time to prevent getting badly out of position. Obviously, there is something special about the handling and stability of the 2-33 which makes it easy to fly on tow. It is rather more stable laterally than most gliders and less sensitive on the elevator at towing speeds. But perhaps the most impor tant difference is in the directional control and handling. With most other training gliders, unless the aileron and rudder are moved together and co-ordinated cor rectly, the airflow forces the rudder over, changing or even reversing the rudder loads. To the student this feels exactly as though the instructor is "riding" the controls and is making a correction. To add to the confusion this movement is always in the wrong direction and must be overpowered to return the glider to balanced flight. This effect seldom occurs with powered aircraft, and does not occur on gliders if the pilot flies accurately. Perhaps it is the main cause of diffi culty in learning to tow, and instruc tors should take extra care to explain it early in training. After the basic training, or even after only a few flights in a motor glider to establish the stick and rudder co-ordination, flying the aero tow in a Schweizer 2-33 proved to be easy in spite of the severe turbulence caused by the extreme heat and strong thermal activity in Texas. Most of the motorglider trainees were ready for solo by their sixth or seventh launch. By then they had become familiar with the rather more docile stalling and spinning charac teristics of the glider and had flown around and down through the wake on tow. They were also given a simu lated but unexpected rope break at 200 or 300ft to test their reaction to this kind of emergency. Most impor tant, they had been taught how to find and centre in thermals so that they could make good use of any soaring conditions they might find on their early solo flights. Many of them did make good soaring first solos. Heading Germany's Scheibe Motor Falke is the most successful motorglider to date and is used by many gliding clubs in Eur ope. Seen here is a longer-winged Super Falke development, one of which was used on the USA trial. Right Derek Piggott (seated right) chats to a student during the pre-flight prelim inaries. The fully feathered propeller is clearly visible Below The Scheibe Super Falke at rest between launches **°i. ^•..J&^lLiK. 4* 4WL S^staii I
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