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Crosswind / Monowheel

Subject: Crosswind / Monowheel
From: Jens-Achim Frei <jaf@compuserve.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 13:07:16
Nachricht geschrieben von INTERNET:Gramin@aol.com
>The sideforce can lift the upwind wing (the opposite outrigger bends) and 
if you
are near stationary, the tail lifts and  disaster looms  Very difficult to
decide whether the stick should be forward or aft, and no time to
experiment.<

Graham,

I won't subscribe this. I've flewn different types of powered gliders
(monowheel an tri-gear, but all taildraggers) under even the oddest
circuumstances and never ran into problems. There were Mistral conditions
in the Rhone valley of France where the lorries on the motorway were
overtaking my 200 km/h Grob G109 powered glider and wind sheers (?) near
the Pyrenean Mountains were my SF25 had a slightly negative groundspeed at
150 km/h IAS. 

With powered gliders, you have tremendous larger wings that can be affected
by the storm and make you feel like an albatros on the ground. Sometimes,
one wing (I don't remember if it was the up-wind or down-wind wing) was
pressed to the ground while the outrigger couldn't stand the force anymore.
You have to taxi VERY SLOWLY, with powered glider's flaps (which are
air-brakes) extended, but it works. IMO, landing is harder: on final, your
axis is in a 20 degrees angle to the centerline which has to be paralelled
in the second before touch down. This second may not be determinerable in
gusty weather.

I saw only one SF25 lying on the back (tight to some tiny little 15 kg
concrete blocks in a storm at Perpignan, France) and a G109 standing on the
nose due to a panic breaking by the pilot who was feared by a crosswind
gust.

HTH,
   Jens


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