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Soaring

Doodski

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The glider only weighs 420 pounds. Don't know the trailer weight yet.
That weight is awesome. I used to ride 2 stroke dirt bikes and the weight is very low and I can appreciate what it takes to keep the weight down on any machine.
 
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RayDunzl

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Mistake... 448 pounds empty, from last year's Annual inspection.

Less than the spec for my motorcycle, 2002 Suzuki Bandit 1200S, 485 pounds.

You can drag it around on flat ground pretty easily to get it out of the way, if necessary, when the golf cart isn't around..


1671504075143.png
 
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Doodski

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Mistake... 448 pounds empty, from last year's Annual inspection.

Less than the spec for my motorcycle, 2002 Suzuki Bandit 1200S, 485 pounds.

You can drag it around on flat ground pretty easily to get it out of the way, if necessary, when the golf cart isn't around..


View attachment 251233
What is the, "Notes:", "A." in High Performance category. Is your glider a high performance model?
 
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RayDunzl

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What is the, "Notes:", "A." in High Performance category. Is your glider a high performance model?

Hmm...


1671505162879.png


There's the 1-35 and the 1-35C (mine)

The straight version has retractable wheel, could have interconnected flaps and ailerons, and could have water ballast tanks in the wings. More weight = more speed with same glide ratio.

Mine has non-retractable wheel, no ballast, and no flaperons.

Empty weight is about the same.

I think "A" applies to me

"B" may be the slightly heaver retractable flaperon version.

And "Utility Category" applies to the other version with wing tanks when filled with water.

1671505604141.png


---

All some sort of FAA Type Rating information.

"Most" gliders now fall under "Experimental" category, but this one has a "Type" under US rules. They are all foreign made, and may have "type" ratings in their home region, and can be sold here as "Experimental" if their certification is recognized by the FAA, but they don't go through the expense of getting a US Type rating (my feeble understanding).

Since my plane was made in the USA, it was probably natural for it to get a type certificate here (just as the foreign gliders likely have a local one over there). https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/domains/aircraft-products/aircraft-certification

Experimental classification loosens some rules, maybe tightens others.

I think you can do your own Annual on an Experimental.

Modification, major repair, and even some maintenance becomes a sticky point with non-experimental.


1671505660237.png


1671505906766.png



G4EA Type Certificate:

 
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Doodski

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Hmm...


View attachment 251249

There's the 1-35 and the 1-35C (mine)

The straight version has retractable wheel, could have interconnected flaps and ailerons, and could have water ballast tanks in the wings. More weight = more speed with same glide ratio.

Mine has non-retractable wheel, no ballast, and no flaperons.

Empty weight is about the same.

I think "A" applies to me

"B" may be the slightly heaver retractable flaperon version.

And "Utility Category" applies to the other version with wing tanks when filled with water.

View attachment 251250

---

All some sort of FAA Type Rating information.

"Most" gliders now fall under "Experimental" category, but this one has a "Type" under US rules. They are all foreign made, and may have "type" ratings in their home region, and can be sold here as "Experimental" if their certification is recognized by the FAA, but they don't go through the expense of getting a US Type rating (my feeble understanding).

Since my plane was made in the USA, it was probably natural for it to get a type certificate here (just as the foreign gliders likely have a local one over there). https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/domains/aircraft-products/aircraft-certification

Experimental classification loosens some rules, maybe tightens others.

I think you can do your own Annual on an Experimental.

Modification, major repair, and even some maintenance becomes a sticky point with non-experimental.


View attachment 251251

View attachment 251252


G4EA Type Certificate:

Cool... When a hobby becomes a legal search and effort one knows it's a pretty serious hobby. :D
 
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RayDunzl

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@RayDunzl -- Glider, and everything else, ready for Ian?

Used Harbor Freight ratchet straps (3000 pound rating) to back up the usual ropes.

1671547646709.png


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The first picture includes some piles of dirt.

Looks like we have "Pocket Gophers" at the airport.

Next year maybe I'll be ready to put the glider in the trailer if a big storm threatens.
 

DonH56

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We have a pocket gopher infestation and the little buggers are almost impossible to eliminate.

Glad the glider survived the storms!
 
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RayDunzl

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Senior Nationals Contest, for pilots aged 55+, occurred at Seminole Lake Gliderport near here a couple of weeks ago.

The only ladies entered in the contest achieved second place in a two-seater.

Here's an overlay of most if not all of the glider flights from there that week:

Scale is about 110 miles north to south.

The farthest I've gone is 15 miles from the safety of my airport at Zephyrhills, at the left center..

1679970008946.png




Click below for a slideshow of Day 4 of 5 if interested


Lots of $100,000 to $250,000 rigs there - just guessing the price ranges. All manufactured in Europe or South Africa, we are too litigious to build such toys.

Half of the field had motors, which aren't used in the contest, but provide a possible safety margin if you can't connect with lift out in the middle of nowhere.
 
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RayDunzl

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RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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Managed to hit some "breakaway" airfield lights back in January, and dinged a wing.


1684174532540.png


1684174579622.png


1684174784491.png


Oops.

Coulda been worse.

The lights have a concrete base that would likely have destroyed the wing and fuselage if hit.

1684179060822.png


1684179172733.png


The manufacturer's grandsons who have taken over whatever is left of the business suggested a complete re-skin of the outer wing at their facility in New York. that would be two sheets, about six feet wide, from the top trailing edge around the leading edge tp the main spar on the bottom about 1/2 way back on the wing.

Uh huh.


My Airframe and Powerplant mechanic with Inspection Authorization stared at it a while and figured we could fix it.

Bought a Chinese metal roll/brake/shear (left) and a bunch of little odds and ends to cur/grind/drill/rivet aluminum.

1684174880538.png


There's a decent shop area in the back of the clubhouse. More than enough room for a 24 foot wing.

1684174998391.png


Make some judicious cuts, form some 0.040 2024-T3 Aluminum sheet.

Pull out some of the dents. He had what looks like copper wire, that isn't, bent in an 8 inch "U" with 90 degree bends on the ends, to stick in a hole and bang/pull dents, like at the lower left below. Hook an end into a hole in the metal, and bang the inside of the "U" with a hammer, and a bigger hammer. I don't know what kind of wire it is, don't see it online.

Countersink the hole and fill it with a rivet before the Bondo goes on.

The metal machine made some bretty good bends in the aluminum, too. It's real springy stuff, not soft aluminum at all. I was surprised how tough it is.

1684175138633.png


Form a backing plate that goes inside, drill with a 1/8" and then a #30 drill to clear burs, countersink the holes a few thousandths for flush rivets, hold it all together with some "Cleco" clamps. Gotta have a pair of "Cleco" pliers to set and pull those.

1684175587173.png


When ready, borrow the specialty air rivet gun with a nose specially for the Cherry rivets, and stick it together.

1684175254232.png


Tiny (1/8" rivets shank, 0.192" head, countersunk with 100 degree cutter. The rivets are like pop rivets but are "aerospace" quality and have five parts to them. There's even a "shelf life" on the things due to a little lube between the rivet and pulling shank. If the lube is no good, you might not get a good "pull".

1684177043945.png
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Cherry Aerospace Flush rivets, $0.50/each with a hundred in a bag. Used about 150 of them just looking at what was left in the second bag.

1684175433457.png


Add a little Bondo and it's ready to go.

Repair work logged in the log book and signed off as "airworthy".

1684175775983.png


1684175874612.png


1684176236959.png


Soon, I'll do a second pass with the Bondo, to get it "good enough", then figure out how to spray it with some Ranthane...

We're tired of working on it right now, so back to the flight line.



1684176029684.png


Ouch!

I guess it's an "epoxy paint" - paint and hardener.

Hope there's some on the shelf somelpace in the workroom. They've been refinishing some other planes in white, maybe the same stuff.

Don't need much!

Couple or three ounces, enought to fill the paint gun reservoir a little.
 

MRC01

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Sorry to hear about the prang, but it's something most pilots experience at some time, and it leads to improved skills in multiple areas. Good to see that you made the most of it.
 

DonH56

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Bummer on the hit, but nice job on the repairs! My wife's car had a big door ding (lady next to her lost hold of her door in the wind and it flew into my wife's new car). I figured it was a 1-2 day repair but it took a couple of weeks because they had to order a replacement door panel -- they said they could not repair it to their satisfaction. I got a bit of an education from them and a machine-shop buddy at work on how hard repairing Al can be. Apparently a lot of new cars us Al to save weight but it's a repair nightmare.
 

Doodski

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Good thing you survived the collision and good thing the damage was not major and is repairable. Happy you are OK. We need all the members @ ASR that we can get and you are important here...LoL. :D
 

Timcognito

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Really enjoyed that video. But sad to say I have some fear of flying but I do it anyway. Glad to see you get so much out of it, Ray.
 
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RayDunzl

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Apparently a lot of new cars us Al to save weight but it's a repair nightmare.

You can bend it sharply if needed, but it has a tendency to crumble if you try to bend it back.

It can be welded, somehow. Heat aluminum and it just suddenly melts, so there must be some real skill in that.

I have some fear of flying

I don't like motor planes. One of the club members has a plane with an 80hp volkswagen based engine.

Two weeks ago he was headed far south and threw a valve through the crankcase about 10 miles into his trip. Fortunately, glided to a safe landing at Plant City Municipal and is pondering what to do with it.


 
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RayDunzl

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Tiny little rivets...

1684195989935.png


1684196090722.png



The head looks thick, but it's a washer that comes off after you drive the rivet.


1684201493603.png
 
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MRC01

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... I don't like motor planes. One of the club members has a plane with an 80hp volkswagen based engine. ...
There's a reason most small airplanes are powered by certified engines, most made by Lycoming or Continental. Over the years, experimental builders have been free to use any engine they want, often modified car engines. In some cases, manufacturers also went through the effort to certify car engines for aviation, for example the Porsche powered Mooneys. They ran into a constant stream of problems so they stopped making them. Aviation puts different stress on the engines that they weren't designed for. Non-aviation engines are often more efficient or more powerful, but almost always less reliable.

We can poke fun at how primitive certified aviation engines are: air cooled, static timing, magneto fired, like big lawnmower engines with manual fuel mixture and prop controls. Some call the Lycoming a "Lycosaurus". Part of the reason is because the cost to certify a new engine will never be earned back because they are produced in such low volume. In that sense, the strict regulations for certification appear to be counterproductive, obstructing progress. Yet from a different perspective, this prevented companies from making big changes, instead forcing them to apply incremental optimizations and improvements to the original certified design. Over the decades this led to engines that are highly reliable in their niche of operation, more than other engines made for different applications and adapted to aviation.
 
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RayDunzl

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Diamond Aircraft may be the current non-turbine exception.

It's a Mercedes Diesel before modification. Runs on Jet-A.

It was slated for the Cirrus, but heavy, and required a redesign of the airframe, so they declined.


Electrification will likely short circuit any other makers in the not so distant future.
 
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