aerobatics in a glider

[cynic]

Whose done aerobatics in a glider?

Seems like it could be easy to over stress the wing, but might be lots of fun.

 

[f18pugsley]

When I was getting my glider rating, I went on a couple of aerobatic flights with my instructor. It was a lot of fun, but there were several things you always needed to watch for. We were in an ASK-21. The biggest concern was overspeeding whenever we recovered from an inverted maneuver (loop, split-S or roll). Overspeeding on the backside of a loop was not as big of a concern as long as you maintain the pull through the recovery. If you relax the stick on the backside of a loop or start a split-S from a nose low, fast attitude, you will turn into a lawn dart in a hurry. The ASK-21 is a really clean airplane and will really accelerate quickly if you let the nose drop--and the spoilers do almost nothing to slow you down in that situation (unlike the huge airbrakes on the wings of a Blanik). (No, I have never done aero in a Blanik, though they are certified for everything but sustained inverted flight. My soaring club does not do aero in our Blanik since it is used for training--we figure it gets abused enough as is. )

It was cool being able to maintain inverted flight with no concern for inverted flight limits. (All of the other airplanes that I have flown were not plumbed for inverted flight, so I always had a 15-30 second negative G limit.)

 

[VNugget]

Why can't you do negative G's in a glider? Is it the ballast system? What about sustained vs. momentary?

 

[BD King]

ya need to check out the history of Don Hausfied and Scotty McCray (sp)