Vega

After speaking with some of the instructors, and others who have now flown the Vega, I have decided to lower the limit on who can fly it.
From today the limit is now Bronze but certain members who have not quite gained their Bronze badge as well as Bronze badge holders can now convert to the Vega if they can meet the following conditions:

1) Demonstration of two or three consecutive fully held off landings in the Puchacz (solo or dual).

2) Demonstration of the ability to keep the wings level from "All out" until stopping after landing (wings MUST only touch the ground after the glider has stopped).

3) Must read the briefing notes and have their Logbook countersigned by the Duty Instructor to confirm they have read and understood them and have been cleared to fly following the check flights.

4) It is the members duty to prove to the Duty Instructor they they are current by producing an up to date Logbook. No logbook no fly.



So far all those who have flown the Vega are more than happy with it.
Yesterday I took a launch and released at 1200ft and quickly thermalled down to about 1000ft. I contacted a good thermal which took me to 4,400ft averaging 3 -4kts. A quick flight into wind along an energy line to Burbage followed and I only lost 800 ft getting there, on the return leg I only lost 500 ft. Back over the airfield I pulled full airbrake and maintaining 70kts descended at something like -60 degrees with the speed steady. Also when landing reciprocal (towards the hanger end) closing the airbrakes low to the ground to extend the float did not cause the glider to drop suddenly but just gave an increase in speed, very reassuring! Oh yes, it also has a new battery fitted as well.

So if you are Bronze, or not far off, get yourself checked out to fly the Vega as I'm sure you will enjoy it.


Phil

Puch ready, Vega news

The forecast was for poor weather; it might have been wrong, so a few of us went to the airfield. We would have flown, (2500ft launches would have been on) but we were so few and things needed doing. The Puch repair/inspection was completed and it is now rigged and ready for test flying, etc. etc. The hangar was repacked, now all aircraft are rigged.

The popularity of the Vega led us to make sure that it can be extracted from the hangar with minimum effort, so it is now neatly parked in the space left by the ME7 - this is much easier than trying to put it where the Astir used to live. Please note it is secured with a trestle under a wing, not a tyre on a wing. Peter Mason kindly presented us with wing covers for it. To prevent damage to the wing covers please remove them after the a/c has been removed from the hangar and place them along with the canopy cover in the brown laundry basket provided. Put them back on before pushing the aircraft into the hangar.

The Vega flew a lot over the weekend and in the process picked up several hours worth of bugs. The standard `bug test' tape contains 20 bugs per metre and can typically be expected to reduce the efficiency of a laminar flow wing by about 10% at best L/D. When I cleaned the leading edges today there were more like 20 bugs per inch. So the last person to fly the a/c may well have thought he was flying a Ka8. Let's get into the habitof keeping it clean!