Two-seater Glider Flight Test Evaluation

Abstract

At the end of the flying exercises but before the ratings had been collated, the evaluation pilots discussed the various aspects on which they had made comments. There was unaninous agreement that it is essential that an instructor must be able to demonstrate and train glider pilots in spinning and subsequent recovery. Hence, it caused some concern to find that none of the gliders evaluated could stay in a stable spin over the range of centre of gravity positions that were flown. Glider no. 4 was considered to have handling characteristics particularly with regard to longitudonal stabiliy and spin behaviour, which would make it inappropriate for use as a basic training glider. Glider no. 3 was found to have a nunrber of features which, with modification, would greatly improve the glider for instructional purposes. The pilots agreed that there was no need to change any of the flying training syllabus contained in the GFA Instructors Handbook. The need for gliding clubs to either own or have access to two-seater gliders in which the complete syllabus could be covered must be taken into consideration. This aspect has become apparent to other instructors in Australia. Collation and analysis of the ratings confirmed the well known opinion that glider pilots are individuals. The large value of standard deviation for many of the tasks illustrates this fact. In only two instances did a significant number of pilots give the same rating. The first concerned the difficulty of assenbling Glider no. 1, and the other involved ability to center Glider no. 2 in a thermal. There were two items whose rating indicated that all pilots considered that some improvenent was needed, namely operation of the wheel brake and adjustment of seat position. The ratings show that none of the gliders received a good rating for all tasks, indicating that the need still exists in Australia for a two seater suited for basic training.