Sparrowhawk Ultralight

[hombres]

Can someone who has flown a Sparrowhawk give their impression of the
AC. What does it do well? Can you really compare this sailplane to a 15
meter or any current sailplane? Can it be a serious cross country flier?

[shadowlift]

Eric

It's more of a marketing blurb than an actual account of what happened
at an event.

some people would consider it a bit misleading to say that on May 14 a
sparrowhawk flew the longest distance of the crystal squadron. While
failing to also say that the sparrowhawk was the only glider of the
crystal squadron to fly xc from crystal that day!

Hang gliders have flown diamond distance, so they should be considered
serious cross
country fliers also.

[GK]

Something of an engineering marvel, in my opinion.

Pleaseee, if SH is an "engineering marvel" then constructor of Pewee
should get a Nobel prize...

[jdsoar]

In January both Dean Carswell and I performed a number of test
flights with the Sparrow Hawk at Caddo Mills, and we both were quite
pleased with it. The results will appear in Soaring soon.
It was very easy to fly, and to prove that, I somehow made 8 perfect
(in my opinion anyway) landings in a row. My wing loading was 5.15 psf,
but that included the 25 lb BRS parachute system.
.... Johnson

[M B]

The PW-5 has performance and materials and
weight within 30% of quite a few other gliders, including

the Russia and Grob 102 club.

If you are aware of a glider which has more than
a dozen produced by the factory which is within
30% of the performance and empty weight of the
Sparrowhawk, I would love to read about it. Please
post this info or e-mail it to me.

The Carbon Dragon seems the closest (and I also
consider it an engineering marvel) but the
difference is there is no factory producing a
finished glider in any noticeable quantity.
To my knowledge it is a
onesy or twosy amateur built glider.

<flame suit on>
It also gets its
performance by use of flaps, which I (being
a tilter) consider cheating...
:P

[Brian Iten]

I am curious if anyone has performed spin testing with
the Sparrowhawk yet and I don't mean from owners who
say it recovers fine when they only had the first indication
of a spin.
Brian

[Brian Iten]

I am curious if anyone has performed spin testing with
the Sparrowhawk yet and I don't mean from owners who
say it recovers fine when they only had the first indication
of a spin.

Sorry, I meant to say first indication of a stall before
it broke into a spin....
Brian

[Eric Greenwell]

What kind of performance? I am still waiting on an
independent flight test of this ship.

The idea of an 11 meter ship with 36:1 glide ratio
seems unrealistic. I also wondered how a 150 pound
sailplane would have any penetration into the wind.

It's not 150 pounds when it's flying, but with the pilot, typically a
BRS, instruments, battery, etc, it's between 350 and 400 pounds. That,
and the small wing area give a 5 to 6 pound/sg ft wing loading. It's not
a "floater".

[hombres]

All,

Thanks for the information and sharing your thoughts. I would really
like to thank Eric Greenwell for taking the time to write the articles
in Soaring Magazine. I look forward to reading the .... Johnson report
in the near future. Now time to schedule a trip to the northwest and
take a look for myself.

[hombres]

When I saw the record set by the Silent 2 I went to the web site so
that I could compare specs. They seem similar which is encouraging. Was
Dave's flight a ridge run ? I live in Texas so most of my flying will
be theraml lift . Anyway I may be out west soon I am going to go take a
look, seems like a fun little glider.