are wooden gliders worthwhile building ?

On Feb 4, 7:52 pm, Bob Kuykendall <b...@hpaircraft.com> wrote:
> On Feb 4, 7:47 am, BB <john.cochr...@gsb.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>
> > ...If he wants to build, and to learn the skills thereof, send him to a
> > good repair shop or off to one of the German factories to learn modern
> > composite construction and repair technique...
>
> Sound advice. If he speaks German, that is.
>
This would be one way of learning a second language.
The interest in a subject, in this case aviation, is a very good
motivator
and accelerates the learning curve dramatically.
Udo

On 4 Feb, 15:47, BB <john.cochr...@gsb.uchicago.edu> wrote:

> ... but I would never send
> my son up in something that turns to splinters if he has a rough
> landing.

I have never seen or heard of a wooden glider turn to splinters as a
result of a "rough landing". Can you give examples? I have seen the
result of a Pirat flying into a corrugated iron fence at about 40kt:
huge dent in the fence, broken canopy and squashed glider nose. The
pilot walked away and the glider flew again.

Ian

If you do that wth a Ka6, you won't walk away. In terms of shock absorption,
a wooden glider is the worst you can get.

Bert
"Ian" <ian.groups@> wrote in message
news:8727637d-0018-4d10-b95c-7fbce19df59a@d4g2000prg..com...
> On 4 Feb, 15:47, BB <john.cochr...@gsb.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>
>> ... but I would never send
>> my son up in something that turns to splinters if he has a rough
>> landing.
>
> I have never seen or heard of a wooden glider turn to splinters as a
> result of a "rough landing". Can you give examples? I have seen the
> result of a Pirat flying into a corrugated iron fence at about 40kt:
> huge dent in the fence, broken canopy and squashed glider nose. The
> pilot walked away and the glider flew again.
>
> Ian

On Feb 5, 1:08 pm, "Tim Mara" <t...@wingsandwheels.com> wrote:
> The next time someone sneers at a wooden sailplane, remind them that it is made of a unidirectional reinforced laminated composite material consisting of micro-tubular fibres embedded in a long chain polymer matrix and having a near infinite fatigue life.

And if you built a new one with modern adhesives the near infinite
fatigue life would be of some value. Many of the older wooden gliders
were retired because the glue holding those wonder composite
components together gave up the ghost.

One of my last woodie flights was in a T21 on aero tow. Despite the
tug flying as slow as possible I sometimes had somewhat alarming
aileron control reversal. Turns out the wings flexed enough that the
ailerons were acting as aileron tabs and twisting the whole wing. I
don't know what happened to it, but I never wanted to fly it again.

On the other hand my only flight in an SHK was a delight.

Andy

On 6 Feb, 00:13, Andy <a.dur...@netzero.net> wrote:

> And if you built a new one with modern adhesives the near infinite
> fatigue life would be of some value. Many of the older wooden gliders
> were retired because the glue holding those wonder composite
> components together gave up the ghost.

As far as I know, the only major glueing problems have been with pre-
war gliders made with casein glue. Just about everything post-war used
urea-formaldehyde (cascamite) which is effectively eternal. My club is
happily using a Ka2 from 1955 which has had no glue problems.

That's wood-wood glueing, by the way. I know there have been problems
with the Oly wood/metal composite spars.

Ian

JJ Sinclair wrote:

>Remembering the rhetoric from the '60's; <SNIP>
>"You can trust a tree!"

I guess this dates me but I still remember (I hope with some accuracy)
the ads in SOARING by George Coder (whom I never met) for his Std.
Austria using that line and several others. :) This was back in the
days when we lived for the arrival each month of that magazine.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
USA

And the parts grow on trees!!