Down Memory Lane - From the Log Books #16

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MEMORY LANE #16

 

 

Settling Down in Europe.

 

 

Civilian sports flying got going again in 1951. Most countries who had gliding backgrounds were already waiting to roll out prototypes so there was a lot of diverse activity as manufacturers rumbled into action.

 

 

I am not going to attempt to list all of the countries – I had little or nothing to do with their aircraft consequently cannot comment much about them, so I will confine myself to those that I have had contact and/or experience on.

 

 

Poland. With long standing traditions in gliding, a fiercely competitive nature and a world war to come back from – the Poles, via their SZD factory, really turned it on.

 

 

The first cab off the rank was the Jasolka single seater aimed directly at competition flying. This sailplane was highly successful and took many records. The Mucha single seater followed almost immediately as did the two seat Bocian trainer that was flying and in production by 1953. So Poland was quickly well set up with a balanced fleet for clubs and schools.

 

 

However, development and manufacturing continued apace. For a short period the Open Class Zefir 4 held that area (but I know little of them and few were seen outside of Poland itself other than at World Competitions). The main thrust went into the Standard Class with the central line being the successive Foka models that in turn evolved into the Cobra. Then came the break into fibre glass aircraft along with most of the rest of the world.

 

 

As that break happened the SZD factory produced an entirely new single seater – the Pirat. This was aimed at entry level single seater flying for clubs and schools. In typical Polish fashion it was well designed, engineered and did the task admirably.

 

 

Jasolka. This was a beautiful sailplane, extremely elegant yet was very strong (as just about all Polish gliders are). It had a 16 metre shoulder wing, semi retracting undercarriage, a Fowler flap system and a fighter style canopy that slid back on rails (much the same as the rear canopy on the Bocian).

 

 

Interestingly it featured a very much pre war rudder design shaping with a deep chord. This I felt added to the appeal rather than dating the aircraft.

 

 

I very much wanted to fly one, we had one at Lasham, I had permission to fly it from the Polish owners, but as was so often the case for me – on the few occasions that it came out I was fully committed to working in the two seaters.

 

 

Mucha. This was a Standard Class 15 metre machine intended for competition but benign enough to be used as a club or school’s first single seater. It was essentially (particularly in appearance) a single seat Bocian with the same sloping sides to the canopy. In common with every Polish glider that I flew it would spin well.

 

 

For myself this was refreshing and I have a deal of admiration for Polish training methodology. Their pilots were taught well and virtually expected to have at least semi-aerobatic capability. So spinning was not a ‘nasty’ it was a fact of life and the training taught how to deal with the situation in a sane manner.

 

 

The Foka Series. The radical thing about all of the Fokas, and the Cobra that followed, was their extreme styling. With the exception of the Foka 5 they went for the lowest fuselage cross section possible and you flew them entirely flat on your back under a long, forward sliding canopy that stretched from just behind your head all the way forward to the rudder pedals where there was a small nose cone. At the other end they had a pronounced sweep back to the fin. So they looked like they were doing 100 knots when standing still!

 

 

They had long main skids with the main wheel set quite a long way aft. On the initial part of an aerotow they therefore became kidney pounding devices until you were fast enough to get the skid off due to the fully reclined ‘seating’ position.

 

 

This ‘seating position’ had it’s quirks that required getting used to. Initially the tendency is to want to raise your head to turn it for normal lookout resulting in severe neck muscle pain after only ten minutes or so. Either from intelligence or sheer fatigue it does not take long to learn that you just lie there and roll your head from side to side on the head rest for scanning and clearing turns. It then becomes very comfortable – perhaps even a trifle indolent!

 

 

A feature of the type was a different form of Schempp Hirth airbrakes. These were well set back so were in themselves not very deep. To improve them a geared second ‘paddle face’ was mounted so that when the prime paddle left the wing surface the subsidiary panel was already opening underneath it. This gave a very powerful and efficient approach control system that allowed the machine to be safely landed in most confined spaces.

 

 

The Fokas were all a bit of a ‘lead sled’ for UK conditions and you really needed to cloud fly them to get anywhere serious. So, on a winch launch you called for a fast launch and climbed as steeply as possible to get as much height as you could. The body attitude becomes curious because you are being propelled into the sky feet first with your feet way above your head which now is at the bottom of your body. Conversely, when in a developed spin, you appear to be standing up during the event. So although I never personally converted anyone to a Foka 3 or 4 I think a bit of additional insight would have to be applied to the applicant with a few initial restrictions as to what was or was not done. A nice quiet evening aerotow would be a very good start.

 

 

I think the Foka would have done very well in Aussie conditions but not many were imported.

 

 

Foka 1 & 2. I had nothing to do with these. There were not many of them as the production model was being settled down.

 

 

Foka 3. Mike Valentine owned one of these so I had frequent access to the machine. My first flight however was not terribly auspicious – in fact if I was not so current on low level emergency work it could have been a bit on the “Oh My Gawd’ side!

 

 

At that time Mike kept the Foka 3 at the Long Mynd (which is a premier UK Hill Site). During the day I was messing about with ASK13s while Mike did a 10,000’ cloud climb in a junior cu nb, bored out of it, contacted upper air wave and went to 15,000’ and had a small tour of Wales – so it was getting late when he got back.

 

 

He insisted that I flew the Foka and I gazed dismally at windsocks rapidly becoming limp but gliders were still soaring the hill. I was not keen but went, scoring an epic winch launch to nearly 300’ onto the ridge! I cruised up and down a bit, getting lower as the wind died. I did not want to go down into the valley so that we could avoid the derig etc that would be entailed. But the ridge was still technically working so I was compelled to do an into wind rejoin turn even though I knew that I was 100s of feet below anyone else.

 

 

That took the rest of my height and I did an untidy diagonal landing (trying to avoid grazing sheep) across the site while still rolling out of what passed for half of a final turn.

 

 

Nothing got broken (including any sheep) but I was a bit bleak about all of this and Mike and I retired to the club bar where I demanded Mike purchase copious quantities of beer by which I may be soothed. Mike responded that it was RAF tradition for me to be buying as I now had a new type in my book! We split the difference and had a ribald evening with the rest of the club members.

 

 

Next day I had a much better flight and started to learn about the Foka. I enjoyed flying it when I had the opportunity but still believe it is a type with which care should be taken on initial conversions.

 

 

Foka 4. I flew this at Lasham and the President of the Polish Club was happy to let me have a go in his. It was only an aerotow in non soarable conditions to let me take a look at the type. I found it essentially similar to the Foka 3 but the one piece blown hood certainly improved forward visibility.

 

 

Foka 5. This one was a real eye catcher and I wanted a clutch just from the first photos of it. The type won an OSTIV prize for Standard Class design and while was soon outdated by the rapidly arriving ‘Glass Generation’, was a really remarkable glider.

 

 

Although still unmistakably a Foka, the cockpit had been deepened a little and the swept back fin now had a stylish T tail mounted on it which really set off the looks. The mainwheel was further forward and this made ground handling easier.

 

 

The deepened cockpit gave more conventional seating and a lot more room although the pilot was still well, and comfortably, reclined.

 

 

The machine was easy and a delight to fly. It also soared well with less of the ‘sled’ image of the earlier Fokas. I had no problem recommending one for the Maroochy and Gympie gliding club’s first single seater and they worked very well with no problems.

 

 

However it was ironic (see comments above about spinning) that the first one was spun in off a cable break by the CFI – so I went and got another and that was also spun in off almost identical circumstances by another senior club pilot. Although both aircraft were written off it is significant that the pilots only had minor injuries.

 

 

There may be a message or two there! The machine looked lovely anyway and a lot more demanding than it actually was. With good instruction that did not faze the junior pilots and we had no trouble in that area. But the more experienced did get into trouble and it would bode well for us all to remember the basic flight safety training that we got in basic flying training! There is a reason for it and it is not something that you drift away from once solo – but something that can come back and bite if you get too casual later!

 

 

Cobra 15. If the Foka 5 turned me on then the Cobra had to be one of the sexiest design glider built. She was all smooth flowing curves and lines with a T tail perched on top of the smoothly swept back fin yet the Foka ancestory was most plain.

 

 

The Cobra returned to most of the Foka attributes – flat on your back etc. But the main wheel was fully retractable and there was no nose skid. Fuselage cross section area had been minimised once again and we were back to the ‘lead sled’ situation.

 

 

In the cramped cockpit with a small pedestal instrument panel there was no room for large blind flying instruments – only the smaller ones that were brought out and were less friendly to use. But in UK conditions she had to be flown in cloud to really move competitively but it tended to be hard work and using only a tiny turn and slip indicator, ASI. VSI and compass.

 

 

There were a couple of interesting points about the glider. The retracting undercarriage pivoted sideways in order to get it into the available vertical height. The single door was attached to the pivot frame so you did not have doors open and banging about with the gear down. The door semi retracted as the gear extended or completely sealed the wheel bay when the gear was retracted. This was a clever and intelligent piece of engineering.

 

 

The glider was nearly the last of the SZD wooden machines and was actually ‘transitional’ to the fibre glass gliders then coming. While still primarily wooden the glider had a glass fibre skin instead of fabric. This (in my opinion) did not work all that well as there were areas of the wings and fuselage with indent areas in them that (for example) you would not get with conventional monocoque wood construction.

 

 

The Cobra was extended to 17 metres in a couple of examples for World Championship flying and did well – but the Cobras did not last in the competition world that was then accelerating so much.

 

 

I did a fair amount of flying in the Cobra and really enjoyed it. I had them into a lot of small paddocks without drama and they never let me down from an operational sense. On a good day they would go well, but in usual light UK soaring conditions they took a lot of work and making progress was slow in a low cloud base. In Oz they would be great for what they were.

 

 

Pirat. Just as the SZD factory were to launch their glass Jantar range they produced the Pirat as an all purpose club aircraft that would cater for first single seater work but also had the performance to cover most of the gliding badges.

 

 

The design was clean and tidy but not particularly stylish while being far from ugly. The glider was more practical utility. Most of the glider was wooden monocoque with some glass moundings. A straightforward high mounted three piece wing and a T tail on an upright fin. The undercarriage was fixed and there was a small nose skid.

 

 

The type proved very popular, a lot were sold and they seem to have given no trouble. They took a good wire launch and aerotowed well. Approach control was very adequate from the airbrakes without being over-powerful.

 

 

As expected the machine was easy and quite unremarkable to fly. I was not fussed either way but had to stay current on them as I was converting pilots to them as part of my work as well as having to de-brief erring pilots who started chancing their luck a bit.

 

 

Next. I will continue with more of the European production gliders in the following installement.