Excerpts from the OZ report by Davis Straub
Super
floating
Who is out there actually flying in FAR Part 103 ultralight
gliders this week? There is only one SparrowHawk, so maybe someone is flying
that. The LightHawk is still being built. Steve Arndt is repairing his Carbon
Dragon in time for the Sailplane Homebuilders Association meeting here at
Wallaby Ranch the first of April, and I don’t know if
I got to say I’m having a blast flying Mike Water’s Superfloater, one of two here at the Wallaby Ranch. There were two in the air today floating around under the 3,500’ inversion in blue skies.
So far this thing is extremely easy to fly. I mean unbelievably easy to fly. So far I haven’t tried more than a couple of times to stall it and never to spin it, but from what I hear it is hard to do. We’ll see later.
The thing practically flies itself on tow. Sure I’ve had over a 100 aerotows in big sailplanes, but still I just think anyone could fly the thing behind the Dragonfly. I’ve been flying in rowdy air where the tug pilot is complaining and I don’t notice the slightest problem.
That’s the other thing about the Superfloater. It just
seems to absorb the turbulence and not transmit anything scary to the pilot.
Maybe I haven’t hit strong enough air yet (after all this is
It’s got a very big rudder and you’re supposed to use it to turn about. I haven’t got a yaw string on the Supefloater yet, so I can’t tell for absolute sure that I’m coordinating my turns, but the wind in my face seems to tell me that I’m doing okay. I should have that string on tomorrow.
Today I had two flights. Pinned off below 800’ both times and climbed out. Thermaling was just like I was in a hang glider but with a stick. Late in my second flight (took a second flight after I come down to get more clothes on) I was down to 318 feet working zero and slowly climbing out.
I was worried about flying too slow (23 mph or less) as I hadn’t had a lot of experience going real slow, so I kept the speed up – 27 mph or so. Still I was able to climb out with Bart on a WW Talon – he had marked the thermal for me after pinning off at 400 feet.
I was hanging onto the broken thermal right over the trees and moving the stick and rudders around trying to track the snakey little thing, just like I would in a hang glider. Maybe I’m not too smooth on the controls just yet, but I was able to hang in that baby till Bart and I got out of there. What fun.
There is no cockpit and I don’t have a helmet on and I’m sitting right in the wind in a straight back chair. I haven’t got use to the wind noise and all the wind hitting me square on yet. I like flying it at less than 30 mph – best as slow as possible.
I have thermaled it at 20 mph, and there is still plenty of travel on the stick going back. I have been able to approach stall and felt the wings shudder a bit. Neal says just let ‘em keep shaking and fly slow in the thermal. Nothing will happen. Maybe!
I have got it up around 43 mph. I don’t feel comfortable flying that fast, but getting better at it. There is too much wind and noise. The glider shakes a bit up there also, but it doesn’t feel dangerous. I just wonder what it takes to rip the wings off. I’ll have to ask.
I’ve got a BRS chute handle right above me. I think I’ll check that out a bit more carefully.
The seat gets a bit uncomfortable after a while. I’ve added another cushion and we’ll see how that helps. I came down on my second flight because my butt hurt.
I’ve noticed that the GROB 103 was pretty uncomfortable also. I assume that there are other sailplanes that are more ergonomically designed for pilot comfort – I mean at those prices, they had better be.
Apparently all Superfloater pilots mention how uncomfortable it is. The rudder pedals aren’t adjustable, so it’s one size fits all.
Mike Barber welded up a nice trailer for Mike Waters so I can take it cross country. If cross country conditions improve down here I will soon.
The Superfloater is the only glider in Class O Class 4. The
Carbon Dragons don’t have leg slots. Looks to me like there are plenty of
world records to be set in this aircraft. Perhaps I can get Gary Osoba on it
this summer in Zapata. Of course, plenty of world records can be set right here
in
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a dual place Superfloater to be used for instruction? Hell of a way to allow hang glider pilots to learn to fly with sticks.
Can’t
spin that Superfloater
Dave Broyles broyles@pseudospace.com
writes:
My personal SuperFloater seems to
be impossible to spin; however, a light pilot with a thin seat back might be
able to spin it if the CG was back far enough. The adjustment of the CG is done
with the thickness of the seat back. The stock seat back is really only suitable
for someone of average weight or less. For a pilot of my weight, 195 lb., the
thin seat back clearly improves the sink rate.
I did a polar with my Ball
Graphic Comp and came up with a min sink of 167 and a max L/D of just about
16/1. This was based on a single run though and may not be real close. I worked
a couple of thermals with Mike Degtoff on his new Stealth several years ago, and
it seemed that Mike had a few feet per minute on me.
To turn the SF on a wing tip, it
is absolutely essential to give opposite aileron to hold up the inside wing. I
get a better sink rate thermalling a little faster, eg. 24 mph to 26 mph. I am
certain that a yaw string will help flying the SF. I find that it is rather easy
to have it crossed a little when not paying attention to the yaw string.
I have hit turbulence that has
thrown me around in my SF, but I am pretty sure that the large tail surfaces
fairly far from the wing give it a lot of stability.
William Wixon sends in this photo, that I imagine that John Heiney took it.
XC
- Super floating
Gary Osoba writes:
My Carbon Dragon is foot
launchable with a bomb bay style door in the bottom. It has been foot launched
several times, including at the direction of the FAI for an Observer after I had
filed for several world records.
Took the Superfloater cross country today up northwest of the Seminole-Lake Gilder port and almost back to Wallaby Ranch. Got a chance to break it down and put it on the absolutely fabulous rack that Mike Barber built for Mike Waters. Belinda and I put it back together in a few minutes with Mike Waters’ guidance (he has hurt ribs and although he helped me tear it down in the field, I wanted him to take it easy when we put it back together at Wallaby).
I put an extra cushion on it, but that wasn’t enough. This is too uncomfortable to be a real cross country machine. After two hours you are just hurting and hurting. Maybe we’ll just put in a plastic chair with a cushion. I remember that I had to really cushion up the Millennium and still it also wasn’t comfortable enough for long flights (at least for me).
Isn’t it amazing how much more comfortable hang gliding is? Over ten hours in a Carbon Fiber harness from Center of Gravity and a constant force pulley holding my head up. Well, my neck does feel better in the Superfloater.
As I was coming back heading east under a cloud street I was heading for the smoke over a farmer’s fire. I could see all the bright flames below burning the old groves, the trees in piles. A great wind indicator and twenty of so hot fires.
I have flown in smoke lots of times here in
Unfortunately the fire ate up all the thermals in the vicinity and I landed in a big field next to highway 474 near 27.
New
Superfloaters?
Roger Coxon rcoxon@bway.net
writes:
In reference to the question
about the SuperFloater still being constructed, Dave Ekstrom (ekstrom@midwest.net)
is working to put them back in production. He is looking for commitment from at
least five interested buyers, to enable him to restart the manufacturing. Anyone
who is interested should contact Dave and get the details