Motorgliding
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Be with the in group Do your thing in the air Fly the RF-SB Sperber SPORT-AV/AT/ON WC. 401 HOLMES BL1/O. WOOSTER OF/10 44001 (8161 262-8301 MOTORGLIDING Donald P . Monroe, Editor Vol . 4, No . 8 Published by The Soaring Society of America, Inc . August 1974 Contents Page CONFESSIONS OF A MOTORGLIDER EATE R by Stephen du Pont 2 FOREIGN SCENE, by S . O . Jenko 8 SILVER DISTANCE IN A BUZZ BOMB by Frederick L . Jacobs 1 0 LETTERS 1 1 POSTFLIGHT NOTES 1 4 CLASSIFIED ADS 14 Cover : Nelson Riley, cavorting in his Schleicher AS-K 1 4 Motorgliding is published monthly by The Soaring Society of America, Inc ., whos e offices are at 3200 Airport Avenue, Room 25, Santa Monica, California 90405 . The mailing address is Box 66071, Los Angeles, California 90066 . Subscription to Motor- gliding is $5 .00 ($6 .00 outside of U .S .) for one year (12 issues), beginning wit h the current issue . Back issues are available at 50 each . Second-class postage paid at Santa Monica, California . Reproduction of any of the material printed i n Motorgliding, unless specifically excluded, is encouraged . Readers may wish to cor- respond directly with Harry N . Perl, Chairman, Powered Sailplane Committee, 390 7 California Way, Livermore, California 95440 ; or Richard Schreder, Chairman, Air- worthiness and Certification Committee, Box 488, Bryan, Ohio 43506 . ADVERTISING RATES, CONDITIONS AND SIZE S Display ads : $15 for 4 page ; $25 for ½ page and $40 for full page . Prices are for full-size, photo-ready copy . Extra charges for make-up, $3 .00 to $5 .00 ; reductions , $2 .00 ; and photos, $2 .50 . Sizes : 4--page, 3-3/8 x 4-5/8 ; page, 7 x 4-5/8, o r 3-3/8 x 9-1/2 ; full page, 7 x 9-1/2 . Classified ads : 50 per line (40 characters ) or portion thereof . Circulation of the July issue was 1060 . This issue was mailed in May 1975 . 1 CONFESSIONS OF A MOTORGLIDER EATE R to place . Then they would drive quickl y past Wooster and towards home . The reaso n by Stephen du Pont was to get home before his job was given t o someone else, as he had already been awa y If you suffer from motorglider eat- longer than his boss had agreed to, and th e er's hunger, the following morsel might day at Wooster would do it . I got the mes- appease you for a while if it doesn' t sage just in time and changed my plans . make you ill instead . But first allow I'd have to see Burt some other time . me to be indiscreet enough to say that I Thus it was that when Bill Welch o f have been too often bored by accounts o f Danbury, Connecticut, the dry one who nev- flying some new airplane . So as an en- er touches it, conned Smirnoff into think- ticement, I shall include in this story ing they would sell more vodka to him by some of the unimportant little things furnishing some of the gas for the RF-5 B that brightened my experience, if it in- to conduct the flight study of the hawk deed needed any brightening, and hope t o migration, or the "Hawk Watch" as it came slip in the facts like the old TV ad idea to be called, I hoped I'd get a chance t o of writing Coca Cola very very lightly al l have some flying in the little Jewel afte r over the Sunday afternoon ballgame . You all . But this couldn't happen until afte r were supposed to get the message withou t the Hawk Watch was over, and that wouldn' t it spoiling your game . It doesn't ap- happen until the hawks were done migrat- pear to have worked, but I'm going to ing, and any middling intelligent hawk give it one more chance . You might think knows that the hawks get their migrating my treatment of the little things are un- over before the soaring season is over , friendly to Burt Buytendyk who so kindl y since soaring is how they go . There were allowed me to play with his big toy . I not to be many days left in Connecticut hope he will forgive it by understandin g for soaring after the hawks were gone . S o my reasons . I refer to his motorglider , soaring was not to be part of my experi- the Sport Avia Putzer RF-5B Speber . ence with the RF-5B--not this time, anyway . Now and then we take hold of some- I've been around a lot of differen t thing that looks very smooth but find a kinds of airplanes over the years and kno w splinter . Maybe it is mental, somethin g that every new type you get into you ca n that looks simple but we discover has to expect an allegorical piece of milktoas t be figured out . Considered with its goo d here and there to step on with your fig- points though, if it is good, we soon fin d urative bare feet . At first it might feel that out . Walk across the kitchen floo r like a walnut in your shoe, but as time in your bare feet on Sunday morning, which goes on it disappears as if it had onl y feels good and you will notice the small- been an ice cube . So when I stepped up est piece of cornflakes, catfood, or but- onto the wing of the motorglider and a ter . But go barefoot every day, and yo u few seconds later it went "clunk" and I will stop noticing these little things . stumbled back into the soggy part of the The cave man stumbled over a dina- wing, I thought at first it was terrible . soar bone or stepped on something that But after I'd done it a couple of times had gotten tired and fallen from the roof , I knew it was going to go clunk and though t or maybe it was something that had bee n no more about it . After all it only clunk- left there by the very young, but becaus e ed about two inches at the most as it tot- the cave was good, definitely better than tered on its single main wheel from th e going out in the dark among the tigers right outrigger roller to the left with and boa constrictors, he took it as i t my weight . was . That's how caves were, you put up Get into the front cockpit where yo u with it or went outside in the dark . will fly it from, and wriggle around a bi t I had looked forward for a long time to see where things are . When you try to to playing with Burt Buytendyk's RF-5B . get out maybe you can't get your foot fro m Coming home from the Open National Soar- under the landing gear retraction handle , ing Contest at Adrian, Michigan last sum- low on the right, without taking off you r mer, I had planned to drop by Burt's at shoe . Wooster, Ohio and give my ground crew a Do it several times and you will have ride in a motorglider . However, one of my learned to quite unconsciously push you r spys let me in on a plan whereby when I would foot forward, turn it a little to the side , be in the trailer checking over the security twist it to the left and push and it come s of the sailplane, my crewman would see that right out . At first I honestly believe d the door swung shut and the latches fall in- someone had boobytrapped the little air - 2 place because things like this seemed to big rear canopy at the wrong time, and thi s keep happening . I'll mention some of the m is clearly prevented . If he is flying as I go along just to spook Burt, but re- alone it stops him from forgetting to clos e member this : They quietly go away of thei r the canopy behind him, and even if he did . own accord and you find you are an enthus- forget to latch it, it could not come ope n iastic part of the RP-5B . The motorglider in flight because the front one overlap s is indeed something different than you have it . Should the rear pilot need to bai l ever been in before . It is intended to do out, there is the usual red knob for th e something no other airplane is intended to purpose of jettisoning the canopy . Ge t do . It's a sailplane to which have been in and sit down and find the German safet y attached at last, all the things you've belt and shoulder harness, link them to- always wished your sailplane could have . gether and pull the straps to tighten . At first sight, the airplane looks big . Good instant adjustment . Push the fue l With 56 feet of wing and a gross weigh t shutoff knob forward to turn on the fuel , of 1500 pounds, it is big . But the flip- which is in a tank ahead of the front cock- tip wings are the ingenious solution to pit, and has a fuel quantity float wit h its size . Just fold the wingtips up an d the indicating wire in front of your wind- over and lay them down on the inner wing shield so you can't forget it .