Schleicher ASK14 Motor Glider - Anyone flown one?

[Frelon]

Having read the "Best Single Engine Glider" thread and getting waylaid by threadcreap into Principles of Flight :ugh:, I am asking if any PPRuNe reader has flown the Schleicher ASK14, and what do you think of it?

1. Can it take off without human assistance keeping the wings level during the gound run, as it appears not to have outriggers like the RF4?

2. Can the engine be restarted in flight?

3. After landing is it manoeuvred by hand, with a tail dolly, or can the engine be restarted to taxi clear of the landing area?

4. What type of licence is required to fly it?

5. What is maximum weight of pilot!!!!!!!:=


Any info, stories etc. welcomed.

[Fitter2]

In 1968 the BGA had the demonstrator for evaluation, and 'qualified' pilots could fly it. At the time that was deemed to be Silver C and PPL.

Engine off it was unsurprisingly almost a Ka6 in performance and handling. Take off needed a wing runner, and no steerable tailwheel meant that taxying was inpractical without a wingtip holder.

In air engine restart was straightforward - unfeather prop, fuel on, ignition on, 55kts and pull lawnmower type starter to get the engine spinning over. Climb rate about 350 fpm from memory (as is all of this). On the ground engine start could be tricky hot - lots of pulling the handle. I expect familiarity with setting found to work would make it easier.

The engine did have two electrical problems over the two weekends we had it, on the second it landed away at an airfield. In the absence of an aerotow hook, or trailer, it was retrieved on the back of an Auster by taking two turns of the aerotow rope round an undercarriage cross member (the undercarriage was exposed in the bottom of the cockpit and you could see the ground with it extended) and the pilot held the rope. The CFI was less than amused when the method was revealed.

I recall it was a pleasant enough machine, with performance adequate by the standards of the time. All the above from 40 year old memory, E&OE.

These days I guess you can fly it with a Self Launching Motor Glider PPL, what other bits of paper are also valid you would need to check, I don't have a copy of LASORS and a CAA to English translator handy.

[Papa Whisky Alpha]

I have an ASK 14 motorglider, I was flying it yesterday. It is self launching and achieves a rate of climb of 500 fpm at 45 kts!. In level flight it will cruise at 70 kts using 10 ltrs/hour. Although based on the K6e airframe its performance, with the engine off, is similar to the K6CR with a glide angle of 28:1 claimed.
The take off is reasonable with a ground run of about 300 feet. As soon as it reaches any speed the ailerons give full control and the wing can be lifted without a helper, although a "wing man" does make it easier. Mine has a fixed tailwheel (some have castoring and some steerable) but the a/c can still be steered by rudder.
Fitter 2 - I concur with your remarks about toggle starting, but most problems seem to be around cold starts rather than hot. There is provision for winch launching (mine doesn't have a hook fitted) but aerotows are prohibited, presumeably because the tow rope could foul the prop.
To fly one in the UK you need a NPPL SLMG or a PPL with SLMG endorsement. In Europe it is classed as a TMG. It has an EASA C of A.
Like all gliders they vary in weight, maximum auw is 792 lbs, which means that at the design weight with 20 litres of fuel the maximum cockpit load could be up to 220 lbs, most aircraft gain weight during their lifetime so a more realistic figure would be around 200 lbs.
There is one advertised today on Gliderpilot.net for 20900 Euros!

[Frelon]

So have we stumbled upon an aircraft that BEagle has not flown?

[shortstripper]

Never flown one ... but have always wanted too! I seem to remember there was a film kicking around years ago, where some sort of ornithologist was using a ASK14 to study eagles or something in Africa?

SS

[bambuko]

...some sort of ornithologist was using a ASK14 to study eagles or something in Africa?...
It was Dr Hugh Lamprey Dr. Hugh Lamprey (http://www.ntz.info/gen/n00324.html)

[Fitter2]

Unless there were two of them at it, I know that Colin Pennycuick

Professor Colin Pennycuick [SoBS - UoB] (http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/people/staff.cfm?key=95)

was doing that in the rift valley in Kenya, studying the life cycle of vultures. His experience as a glider pilot helped no end

He gave a lecture on his work at Reading uni in the 1970s. To illustrate the effect of wing loading on glide performance, he put up a slide of a glider pilot filling his sailplane with water ballast, which coincidentally was me.

[Papa Whisky Alpha]

Not Eagles - Vultures

My ASK 14 was brought to this country from Kenya (where it was 5Y-AID) by Hugh Lamprey in the early ninetees and is the one featured in the "Survival" series film "Wings over the Rift", I have a copy of the film.

Colin Pennycuick had it first followed by Hugh Lamprey.