Slingsby Skylark 2b - Thoughts?
For me it was all three Silver legs in an Oly 2b.
300 km triangle and Diamond Goal plus Gold C height in a Ka6.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that Chris Rawlins at Booker did his 500 km triangle in a Ka 6.
300 km triangle and Diamond Goal plus Gold C height in a Ka6.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that Chris Rawlins at Booker did his 500 km triangle in a Ka 6.
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Done Diamond Goal & Height in a Skylark 4. Still missing the 500 k. I said this to a gent a couple of years ago and he looked at me in some puzzlement.
"500 k in a Skylark 4? ..............It should be easy enough"
Piggott, I think his name was...
Just fix the ergonomics of lifting the centre section and there's nothing wrong with a Skylark 3. The 4 is a lot prettier though!
"500 k in a Skylark 4? ..............It should be easy enough"
Piggott, I think his name was...
Just fix the ergonomics of lifting the centre section and there's nothing wrong with a Skylark 3. The 4 is a lot prettier though!
Last edited by astir 8; 28th May 2013 at 10:14.
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Not a lot, frankly. At least one Skylark 3 was being offered free to a good home a year or so back. There's one festering in our hangar that's probably a write-off by now.
The value depends very much on condition, the trailer, parachute and instruments really. The airframe could get thrown in for nothing!
Forget one man rig, without an elaborate system, even with muscles, but rigging with 2 reasonably fit people is feasible with the right equipment. pm me if you want some pix.
The value depends very much on condition, the trailer, parachute and instruments really. The airframe could get thrown in for nothing!
Forget one man rig, without an elaborate system, even with muscles, but rigging with 2 reasonably fit people is feasible with the right equipment. pm me if you want some pix.
Last edited by astir 8; 28th May 2013 at 15:17.
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Skylarks. Big cockpits so ok for wide people like me. I am not sure on the 2 but on the 3 I flew the seat was a sort of canvas hammock affair and was adjustable. Bare in mind that the fabric has a finite life and is labour intensive (costly)to replace.
Wood can still fly long distances. There is a K6e in the club class nationals who flew 456km on saturday, 437km on sunday and yesterday flew243km in 25knt winds to come a close second. Well done Will Ellis
Wood can still fly long distances. There is a K6e in the club class nationals who flew 456km on saturday, 437km on sunday and yesterday flew243km in 25knt winds to come a close second. Well done Will Ellis
Tiger,
There's an article on the Skylark 2b by Brian Griffin in the current edition of 'Sailplane and Gliding,' (the British Gliding Association's magazine) which will give you some useful information. Also, in the same edition there's an article on the Olympia 2b written by Terence Henderson, ex Concorde pilot, that I think you will find interesting too.
You can get the magazine direct from the BGA at Welcome to the British Gliding Association
There's an article on the Skylark 2b by Brian Griffin in the current edition of 'Sailplane and Gliding,' (the British Gliding Association's magazine) which will give you some useful information. Also, in the same edition there's an article on the Olympia 2b written by Terence Henderson, ex Concorde pilot, that I think you will find interesting too.
You can get the magazine direct from the BGA at Welcome to the British Gliding Association
Skylark 3b?
Not too bad to fly...quite pleasant...have the ailerons had the 'F' mod carried out ?
Originally the 3b had plain ailerons without tabs but some were modified to have balance tabs (sometimes erroneously called servo tabs !) A La 3f !
I flew an original 3b without tabs back in the early 80's and let us say that they were perhaps not the most effective ailerons in the world LOL.
But as others have said - if the price is right - they do climb well and have excellent airbrakes,I did my first 5 hours in a 3b and seem to remember her having quite a comfy cockpit
Not too bad to fly...quite pleasant...have the ailerons had the 'F' mod carried out ?
Originally the 3b had plain ailerons without tabs but some were modified to have balance tabs (sometimes erroneously called servo tabs !) A La 3f !
I flew an original 3b without tabs back in the early 80's and let us say that they were perhaps not the most effective ailerons in the world LOL.
But as others have said - if the price is right - they do climb well and have excellent airbrakes,I did my first 5 hours in a 3b and seem to remember her having quite a comfy cockpit
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Re glider histories - there's Richard Cawsey. He generally knows more than appears on his website.
Slingsby page
Alternatively if you can work out at which club the glider was operated, an email appealing for info from the older members can work.
If you think it did any national or international competitions you can look through all the old copies of Sailplane and Gliding on the Lakes GC website.
The problem is that most people used a personal racing number which was transferrable from glider to glider rather than the fixed BGA number and trigraph so tracking can be difficult
Slingsby page
Alternatively if you can work out at which club the glider was operated, an email appealing for info from the older members can work.
If you think it did any national or international competitions you can look through all the old copies of Sailplane and Gliding on the Lakes GC website.
The problem is that most people used a personal racing number which was transferrable from glider to glider rather than the fixed BGA number and trigraph so tracking can be difficult
I know it's an old story but it was said that when Andrew Schleicher saw his first Skylark 4 at a competition he was reported to have said:
"Very impressive but with that amount of wood I could make five Ka 6s!"
"Very impressive but with that amount of wood I could make five Ka 6s!"
Better off with a K-8 great soarer, easy to rig and maintain and very nice handling on a cross country. Did nearly all of my Silver C in one missed duration by 30 minutes.
Was it Derek Piggot that said...
''The only catch with a K8 is the canopy catch''
now that was a nice little glider
Last edited by longer ron; 6th Jun 2013 at 17:31.
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K18, very nice. I managed 200k in one a few years ago. It was a Talgarth K18 that went swimming in Lake Lingham in December -the pilot ran out of ideas and daylight about the same time and decided a water landing would be better than trees. When they went to retrieve it the following day, it was undulating in the waves; the glue had softened a bit.....nevertheless somebody took it on and rebuilt it...
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K18
I've flown a couple
Regretted never buying the ones they had at Dunstable when they replaced them with K23's 25 years ago.
Could have had all 4 for £18K. Didn't have the money at the time sadly.............
Personally I think it's one of the best non-glass single seaters I've flown - massive cockpit, actually a lot bigger all round than the K8 but retained much of the docile handling.
What a shame they didn't make more....................arrived a few years too late
The SF-27 isn't a bad 'looky-likee' and is good if you do a hinged canopy mod rather than the lift on/lift off prehistoric throwback...............
Arc
I've flown a couple
Regretted never buying the ones they had at Dunstable when they replaced them with K23's 25 years ago.
Could have had all 4 for £18K. Didn't have the money at the time sadly.............
Personally I think it's one of the best non-glass single seaters I've flown - massive cockpit, actually a lot bigger all round than the K8 but retained much of the docile handling.
What a shame they didn't make more....................arrived a few years too late
The SF-27 isn't a bad 'looky-likee' and is good if you do a hinged canopy mod rather than the lift on/lift off prehistoric throwback...............
Arc
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When I first got involved in competitions in the 1960s all the gliders were wood, Oly 2s, Skylark 2, 3 & 4, Ka-6, 7 & 8, SF-26 and similar. Skylark 3 & 4, & Ka-6 were in the top class (I forget the name) with the rest in the lower class. A lot of tasks were from A to B via C if the wind was considered too strong to fly upwind successfully but in light winds there were closed circuit tasks and some were quite big, including 300K although that was not often. In one competition the top class was set a 300K triangle and the lower class a 200K triangle. We all landed out on the middle or last leg. A couple of us almost got back, having flown Westbury to Hereford in a straight line, across the Bristol channel and almost through the Welsh valleys near Cardiff! Those who went the inland and longer route via Cheltenham landed there! All the 200K gliders completed their task! The next day the tasksetters changed the roles and set us an easy 200K triangle and the Oly 2s, Skylark 2s etc were set a 300K dog leg race to Yarmouth. They all finished with most getting Gold distance & Diamond Goal! We nearly all landed around Lasham while those who did get back were mostly penalised for flying through the airspace near Heathrow! I recall there were some huge clouds between Newbury and London going into the airspace. Those of us who flew round them to the south found dead air, those who went into them got penalised as cloudbase was already in the airspace. A couple who stayed under them completed the task.
So, big tasks were, and still are, possible in those old gliders. And I still fly one and have lots of fun, and it will out-climb most of the modern gliders most of the time, just takes longer to get to, and usually arrives lower, at the next thermal.
So, big tasks were, and still are, possible in those old gliders. And I still fly one and have lots of fun, and it will out-climb most of the modern gliders most of the time, just takes longer to get to, and usually arrives lower, at the next thermal.
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The difficulty with closed courses in older gliders is headwind - they climb very well, but the polar drops off substantially as you speed up plus general speeds are lower than newer glass gliders, so it's easy to end up in the situation where you take a climb and get blown back during it, then glide out to the same point where you pick up another climb from the same thermal source...
However the last day of the Club Class Nationals that finished at Lasham last Sunday was a 510km task which 38 of 41 gliders completed. The day was won by a K6. Club Class is handicapped and (I think) windicapped. The alter attempts to balance out the effects of a headwind on different gliders.
However the last day of the Club Class Nationals that finished at Lasham last Sunday was a 510km task which 38 of 41 gliders completed. The day was won by a K6. Club Class is handicapped and (I think) windicapped. The alter attempts to balance out the effects of a headwind on different gliders.