After an almost three month hiatus from flying anything without an engine, Steve and I put our gliders on top of the car and headed out to Quest Air to fly on Sunday. Although the weather report indicated there should be lots of clouds with relatively high cloud bases, we saw no evidence of an accurate weather report when we arrived. So we took a "wait and see" approach.
One pilot who had just soloed the weekend prior was taking advantage of the calm morning conditions. A couple of tandem instructional flights and a few pattern tows to shoot landings for ratings. NO significant airtime, but it was only noon.
Then a few scattered cumies arrived looking very promising. A couple more flights, but no significant airtime. Then, about 1 o'clock it turned on. The Tempest was wheeled out to the runway, and owner Chip (don't remember his last name) took a flight. But, the cycle wasn't quite right and he only managed to squeek out about a half-hour. By this time, we said it was too late to set up our gliders, so Steve was the first to jump in to the Tempest. After the first thermal he wired in and thermalled to the top of the gaggle. He got 45 minutes before he came in for a landing.
Now it was my turn. I've got about 2 hours in sailplanes, I flew the SuperFloater for an hour and 20 last spring, and have a ATP rating to fly the tug, so I was confident I would transition to the Tempest without a problem. Got in, strapped down, and after a few last minute instructions from Campbell Bowen, I was up-up-and-away. Jim Prahl towed me to a developing cumie about a mile up-wind where I released. I spent about 5 minutes getting used to just how much rudder and aileron to use to make a coordinated, constant bank angle turn in the thermal and I was going up.
Before I reached cloudbase a two-seat Grob sailplane came in thermalling over the top of me. But I was gaining on him/her with every turn. He/she soon left for bigger stuff, but I managed to make it to cloudbase before the thermal dissipated. Well let's see how much altitude I will lose going to the next thermal about a mile away. Well the next thermal turned out to be about three miles away and I got there with just 1500 ft. But it was a strong one and cloudbases had gone up. Now at 3,700, even with the 70 percent enclosed cockpit, I was freezing. But I wasn't giving up until I got to the top. Then I actually liked the loss in altitude making the next jump - just to get warm. After 45 minutes, when I knew I had an hour easy, I decided the owner of this great ship might want the benefits of this great lift and decided to come in for a landing. But that was no easy task. I had to find blue holes to practice forward slips and applying the spoilers to try to lose some altitude. But after about 30 minutes I reached a reasonable pattern altitude to enter the pattern. I set up on the long runway and only used about half before coming to a stop. It was a totally awsome experience. Got 1.25 hours and grinning from ear-to-ear. I'll wear warmer clothes next time, but had no complaints. The Tempest performed great and was easy to get to know.
Those of you with stick time, if you haven't flown this one, I highly recommend you do.
---
A few more words on the Tempest from Barbara Flynn
"The fuselage is fiberglass molded with an airvent in the nose and a plexiglass cover. Quite comfortable. I believe the wing span is 42', but I'm not sure what it weighs."
I had the opportunity to fly the Tempest that is at Quest Air in Florida.
It is a sweet handling ship that climbs well. I took 5 tows (4 to 2.5k and one to 10K on a stable day). The sink rate was around 150fpm and it seemed to have a good glide, though I have no solid data to back it up. I had the opportunity to wring it out fairly well and I really like the way it handles. It turns easily though it is more flexible than what I am used to.It is my understanding that they are available by order, though it takes time to get one.
I also watched other pilots fly it. The verticle stabilizer wiggles a lot on TO although I didn't feel it in the pedals on my flights.
While I really like the Superfloater, I felt the Tempest performed better and being mainly enclosed (sides open a bit) was nice.
-- Tim Shea S & S Aviation Adventures Santa Cruz, CA (408)464-2FLY
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 17:00:58 +1000 From: Gilbert Griffith To: hang-gliding@lists.utah.edu Subject: Flying Story.
Dateline, Porepunkah Airfield, March 20th 1997.
1045hrs, Bill Moyes arrives at the airfield after driving half the night from Sydney with the Tempest ultralight glider on a trailer. I shut up my shop and race to the strip, where the wings are already on, and I am given instructions while helping to complete the assembly of the glider. If we weren't chatting so much it would only take 2 people half an hour or so to set up.
1300hrs, Back at the airfield after a quick lunch in town (Bright), sky is half covered with fairly dark bottomed cu's and the wind is blowing 10-20kts and switching from south to north and all over the place. One of Bill's friends who drove down with him, is first to fly. Greg Withers is tug pilot. I extract the Thruster from the hanger and take Simon, my work experience apprentice for a circuit. (He can't believe I've just shut up shop to have fun, and he doesn't have to cut up bits of steel for hang glider dollies). The air is gusty and rough, even up high.
Ron lands hot and high from the south, using most of the strip. I'm thinking, "Is he going to pull up short enough?", but he pulls up at the road which crosses the strip about 3/4 of the way down.
No-one else is eager to fly, so it is now my turn. Bill is chatting away, showing me the controls, adjusting the rudder pedals, strapping me in. There's only one lever to pull to release the towline, and another below it to activate the air brakes. Vario strapped to my thigh and a hall windspeed meter outside on the wing strut.
I'm nervous, shaking a bit and breathing deeply to try and calm down.
Take off is just like in a powered plane, except that the guy holding the left wingtip hangs on too long and causes a yaw to the left as he lets go. It's like what happens with power when the tail comes up, so correction is automatic, my feet just give opposite rudder and everything is fine. Following the trike is easy even though the air is rough. After the second thermal I remember to follow the trike up quickly when it hits lift, and follow it down when it sinks. No time to be nervous anymore but my left hand is resting within reach of the release just in case.
I release at 3000' and the humming sound coming through the towline is gone, Greg is diving away and I find good lift and practise a few turns, stalls and speed changes. The full flying elevators are light and precise, the ailerons are very slow and spongy after the Skyfox's full span ailerons, but they do the job, taking about 10 seconds to switch from 60 degrees left bank to 60 degrees right.
After gaining about 500m, I go exploring across the valley towards Mount Buffalo and find good lift at Little Buffalo. Here I wang around a bit with some steep banked turns at high and low speed. Handling is similar to the Super extralight HG, you don't notice that the controls are different, just think turn and it turns. There is a bit of wind noise, and a nice whistle at 80kph plus, plenty of ventilation too as there is a hole in the canopy so that you can wave to the tug. After about 35 minutes I think about the others on the ground and decide to land. I managed to find some sink to core near the strip and stayed close, keeping an eye in the windsock which was still twitching from north to south from time to time. I hoped that it would stay constant for 5 minutes so that I could land, so I elected to land to the south which is slightly uphill and has a clearer approach with only a low fence and no trees. I was so concerned with the high LD that I ended up landing as short as possible after a side slipping final turn to waste height, that I stopped on the road, having used only 150m of the strip. Which put an end to worrying about running into the far fence as it was still 400 odd metres away. So much for my first sailplane flight, and first aerotow (or any tow in a sailplane).
Some of the specs that I remember are a span of 42' 6", empty weight of 90kg, LD about 25-30:1, stall speed about 35kph, Vne 80MPH (sorry about that, the wind meter was calibrated in KPH and Bill told me the speeds in MPH). Stressed to +6, -4 g's, with a hand deployable chute under the pilot's legs, you have to open the canopy and chuck it out. I was told not to use the chute as it cost $60 to get it repacked;-) Cruise speed 60KPH and best climb in thermals seemed to be about 50KPH, at 40 KPH you get a light buffet that tells you to speed up a bit.
It's a nice alternative to HG, especially for winter flying, and is very comfortable. You need a hanger and a tow vehicle or trike, plus a couple of helpers, but it looks like the ideal thing for old hangies who are getting lazy about setting up, running, or keeping fit. (I'm none of those yet!)
Greg wasn't keen to fly either. It was pretty rough, no HG's or PG's were flying and the wind was still twitching around, sometimes up to 20 kts. It abated somewhat so he was convinced to have a go. Bill didn't want to fly the trike, so I was asked. I had been thinking about this for a couple of days, my first tug. (Don't laugh.)
But with three tug instructors on hand I said OK and suited up. Everything went well, except it was hard to watch the mirror, sky and airspeed all at once. A couple of times I got a bit slow and the trike mushed around at 30 knots until I eased off the pressure and evened things out at 35-40 kts. Greg seemed to stick in the one spot in the mirror no matter how much turbulence we flew through, and I never had to worry about releasing. He dropped off at 3500' and I flew arond for a few minutes watching him before I returned to the strip, dropped the rope, and landed.
Greg flew for half an hour and then did a perfect landing, I caught his wingtip as he rolled to a stop about 30m short of the hanger. He must have been watching the previous two flights carefully, as has only had 5 hours stick and rudder time in the Skyfox over the last two weeks to prepare for flying the Tempest.
We are still to decide if we will buy this thing, and Bill has left it with us for the next three weeks. There are a couple of other local pilots interested so we may get enough enthusiasm for a syndicate.
Watch out for more flying stories, even winter ones!
*************************************************************************
Gilbert Griffith, Bright, Victoria, Australia. cogito ergo avia
Homepage http://www.home.aone.net.au/gilbert
"To try when your arms are too weary,
to reach the unreachable star."
*************************************************************************
From: Stewart Midwinter
Subject: flying the Tempest
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 21:34:01 -0700
Well, upon further reflection and review of the flight reports that have already
been written about the Tempest (above), I'm not sure I really have anything
very intelligent to add, except to thank Barbara Flynn for her generosity in
letting me fly her and Steve's glider.
About all I can say is that the Tempest is still around as a design! In fact,
after a few minor changes by Bobby Bailey, the designer, it is likely that the
glider will be shown at Sun 'n' Fun next spring. The glider I saw at Quest Air
now has had the wing cloth painted with a marine-type paint (Imron?), and the
cockpit interior has also been given a nice paint job as well.
My opinion of this glider mirrors that of Steve Flynn, who said "this is a sailplane
for the pilot who wants to fly with stick and rudder, but still thermal around
with his hang-glider buddies". In other words, it's a light ( 180 pounds) and
slow (stall speed ~30 mph) sailplane whose emphasis seems to be more on ease
of use than raw performance, though it's got plenty of the latter.
It's an easy glider to fly, and follow the Dragon Fly with, providing the latter
is flying at 40 mph or so. One thing to get used to is the way the nose seems
to point at the sky when you are low on tow and trying to climb back into position.
You just have to remind yourself that 40 mph is way above stall speed, and keep
pulling back on the stick until you're even with the tug.
Thermalling, as others have remarked, was straight forward. The all-flying tail
provides plenty of pitch authority with little stick force: normal for sailplane
pilots, but different for any weight-shift pilots who expect lots of bar pressure
as they speed up. The Tempest will fly 50 or 60 mph quite happily by itself
once you set the stick, and not try to rush back to trim speed.
Roll is not as snappy by any means, but Bobby says that was a conscious design
choice favouring performance over handling. The wings, 13m long and tapered,
have ailerons that are about 6 feet long. Interestingly, in Bobby's latest project,
an amphibious ultralight based on a 2-foot-shorter Tempest wing, the ailerons
are 8 feet long. In any event, there are a couple of steps about to be taken
to increase the design's aileron effectiveness to some extent. I found their
response to be adequate and liveable once I had adapted my flying style somewhat.
The canopy is a very simple U-shaped piece of lexan, open at the aft end to
let a little air in; in colder climes it would be possible to put in side panels
to complete enclose the cockpit.
The seat is padded and quite comfortable, the stick is center-mounted and quite
long, and the rudder pedeals functional (their position is readily changeable).
The tow release is under the fuselage, forward of the double main wheel. The
tail skid is not steerable, but the rudder has plenty of authority on the ground
and in the air.
The Tempest also features hinged spoilers that open like the spoilerons on an
Atos or Exxtacy. Say, if their operation were interlinked with the ailerons,
it would definitely increase roll rate! At the current time, they both deploy
simultanaeously, and are fairly effective (though in a conventional glider with
gate-style ailerons, you can get a higher sink rate). Side-slipping the aircraft
also increases the sink rate, but of course the tube fuselage doesn't create
much drag.
Not much more I can say about actually flying the aircraft, since my flight
was only an hour long, most of it spent thermalling up toward cloudbase and
then dodging a Coast Guard helicopter. Basically, the glider was easy to fly,
and easy to land, and I went away with a big smile on my face! It could be a
good option for someone who's tired of hanging prone in the breeze, growing
tired, cold and uncomfortable. It likely won't perform as well as the Carbon
Dragon, but then, it wasn't designed to. It is designed to be much stronger
than the CD, though, and nothing bad will happen to it if you get caught out
in a rain shower! You could also put a pilot over 200 pounds in it and not have
to take the paint off it to meet the strength limits that the CD has..
If you would like to take a closer look at a Tempest, get a hold of Barbara
Flynn or Steve Flynn at Central Florida Flyers. Their contact information is
at: http://www.centralfloridaflyers.com/