Too heavy or too light?

Too heavy or too light?  Too much span? They are the questions! 

2 May 2011 - With another non-flyable day upon us (way too windy), I decided it was time to tackle the question of whether the Mosquito’s weight would fit inside the International Gliding Commission’s (IGC) maximum stated weight for the aircraft of 380kgs.  If it doesn’t, I will have my glider handicap increased by 0.005 for each 10kg or part thereof that the glider exceeds the base handicap.

I am already in trouble with my handicap – the Mosquito has only very recently been allocated permission to fly in the Club Class at International competitions, and whereas the number of types of gliders has increased, the Mosquito lies at the very top end of the handicap scale.  This means that the majority of the other competitors, including my team mates Liz and Ayala flying a Standard Cirrus and a Libelle respectively, will have far lower handicaps than I.  This means that on every day, tactically, I will either have to start first, run ahead of the rest of the Club Class pilots, and make sure I stay ahead until the finish, or start after everyone else and fly like mad in order to catch them up and either stay with them or overtake them.  Either way is pretty fraught with difficulties, and it never goes quite as simply as that…

So back to the handicap – as you can see, with a handicap of 1.07 for the Mosquito versus a handicap of 0.98 for a Libelle, there’s no way I want to add on more points because I’m overweight.

With a specified maximum permissible weight of 380kgs, a check of the last Mosquito weighing shows that the empty glider weight is 267.5kgs, but that’s not where it stops.  I have to include my weight and that of the parachute, my lead weights, cushions, drinking water etc. My problem is that the Mosquito had a lead weight fitted into the tail fin way before we purchased it; this lead weight weighs 2kgs and has quite a detrimental effect on my weight requirements in the cockpit as I must make sure that I exceed the minimum cockpit weight requirements.  Now last year, in an attempt to get fitter, I lost a stone (6.4kgs) in weight, which meant I had to increase the lead weights in the cockpit to counter-balance the lead in the tail in order to keep me ahead of the Centre of Gravity.  It’s never easy!

Anyhow, much crunching of numbers later, it looks as though at present, I have a total glider weight of 360kgs which gives me 20kgs to play with.

The next problem is span!  We know that each glider will be measured to ensure that the wing span is exactly 15 metres.  Shortly after we purchased the Mosquito, Steve and I decided to have some winglets made.  I won’t be flying with the winglets in the competition because again, this increases the handicap.  Instead, I will be replacing the original tips on the end of the wings, but we’ve never actually measured the glider’s wingspan in order to check that it is still 15 metres since it’s been altered!   However, this particular check will have to wait for the next flyable day when we rig the glider…remind me to take a tape measure and watch this space!