FREE FLIGHT 	1983 #1 p21
BLUENOSE CHECKOUT PROCEDURE TRANSITION TO THE ‘HOT ASTIR'
         
Since club gliders of higher performance level will be 
appearing at Canadian gliderports in the future, we would 
like to share with you our check procedures for pilots 
transitioning to these ships:
         
1. For the pilot moving up from K-8 type machinery, 
the first few flights should be done in calm air 
The rate of acceleration once the nose is lowered 
is pretty dramatic. We put our pilots in the glider, 
canopy down, and raise the tail to how
the small angular change between 50 and 80 knots
         
2. The nature of the forward visibility during final 
should be carefully discussed The change in fuselage 
shape that came with the Open Cirrus era changed the
downward and forward visibility in a significant way. 
If a pilot in the Astir tries to get the same expansive 
amount of real estate that is visible downwards and 
ahead from the front seat of the Ka-7, for instance, 
he will have 80 knots on the clock in no time. Once 
this is seen, the tendency is to correct by hastily 
pulling back on the stick. The runway then disappears 
out of sight under the nose The pilot hurriedly lowers
the nose and he is back up to 70 knots or so. This 
combination has him in PlO (Pilot Induced Oscillation) 
territory with the runway fast approaching. This aspect 
of the forward view is carefully explained with the 
precaution that one has to expect and
accept a reduced forward-downward view.
         
3. The wing-tips are much closer to the ground than 
those of the Ka-7, K-8, or 2-22 and thus the roll 
attitude has to be carefully monitored. This was 
demonstrated by alternately touching the wing-tips 
to the ground with the pilot in the cockpit.
         
4. Checkout flights were performed in the Ka-7 in 
turbulent conditions to see if the pilot reacted to 
every bump or if he reacted only to those that changed 
attitude. This check was suggested to us by Ian Oldaker, 
and was helpful in identifying pilots who might have 
“pitch-twitch trouble.
         
5. The wheel-brake is at the end of the dive-brake handle 
travel, If the pilot over-enthusiastically tries to pin 
the glider on the ground at touch-down (tempting on the 
second or third touch down on the bounced landing), he 
can tip the glider over on its nose.
         
6. The relationship between the angle-of-incidence of the 
wing and the angle-at-rest offered by the undercarriage 
is such that the aircraft touches down well above stall 
even if fully held off. Thus, a bump, gust, or abrupt 
stick movement can have the ship flying again It was 
pointed out that the “waiting-for-takeoff” view of the 
horizon and the “waiting-for-touch-down” view were 
identical.

7.   It was also pointed out that the higher touch down 
speed mentioned above plus the low rolling friction of 
an aft c/g sailplane equipped with a pneumatic tail
wheel results in a somewhat longer-than-expected roll out.
         
8.   The crosswind/aft cg situation was explained, and 
check flights were done in a Ka-7 to ensure that the 
pilot could land in a 70 to 90 degree cross wind
(a typical situation at Stanley) with no drift at touch down.
         
This has so far proved to be less a problem than 
anticipated. Recently, a pilot landed the aircraft 
in a right-to-left 70 degree crosswind of 10 knots, 
while being forced to the extreme right of runway 27 
by a power plane taxiing on the left. This caused 
the right wing to mow down the taller greenery in 
the infield. Even this combination did not cause 
difficulty during roll out.
         
         George Graham