Wanted: Mosquito Opinions
Mark Hersey
To anyone who knows anything about the Glasflugel Mosquito:
I am considering the purchase of said glider and would love to hear from
current or former owners of the ship. What are the positives and
negatives associated with it.
Also, does anybody know of one for sale?
Any commentary would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark Hersey
FREDRIK KONSTENIUS
Hi,
My name is Fredrik and I own a Mosquito in Sweden.
I think it's one of the best glider I've ever flown. Very nice flight
characteristics and control movements require only very low operating
forces. I prefer 100 litre of water, climb rate is almost the same as empty
! It don't glide like a ASW27, but 42:1 is good enough for me. Stall speed
with no water is 65 km/h (40mph). Vne=250 km/h (155mph). Takeoff with
aerotow or winch are easy. Airbrakes is a combination of spoiler and flap
and it's easy to make a steep and slow approach. But little bit different to
'normal' Schempp-Hirth-brakes, on final I use full airbrake and control the
glide angle with elevator without any big changes in speed. Bad things then
? It isn't the best glider to fly in rain, but not as bad as the rumour says
!
You will find some Mosquito pics on my homepage at
http:/user.tninet.se/~hjm321l/ . Goto soaring page.
Fredrik Konstenius
Mosquito number 25, reg SE-UTI
Lars Peder Hansen
Mark Hersey wrote:
> To anyone who knows anything about the Glasflugel Mosquito:
>
> I am considering the purchase of said glider and would love to hear from
> current or former owners of the ship. What are the positives and
> negatives associated with it.
>
> Also, does anybody know of one for sale?
>
> Any commentary would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark Hersey
Hi Mark
I have co-owned a Mosquito for five years now, and have flown a lot of hours
in it.
To put it shortly: The Mosquito is a truly magnificent glider. But it is not
a beginner's machine, it's for the true lover of finesse...
Pluses:
- It has all automatic control hook-ups, a feature way ahead of its time
when it was designed in the mid-seventies.
- Easy to rig.
- Very good glide performance, compared to its contemporaries like the LS3,
Pik 20D, ASW-20a/b etc.
- An absolute joy to handle in the air, very responsive and very small stick
forces.
- Excellent cockpit visibility.
- The best cockpit layout of air brake and flap levers I have seen.
- Glasflügel innovation and quality shows everywhere (except wheel brake
handle)
Minuses and gotcha's:
- Comparatively high empty weight, which makes it a little difficult to
climb in very weak conditions.
- Even though it's easy to rig, the wings are quite heavy (No carbon, except
in ailerons)
- Performance degradation in rain / bugs, but not nearly as severe as with
the Pik 20, which has the same (but thicker) airfoil.
- The air brake/flap combination takes a little getting used to. Do not
close all the "drag" at low altitude on approach, as the glider will loose
5-15 ft. of altitude very quickly.
- The parents of the guy who designed the wheel brake handle should never
have met.
All in all, I recommend the Mosquito if you have the experience, and can fly
her enough to stay very current..
Go fly one before you buy (and check the gelcoat condition)
If you can find a Mini-Nimbus to try out instead, it's OK, as the Mini
Nimbus and the Mosquito shares the same wing. (Actually, the Mosquito is a
co-design of Glasflügel and Shempp-Hirth)
By the way, for thermal climbing the +1 flap setting is not quite enough,
and the +2 is a little too much. It's very easy to create an extra "+1.5"
flap setting, by placing an extra notch in the flap lever assembly. Do it,
this setting is right on target.
There's a couple of Mosquito's for sale in Denmark.
Happy soaring,
Lars Peder Hansen
--
*********************************************************************
* *
* Lars Peder Hansen *
* Consultant, CAD/CAM & DtP *
* LEGO System A/S, DK7190 Billund, Denmark. *
* e-mail: l...@post1.tele.dk or lars....@europe.lego.com *
* Opinions are my own, I do not speak for LEGO System A/S. *
* *
*************************************** I'd rather be soaring... ***
Andrew Stevens
One small point but otherwise complete agreement...
>- The parents of the guy who designed the wheel brake handle should never
>have met.
The "B" model has the brake on the rudder pedals (press with both
heels). Works reasonably well.
>Go fly one before you buy (and check the gelcoat condition)
Andrew
Fredrik Konstenius
>The "B" model has the brake on the rudder pedals (press with both
>heels). Works reasonably well.
>
>>Go fly one before you buy (and check the gelcoat condition)
>
>
>Andrew
I think Streifeneder have a kit to modify the weelbrake to this version.
Regards
Fredrik
Tom or Linda Dixon
Mark Hersey wrote:
>
> To anyone who knows anything about the Glasflugel Mosquito:
>
> I am considering the purchase of said glider and would love to hear from
> current or former owners of the ship. What are the positives and
> negatives associated with it.
>
> Also, does anybody know of one for sale?
>
> Any commentary would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark Hersey
prepared for the trailing flap/spoiler arrangement and the resulting
nose down approaches. As stated in another response, due to the
flap/spoiler arrangement short or steep approach landings are not like
more conventional spoiler/divebrake sailplanes. In the rain it is just
like a PIC-20, Mini-Nimbus or any other sailplane of that vintage with a
simular airfoil. The cocpit is very comfortable and takes a big pilot,
I was 5"10 and with parachute at 230lbs. The wet wings are great as
long as you keep them level after you fill them or the h2o will shoot
out the wingtop filler plugs. Performance is an honest 42:1 if you seal
it!! The wing loading is heavier that an ASW20 so it doesn't climb as
well on weak days but it will run with them up to about 75-80MPH.
Maintenance is low. A real negative is the wheel brake. It is a
separate handle under the stick which means you have to let go of the
dive brake to reallllly give it a pull and if you do this at a fast
rolling speed the flap/break will retract somewhat and you may find
yourself in the air again, ie. aborted take off or poor fast landing.
Hope you find one and you will enjoy it. Tom Dixon
Dave Jeffries
The ground clearance is also pretty marginal. Check the U/C doors.
--
Dave Jeffries (Cwmbran - Gwent, South Wales, UK)
Reply to Jeff...@boat.bt.com