Cobra 15
Bob Street
Dear all,
I am buying an SZD-36A Cobra 15. Has sanyone any experience of, or
information about, this handsome glider that they would like to share with
me?
Regards
Bob
___________________________
ADVthanksANCE
Bob Street, Edinburgh, Scotland.
b...@street.simplyonline.co.uk
___________________________
J. Milgram
Does anyone know ...
Is the IGC the same as what we used to call the CIVV? They're equivalent
acronyms in French and English, but I never see references to CIVV
anymore - was there actually a formal name change at some point?
just curious ...
Judah
--
Judah Milgram mil...@eng.umd.edu
finger milg...@eng.umd.edu for address, pgp key etc.
or: http://www.glue.umd.edu/~milgram/
Richard Brisbourne
In article <01bd9ed3$170f2b00$b2075cc3@default>, Bob Street <user@street
.simplyonline.co.uk> writes
>Dear all,
>
>I am buying an SZD-36A Cobra 15. Has sanyone any experience of, or
>information about, this handsome glider that they would like to share with
>me?
>
>Regards
>
>Bob
summer of 1976.
First, performance. When I bought mine they were much maligned: it was
widely reported that the Cobra was a "lead sled", incapable of climbing
in anything except strong thermals. When I found that most of the
people who were telling me this were those I regularly outclimbed I
realised that this was bullshit. It does require a certain technique to
get a good climb rate: it feels as if it wants to be thermalled at about
55kt: resist the temptation and fly about 10kt slower (perhaps not near
the ground; drop the speed much more and it does shake a bit). At those
speeds it feels more like an 18 metre than a 15 metre, and you have to
use "big glider" centring techniques, but you can climb with just about
any other 15 metre. The fact that a number of early Cobra owners
reported that it was "great to fly, marvellous handling" and regularly
screamed round the outside of the thermals probably contributed to its
reputation.
Between thermals performance is pretty close to first generation glass
(ASW 15, Libelle 201 etc) up to about 75 kt or so. With no ballast
tanks you won't quite catch them on booming days but I usually managed
to go round with them on most British comp days. One bonus from the
older wing section is less bug sensitivity: I have fond recollections of
embarassing a very distinguished Nimbus 2 owner on a very buggy August
competition day.
I had some great wave flying in it: from your sig I guess that's
important to you.
The seating position is definitely the most reclining I have
experienced: if you have big feet you may have difficulty seeing where
you're going :-). Mostly people either love it or hate it. Personally
I liked it. Actually, once airborne the view is better than you think
it's going to be. Although we never got round to it there is a case for
fitting a five point harness in case of "submarining" in an accident.
The biggest negative is engineering. It's rather as if the designers
had never seen another glider, and worked out how to do everything from
scratch; the result is that it is full of unique East European ideas,
some of which work well and some of which don't. Our biggest single
problem was the undercarriage: instead of just pulling up into the
fuselage like any sensible glider, it kind of folds in by rotating
through 90 degrees, bringing the single door behind it. Or at least
sometimes ours did, sometimes it stuck halfway, or the wheel went down
but the door stuck so the landing neatly wore quarter of an inch off the
edge. I'd suggest trying the retract mechanism a few times and look for
signs of a wheel up landing and wear and fit on the door.
One thing to watch with any older E.European glider is spares
availability. The world has changed a lot since 1980, so I can't advise
on the current situation, perhaps others can (any Pirat owners out
there?). We had big problems in the 1970s: the then agent was, as far
as we could determine, a telephone answering machine. They seemed so
uninterested in gliders we suspected they were a KGB front. When we
finally destroyed the undercarriage door (see above) we had to get one
fabricated. The syndicate that succeeded ours had a Polish-born member
who could talk direct to the factory: that was a great help.
One big asset of the type is "bang per buck". There are a number of
late wood (Cobra, SHK) and early glass (Phoebus, Kestrel) gliders that
offer a heck of a lot of performance for the money: if your budget
doesn't run to glass and it's in good condition it could be an excellent
buy.
--
Richard Brisbourne
janos...@eth.ericsson.se
In article <01bd9ed3$170f2b00$b2075cc3@default>,
"Bob Street" <us...@street.simplyonline.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> I am buying an SZD-36A Cobra 15. Has sanyone any experience of, or
> information about, this handsome glider that they would like to share with
> me?
>
> Regards
>
> Bob
> ADVthanksANCE
> Bob Street, Edinburgh, Scotland.
> b...@street.simplyonline.co.uk
> ___________________________
>
>
In Hungary Cobra is a popular type as the other polish gliders. Every year
we organise a "Club class" contest where Pirat, IS-28B2, IS-29D2, Foka and of
course Cobra allowed to fly (in this year one PW-5 also will be at this
contest). Generally young pilots(20~30 competitor) get the first expressions
about contest flying here. Usually they fly 300km or more! It is same as a
world class competition: lot of fun, sense of sportmanship. If you are
interested in flying at contest with Cobra you can do it in 1998 at
Bekescsaba.
Janos
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
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janos...@eth.ericsson.se
Ventus C
Dear Bob
I am fortunate enough to be in a Cobra-15 syndicate and am very
happy with the glider.
The Cobra is a exellent handling glider with a very positive control feel and
probably the most successful all flying tail of any sailplane. As it has a very
strong leaf spring trim giving the glider a `conventional feel`. With a roll
rate of 3 seconds from 45 to 45 degrees, the fully flying tail, its
comparitively high weight and being very aerodynamically `clean` it has a high
momentum and exellent control right throught the speed range.
but wait there`s more!!!!
in their quest for preformance the pole`s built the glider`s wing with 2 sheets
of ply laminated over a conventional section (ie. with a full length spar
unlike the foka-5) and to compete with the early fiberglass gliders is skun it
with a further 2 layers of fiberglass, to give a better finish.
Preformance??, I`d say the closest comparision is a libelle having flown a lot
of long tasks with a standard libelle and flown a comparision flight with a
open libelle it is extremely difficult to pick any difference.
This season my father flew 600km in ours and I flew a flight of 480km just as a
rough idea of what their capable of.
The Cobra does have a high weight as mentioned earlier but in fairness it also
has a larger wing area and the weight vs wing area is the same on the Cobra as
on the Libelle.
Being wood it has an infinite fatigue life and with its polish heritage has
been built very solidly!.
It however does suffer from a tight cockpit but no doubt you`ve already `tried
it on`.
You should be concious of its weight when landing but its not a major problem
as it has very powerful upper and lower brakes, ours has a `tost` wheel in it
which I beleive is a modification to get a better wheel brake but is balanced
out by having a narrower tyre which is rather unfortunate.
On the wheel you`d notice the sideways retraction which has been exeptionally
well engineered to optimise space, and very well seeled as well, but a gear
warning system is essential to ensure you have it in the fully locked position.
Sorry I rave on a bit, In summary the Cobra is a beautiful aircraft to fly and
own having no major vices and the advantages of a wooden structure and a
fiberglass preformance.
let me know how you go with yours
Craig Blunt
ven...@connexus.apana.org.au
Bob Leger
Bob Street wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I am buying an SZD-36A Cobra 15. Has sanyone any experience of, or
> information about, this handsome glider that they would like to share with
> me?
I currently own one of only two Cobra 15's that exist in Canada. I have been
flying it for three seasons now, and last August did my Diamond Goal in it
without any trouble. I quite enjoy flying the Cobra even though it has a very
reclined seating position. A 5 point harness is a good idea, but I too have
not
"got around to it."
It will thermal well with any other standard class ship. I have no trouble
thermalling tightly. I do wish I could carry water, but alas that provision
isn't
there. Up to about 75 knots it flies well. After that.... well, you are
slowly falling
from the sky. It is fully aerobatic, though I think that certification timed
out in
the early 90's due to the age of the ships. Mine was built in 1977.
It provides the snappiest intentional spin that I have ever experienced.
It was fun and easy to get out of (if you know how). It has very good
visibility
when airborne. Ailerons are very effective, as are the top and
bottom spoilers. The horizontal tail is an 'all flying tail' with a weighted
counterbalance at its leading edge. The unique canopy slides forward on a
rail to open, and has an excellent jettisoning system.
Some folks out there may even remember that a Cobra 15 placed 2nd at the
Worlds in the early 70's.
I wouldn't hesitate to buy this aircraft if I had to do it over. If the one
you are
looking at buying is in good shape, and has been looked after - Go For It.
Bob Leger
Nick Leaton
> Being wood it has an infinite fatigue life and with its polish heritage has
> been built very solidly!.
Hmmm.
Nick
Jarek Mosiejewski
Bob Leger wrote in message <3594B6A9...@idirect.com>...
>Some folks out there may even remember that a Cobra 15 placed 2nd at the
>Worlds in the early 70's.
>
Some more info on this. In 1972 in Marfa (USA), Jan Wroblewski was second
and Franciszek Kepka third in the standard class. The winner was Helmut
Reichmann who flew LS-1.
It is little known that there was a 17m version of Cobra. Very few were
built and as far as I know it had never been sold overseas. Edward Makula
competed in the open class in Marfa and managed to take very high fifth
position beaten only by Nimbus (George Moffat), ASW-12 (Hans W. Grosse,
Michel Mercier) and Kesterl 19 (George Burton).
If you look at Cobra's polar curve, at higher speeds, due to its relatively
high weight, it should go better than "dray" Jantar Std. However that is
only a theory as quality of finish of Jantar's glass wing was much better
than that of wooden Cobra.
In my opinion, Cobra 15 is the best standard class wooden glider ever built
and probably will never be surpassed. I have very many wonderful memories
of flying Cobra (late seventies), however one word of advise. Be very
careful when landing in high vegetation, I've seen many Cobras with broken
fuselage as a result of a ground loop.
Good luck
Jarek
SoarHead
Had one...loved it...thought it was the most glider I've ever owned for the
money. Pics and such are on my photo website:
http://users.aol.com/soarhead1/vm.htm
Vince