Private gliders at GGC - SZD-55

There are a number of privately owned gliders at GGC. One that is popular is the SZD-55, a Polish standard-class (that is, non-flapped) glider with 15 metre span.  It was designed in the late 80's, and has a glide ratio of about 43:1.  It has a distinctive silhouette, with a graceful elliptical wing.  It is fairly light - about 220 kg empty - and is very easy to assemble.

There are 3 at the club:

2D, owned by Dan Daly (outlanding in a field):

AT, owned by Roger Hildesheim (photo by Sonia; also in a field):

A more recent arrival, 55 (contest letters for tail a work in progress), owned by Jarek Twardowski, on final at Pendleton.  Photo by Tom Hastie.  Looking great!

The instrument panel of 2D looks like this in flight (over Ridge Soaring in Pennsylvania):

On the left is an anti-collision system (PowerFLARM), then a variometer (LX V3, shows rate of climb, average climb, speed to fly, altitude), Airspeed indicator, Android phone with soaring software (XC Soar - it is more visible in the air than this photo would suggest), which is higher in this photo than normal so the other instruments are more visible, a stall-warning system (red LED), then, bottom row, another variometer, soaring computer (LX7007), and altimeter. The red handle is canopy jettison, the yellow is the rope release, and the brown is for adjusting the rudder pedals.  Just below is a microair radio.

The anti-collision system is new, and this is the first analysis of how well it is working - an average 5 km range with other fitted gliders:

I will post information on other privately owned GGC gliders from time to time.

Dan
2D