...and the wind gods smiled upon us. Three flights in the morning from Forclaz ('Four Claws'), and one in the evening.
In addition to the aforementioned maneuvers, Jocky added asymmetric collapses. Similar flight plan as with the symmetric collapse, but only collapsing up to half the wing (and dealing with the resulting turn/dive). Even including the 'forbidden' (according to the manufacturer, Ozone) accelerated asymmetric.
In all honesty, I think FlyBC sold me a Buzz 4 with Delta 2 stenciled on it. There was nothing in the morning that really caused the wing to freak out in an unmanageable manner. Including the accelerated asymm's.
The afternoon flight plan started with held asymm with a 360 turn and release. I even threw my weight into the turn akin to a wingover, and the Delta 2 plodded along in a turn one could take a nap through. Following was a pair of search for stall point. The brake pressure prior to the stall point is staggering, I was near full arm extension and beginning to push myself out of the seat to get the pressure to finally yield at the stall point. Likewise for the following attempts to find the point of spin and flat spin - though the wing did show it's EN-C side in recovery with a significant post-stall like dive.
Speaking of EN-C tendencies, it was in wingovers that the Delta 2 bares its teeth. My first attempt at weight shift wingovers got high enough to cause a significant right side collapse and freak the daylights out of a nearby wing, as Jocky said prelanding, "best to give them some space, they already think you are crazy" - there are five schools here running concurrent SIV courses, sharing the same launch and LZ, each with there own sector of the south side of the lake. The final set of wingovers had me going over the wing, though the wing had more to give than my nerve had to take. The best wingover of the lot was one my fellow students who accidentally spun the entry and did a Misty Flip, it even caught the attention of a German school instructor who commented to Jocky regarding the acro prodigy we had on the course.
One benefit of flying SIV with so many other schools early in the day is that one gets to compare speed and glide ratio to other wings rather easily, as we are all heading to the same place in dead calm conditions. Of particular note was a side by side glide with U-Turn's high end EN-B. The Delta 2 not only outran the other pilots wing at hands up glide, but far out glided it as well. There have been significant advances in the tech integrated in the B class, but there is firm ceiling that will render diminishing returns so long as the certification requirements remain the same. A bit more subjectively, I was flying with a headset and listening to fellow students being taken through maneuvers as I was setting up on launch. On a few occasions when it was my go at thrashing about, I was being coached through maneuvers that were supposed to be queued for the following flight - meaning I was arriving with more height than my counterparts.
Tomorrow, spirals and full stalls.
BTW - the Nonono is heard frequently on the radio during early wingover attempts.
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