Terry McElligott comments on the blog editors new Discus and gives an interesting handicap ranking table for the SOSA fleet
Looking a these figures I can deduce that DG (Terry flies a DG200) build fabulous airplanes ... maybe you ought to trade up! ;-)
I was sent a handicap list a while back for various gliders. The BGA is really into this stuff because, I presume, they've got a pretty good contest scene. The higher the handicap the hotter the glider...
Here's a page:
http://www.aircross.co.uk/bgaladder/Handicap.asp
Here are some figures for ships at the SOSA:
DG 800 (Willem's ship and Wilfried's glider) 110 in 18 metre, 103 in the 15 metre span)
LS 8: 106 at 18 metres and 100 at 15 metres. Andy Gough, Joerg Stieber and Dave Springford fly these.
Kestrel 19 is 102 (Steve Burany)
AS W20 B and C, an even 100 (Lima Victor and Tango Whiskey might be these '20 types)
LS 6: 101 (we have two at the field... John/Martin's and Steve Newfield)
Mosquito, 98 (Tom Coulson and Chris Wilson's ship)
Discus is handicapped at 98;
DG-500 Orion at 20 metre span, 98 (unfortunately not our new DG-505)
SZD 55: 98. (Doug Bremner, Jerzy, Adam)
DG-200 in the 15 metre span is 97. (In the interests of full disclosure: I have a soft spot for this type!)
LS 4 at 96.
PiK 20, 96. There are a couple of different types around but the list does not differentiate.
Hornet H205, 90
Standard H201 Libelle is 89 (Les Waller/Phil Morton's and Dan Bush's gliders) There is a flapped version, the H301, h'capped at 96).
The SZD-51-1 Junior is 86.
Blanik is 65 - presumably this applies to the L-13 and L-23.
More observations. The 15 metre class sailplanes, which are older, are rated slightly higher than similar standard gliders for most configurations. The added flaps make a difference in higher speed handling and thermalling, but they add a level of complexity. Newfield has observed while flying Andy Gough's LS 8, in 15 metre configuration along with me in my 15 metre DG, that there wasn't too much difference and the numbers bear that out. They are 100 for the 1988 LS 8 and 97 for the 1978 DG. The real boost in performance comes with longer span. The DG 200 was redesigned with wingtip extensions to bring it up to 17 metres which handicaps it at 101, same as the LS 6. My old glider is before that time. the LS 8 in 18 metre configuration boost it to 106.
Terry
