Unfortunately working on something else at the moment but putting it here means it won't get lost, and I'll soon get back onto it.
HI Simon
I have been away for a while, but finally I have got back to FlightGear.
I now have done nearly 50 ASK13 launches, and I am now doing circuits and landings with some prompting from the back.
If you have a moment, I ask you to try a little test.
1) Set up T4T-Ask-13 to fly level at (say) 3000ft or about 1000m, at 50kts (just over 90km/h).
2) Then apply airbrakes, maybe about half extended.
Given the air-brake is worked by the re-purposed throttle control, I (think) max air brake is also full throttle position. This makes the brake lever direction different. The view graphic showing the brakes coming out should at least correspond to the braking effect happening. I do not trust that this is automatically OK on all joysticks.
3) Do not move the stick at all. Just air-brake.
Check that the nose attitude goes up, and the airspeed reduces.
4) Now ease stick forward, to increase airspeed back to where it was without the brake.
When the airspeed is restored, the attitude should now be be more ground in view, coming down at approx 30° glide slope.
5) Up to full airbrake increases the glide slope angle further. I tried it, and could not guess the angle, but it looked scary! It may have been only 45°.
I am told that with full airbrakes out, the speed will limit, even in a steep dive, and there was a time when the technique was taught, the better to land in short fields. They don't teach it any more, but my landing with full brake and single late flare out was a good one. Even so, I was told to make the flare-out more progressive, and less "last seconds drama".
About stalls.
Normal "mushing" stall still has some aileron control, enough to keep the wings level.
It ends up with the stick fully back, rapidly coming down in a sort of "parachute" mode.
Recovery can be quick, by ease forward on the stick.
Drop-nose stall happens when stalled at higher speed. Again, recovery can be fast. It can be quick enough to lose only 150ft or so. Of course, if the speed is allowed to go up more than about 50kts when recovering, you get a vertical dive and a high G pull-out.
ASK13 is an older glider design, but used extensively for training because it is tough as hell and can be made to stall and spin. Now I find that not all the ASK13's at the club are quite the same. One in particular is asked for when the lesson involves stalling and spinning.
All this stuff about stall behavior is important, in that it needs to work right if a thing like a nice chandelle turn is tried. That move should complete without stalling anything. I have been treated to a double-chandelle demonstration. I am sure it looked really beautiful from the ground. This is the first time I got to see the ground straight down while looking out sideways over my shoulder.
After a FlightGear update, my ASK13 model won't start from FGRun launcher anymore and various things don't work, but I am sure that is easy to fix. I still have the T4T set you sent me. I do understand this is all added to the download original. I suppose I just need to be sure about what else to do, especially what to remove.
I know you are grounded after injury, and I can imagine that you would not want to be too reminded of some things, but of course, flying a simulator is a whole lot safer
I leave you to decide how much of our findings are posted onto the site.
My regards
Graham
