LS10 in a Contest
An abbreviated translation of an article by Mathias Schunk - , published in the magazine "Segelfliegen" 4/2007
I flew the LS8-18 in the German Championship in Luesse in 2005 in team with Holger Back, who at this time flew the LS10. I felt the team flying did not function at this competition as I thought it should... I was then of the opinion that the reason why it did not function was the superior flying qualities of Holger Back and not because of any difference in performance of the planes. Today without wanting to belittle Holger,s superior flying abilities, I changed my opinion after the German Championship in Zwickau where I also flew the LS10.
I can now say that the LS10 not only is a well rounded, easy to fly plane , but also that its performance is at least equivalent to all the other
presently available 18 m planes.
At this time I have over 70 hours in the LS10 and I believe I can now truly make a comment about its handling and performance characteristics. As in the other LS models I have flown I must stress its excellent handling within a thermal. I am a pilot who flies more by the seat of his pants and the feel for the air rather than by the variometer. I appreciate the liveliness that the LS10 has when it encounters thermal activity. The comfortable seating position and the well coordinated controls and, of course, its excellent handling qualities and performance are definitely recognizable as the LS trade mark.
Having flown the LS4, LS7, LS8 and now the LS10 I ask myself how a designer can constantly achieve in all his planes the same excellent handling and flying characteristics.
For the German Championship 2007 I was provided by DG Flugzeugbau prototype LS10 and I would like to thank them and especially Holger Back for this.
Holger came to the competition with the first completely DG built LS10-st.(turbo)
The first thing I noticed on the LS10st were the for DG typical bug wiper "garages" and the into the fuselage integrated solar panels. Holger told me that in spite of the Turbo the weight of the new LS10st, without any water ballast, is the same weight as the prototype LS10 which I flew.
This is because the wing split on the new production version of the LS10 lays further outward on the wings and together with a slightly altered building method is reducing the empty weight of the LS10-st. This weight reduction could give a performance advantage to other similar glider types on weak thermal days.
We flew in the contest in teams of three, Holger the LS10-st, I the prototype LS10 and Armin Behrendt a Ventus 2cx.
During the contest I always had the feeling that because of the already earlier mentioned performance of the LS10, I had it somewhat better then the others. A feeling which I also had during the competitions in earlier years flying then a LS8-18.
Although I already was convinced about the superior climb performance of the LS10, I also experienced in the contest that the high speed glide performance of the LS10 was also outstanding, and is at least as good if not better compared to other planes in its class.
In the final results , the two LS10 placed in position 4 and 5. No other manufacturer was was able to place two of his planes in the first 5 places.... I hope that I can fly again in team with Holger Back in 2 years time in the European championships with the LS10, in my opinion the best 18m sailplane on the market right now.
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