FLIGHT IMPRESSIONS OF
SCHEMPP-HIRTH’S
DISCUS 2C
The wing has a “dinosaur” look to it according to the author, We think he means pterodactyl.
Ross Gaddes is a lucky man. He gets to play with
This glider is a pure sailplane owned by S/H (the model also
gliders for a living at Sailplane Services Ltd in
comes with a “Turbo” option). It was sent to us after being used for
Auckland. In November he took the first of its type
demonstration purposes in Europe and Australia. During its stay in
in New Zealand Discus 2c for a workout at the
Australia it had impressed many with its performance against the
Central Plateau Contest, before handing it over
other 18metre gliders, even the flapped ones. For this reason I was
to its new owner Richie McCaw. Ross admits to
keen to find it a place in NZ and show Kiwi pilots just why this is
being biased towards Schempp-Hirth aircraft, he
proving to be such a top seller.
is their New Zealand agent after all. He also says
After plenty of correspondence S/H agreed to allow me to
he is neither a technical nor an experienced pilot
ship the D2c to Auckland and my plan was to fly and show it during
with only around 900 hours gliding. Here are Ross’
the Central Plateau Competition in Taupo. I arrived in Taupo ready
“seat of the pants” impressions of the glider.
to fly in a conservative and safe manner. The high profile purchaser would be most unhappy if I broke it.
SPECIFICATIONS
The Discus 2c is the latest addition to the very successful “Discus” line of non flapped aircraft from Schempp-Hirth GmbH. Although similar and sharing a similar fuselage to the 15 metre Discus 2b, this 18 metre glider is longer and has had design changes in the area of the fin, elevator & tailplane. The wing is new and it looks really different with a very dinosaur look about it. The four piece wing enables ease of handling and rigging. We get to rig & de-rig a lot of gliders at SSL and this is one of the easiest we have experienced. The shorter wing panels are in our opinion a great idea. Inside the fuse it is a very typical S/H design with a side opening canopy and a large lift-up panel with plenty of space
Instrument panel – the hinged instrument panel makes for easy access and has plenty of room for instruments
Discus 2c Wing span Wing area Aspect ratio Fuselage length Max. all-up mass 32
18/15m 11.36/ 10.16m² 28.5/ 22.2 6.81m 565/ 525kg
February 2008
Empty mass approx. 278/ 266kg Wing loading 31-50/ 33-52kg/m² Max. water ballast ca. 200kg Max. permitted speed 280km/h Manuevering speed 190km/h
for instruments. I had been flying a D2b and the D2c is pretty much the same in the cockpit. I was quite familiar and at home. I can easily fit into the Discus ‘A’ models, but the 2c’s larger cockpit is very comfortable and quite capable of fitting much larger pilots than I. My first
