ASH30MI & QUINTUS
WHAT ARE THEY REALLY LIKE? By Terry Delore
In July, Terry and Wendy Delore had a whistle-stop trip to Germany and mixed sightseeing for Wendy with visits to glider factories for Terry. Terry got to fly in both the ASH 30 Mi and the Quintus, two of the latest ‘hot ships’. He is happy to tell us about it.
Our first visit was to the Schleicher factory at Poppenhausen to check out the ASH 30 Mi. We were met by Bernard Eckey, the Australasian agent and shown through the factory. Schleicher’s general manager, Uli Kremer brought the ASH 30 Mi down the 10km from the Wasserkuppe to Schleicher’s own paved strip in Poppenhausen. The ASH 30 Mi is a self-launching, 26.6m wing span, two seater (the same as the ASH 25), with the same span as the ASH 25 with tip extensions. It has less wing area than the ASH 25 Mi and a lot higher aspect ratio but feels like an easier ship to fly. I got to have two flights in it, the first in the back seat and the second from the front. I actually requested to fly in the back as I wanted to check whether it suffered from the typical ASH 25 two piece canopy leaks, annoying screaming whistle from the cold and canopy shrinkage. We did not get high or cold enough to find out. It was summer and we topped out at 9,500 ft. They were well sealed canopies, although very squeaky due to the new urethane paint rubbing together. This will be remedied I am sure. What the ASH 30 does have is a hell of a good rate of climb under power. It climbs out very well, about 30-50% faster than the standard ASH 25 Mi. I was most impressed with the new drive train. This same setup is being installed in all their new self-launching gliders: ASH 30s, 31s and ASK 21s which, by the way, are very popular and in high demand as self-launch club trainers. I was surprised to see just how many were being built. Schleicher have made a simple change to the drive train – they added one more tooth to the drive cog, and it gives a much better rate of climb by spinning the prop faster and simply increases
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October 2012
