hey this morning I'm also going to talk about the c3 technique. b3, c3, swept wing
tips, tip stalls ... various names. nothing's really settled in yet because not that
many pilots know about this technique. it doesn't work on all gliders it's ideal
for the high aspect ratio wings but it depends on the rigging on your glider. so
it's a good idea to test this on the ground first to make sure that your wing
does it and to make absolutely sure that you are confident you know what lines
you're pulling. don't just go up there and start pulling random lines on the
glider but I'll show you how I do it on my glider and we'll do a bit of a
comparison and see if it's better or worse than big-ears. it depends on the wing.
let's find out!
okay so C 3s, when would I use them? well same
situation as when you'd be using big ears you want your descent to
increase but you're still wanting to maintain your forward speed so very
similar. similar entry I would recommend being at trim speed making sure that your
wing is directly overhead and not pitching. you reach up for the outer C3
line make sure it's a C3 line and I would recommend checking this on the
ground first, so simulate this maneuver often on the
ground and when you're totally comfortable with it then you do it in
the air. it's gonna have a lot of pressure you've got to need gloves the
outer c3 line is usually pretty highly pressured when you put it in so it's
more pressure than the big ears. you need to pull it down until the glider
has broken properly. the wing will start pulling back and what you're doing
is you're inducing a kind of like a B line stall the way that you see that
on the wing, it's on that c3 it might be a b3 depending on your rigging and
you're trying to get that stall to blow back in the wind and then it'll be lined
up directly with the wind, there will be low drag and you can hold it in keep it steady
you don't need to pull any more than that.
you can still weight shift you can still use your speed bar at that point and it
keeps it nice and steady. the big advantage of the C3 is when you let it
go it smacks open straight away there's none of this big ear sticking or needing
to pump it out and it's why I use it on the Omega XALPS 3 because
on the big ears one in five or six the break line likes to hook on the trailing
edge a little bit and it makes it difficult to clear so for less fuss I
use the C 3s and then when I release I know the wing is gonna smack out
straight away. cool let's take it to the air and I'll show you.
So here we are cruising around. A good opportunity to explain the B3's
Not all wings can do this but a lot of the modern wings particularly the high
aspect ratio ones it's possible on some of our setups to do the b3 instead of
the big ears using the line that's attached to the outermost B tabs not
the one that's on the stabilo. so you come in from the stabilo here on your B
and you're pulling that one in, same way that you pull in the big ears line you
gotta keep holding it on you can also use your speed bar after you've applied it
to keep a good angle of attack.
It gives you about the same descent rate as big ears
but less flappy much easier to reinflate and overall cleaner
Looking at my lines here, that is my big ears line, my outer A line, I pull it down you can see
a little flappy big ears ... getting stable now ... I release it ... fills out by itself
My B3 line ... it's not this one, that's the stabilo
used for clearing cravats ... it's this one, just inside of that, so that one.
Let's have a look at the wing. I'll do it on both sides to keep it symmetric, watch
the wing pull there and then swept wing tips beautiful really stable really neat
to release you ease up on the lines and out they come
you can use either, whichever ones work for you. reach up
get my B 3s, pull them in and now I'm going onto half bar just to give
me a little bit better angle of attack. nice and stable. I've got the bigger descent rate
than everybody else. I've got good forward speed. and when I've had enough of that
I can just release that, I can actually even stay on the bar
okay but your mileage may vary you probably don't want to do this low
for your first time make sure you get lots of height and make sure that you've
got a wing that's suitable for b3s. ask your instructor. Don't just take my word for it.
you need to check this is the Sigma 10, I can confirm it's great.