To qualify for pilot-in-command privileges in either the DG-1000 or the Pegasus, the pilot must have a total of 60 flights and 30 hours as PIC in gliders with an L/D of 33:1 or better. In addition, a checkout from one of our approved CFIGs is required. Ultimately, the CFIG’s approval is the most important – a pilot could meet these experience requirements, but if the CFIG doesn’t think he is ready for the DG-1000 or Pegasus, then that decision controls. The number of flights required to complete the checkout is also at the CFIG’s discretion.
Now that we have the DG-1000, our practice will generally be to check pilots out in that glider and then grant Pegasus privileges once the DG-1000 checkout is received. They are both retractable-gear high-performance sailplanes, so you need to focus on similar issues when making the transition. Compared to flying a Grob 103 or an ASK-21, both the Pegasus and the DG-1000 are quieter, with much less drag, and therefore will pick up speed very quickly when you drop the nose. The DG-1000 and the Pegasus do have differences in their controls and systems, but the main difference in flight characteristics has to do with the size of the gliders – the DG-1000 is about twice as massive as a Pegasus. Another significant difference is the spoilers, which are pretty good on the Pegasus but outstandingly effective on the DG-1000. Also, the DG-1000 is almost silent, while our Pegasi have some noise from air leaks around the tow release and the canopy.
The Pegasus is really pretty easy to fly in the air — no vices there. Note that it is not certified for spins or aerobatics, so don’t turn yourself into a test pilot by attempting these.
Our main concern with pilots transitioning to the Pegasus is with landings and takeoffs. It is lighter on the controls than a Grob or DG-1000, and more pitch-sensitive — when I first started flying the Pegasus I had a tendency to zoom up on takeoff, then back down, maybe even with an extra bounce off the runway. The solution for me seems to be some extra nose-down trim, and then just hold the stick real steady and avoid any sudden moves during takeoff. Holding the stick lower down, and resting your right arm on your thigh, will help prevent over-controlling the glider.
On landing, the key with the Pegasus is to make a low-energy, two-point landing. If you land on the main wheel with the tail wheel in the air, and then drop the tail down to the runway, the glider will usually launch back into the air and then slam down hard. So, you need to ask yourself how you have been landing the Grob — have you been making two-point or tail-first landings (good), or have you been flying it on to the main wheel (bad)? You need to be making consistent two-point landings in the Grob before you transition to the Pegasus. Try to fly all your approaches so that the last few hundred feet of final, plus the flare and touchdown, are flown with about ½ airbrakes extended and without changing the airbrake extension during that period. I find if I have the spoilers barely cracked open, the glider is very pitch-sensitive and I have a difficult time making a smooth landing.
A good landing in the Pegasus is generally not the smoothest landing. A good, low-energy, two point landing usually ends with a plop onto the runway from about 6 inches up – firm, but with no bounce. If your Pegasus landings are consistently greaser-smooth, then you are probably landing too fast and flying it onto the runway. If you do that, you are just asking for a bad PIO.
Once you are on the runway in the Pegasus, you should hold the stick full back to plant the tailwheel, in order to get good directional stability, and keep it there until the glider is stopped.
The wheel brakes on the Pegasus are pretty useless, compared to the disc brakes on the Grob, the 1-34 or the DG-1000. You can’t turn off the runway at speed and expect to stop before you hit something or someone. The Pegasus wheel brakes are really only useful for bringing the glider to a stop once it has slowed down to about 5 or 10 knots of its own accord. If you try to use them while still rolling along at 30 or 40 knots, you’ll hear a grinding noise and maybe slow the glider down a little, but mostly you will just reduce the life of the brake shoes by a significant percentage.
Even though the wheel brakes are weak, we did have a couple of pilots scrape the nose on the runway because they made tail-high landings or roll-outs, and applied the brakes without holding the tail on the ground (the nose just rotated over, and the fiberglass fuselage acted as an expensive nose-skid). The landing gear leg is short and the fuselage and wings of the Pegasus are much closer to the ground than on a Grob or DG-1000, so there is less clearance from runway lights, brush and other obstacles, and less tolerance for sloppy ground handling.
Of course our biggest problem with pilots transitioning to the Pegasus has been gear-up landings. Most of these happen within the first 10 or 20 flights in a Pegasus and most of them fall into one of these scenarios: (i) pilot somehow gets rushed in the pattern and either skips his landing checklist or runs through it quickly without really thinking about what it means, or doesn’t have “undercarriage” or “landing gear” as part of his checklist because he has been flying only fixed-gear gliders, and he fails to put the gear down, or (ii) pilot never put the gear up after releasing from tow, and when he gets to the “undercarriage” step in his landing gear checklist, he moves the gear handle, without looking at what position it ends up in, thereby retracting the gear just before landing.
The main defense against gear-up landings is careful use of the landing checklist. My practice, and I try to persuade everyone else to follow this, is to put the landing gear down before I enter the first leg of the pattern, before I make my first radio call, and before I start the checklist. When I decide I am going to enter the pattern, I put down the gear. Then, when I get to the landing checklist, it is a double-check that I have moved the landing gear to the correct position. I look at the gear handle to confirm I have put it in the down position — is the handle next to the decal that says “down” or the decal that has a little picture of a glider with the wheel extended? I check again when I turn from downwind to base, and one more time when I turn from base to final. Fortunately, both the DG-1000 and the Pegasus have the gear handle in the same place and with the same positions – forward is gear down, back is gear up.
The DG-1000 has a functioning gear-warning buzzer. None of our Pegasi do – they were installed many years ago, but have become extremely unreliable. Therefore, we use a binder clip as the “gear warning”. When the gear is down, the binder clip resides on the gear handle. When I release from tow, the binder clip is moved to the spoiler handle and the gear handle is pulled up. If I am really tired or rushed when returning for landing, and I try to grab the spoiler handle before putting the gear down, I’ll grab the binder clip, which will remind me that I need to put the gear down and then move the binder clip to the gear handle.
You should assume that once you start making longer flights, at some point you will return to the airport tired and dehydrated and not operating at 100%. Therefore, you need multiple back-ups to make sure the gear gets extended before landing.
– Harry Fox