My new favourite, the DG 303
I’ve climbed up through the gliding club’s fleet of planes and now I can fly the top model, a DG-303. It’s a beautiful high-performance machine with slim 15-metre span wings and little winglets at the end. The seating position is very laid-back (literally) but quite comfortable. The aircraft flies very well with no vices.
These gliders all seem to have silly names. The 303 is a variant of the 300 range, of which Wikipedia says: “The DG-300 is a Standard Class single-seat high-performance glider built of glass-reinforced plastic. The DG-300 was designed by Wilhelm Dirks and manufactured by Glaser-Dirks Flugzeugbau’s Slovenian partner company Elan.”
I had to have a check flight with an instructor first, then I was let loose in the new ship. There was no lift about, unfortunately, but I had a very pleasant flight in smooth air. I’m looking forward to flying this machine when the weather warms up and the thermals improve. There can be a queue for the club gliders when the weather is good, so I’ll have to see how that works out.
Checking out the technical details of the machine, I came across some lovely German phrases, including this one: Bremsklappenverrieglung an Wurzelrippe (Airbrake locking system at wing root).
