Testimonials

The best performing glider I have ever flown! The light responsive easy handling makes everything effortless. The landings are very easy!

"The most fun you can have in the sky. Unbelievebly light and responsive. All I can say is thank you Greg Cole for bringing a fresh new concept into the world of soaring. At 6'2" the cockpit was very roomy and comfortable."

"It strikes a wonderful balance between climbing ability, gliding capability, and penetration. Most of all the quick handling makes it loads of fun to fly. And with 40 pound wings, it's actually even fun to assemble!"

"I wasn't sure I could have finished the course at all if I had been flying a 15 meter glider. During the last half of the flight, there was just too much helicity and wind. The cores got too tight and sheared up for adequate climbing in a conventional design. A light, responsive sailplane like the SparrowHawk can effectively use scraps of lift that often punctuate difficult soaring environments. On the other hand, with a zero lift drag coefficient on par with today's racers, the thin wing, and the significantly reduced wetted area of the design, the SparrowHawk has remarkably good penetration."

The Dream Becomes Real

"Boy, am I impressed!"

That was the comment to Greg Cole after my tour of his facility at the Bend, OR airport when they were in the final stages of developing his new super light, carbon fiber sailplane.

After 48 years of messing around in the aviation business I've seen quite a few "marvelous" ideas that just never amounted to anything and usually the ones with the most promotion and hype were the biggest "no-shows". I've been following the progress of the SparrowHawk with a lot of interest because from the first that I heard of it I was convinced it was a great idea. But was it another great idea that would go nowhere? It is a huge task to turn an idea into a flying machine these days, especially when it is personally funded. The wonderful advantage of "self-funding" is that no outside person can put any pressure that would possibly compromise principles or the original concept. After I visited with Greg, sat in the cockpit, saw with my own eyes and felt with my own hands a nearly completed sailplane and saw all the molds just waiting to begin production I felt we were close to seeing a winner.

Now, three months later, the SparrowHawk is in the early stages of the flight test program with very good reports.

Greg has been working on this design for approximately 10 years. It has been his passion and hobby while he was fully employed as a design engineer working on experimental as well as fully certificated powered aircraft. He has a Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Notre Dame University and is a patent holder in the aerospace field. So it is quite obvious that this is not a novice trying to turn an idea into reality.

Even though I'd read the article in "Soaring" and visited the Windward-Performance.com website several times, nothing beats seeing the real thing so I made a trip to Bend last September. I knew the SparrowHawk was of carbon fiber construction and had read the praises for this material but didn't really know what to expect. I've had plenty of experience with fibreglass and kevlar, etc. but not carbon fiber. After sitting in the cockpit and running my hands along the smooth surfaces and edges all I can say it that it seemed like black aluminum except that it is twice as strong with half the weight. The workmanship in every aspect is outstanding. Greg and his crew are perfectionists and have maintained that attitude throughout their work on the SparrowHawk. The "crew", incidentally, consists of another aerospace engineer who is also an experienced pilot of everything from a 1-26 to heavy corporate jets. Rounding out the crew are a physicist and a professional model builder. All of them are skilled with their hands as well as their brains.

Many renowned designers, Walter Beech and Marcel Dassault included, have said "If it looks good, it will fly good." (Or something like that.) If that is true, this one will fly great. It was easy to imagine what it might be like during the time I spent in the cockpit which is really a generous size for any sailplane but especially when one considers that this one will have an empty weight of right at 155 lbs. Visibility is excellent. With normal eye position the entire canopy frame is visible to the front and sides due to the well-conceived placement of the instrument panel. The panel is easy to reach in a normal seating position and there is more than ample room for your knees and legs. The stick falls nicely into your hand and the rudder pedals are adjustable. The rest of the controls, spoilers, tow hook release, etc. are conventional and well-placed.

The combination of outstanding performance coupled with light weight and high strength is made possible by Greg's use of just the right number of layers of carbon fiber in each stress area. For example, in the fuselage the layers vary from four up to twelve depending on the requirement for a particular section. The layers are arranged in the various molds according to the design and then vacuum bagged and baked in a large oven under precisely controlled temperature and duration conditions. The final result is a very light, but very strong component which is crafted with much the same technology used in the very latest advanced fighter and commercial aircraft. As a point of interest and an illustration of the enormous amount of work that goes into a project like this, more than 125 molds are required to make all the parts for the complete aircraft.

The advantages of this "light weight technology" can hardly be overstated. From the simplest aspect, as it pertains to a sailplane, imagine being able to easily pick up any main component when assembling or after an "out landing" being able to carry any major part to your trailer. Another advantage of the light weight is the very real possibility of using an ultralight aircraft as the towplane. One of the launch possibilities that intrigues me the most is auto tow. This should work especially well with the light weight and low stall speed. A further advantage is the fact that the SparrowHawk is an ultralight not only in fact, but in the regulatory considerations. That means lower costs in that licensing and annual inspections are not required. It does require a certain amount of self discipline in the way of inspecting but I'd like to think that most of us do nearly the equivalent of an "annual inspection" every time we assemble a glider.

Numerous options are being offered and an interesting one is the "Ballistic Recovery System". For those of you who aren't familiar with the terminology the BRS is a parachute with very quick deployment capability that will lower the aircraft and the pilot together to the ground in the event that a normal landing becomes impossible. The possibility of an off field landing always exists, but the unlikely exposure to horribly inhospitable terrain is not the biggest reason to consider a BRS. The remote chance of mid-air collision is reason that I would want the BRS. There have already been quite a number of "saves" involving ultralight aircraft, some of the deployments having taken place very close to the ground. Greg reports that there has been a high interest in this option among the customers who have already ordered and those who are still in the decision process.

The SparrowHawk is going to be one the most versatile sailplanes ever produced. It is an ultralight with all of the advantages of that classification but at the same time will have speed capabilities more closely associated with heavier ships.

The talent and work of this experienced design team is going to benefit all of us who are into soaring for the pure pleasure and delight of the sport.