This is the Reiher 2. It represented the state of the art at the end of the glorious pre-war period - for soaring - in Germany.
THE REIHER
The Reiher is very typical of those times under many respects:
- the gull wing which was supposed to improve turn characteristics; in fact it caused some severe trouble with the spoilers on the prototype, which is the reason why the upper side spoilers are smaller than the underside ones
- very low flying speeds: minimum sinking speed of 0.5 m/s at 50 km/h or 31 mph, best glide ratio 33 at 72 km/h or 44.7 mph. The maximum speed was probably well under 200 km/h or 124 mph, and at 80 mph the sinking speed was 2 meters per second, which by today's standards is poor for a performance machine.
The accent was put on the lowest possible sinking speed occurring at a low flying speed in order to enable spiralling in small and weak thermals and thus stay aloft as long as possible.
- the absence of camber flaps. They were tried on the first protopype but it is reported that they were not used on further machines because the advantages would not balance the mechanical complication. It is clear that lift-increasing flaps would not have helped very much, there was not much need for flying slower nor for significantly reducing the minimum sinking speed. Nowadays flaps are also used in the " up " direction in order to reduce the drag and enable better penetration at high speeds. The type of profile of the Reiher would not have allowed for that gain.
So these gliders did not have the penetration qualities of our modern machines, and consequently the distance records established at that time were modest compared to today's standards.
THE FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS AND THE INSTRUMENT PANEL.
It is possible to adjust the flight parameters to obtain low flying speeds which match those of the real machine. However FS5 does not like it too much, so in order to get a stable and easy flight, I have assigned to the Reiher the flight dynamics of Klaus Schnur's excellent Ventus-2cm1. By all means download Klaus' gliders, they are nice to see and enjoyable to fly. The instrument panel is thus the classic Cessna's. It is possible through appropriate manipulations to use the Schweizer's panel, but from a visibility's standpoint it does not make much sense. The field of view from inside the cockpit with the Cessna panel is probably more realistic in the case of the Reiher than from the Schweizer's plastic bubble.
Here is a suggestion for plain good fun:
Load a slope soaring situation, and then switch from the Schweizer to the Reiher. The Cessna panel will appear. Turn the mags of if the motor is roaring.
As a glider is usually an elegant machine to watch flying, here is a way to fly it which I enjoy very much:
-from within the cockpit, fly into an updraft zone, trim the machine for a stable speed ( 60 to 80 mph ).
- from the World menu, Set Exact Location submenu, select the Tower View from Actual Aircraft Position function.
- hit S for tower view
- hit W for full view
- fly the machine in front of you against the moving background and enjoy.
It is better in this case to use auto-coordination.
The spoilers are effective, hit " / " but sometimes you will have to wait for a few seconds for them to come out.
BRAKES AND FOOTPRINT.
If you want a glider which rests on a wing on ground, the Center Gear Scrape values have to be identical to the Right Gear Scrape values. But then you don't have brakes anymore so the glider runs for miles before coming to a stop. So make your choice. At production time, the footprint of the Reiher has been put in the Spares Group so that when you modify the scrap values in FS5 they will stay put rather than reloading the footprint each time you load the aircraft.
MODIFICATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS.
The AFX and the PCX files are available unpon request. All comments and suggestions welcome.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The World's Vintage Sailplanes 1908-45 by Martin Simons.
Kookaburra Technical Publications Pty Ltd
MELBOURNE
Australia.
LEGAL AND OTHER.
These files are public domain. The author will accept no responsability of any kind for any damage or trouble resulting from their use.
