Took the plunge Sunday with a couple of flights in the 1-26... a bit of a crosswind (from the south, which is unusual at 47N) and fairly gusty aloft, but I did OK, and really enjoyed the "cool factor" of flying a ship where you have to give yourself a checkout, with no help from anyone.
It flies like it looks: a 2-33 with everything shorter. I was warned that it's prone to porpoising on tow, as the elevator is very sensitive to stick inputs. That wasn't a problem for me (held the stick down low and braced my wrist on my leg), but on the first launch, that xwind messed me up pretty well- got high and outside when it first broke ground.
My overall impression was that the main difference between these two gliders is that with the truck-like 2-33, your inputs are like a request,with some delay before the request is granted... but the 1-26 reacts immediately to any kind of stick movement. How much it reacts depends on the deflection and duration, but it is very immediate, for sure.
I did fine on tow, except for a tendency to let it speed up a bit and put slack in the rope. Got off below 3000 in some good lift, but as I tried to turn aggressively to get back into it, I realized I needed to start small, to polish up my technique. The 1-26 will spin much more readily than its big sister; steep turns must be well-coordinated. so I just wandered around a bit, found some mild lift to make shallow turns in, then found myself needing to return while I had enough altitude.
I had no trouble with it in the pattern, but messed up the first landing a bit, due to worrying too much about touching down with the wheel brake deployed (when the spoilers are fully deployed, the wheel brake engages). The spoiler mechanism is different, in that it's a T-handle on a cable; if you ease off on it the spoilers close very quickly. I was just about to touch down, and eased off on the spoiler handle what I thought was just a tiny bit... must have been a hair too fast, because she ballooned about 4 feet. but it didn't stall, and I got it down smoothly enough.
Second tow was much cleaner, and when I got off at about 2300, I could tell the thermals were stronger and more numerous. This time I had borrowed Andy's little portable audio vario, and that completely transformed the thermaling experience! Normally, you can sort of feel what's going on, but a lot of glances at the panel-mounted vario are still necessary, and it detracts from the eyes-outside nature of properly turning at minimum-sink speed (while scanning for traffic, etc). With the little unit beeping, everything becomes mush more intuitive, and this unit has almost no lag compared to the glider's mounted vario. The sound is not annoying- in fact, most glider pilots start to crave that higher, faster tone that means they're in lift!
In no time at all, I was up to 5200, yankin' and bankin' while keeping a sharp eye out for heavies coming into KEWR from the south (saw quite a few).
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