Is this the next RV?

[Bob Kuykendall]

Originally Posted by az_gila

No, it appears to be a secret code for a HP-24...

Brad Hill's Tetra-15 made its first flight on 27 January 2012. The Tetra-15 is the first sailplane built from the HP-24 project development and tooling.

Searched on "Brad Hill"

http://www.topix.com/hobbies/gliding...f-the-tetra-15

Did this one disappear? (the Glidair)

http://www.hpaircraft.com/glidair/

Gil, I decided a while back that HP-24 would be the name of the development project, and not an aircraft type. As has always been the case, each builder is the manufacturer of record, and has the right and privilege of naming it whatever they want. To appropriate the nomenclature of naval vessels, I guess you'd say that the Tetra-15 is the first "HP-24 class sailplane."

At this point the Glidair is sort of on the back burner while we sort out the HP-24. I think we will still get around to making a homebuilt touring motorglider that will give the Carat a run for the money.

Thanks, Bob K.

[NickAir]

Looks like a great following of interested pilots.

My order will be in for the motor glider. I look forward to that.

Nice glider. Congradulations

[lockeed]

Not really into high wings, but I'd love to see Vans come out with a confortable, STOL aircraft. I think if it was designed as good as the other RV's - and was relatively easy to build kit... it would have huge success...

You know, something that would compete against the CH-750, Glastar, Highlander & company....

[tonycondon]

I apologize for the necropost, however i thought you might be interested to get a first person account of how the HP-24 (Tetra-15) flies. I was lucky enough to fly the Tetra last weekend and provide this report: If you want to see the pictures you can get a pdf of the report here: http://www.ssa.org/MyHome.asp?mbr=82...w=blog&id=3789

The Tetra-15 is the first glider built as part of the HP-24 project. Brad Hill was the builder. Brad has a good track record of building gliders. He has also built a Russia and an Apis. The first flight of the Tetra was in January of 2012. Since then Brad has put around 500 hours on this glider, a real testament to the quality of the construction as well as the quality of the handling.

I happened to be at the Arlington airport for a day and Brad was kind enough to offer me a flight in the glider. I wasn?t going to say no! After a cockpit checkout I was on the line and ready to launch. Takeoff was performed with +1 Flaps. Brad?s glider has 2 positive detents for flaps. I had a quartering headwind which wasn?t very strong. Roll control was excellent in the early roll. The stick was held in the neutral position. Trim was slightly forward of its neutral position, perhaps 2/3 forward. As the speed built up I moved the stick slightly forward to lift the tail just a bit and let the glider fly off the ground.
On tow, the glider tracked straight as an arrow. I was able to fly extended periods without touching the stick in the smooth marine air near the airport. Everything was just as you would expect from a modern, well designed sailplane.

Off tow I first did a stall with full flaps and the gear up. Indicated speed at the stall was about 38 knots. The stall felt normal with some aerodynamic buffeting as a warning and a quick recovery once I moved the stick forward just a little. Then I played with the flaps a little just enjoyed the very slow descent rate. I didn?t go over 80 knots as there was no need. There was no thermal activity. I did do a series of steep turns which felt very good and tested the roll rate. The roll response was very good, I went from 45 to 45 in about 3 seconds. Control forces are just high enough to keep the roll from being twitchy. It had a very solid feeling.

By now it was time to land. The gear came back down and I set full flap for the landing. Brad usually does not use full flap for the landing but I wanted to see how steep of an approach was available and I like minimum speed touchdowns. I was impressed fully with the approach angle, in fact I had to ease off the airbrakes to almost nothing towards the end as I had slightly mis-judged and was heading for the beginning of the landing area instead of the middle where I wanted to touch down. Touchdown was slightly tail low and felt really nice. The only hiccup was that I was soon launched off a bump in the grass and back airborne! Oh well so much for getting a 10 from all the judges. We were back on the ground shortly.

All in all I was very pleased with the glider. The cockpit is large and comfortable. I am 6?1? and 210 lbs but Bob designed the glider for up to 6?6? and 300 lbs. The only thing I didn?t like about the glider was a few of the ergonomics in the cockpit controls. The flap and airbrake handles were really close together and it was easy to bump the flap handle and retract them while reaching for the airbrake handle. This has been corrected in the kit gliders. I also didn?t like the gear retraction handle but Bob has also changed this to be more conventional in the kits. The only quirk I found on the glider was that in the full flap position it rolled off to the left a bit, requiring slight right aileron to correct. I think this must be caused by a slight mis-rigging. Brad never uses the full flap position so he hasn?t been annoyed by it enough to track it down and fix it. He?s been too busy flying!

For more information on the HP-24 Project, check out their website http://hpaircraft.com/hp-24/. To follow along with current progress see the projects Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/HP-24...t/200931354951. The first kit compliant glider should be flying in October of 2014 and there are at least 3 others in the pipeline at this time. I think this is one of the most exciting things happening in the sport at this time and I?m glad that I?ve had a chance to be just a little involved in it. If you have the opportunity to attend one of the Akafliegs I highly recommend it. You?ll get to spend a week working with Fiberglass, Carbon Fiber, and Kevlar and building real flight articles, perhaps for your own future HP-24.

[Doug]

'necropost' - I had to consult the urban dictionary for that one.

Thanks for the necropost - great to see this is working out.

Note to self - must try gliding, seems like a lot of fun.

[scsmith]

Thanks Tony for re-awakening this thread. It is RV-related only in that it reflects new energy in the home builder movement. But there seems to be enough interest in the RV community in staying abreast of the HP-24 development that I hope it is OK to put in a shameless plug for Bob.

The annual experimental sailplane gathering at Tehachapi this year will feature Doug Grey's s/n 002 HP-24, "almost" ready to fly. They are working pretty hard to get it in flying condition, or as close as possible, for the event. So head on down to Tehachapi and see it.

I have to say I find it very personally gratifying to continue to hear from folks that Brad has allowed to fly s/n 001 and how much they love the way it flies. As a career aerodynamics researcher, I have only had the joy of seeing a very few things I designed go to flight, and it is wonderful to hear back how they work out.

I think Bob also really appreciates hearing the feedback comments on the cockpit ergonomics and other aspects of the glider. He has done an amazing job solving a very constraint-bound problem to fit the controls into the kits in a satisfactory way, and it naturally takes a few iterations. I think the kits have a nice cockpit layout that is respectable in light of anything that comes out of Germany.

This tread started with an acknowledgement and appreciation of Van's letting us use his facility and lead shot for static loading of Brad's s/n 001. Eventually we want to static test s/n 002 to higher g-loads, and Bob has been doodling with how to build a whiffle tree to do that. It will be fun to see what he comes up with.

And just to whet your appetite, stay tuned for other interesting developments out of Bob's shop that are even more RV-related.

Best!

[PCHunt]

Originally Posted by scsmith

The annual experimental sailplane gathering at Tehachapi this year will feature Doug Grey's s/n 002 HP-24, "almost" ready to fly.

Best!

I tried to Google it, but not successful.

When is the gathering in 2014 and 2015?

Thanks!

[tonycondon]

The Tehachapi gathering is Labor Day weekend. Coming right up!

[PCHunt]

Is there a link to a web site, or anything?

Thanks,

[Bob Kuykendall]

Thank you Tony and Steve for posting about my project here! It has been very gratifying to do sailplane development with so many talented and dedicated professionals and enthusiasts.

Originally Posted by PCHunt

Is there a link to a web site, or anything?

Thanks,

The best thing there is is the esoaring.com website:

http://www.esoaring.com/

They just emailed the schedule of speakers to Experimental Soaring Association members:

Below is the revised time schedule versus the one published in the August Sailplane Builder. There will be handouts with the schedule when you register.

Saturday [30 August 2014]

0830 Dan Rihn: Rigid Midget Replica
0930 Jeff Byard: Weihe ("Vaya")
1030 Andy Kecskes: SGS 1-26 restoration
1130 Brandon Willis: Moldless Composite Sailplane Construction
Lunch Break
1330 Tom Weil: Soaring at California City
1430 Dan Armstrong: WinDancer ULS
1530 Al Bowers: Prandtl Wing Update
1630 Murry Rozansky: Oratex Covering

Sunday [31 August 2014]

0830 Phil Barnes: Regen Electric Flight (Sunday 1st slot)
0930 Dan Rihn: The Story of the ASW-20
1030 Dean Sigler: Electric Flight
1130 Bob Hoey: Flight of Birds
Lunch Break
1330 Floyd Fronius: GOAT/PIG Update
1430 Bob Kuykendahl: HP-24 update
1530 Jack Norris on props
1630 Membership Meeting (lots of things to cover - please p

1830 Dessert

Thanks again, Bob K.