Good weather in our Rhine Valley offered perfect flight conditions during the past days. This allowed us to successfully complete flight testing our new LS4 neo Winglets. The last chapter we had to go through was flutter testing in flight with and without water ballast in altitudes up to 3.000m. Jelmer Wassenaar, who was again in charge of piloting the LS4 neo, had to initiate flutter at speeds up to 310 km/h (168 kt) IAS! Finally he completed all tests without problems which allows us to finish paperwork for certification now.
Retrofitting neo winglets will increase the approved weight of non-lifting parts to 250kg (551 lbs). Based on that, almost all LS4 will be able to fly with a maximum cockpit load of 110kg (242,5 lbs)! This is extremely interesting for clubs since heavy pilots are allowed to fly the gliders again. Maximum Take-Off Mass (MTOW) will be limited to 505kg (1.113 lbs). Water ballast will be limited to 112 liters (29,6 gal). So finally there will be no significant disadvantage when adding neo winglets to a LS4. The aircraft can still be used in a wide range of wing loadings.
Meanwhile, production of LS4 neo kits is running under high pressure.
Customers interested in adding neo winglets to their glider may contact our Spare Parts Support for an offer.
In case you have questions about the winglets and the upgrade please feel free to contact Sebastian Tschorn.