N50GL

I bought the bird from a young man who had purchased it the from the builder. The builder was Grant Lewis of Mass. The second owner at the time was just newly licensed. He did not have the experience and airman skills to safely fly the RS , his first flights scared him enough to realize he’d made a mistake . He flew it for 54 minutes and 11 eleven landings. So when I found the ship it had 54 hours on it. I’ve found the RS to be a predictable and honest, but it has all the faults you hear about. Aileron response is the only handling shortcoming, coming from the under size (surface depth) and non differential movement. As has been posted RS and ‘18 drivers have to be very smooth and deliberate to extract the performance that is there.

The builder put an extraordinary amount of finish detail into JX, to this date you still can not see any rivet heads or joints in the wings and, as of this morning, no delamination. My only gripes were that the builder went his own way on canopy frame and fittings, opting to try hinges. This resulted in a poor fit and leakage, and .... 35 to 1 measured l/d. I have thrown away the hinges and gone back to "lift and place method". The better fit has shown some improvement. I have not had the weather yet for new measurements, but one trial run from a high tow indicates that the 30 to 1 speed is better, The contest number JX was given to me by the original owner of JX, he built # 30 I think. ( This bird is now in Tenn.,) Clyde Sharmen raced the original JX in Region 5 during the mid and late 70’s, the machine was meticulously finished and probably had "book " performance, or close to it. Clyde did very well with the bird. JX is short for Jacksonville , Fl. where Clyde lived. I have run this machine against Clyde’s old bird and could not stay with that ship. I’m determined to dinker with JX to try to extract what has to there. I feel this HP forum will not only be of great assistance but also provide the motivation to keep working. This machine, struck me the first time I saw it, I bought it on the spot, After nine years I’m familiar ( probably too familiar) with the bird’s manor. I’d be happy to share the benefit of my wisdom and respect for these latter generation Schreder machines with younger pilots.

Anyway my bird has the full flap/aileron interconnect, tail wheel cuf, and molded seat. The builder must have been near my size and build as the cockpit ergonomics are good with a chute. My job and transfers have really played havoc with any longer flight attempts since around 1994. So I have accomplished nothing very worthy of note.

All of the photos are from just after I purchased JX; from 1989 to 1992 and all flights are either around the Delaware Water Gap ( Blairstown N.J.), Eastern and Central Penn. The off field landing photos are all in N. J. The one air to air shot ( Black and White) was taken just south of Ridge Soaring, Pa, near College Station, we both were in high speed cruise on the ridge. The G meter at times hit 4.5 + to -2.5, after which I had to slow down. I got pretty beat up that day. I’ll also include one photo which is particularly striking.... I call it "final glide" as that’s what it was , the sun had set by the time I entered the pattern at Blairstown, N.J.. ( the time of year was late fall or winter) The last ten miles were smooooth. So smooth that I found JX would fly hands off with 60 flap at 60 knots. Those days keep you coming back.