When you buy a plane it is most of the time without a test flight. This has to do with time, regulations, risks, time and place etc.
I had personally never flown a Libelle before. Okay, I did test whether I could physically fit in it before I travelled to Austria. The cockpit is quite narrow and the combination of being tall and wearing a
parachute can result in the canopy not fitting, which will result in an interesting flight. 😀 (for an impression of the cockpit).

Quite some time went by before I could do the first actual flight with the Libelle. From the moment I saw the plane, had it imported, checked etc., 3 months went by.

And then… the day where I could fly my own plane arrived. Soon I learnt that the Libelle needs a proper amount of speed. The plane wants to drop her wings at low speed, what is very inconvenient and potentially dangerous at start.

The std Libelle is mostly described as a quite gentle plane to fly, but sometimes people warn about ineffective airbrakes. At the club where I fly there is another Libelle and the owner of that plane assured me that there is nothing to worry about.

I went for my first start and chose to tow behind a Piper Cub (use the right weak link). You can see this start in the video above. Being towed by the Piper Cub is when I realised the importance of the required speed. The left wing dropped even though I was theoretically prepared for that. Also, the winglets that I had installed, should make it a bit more easy. As you can also hear from the sounds that the crowd produce during filming my first start, it was a little too close for comfort.
When the speed was high enough I started flying and as I was used to. The planes that I can compare it to, that I have flewn before, are ASK21, SZD51-1 and LS4.

The plane is very responsive compared to, for instance, the LS4 and I really love that character. After a little bit of thermalling I joined the landing circuit slightly at a higher altitude than usual. As I was trying to land my own, old, and already beloved plane, the focus was to have a smooth landing. I did not focus too much on making a target landing. Finally I opened my airbrakes and I landed smoothly, with only a little overshoot of the target. The goal to bring her safely to the ground was achieved. Ready for the next flight!

You can see my very first landing with my own Libelle (yes, I can’t get enough of mentioning that she’s mine :p) in the video below. Based on this landing, I can conclude that it went pretty much the same as my first landing with the LS4. You can see that the airbreaks were opened 100% and functioned properly. There were two reasons (apart from my focus) that caused me to miss the target. First, I entered the circuit higher than usual. And second, I kept too much reserves till the end. Additionally, you will be able to see that there is little headwind and my descend angle is quite steep.

So the short answer to the question whether the brakes are effective would be “Yes”. The somewhat longer answer would be “Yes, maybe somewhat less than the SZD51-1, but not very different from an LS4.”