Hi,
I can give you a very biased opinion as I have owned one for the last
thirteen years.
They are a joy to fly and sometimes, more importantly, a joy to rig
too!
I also had heard that the wing drops on take off as the ailerons
aren't effective until you get some airspeed over the wings. This has
never been an issue and I have never had to abort a take off because
of it. If the wing does drop I find that a bootful of opposite rudder
will put you back on track in no time and by this time you will have
full aileron authority again. This 'sometimes' happens in a no
headwind situation but not very often.
It might also be mitigated if you have a nose hook which mine does
not. Aerotowing with a CG hook has also never been a problem.
As long as you are comfortable with the Grob and keeping a constant
approach speed in a glass ship, I think it would make an ideal choice
for someone with your experience. I find it handles nicely with no
vices as far as I can see.
Mine is a 1992 model and this winter I took the rudder off to 'polish
out' some crazing in the paint but other than that I have no reason to
think that it is in need of a refinish any time soon.
Do a search on this newsgroup and you will find that there has been a
few comments concerning this glider and you find that it is mainly
positive.

Regards,

Bob 7U



On Mar 19, 11:45*am, Gsoar wrote:
Hello,
I would like to get opinions regarding the szd 55-1. *What I have
heard so far is that it tends to drop a wing when there is a bit of a
crosswind on take off but, is this more common with this glider than
other high performance standard class gliders? The gentleman I spoke
with had 4 aborted take offs in 50 flights and he has 6X the amount of
time as I do. *Is this something that should be avoided in a 150h
pilot going from Grobs? *It has also been commented to me that it is
"a high performance glider that really demands your concentration at
all times." *While I try to pay attention most of the time, sometimes
I like to take in the view, *is this glider too hot to handle
especially on landing for a run of the mill pilot? *My goal is fun,
non contest (other than OLC), cross country. While I like vegetables,
I have no interest in picking them. * I also would like to buy
something that I won't have to worry about refinishing in the near
future and is not something that will require too much in the
maintenance area. * I don't want to be too anxious while I participate
in my recreation! *Oh, the LS4 I responded to on W&W was sold in 15
minutes.

Thanks