On Saturday, April 6, 2013 10:50:52 PM UTC-4, Bill T wrote:
I do not see how you correlate a failure of a wood spar glider with the potential grounding of metal spar SGS-2-33s. That is a reach.

I do not draw any correlation between the failure of a wood spar glider with a potential SGS-2-33 failure other than the fact that all gliders are subject to age, the occasional hard landing, wear and tear, and unevenness of inspection.

Consider the most hard-landed, abused and/or poorly inspected SGS 2-33 in use. That's the one that is the most relevant. As time passes this crappy glider deteriorates more and becomes more likely to fail catastrophically. No one really knows when/if it will actually fail. We just don't know. You can't really inspect it completely without taking it apart and if it fails, the FAA will take some action. Sure, it is engineered and built to last from the start. But those engineering calculations become less reliable predictors as the glider accrues unpredictable and unquantifiable experience and neglect.

A while back, the Australian's tested a couple of Blaniks that had used up their factory authorized "service life". They took them apart and did all sorts of inspection and materials testing. On the basis of that evaluation, they extended the allowable service life of that type in Australia.

Will that sort of rigorous pre-fatality evaluation ever happen to an SGS 2-33? Probably not. So we are all just keeping our fingers crossed. Are there hidden problems? Who the heck knows? But everything gets old and wears out.

My point is not to push a panic button about the 2-33s. I just wanted to restart the conversation about updating the fleet. The current non-plan is pathetic, (plus I've gotten tired of reading about stupid narcissistic s--t on RAS and my glider is still snowed in.)

I'm not an aeronautical engineer and I welcome anyone who can correct me if I'm wrong about how this is going to unfold over the next ten years.