Greg Mecklenburg has written two articles regarding the story of three Blanik L-13's that have been to the Blanik factory in the Czech Republic and back to correct the world wide grounding 2010 AD in SOARING Magazine. In the most recent issue of the magazine there was a Letter to The Editor asking for details of repairs and expense involved. This same issue had Greg's last part of the story and he included the costs of the repairs, travels and extras that we did. I just want to point out a simple way to think about the economics of this transaction. For those that have Blanik L-13's,
in their present grounded state, they have no value - except for striping for a few parts that fit the L-23 -. As Greg pointed out the repair was about 15,000 EU plus transportation. In our cases we did addition word, ( radios, new interior, refurbishing the painting, instrument re certification, etc.) Still, the total came to about $35,000 per glider. This sounds like a lot for a glider that was worth about $15,000 before the grounding.But, remember when we sent these off they had zero value! OK, now consider, where can you get a great sturdy trainer that has total hours increased to 6,0000 and comes back in a like new condition, aerobatic, can be tied down outside for extended periods with out damage to the skins, great flying characteristics - ok, not real comfortable in the back seat - good useful loads for $35,000. The last price I heard for a new Blanik L-23 was around $75,000 plus shipping. Don't need to talk about the prices of all the other trainers on the market. It is great to have a two seat glider back in the Boise Valley. I was very lucky to have a real soaring day last October so that my wife and I could fly for an hour to get over 25 miles away from our airport and BACK on my first L-13 soaring flight in over 8 years. This is after 6 training flights a few days earlier to test fly the glider and for a friend to get his BFR done. Hope this puts this venture in perspective for those that still own L-13's.
Boise, Idaho