Blanik L-33 Solo

Anyone wish to weigh in on the L-33 solo? I am in the market for a single seater. Metal is preferred because you can tie it down outside without the problems associated with glass. 1-34's are hard to find, not a lot of metal ships on the market these days it seems.

Can anyone speak to the handling of this aircraft from personal experience?

Walt

Our club had one, and it flew very nicely. However, we found the tail
cone fragile if not landed with proper technique, and in a large club
such as ours, it didn't take long before some bonehead managed to bend
the fuslage.

For a private owner who has the skill to fly it properly, I believe it
would be a delightful glider to own.

Guy Byars


On Sep 11, 6:40*pm, Walt Connelly Walt.Connelly.
wrote:
Anyone wish to weigh in on the L-33 solo? I am in the market for a
single seater. *Metal is preferred because you can tie it down outside
without the problems associated with glass. *1-34's are hard to find,
not a lot of metal ships on the market these days it seems.

Can anyone speak to the handling of this aircraft from personal
experience? *

Walt

--
Walt Connelly

On Sep 11, 9:00*pm, Guy Byars wrote:
Our club had one, and it flew very nicely. *However, we found the tail
cone fragile if not landed with proper technique, and in a large club
such as ours, it didn't take long before some bonehead managed to bend
the fuslage.

For a private owner who has the skill to fly it properly, I believe it
would be a delightful glider to own.

Guy Byars

On Sep 11, 6:40*pm, Walt Connelly Walt.Connelly.

wrote:
Anyone wish to weigh in on the L-33 solo? I am in the market for a
single seater. *Metal is preferred because you can tie it down outside
without the problems associated with glass. *1-34's are hard to find,
not a lot of metal ships on the market these days it seems.

Can anyone speak to the handling of this aircraft from personal
experience? *

Walt

--
Walt Connelly

One item of note: It's not a Blanik.

The L-33 is a Solo.
The L-1

On Sep 11, 9:52*pm, rlovinggood wrote:
On Sep 11, 9:00*pm, Guy Byars wrote:



Our club had one, and it flew very nicely. *However, we found the tail
cone fragile if not landed with proper technique, and in a large club
such as ours, it didn't take long before some bonehead managed to bend
the fuslage.

For a private owner who has the skill to fly it properly, I believe it
would be a delightful glider to own.

Guy Byars

On Sep 11, 6:40*pm, Walt Connelly Walt.Connelly.

wrote:
Anyone wish to weigh in on the L-33 solo? I am in the market for a
single seater. *Metal is preferred because you can tie it down outside
without the problems associated with glass. *1-34's are hard to find,
not a lot of metal ships on the market these days it seems.

Can anyone speak to the handling of this aircraft from personal
experience? *

Walt

--
Walt Connelly

One item of note: *It's not a Blanik.

The L-33 is a Solo.
The L-1

As I was saying, the L-33 is a Solo.
The L-13 is a Blanik and the L-23 is a Super Blanik. No "Blanik" name
in the Solo.

I have just a few flights in our club's Solo and I think it's quite a
nice glider. For an all-metal glider, the cockpit noise is noticeably
low. Also being an all-metal glider, it can better battle the
elements while tied down outside as compared to a fiberglass ship.
Our club's Solo is tied down outside in the elements, along with the
Cessnas and Pipers and Beechcrafts at the airport.

Handling-wise, I'll second what Guy says. I think it flies very
easily and nicely. Fun to fly. That's what it is.

We haven't pranged the tail-cone, yet. Not to say we won't, though.

And with the gear down and welded, you won't ever worry about leaving
an expensive white stripe down the pavement.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

Can anyone speak to the handling of this aircraft from personal
experience? *


I had one as my first glider and loved it. Roomy and easy to fly. It's
performance isn't 40+ to 1 but it was good enough to win a regional.

Horst

Anyone wish to weigh in on the L-33 solo? I am in the market for a
single seater. *Metal is preferred because you can tie it down outside
without the problems associated with glass. *1-34's are hard to find,
not a lot of metal ships on the market these days it seems.

Can anyone speak to the handling of this aircraft from personal
experience? *

Walt

--
Walt Connelly

Option B: Rethink the plan of buying a metal glider for personal use
and tying it down outside. Really, assembly of typical fiberglass
gliders is not that big a deal. Once you look at your toy you won't
want to tie it down outside for long periods anyway. Metal doesn't
suffer UV, but the paint does, and it gets rained on, and birds poop
on it, and so on and so forth. There's a reason just about everyone
else around you leaves them in trailers! Once you are shopping for
"normal" gliders, your options increase dramatically.

John Cochrane

Option B: Rethink the plan of buying a metal glider for personal
use
and tying it down outside. Really, assembly of typical fiberglass
gliders is not that big a deal. Once you look at your toy you won't
want to tie it down outside for long periods anyway. Metal doesn't
suffer UV, but the paint does, and it gets rained on, and birds poop
on it, and so on and so forth. There's a reason just about everyone
else around you leaves them in trailers! Once you are shopping for
"normal" gliders, your options increase dramatically.

....not to mention the occasional freak storm.

-Paul

Originally Posted by sisu1a

Option B: Rethink the plan of buying a metal glider for personal
use
and tying it down outside. Really, assembly of typical fiberglass
gliders is not that big a deal. Once you look at your toy you won't
want to tie it down outside for long periods anyway. Metal doesn't
suffer UV, but the paint does, and it gets rained on, and birds poop
on it, and so on and so forth. There's a reason just about everyone
else around you leaves them in trailers! Once you are shopping for
"normal" gliders, your options increase dramatically.

....not to mention the occasional freak storm.

-Paul

Good point, I live in Fla and we have our share including hurricanes.

Walt

I frequent and have helped a number of people assemble their gliders.
Even the easiest seem to run into major snags. Perhaps the latest, high
performance and high priced glass ships can be truly assembled by one
person and in short time, my experience this far has been that it is at
least a two man and 30 minute or more operation. *

Walt,
I assemble mine: the asw-19 in 20 minutes alone with no lifting
involved, frankly I don’t even want anyone interfering.
The key is a functional clam shell trailer and a self rigger
apparatus. The wing of the 19 is old and heavy when manhandling. Also,
when you can easily assemble and disassemble you're mobile and not
really committed to one gliderport either. You can find a decent older
generation glass reasonably priced in a L33 range.

GK

snip)
my experience this far has been that it is at
least a two man and 30 minute or more operation. *I timed one particular
assembly which ran into a few snags and it seems this is the norm. *I
appreciate your response.


Ahh, the classic wing is 'almost on' Marks Bros routine where the
final 1/2" of travel of wing #2 pushes wing #1 out after getting the
ship 'almost together' in 5 minutes, but then taking another sweaty
1/2 hr or more to get the main pin(s) in, with 3 unhappy helpers
trading turns at the tip... "give it about 20lbs up... now wiggle NO
NO NO, up and down, not for and aft what are you doing... up, up,
back- NO the other back come on man, there wait, no... OK, how about
30lbs..." and so the cycle goes.

Although the wings on my SZD-59 are heavy (160lbs each) there is a 2'
long cinching lever that engages lugs on the top of the spars to pull
them together that last inch or two which might as well be a mile on
most ships. Get'm close and cinch'em from the center. No shear load on
the mainpin, so it goes right in. It's easy, and with a 1 man rigger
would be quite easy to assemble. (same for the Jantar 3 from which
it's derived). There have been other ships with this feature (LIbelle,
Diamont, etc) but most of them recommend it as a last ditch effort and
not the primary means of drawing them together like my ship and it's
ilk. It makes a huge difference to me anyways... Takes me a 1/2 hr
till it's all taped up and preflighted, but only need 1 other person
for 5-10 minutes of that, and only cause don't have a solo rigger.
Finicky horizontal tails add their share of hassle too, but luckily
not all gliders are created equal. I watched a SparrowHawk get solo
rigged by an old dude with nothing but a couple cheapo plastic
sawhorses in around 20 minutes...

-Paul

ps. your facing one of life's most wonderful dilemmas; choosing which
sailplane to buy for yourself... happy shopping!