BLANIK L-13 AD Status

[subject edited to address wider concerns]

I wouldn't hold my breath on any kind of satisfactory resolution to
this. My sense is that the Blanik was designed for an operational
environment where it was expected to be crashed before approaching the
end of its 3000 hour lifetime. Absent the Soviet-era air defense
infrastructure that needed them as introductory trainers, and was also
desperate for Western cash, there's no hope of seeing any more at
affordable prices.

About the best we could do is resolve not to buy any LET or Blanik
products on the general principle that they do not support their old
products, so we cannot expect them to support new ones. Unfortunately,
LET seems to have so little connection to the earlier company that
actually built all those two-seaters that they couldn't really care
less about them. In fact, in today's risk-averse aviation environment,
it is probably in their best interest to sweep as many of them out of
the sky as it can. Furthermore, most of us already don't buy LET
products, and it seems to have had little effect on the situation.

The situation begs the wider questions, where do we get new glider
pilots if trainers become so scarce and expensive? If we let the cost
of soaring instruction rise with the burdened price of training
gliders, who will want to even start? Do we let the commercial,
consumerist, invisible hand of the marketplace sweep our sport from
the sky? Or is there some legitimate way to subvert the laws of supply
and demand?

Thanks, Bob K.