Blanik L-33 Solo

I flew an L-33 a bunch of times a few years ago, until it got badly
bent in a field of beans. I enjoyed every flight. Handling was nice;
simple and easy, controls seemed light and balanced. I liked that the
max weight on ours was on the order of 280 lbs -- I was 255 lbs at the
time and had obvious W&B issues with other ships in the club fleet.
The cockpit was roomy and comfortable (I'm 6'2" and wide across the
shoulders) and visibility was pretty good. Spoilers were quite
effective. It was quick and easy to assemble and ground handling was
easy.

On the downside:
- opening the spoilers caused a pitch-up and increased the stall speed
- weak tail boom, so it needs to be landed gently or your bend it.

As for the name, my understanding (sad to say, I've been wrong before)
is that it's a LET aircraft, same as the Blaniks, but "Solo" is to
indicate that it's a single-seat ship.

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!

On Sep 12, 6:35*pm, Walt Connelly Walt.Connelly.
wrote:
'John Cochrane[_2_ Wrote:





;740418'] 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

John, thank you for the input. *I have spent a lot of time at the glider
port
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. *I timed one particular
assembly which ran into a few snags and it seems this is the norm. *I
appreciate your response.

Walt

--
Walt Connelly- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It's not the norm at my field. Only one ship has been a handful, a
LAK12. That's because it's brand new to the owner and he's only rigged
it twice. All other ships at our field are rigged solo without
problem. The only exception to the LAK that requires more than one
person is a K6. But that takes like 5 minutes to help him rig the
wings. He has no one-man rigger for it.

In article ,
Walt Connelly wrote:

John, thank you for the input. I have spent a lot of time at the glider
port
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. I timed one particular
assembly which ran into a few snags and it seems this is the norm. I
appreciate your response.

What type of gliders are they? From what I've seen, there's enormous
variation in how easy they can be to assemble. For that matter, there's
pretty big variation from one pilot to another. Practice and experience
make a lot of difference.

If there isn't too much wind, I can take my ASW-20 from zero to
ready-to-fly (including things that you'd have to do for a tied-down
glider too, like preflighting and putting in batteries) in about half an
hour without any help. If I had a better one-man rigger I could do that
in wind too. If there is wind, or I'm just in a hurry and help is
convenient, I can take advantage of a second person for about two
minutes to get the wings in, and do the rest by myself. I don't think
I've ever hit any sort of major snag. The way the thing goes together,
there's just no room for the "push one wing in, push one wing out" game
that some gliders like to play, and getting everything lined up never
takes more than a minute or two.

When I started flying I was afraid of the idea of buying something that
I'd have to assemble and disassemble each day. But with what I have now,
it's absolutely not a problem at all. There's a good side to assembling
and disassembling too, which is that when I'm out on course somewhere
and get low, I don't start to wonder if the trailer is good, if I still
remember how to take the thing apart, where all my tools are, etc. I
just assembled the thing a few hours ago, and disassembled it after my
previous flight, so I know I'm good to go.

Some gliders, like mine, go together with incredible ease even for the
clumsy. Some are hard if you're out of practice, but easy when you know
the tricks. Some are just plain hard. Avoid the ones that are hard, be
skeptical of the ones that need practice, but in your place, I'd
consider the easy ones (with good trailers too!) right along the ones
you can tie out.

Obviously I'm just one guy and your mileage may vary. Good luck with
your search, whatever you may choose!

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

Obviously I'm just one guy and your mileage may vary. Good luck with
your search, whatever you may choose!

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon[/quote]

Thanks for the input Mike. Hope all is well deep inside the moon.

Walt

"Walt Connelly" wrote in message
...
snip
John, thank you for the input. I have spent a lot of time at the glider
port
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. I timed one particular
assembly which ran into a few snags and it seems this is the norm. I
appreciate your response.

I also have helped quite a few people rig / derig and find that quite a few
don't understand that brute force doesn't help. For example, if you have to
slide the wing onto a protruding stub, it simply won't go unless you are
sliding it at the right angle. Since I fly in the UK we are mostly rigging
on grass which can be uneven, so one has to understand what the angles
should look like and adjust the stands to suit.

However, my own glider is a Pegase and it usually takes us 10 minutes to get
the wings on. It's a glider that's better to rig with two people as having
very flexible wings means you need someone lifting the wing tip maybe as
much as 30 cm to get the pin in.
I also like to have someone to help with the tailplane - it's not heavy, but
it's big and awkward especially in a wind. However then there is the DI to
complete, tape to apply and so on.

None of the gliders I have helped rig are new - in fact my own 20-yo glider
is one of the newest. Having said that, new glass gliders rig pretty much
the same as old ones.

"Guy Byars" wrote in message
...

This group assembled a Discus in less than a minute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huk_WOxk1oc

Hmmm.... No apparent DI, certainly no positive control checks (but at least
it's a self-connecting glider), and no wing tape so it would have been very
noisy. But it does show how simple a Discus is to rig.

Just to add to the long list of those saying "Don't be deterred by
daily rigging" - I have an ASW15, my first (and possibly last) glider.
It is simple to rig with one helper with the wings going on in a
mattter three or four minutes. There is some futzing around but very
little. I may get a rigging aid for days when I want to be ready to go
as soon as the tow pilot shows up but haven't felt a pressing need
just yet. I don't know what you're planning on spending but there
plenty of reasonably priced (mid-20s and less) gliders on Wings and
Wheels. Metal is easy to care for but that paint doesn't last forever
and repairs to fiberglas tend to easier than to metal. Good luck with
whatever you choose - just don't get too wrapped up in the "leave it
tied out" school of thought. Rigging glass is not that big of a deal.

In article ,
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

I'll second what others have said about the fine handling qualities of
the L-33. Actually, it seems so docile and solid, even at low speeds,
that I suspect it could lull one into a false sense of security. It will
spin just as readily as other gliders.

Having flown an L-33 from winch launch, I can say that it is well suited
to ground launch or winching.

My quibbles with the L-33 a Performance wise, it's a dog with no
legs. The lack of gliding performance will see most owners "out-grow"
the glider fairly quickly. Apparently, the L-33 is also fragile. The
skins must be soft as they just seem to accumulate dents. I would hate
to see one left out in a hail storm.

I would strongly advise anyone looking for a low-to-moderately priced
glider to try on a 201 Libelle (or a 301 if you can find one). They have
the most durable factory finish to be found on a glider, the wings are
light, they go together super easy, the ventilation will blow your hat
off in flight (if you want), and the performance/price ratio is
outstanding. It is hard to out-grow the Libelle. Not quite so easy to
fly as the Solo, but still easy and lots of low-timers do fine in
Libelles. Also, contrary to popular myth, Libelles are comfortable
ships, although they are tight if one has very broad shoulders. There is
legroom for those over 6', but for those with a long torso, headroom can
be a problem.

Good luck and enjoy whatever you decide to go with!