BLANIK L-13 AD Status

Originally Posted by BruceGreeff

If sanity prevailed John, this would not be R.A.S.

L13 was a great asset. Because it was REALLY cheap for what it was. I
regret that is likely to be a thing of the past now. Even if they get
them flying again the inspections will push the cost up substantially.

So I think we have to get past the denial and accept that the training
fleet just lost a LOT of primary trainers around the world. No matter
how low performance, or relatively uncomfortable - the L13 has been a
valuable part of the soaring fleet offering cheap, relatively robust
training at very low cost.

Problem is - what else is available that makes a good primary trainer?

The Twin Astir is getting old, K13 is a better ab-initio trainer, but
even older - and both are out of production for decades...

K21 is similar performance, docile to a fault and very expensive.
DuoDiscus is magnificent, but hardly an ab-initio.

LAK20 might be interesting, otherwise you are left with the DG1000 club
or PW6...

Looks like there is a big investment period going to be required. Where
the money comes from will be left as an exercise for the economist. All
of the above are going to cost $100K-$170k ex factory.

So - My "little club" is hoping to find an affordable Grob. (But there
are only 12 members, and few have pennies to spare.) the Grob 103 is a
disaster to derig and trailer, but the L13 was as bad if not worse. The
big club is congratulating itself on selling their L13 a couple of years
ago, but the three G103s are nearly 30 years old...

So - I can understand the desperation, but building new wings for the
Blanik is on the far side of credible as a solution.

As an aside - we only ever had to retrieve the Blanik once in the last
ten years. Landed 800m short of the runway, on the other side of the
stream. Took 5 hours to retrieve...

Cheers
Bruce ;-)

On 2011/02/07 5:04 AM, John Cochrane wrote:
On Feb 6, 8:37 pm, wrote:
If I were to redo the L-13 wing,first thing would be to remove the
forward

sweep and use a strait leading edge with the taper on the trailing edge.
And leave off the wingtip torpedo's,maybe have 45degree winglet's
instead.

Pretty sure the forward sweep is a C/G thing, useful cockpit load and
all... also takes the place of washout, but the C/G thing is more of
a challenge to design around. Agreed on the topedos though. If someone
made a decent composite wing for the L-13, it really should work well.
Plain flaps instead of complicated/ineffective fowlers, and simple
Horner tips...

-paul

Once you've made -- and certified -- a new composite wing to bolt on
to the ungodly uncomfortable cockpit (metal bar right through the
small of the back??) and constantly damaged tailwheel of the L-13, why
not go the whole 9 yards and put a new composite fuselage to go with
it.... and reinvent the ASK21.

Really guys, I've heard some nutty ideas on r.a.s, but this must take
the cake. Don't you think the eddy current test or even rebuilding the
whole darn spar might be a bit cheaper and quicker to certify than
designing and building a whole new wing on which to hang 30 year old
fuselages?

John Cochrane

--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771 & Std Cirrus #57

Talking of landouts close to home with trainers, a couple of years ago in Auckland, New Zealand we had a Krosno KR 03 land across the road from the strip. It was from a winch cable break and the instructor waited for the student to make a decision about straight ahead or an abbreviated circuit. Oops. . .too much time deciding so into the field straight ahead. The retrieve was easy. They dropped the fence in the field, took the winch back down the runway some and launched the glider back onto the airfield LOL. Wish I'd been there on the day to see that one

Colin

Ventus_a wrote:


Talking of landouts close to home with trainers, a couple of years ago
in Auckland, New Zealand we had a Krosno KR 03 land across the road from
the strip. It was from a winch cable break and the instructor waited
for the student to make a decision about straight ahead or an
abbreviated circuit. Oops. . .too much time deciding so into the field
straight ahead. The retrieve was easy. They dropped the fence in the
field, took the winch back down the runway some and launched the glider
back onto the airfield LOL. Wish I'd been there on the day to see that


A good lesson. I pulled the rope on a student at 250 AGL when my club
was operating at the Pepperell MA airport. There are a line of trees at
the end of the runway but beyond was a 1500 ft long hay field - which I
walked several times a year. Anyway, the student took a long time to
decide which way to turn and then only banked it 20 degrees or so. I
just kept my mouth shut. By the time he rolled out on the rwy heading he
said "I don't think that we're going to make it". He was right. We
landed in the hay stopping just short of the trees, pulled the glider
back onto the airport property via a connecting dirt road. The Pawnee
pulled up and we took off in the other direction. Sure, I could have
coached him and got him back to the airport, but I think that he learned
a lot more from this experience.

Tony

Hello all,

Is there any word on a possible Blanik fix that anyone has heard of
yet?
We were originally hoping to start flying in April but so far the new
'fix' AD that was supposed to come out in early March has not
materialized. As a L-13 is our club's only dual seater, this is a do-
or-fold type problem for us.

Cheers,
Mike - Cold Lake Soaring

On Mar 22, 9:38*am, YODSoar wrote:
Hello all,

Is there any word on a possible Blanik fix that anyone has heard of
yet?
We were originally hoping to start flying in April but so far the new
'fix' AD that was supposed to come out in early March has not
materialized. As a L-13 is our club's only dual seater, this is a do-
or-fold type problem for us.

Cheers,
Mike - Cold Lake Soaring

There are a lot of clubs around the world biting their fingernails
right now and waiting for some type of word.

This is a great example of:

1. How to not treat customers by Aircraft Industries and all the
representatives in each country.

2. A failure of leadership from each countries Soaring Organizations
to take a proactive stance and require weekly updates and details of
the proposed inspection from Aircraft Industries. I have requested
this from the SSA representatives and have found that they view
themselves as helpless.

I think the SSA should have given the authority to a task force or one
individual to directly communicate with Aircraft Industries, FAA and
EASA on a weekly basis to provide updates to all the users impacted by
the AD.

Hi Mike. We were just about to lease the L-13 from the Grand Prairie club
(currently at Cu-Nim) when this nightmare started. After all these months
and no firm results, I personaly bit the bullet and purchased a KA-7,same
as the two that we had at the old LAHR Gliding Club, for our club. It may
not be the better performer of the two, but we are flying as soon as the
import C of A is done. I personaly don't see the L-13 issue being
resolved this year as there are just too many variables and no clear
direction from the powers that be. Your best option as I see it, is to see
if NPF will allow you to lease an aircraft untill your L-13 flying again.

Ken Latam
President
Southern Alberta Gliding Club

I suggest the last three posters on this thread (And all Blanik owners/
operators in the US) start to ping Vitek at Blanik America for updates
and answers. Virtual hand wringing on this board is futile.

Vitek does respond quickly to emails in my recent experience.

Aerodyne

"Bad things happen when good people do nothing"

The point of my post was that because it's not a multibillion $$ aircraft
but a 50 year old glider thats ownd by people with small pocket's. It is
not a hight priority on any goverment agenda.

It's great that there is SOMETHING sent to the EASA, but how does that
help those of us that are not in Europe? My house was not built to Euro
specs,my truck was not built to Euro specs,and my Skylark 4,tho built in
England,had to meet Canadian standards before being issued a C of A.

My club was not willing to sit and wait for this issue to be resolved.
Thats why we went with the KA-7, and sugested that the other club see if
they can lease something other than an L-13 untill the issue is solved.

Ken

On Mar 22, 9:38*am, YODSoar wrote:
Hello all,

Is there any word on a possible Blanik fix that anyone has heard of
yet?
We were originally hoping to start flying in April but so far the new
'fix' AD that was supposed to come out in early March has not
materialized. As a L-13 is our club's only dual seater, this is a do-
or-fold type problem for us.

Cheers,
Mike - Cold Lake Soaring

As of march 21st

http://www.let.cz/files//File/standp..._march2011.pdf

"CURRENT SITUATION IN ACTIVITIES OF AIRCRAFT INDUSTRIES, A.S. AIMED TO
THE RENEWAL OF
AIRWORTHINESS OF L-13 AND L-13A GLIDERS

In connection with the crash of the L 13 glider S/N 175117 in Austria
on 12th June 2010, EASA issued
the Airworthiness Directive No. AD 2010-0185, which mandates grounding
the whole fleet of gliders
L 13 and L 13A.
In previous statement of Aircraft Industries, a. s. from 30th
September 2010, our company announced
taking steps to the gliders airworthiness renewal, consisting of
development in cooperation with
Research and Testing Aviation Institute in Prague the Eddy current
inspection of wing critical area
focused on detection of potential occurrence of fatigue damage. With
regards to our intention to
avoid the modification of wing critical area and due to the demand for
highest reliability of inspection
method and necessity its thorough verification on number of testing
samples, it was technically and
time-consuming very demanding development. At this moment the
inspection method is practically
developed and we will present the results to EASA to receive approval
for the use of inspection for the
purpose of releasing L 13 gliders into operation.
In parallel, an independent design company is developing design
modification consisting
of strengthening of the L 13 glider wing critical area. As soon as the
organization receives EASA STC
approval and we get consent to publish more detailed information we
will post them on our website
www.let.cz.

Kunovice, 21st March 2011"