Buying a 1-35 pros and cons?

On Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 2:13:28 PM UTC-6, Tim Weston wrote:
Does anyone have any inside info on the pros / cons of buying a 1-35. I am interested in learning cross country. I am mostly looking to hear from any current or former 1-35 owners.

Thanks,
Tim W

Tim,
I owned a 1-35C for a number of years, it was my first glider. I trained on spoiler ships -Blanik & SGS 2-32. Yes my first landing was exciting and a few after were part of the learning curve but after that I found it easy to fly and land - extremely short distances... I did up through my silver and one diamond before I sold it. Mine was a later addition so it did not have the talked about, two part flap handle. The one handle with detentes and an adjustable range during landing worked great. I flew then and still do, in Idaho where thermals are strong and high. Yes, it took me a bit longer to get where all the fancy plastic guys went but I found it nice to fly and performance was what one would expect for a metal ship. It was an easy transition to my next glider a Mosquito. Tom

Is the 1-35 still for sale?
Dave

There's a 1-35 for sale near Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

I can put you in contact with the owner, if you wish.

I'm a high-time CFI-G who goes way back (got my CFI at 19 in 1970) and has flow a lot of gliders, currently own a Discus B and a Ka-6CR.

I like the 1-35, recommend it with some qualifications to any soaring pilot who flies in weaker-condition soaring, and is looking for a good 15-20 k$ sailplane. You do need to learn how to handle flaps. There is a very simple drill for this: go find a pilot (preferably CFI), who has access to a Cessna 150 (not 152). Doesn't matter whether it's got electric flaps or Johnson bar. Go through the following drill: flying at 80 kts run the flaps down to full and back up while you maintain 80 kts. You will be amazed at how nose-down you are at full flaps. Do this drill until it is natural. This closely approximates what any of the full-flapped gliders feel like to land in terms of pitch angle vs flap settings on approach.

Good points about the 1-35:

low wing-loading empty, very good weak-condition performer. Good club/sport class ship in weaker soaring areas. With water, flies pretty well in strong conditions

Once you learn to fly it, can land extremely short, handle rough field conditions

Strong, safe

Bad points: Roll-rate is a bit slow. You'll start to lust for a Pik 20-B, that isn't much more expensive and has considerably higher performance.

On Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 2:13:28 PM UTC-6, wrote:
Does anyone have any inside info on the pros / cons of buying a 1-35. I am interested in learning cross country. I am mostly looking to hear from any current or former 1-35 owners.

Thanks,
Tim W

On Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 2:13:28 PM UTC-6, wrote:
Does anyone have any inside info on the pros / cons of buying a 1-35. I am interested in learning cross country. I am mostly looking to hear from any current or former 1-35 owners.

Thanks,
Tim W

Hi,

I had one flight in a 1-35. It was loaned to me by a friend when my ASW-15 was in the custody of the Gehrlein brothers getting an annual. My friend said once the flaps are on when landing, just fly by airspeed regardless of the angle, when you get near the runway flare. I followed his advice and had a good landing after a very nice soaring flight. I think a 1-35 is a a good airplane especially at the end of the day when all you need to do is tie it down when landing after others are on the ground wresting with wings and putting planes in trailers. You get to pop your first beer along with the earlier arrivals, and start to lie about your magnificent flight.

George Frost, AKA Frosty the Towman

If you can still find a clean 1-35 with proper wing profile, you need to treat it well. Easy to assemble for every flight.

Leave it out and the paint and bondo will fail.

On Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 4:13:28 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Does anyone have any inside info on the pros / cons of buying a 1-35. I am interested in learning cross country. I am mostly looking to hear from any current or former 1-35 owners.

Thanks,
Tim W

You can tie it down outside

If you find a clean one it's awesome. If it still has original Bondo profiling don't tie it down outside. I had a good one-man set-up and assembled for almost every flight for 10 years. No regrets.

On Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 3:13:28 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Does anyone have any inside info on the pros / cons of buying a 1-35. I am interested in learning cross country. I am mostly looking to hear from any current or former 1-35 owners.

Thanks,
Tim W

I am a brand-new 1-35 pilot (about 4 hours now). I have about 90 hours in gliders and 540 hours total time. Gliders I've flown: ASK-21, jr., owl, DG-1000, Blanik L-23, Grob 103, and a Grob 102 astir.

The 1-35 is a sweet ship. In MN the other day, we had 3-5kt lift in relatively closely spaced thermals. Centering the thermals was easy, the light weight of the glider allowed me to shoot right up to about 6000MSL (ground level 900MSL).

The plane flew like a dream and I am very, very happy with it. It was hard to get back on the ground in moderate lift because the glide ratio is so good. The metal seat pan is "fixable" with a chute and some camping foam. I've seen some nice padded seats on wings and wheels in 1-35's, but my plane partner and I are currently enjoying our "dirtbag" metal glider that is out-performing some of the fancy-looking glass ships.

The assembly is straightforward, but you have to be precise and patient to get everything to line up. IF you do it right, there's minimal resistance to fitting the pieces together (I'm still working on that).

In regard to the bondo: we had a NY pizza slice sized piece fly off when I flew it for 2.5 hours. My plane partner, who grew up on wood sailboats, had it fixed with new bondo and paint in about 10 minutes. Other than a slight change in the paint color, it looked seamless. My plane partner used to own a jantar and stated to me that he is already much happier with the simplicity of the metal 1-35. He regaled me with stories of having to worry about all sorts of things with fiberglass. No such worries with metal, paint and bondo.

The way I got used to the 1-35's flaps was to follow the POH advice as well as the advice of Tom Rent (of the SGS 1-35 webpage fame: http://members.goldengate.net/~tmren...sgs135new.htm). I was towed up on my first flight to 5000MSL. I then ran through every flap setting and paid attention to the site picture at about 50-60 knots indicated airspeed. With 80 degree flaps, you have to really push forward on the stick to keep your speed above 50kts. AS Tom Rent told me and my plane partner, it should feel like you are standing on the rudder pedals, looking straight down at the ground. It was disconcerting on one level, but the approach was very straightforward and the steep approach made the round-out feel easy and gentle. You NEED to fly the glider all the way until the glider comes to a complete stop (if you have ever flown a tailwheel plane, this is SOP).

If you can get the plane for a good price (and perhaps split the plane with someone else), I think that you will be very happy.