Grob 102 Wanted

wrote:
An Empty Pocket schrieb:

"Guy Acheson" said:
have for the dollar. I had a one man rigging Minden
Fab trailer and it was only 15 minutes to rig the plane
by myself.


Is that true?, i´ve seen many times people rigging Grobs 102 (and i think
they have to be "a flap" easier to rig that the 104) and it use to be a
mess, until now i thought Grob was guilty for it, not the barbarian riggers,
and for me (and i think i´m not the only one) being able to rig alonethe
ship quickly is the difference between flying or not flying, buying or not
buying.

I owned an G102 (Astir CS77) for several years. How long it takes to
rigg an Astir, depends on two aspects
- the glider, not every G102 is the same. Some are easier to rigg some
are a real pain. My CS77 was very easy to rigg, but i always had
problems getting the G102 of our Club together
- it depends on wheter you know what you are doing. With 3 person and a
wingstand it can be done in a few minutes
Ruediger

Absolutely true on both counts.

I owned and flew an Astir CS for about 5 years and many hundreds of
hours. In general, the rigging secret is to have the fuselage
dead-vertical in the main dolly and to keep it that way when putting on
the second wing. The big problem was the ball/socket arangement on the
tip of the spars; that could be a hopeless situation for the
un-initiated. However, once I got the hang of it, I could easily beat
the Schleicher and Rolladen-Schneider guys from closed trailer to
assembled glider.

HOWEVER, I was personally involved in trying to assemble several 102s
and at least one 104 that WOULD NOT GO TOGETHER. There are a lot of
variables on these ships, and I think the drag spar fittings/collars
are a big issue. They are very sensitive to proper gap adjustment,
and it pays to do a very careful inspection with feeler guages and a
note-pad handy. You'll see that both carry-throughs are threaded on
both sides, and there are a lot of ways for it to be mis-rigged. If
you are having trouble regularly, I'd sit down and start making some
very careful measurements. You'll probably find that something
somewhere is out of square.

For this reason (ie. "technique intensive" rigging process), I haven't
been a big fan of a Grob for a club setting where it will be
rigged/de-rigged by many different people (fine if it will mostly be
left assembled in a hangar). But, for private ownership, I think
they're a good value.

Erik Mann (P3)
Formerly Astir CS77 N1122S

A delightful ship that I have owned for the past two years is the
Russia AC-4C. It is unbelieveably easy to rig and it always draws an
audience as I rig it myself. I also get comments as I push it to the
line with only my thumbs on the verticle fin and only using a wing
wheel. It is roomy, a joy to fly with light controls and keeps up with
alot of your high performance ships(only till 60 knots). If you want
an easy to rig, newer trailer and something for sports class, you'd be
happy with one. Mine's a 98 with 130hrs on it now, only 35 hrs when I
bought it two years ago. Good review by Chad Moore on the SSA site
under magazine, dick johnson articles.

Good Luck. "AV8"