Manual for Schweitzer 2-32

My first club had a K-7, a leased K-2, a K-13, a K-6, and eventually
at Pilatus B-4.

Compared to a 2-33 or L-13, the K series were quick and easy to rig and
de-rig. The others, of course, were left rigged and likely tied out.

30 years ago, we arrived about 8:30am to get our names on the list and
had the fleet rigged by 9:30am, with some flying at 9am. The private
ships were generally all rigged by 10:30am and flying starting about
11am. Many hands make truly light work. Today, private owners mostly
have one-man rig gear and don't seek much help. Instead of being
rigged and ready in 30 minutes, we now fiddle with this and that for
1.5-2.0 hours. Some complain they don't know new club members, but
they don't interact. Training starts at 9am with a student,
instructor, and tow pilot. Usually no one else is around until 10am,
when they start rigging their own ships.

PW-6 and K-21 take little time to rig. G-103 a bit longer. They
compare very favorably with the K-2, K-7, and K-13. I think your group
missed out.

BTW, I soloed in a K-7 and did my bronze hours in a K-13. Both rigged
and derigged daily as we had a modest hangar stuffed with 4-5 derigged
gliders, two tow planes, a field vehicle, launch point trailer and work
bench.

Damn, gotta dig through through my old pictures.

Frank Whiteley


T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
"Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:

Actually, the K-7 and Blanik L-13 preceeded the 2-33 by about a decade. The
beautiful K13 was a 2-33 contemporary.

In the 1970's when I was being trained and doing lots of
training, our club had two 2-33s and a Ka-7 in a boxy
trailer the size of a mobile home. I loved the Ka-7 the few
times I flew it, but it didn't meet the needs of the club,
and almost never flew. The main problem was
assembling/disassembling it. Ultimately it was sold.

One can only wonder what would have happened if Schweizer had produced a K13
equivalent.

Knowing the pilots who ran the club back then, they would
probably have purchased a Blanik. When we sold the Ka-7 the
Blanik they purchased flew a lot.

(My apologies for the spelling of Schweizer in previous
posts.)




--
T o d d P a t t i s t - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)

Andreas Maurer wrote:
Well... if it really were "lots of people fly them and enjoy flying
them" I wouldn't have to read threads like this on RAS once per
month...

So, Andreas, got any horror stories of your own about, shall be say,
controversial gliders? There has to be something gathering dust in the
back of the hangar!

Kirk (If you can't be flying them, might as well argue about them!)
66

On 23 Nov 2006 11:24:26 -0800, "kirk.stant"
wrote:


So, Andreas, got any horror stories of your own about, shall be say,
controversial gliders? There has to be something gathering dust in the
back of the hangar!


Yup.... we still have the last pieces of a Doppelraab hanging under
the roof of our hangar... it's been there since it rammed a tree in
1978 after about 40.000 flights.

Compared to a Doppelraab even a 2-33 is a hightech-design - the
former's stick design is unique (one stick for both student and
instructor, the instructor leaning over the studen't shoulder). Might
make an interesting flight with a female student pilot...


At the moment the oldest active glider we have (apart from our beloved
Ka-8 that is still the first solo glider) is an ASK-21 from 1986.
Unfortunately I'm not able to tell any horror stories about her...







Bye
Andreas

Well... if it really were "lots of people fly them and enjoy flying
them" I wouldn't have to read threads like this on RAS once per
month...

Lots of people do continue to fly 2-33s. It's still one of the few
basic trainers small clubs can buy relatively inexpensively, tie out 12
months/year, and subject to the abuse of inexperienced pilots without
fear of an occasional hard landing putting the glider into the repair
shop. It's also almost, though not quite, impossible to hurt oneself in
one, though that's a mixed blessing that requires further training in a
higher performance glider that will spin.

At the time the 2-33 was introduced, the Blanik--a much nicer glider in
almost every respect--was not type certificated in the U.S. and so
could not be used for training or giving rides. The Ka-7 and later ASK
13 had wood and fabric wings that required hangaring or labor-intensive
assembly. Ancient alternatives like the TG-2 were still around but had
their own problems. And compared to the venerable 2-22 (with its
miniscule spoilers and lack of a rear window or even a door on one
model in our club), the 2-33 was a significant improvement in every
respect.

I assume many of the Schweizers' design decisions were based on cost
and the desire to keep the price as low as possible: e.g., re-using the
2-22 fuselage and wings based on what I was once told was basically a
1-23 design, albeit with more area and with struts. Given the nearly
600 sold and the literally thousands of glider pilots who have received
training in them (including me, though most of mine was in the
even-more-utilitarian 2-22), that doesn't seem like a bad decision even
in hindsight.

That said, the only time you'll find me in a 2-33 today is when,
protesting, I'm forced into one every two years for my biennial flight
review. In a way, I can't believe I find myself defending a glider that
looked obsolete when it was introduced. It's noisy, the controls are
heavy, and the glide performance is abysmal, though, properly flown, it
will climb with almost anything. It's also ugly. Newer training gliders
are far more esthetically pleasing to potential glider pilots. But so
as long as there's an upgrade path available to students, what's the
big deal? I suspect many clubs use that as an incentive: "Hurry up and
solo so you can start flying the [K-21, Grob, Blanik, etc.]."

Enjoy? If you haven't flown before, flying anything is a joy. Once
you've had a taste of something better, it's tough to go back. But
that's true in any sport.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"

Enjoy? If you haven't flown before, flying anything is a joy. Once
you've had a taste of something better, it's tough to go back. But
that's true in any sport.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"

Well said, Chip.

When it's all you have, it's better than the alternative!

Cheers!

Kirk
66