On Tue, 12 May 2020 08:25:02 -0700, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:

On Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at 7:14:59 AM UTC-7, wrote:
... I DO NOT think it was a perfect kit...there maybe have been
defects in the factory assembly of wings (maybe curing rates? maybe
molds, I don't exactly know).

I toured the Aviastroitel factory in Moscow in 1999, when the AC-4 was
being produced. All the structure was formed in a former Soviet
aircraft factory outside Moscow, and then brought to Aviastroitel for
finishing, completion and testing. All the structure was of good
quality, but required a lot of finishing. So it could just be that a
lot of finishing is required and those are the "defects" mentioned.
After visiting Schleicher and Schempp-Hirth, the visit to Aviastroitel
was fascinating. The Russians do an amazing job with very little.

I have traveled in Eastern Block countries. I was always amazed and how
well the Russians lived on so little!
Could be their education level was very high, they are extremely strong
people. Interesting place, it has been 20 years but I valued my time
getting to know these people. As for the glider, I have no comment.

I've also travelled in the old Eastern Block (Hungary, Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia as was), mainly for free flight model competitions. I met
Russian and Ukrainian model fliers there and at World and European
Championships between 1975 and 2003. Drank a certain amount of vodka with
them too.

Fine fellows with a sharp, ironic sense of humour. I remember a fairly
liquid session with Alex Andriukov (he moved to the US and joined the
Macready organisation when the USSR broke up). We were comparing cities,
as you do, and we were amazed at the low cost of public transport in
Kiev. Alex just grinned and said "In USSR we have a saying 'State
pretends to pay us and we pretend to work'".

Most of them spoke good, idiomatic English and had obviously had a very
good education. While the USSR existed their education system was free
through to PhD if you were good enough, and they had a free night school
system available for those who dropped out at the minimum school leaving
age and then, a few years later, realised that they really needed some
qualifications.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org