Well, there's nothing wrong with the L-33. It's all metal (except for
some control surfaces), so can be kept assembled and tied down (I
assume this is what made the 1-26E attractive to you). It's quite
docile, has reasonable performance for a metal ship, and in general is
a pretty sensible ship for a club or a pilot with low total time who
doesn't want to mess with assembling and disassembling after every
flight and doesn't have a hangar available.

The downside is - and this is of course subjective - it's not really
much fun to fly. It doesn't have the light touch of the 1-26, or its
ability to thermal on a fart. On the other hand, it doesn't really
penetrate well either, so it's hard to consider it a serious XC
machine. Sure, you can fly XC in it, and people do - but the same is
true of the 1-26. I'm not sure the trade is enough of a step up to
make the it worthwhile.

Also, for some reason I recall thinking that your total time was pretty
high. If so, and if you must have metal (I assume for assembled
outside storage), I would seriously consider one of the HP's instead.
Significantly better performance at less cost and all metal (no fabric)
so even better for outside tiedown. Not the hot tip for someone with
50 hours total time (handling is a bit challenging) but no big deal at
500 hours.

Michael