On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 09:45:40 -0700, Robert Backer wrote:

I owned a 17 for about 10 years. I can tell you from personal
experience that the 17 is very easy to rig IF you have a good system and
appropriate rigging aids. There is no reason to be holding a 17 inner
panel for any longer than it takes to get it on a nice stable wing
stand.

I owned a share in a Nimbus 2 for many years. Despite it's excellent
ability to get home in the last lift of a dying day, I carried it out of
plowed fields enough times to make me happy that it was not an ASW 17.
Rigging aids don't offer much assistance in this situation.

On one occasion my partner landed out late on a Sunday afternoon.
I went to fetch him but we could not get the Nimbus to the trailer.
Eventually, in desperation, long after sunset, I drove into the local
town, I found a group of folk outside a church and negotiated the
assistance of a couple of large gentlemen for a couple of hours in return
for a donation to the congregation.

Another time, after landing in a large soft field, the helpful farmer
offered to tow the Nimbus out with a tractor. He sent his worker to fetch
the "small" tractor, but it would not budge the Nimbus, so he sent the
worker back to fetch the "large" one. In the meantime I got the outer wing
panels, tailplane and canopy off, and I recruited a group of his farm
labourers and briefed them to lift under the leading edges of the wing
roots to take some of the weight off wheel when the tractor was ready to
pull. When the big tractor arrived it did move glider which made the
farmer happy and I was happy to note how strong the Nimbus under carriage
is.

Open class is fun, but it has it's disadvantages.


Ian