On Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 2:19:32 AM UTC-5, 2G wrote:
On Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 7:52:22 PM UTC-8, wrote:
There are a few Avionic (and Cobra and Komet) trailers at my club. Mine was the first. I bought it new in late 2004 to replace the disintegrating wooden trailer my ASW-15 came with. Two years later another club member bought one to replace his old trailer. More recently a LAK-17B-FES and an Apis were purchased by two of our pilots and they came with Avionic trailers. There have been some changes to the details over the years but the basic trailers are very similar. We all rig our gliders from the trailers for every flight so we've got a lot of collective experience with the trailers. Fittings have been very good. The "over center" lifting mechanism for the ramp is an improvement on the double scissors jack that mine has as it's a lot quicker to use. Ours are all fiberglass top models and the nicest thing about them compared to the Cobras and Komets is the amount of room inside. I think they made the mold for the top rather large to be sure the trailer could hold older ships with thicker and/or broader chord wings. It makes it really easy to store all the assorted glider accessories up front. They are very good trailers really and I don't think you can go wrong with one. I've never had a problem with the wing root dollies coming out unintentionally or a problem with protruding hardware on mine or the others.

It's probably worth looking around for a used Cobra or Komet if buying a new trailer isn't an urgent necessity as it was in my case. You would probably have to do some refurbishing and adjusting or replacing of fittings but it might be worth your time and money to do so if you can find a good used trailer.

The lack of a fuse jack makes one man rigging more complicated. I use the jack on my Cobra trailer to fine tune the dihedral angle of the wings to the fuse. Also, the angle needs to be changed somewhat during derigging to unload the main pins, all done with the jack. Without a jack I would be making multiple trips to the wing dolly and, worse, the opposite wing stand. There is no way I would buy such a trailer.

Also the ramp tracks are much less robust than the Cobra, and I see no extension for the tail wheel (believe me, you don't want to carry the tail of a Schleicher motorglider any distance, not even a foot - if my back goes out so does my flying).

Tom

You can buy the jack optionally or add one yourself.