I honestly think everyone is jumping to conclusions far too early....the AD
on Blanik's will reach a satisfactory conclusion all soon enough .there are
just too many of these world wide in continuous use and for all practical
purposes the AD's on these gliders have been few and far between..they are
still among the best club training gliders available by far..and they are
affordable...for the abuse these gliders have been given throughout their
lives, the "club's" lack of attention, stored outside in the elements and
basically given "office" annual inspections by many clubs and users they
have been rewarding ten's of thousands of hours and pilot
certificates....the alternatives.2-33's and 2-22's though old and a bit
clumsy have also done an admirable job or creating pilot certificates and
will continue to do so.not with a lot of glamour, but still working....K7's
and K-13's have done a good job but old and hard to find, at least at
affordable prices in the USA and the wood takes special care and
storage....and can also and has been a subject of AD's and special service
bulletins..K21's and Grobs have had and will have their share of AD's, many
very expensive to repair, more so than what the AD is likely going to be on
the L-13's...DG1000's and Duo's.not likely going to fit into club budgets
for 2011 HpH will hopefully have the new Twin Shark available to offer...it
too is however going to be out of the budget for most clubs, or, even if
they have one, not likely to fit assembled in the most typical club hangar
either......and if these glass and carbon fiber gliders are left to the
elements and tied outside like an L-13...then you'll find the real cost of
ownership.

Clubs to exist will need lower cost trainers....like Blaniks....those that
can be affordable to rent, lease, own and replace...few clubs will have
$100,000.00 budgets for new glass ships...and if they can't find affordable
gliders these clubs will simply fail to exist....
tim


"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Michael Jaworski wrote:
if you want to use the K21 as a primary trainer you need to faff around
with
installing weights on the tail before every flight where you intend to
spin the glider, then faff around removing them again afterwards.

Actually, I love this. It forces the student to contemplate on the desired
CofG, then weigh the pilots, calculate the needed amount of lead and
finally go up and trust in his calculation. (Which, of course, the
instructor has discreetly double-checked.)

Mounting and unmounting the lead is a matter of seconds and a complete
non-issue. Actually, I think aerobatics is the only application in which
the ASK21 beats the DG1000 because the latter is way too slippery.

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus
signature database 5453 (20100915) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com






__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5453 (20100915) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com