Steve,
you are right, good ground handling equipment is a must, the one man wing rigger is also a must, I am working on a hydraulic ramp jack right now, my trailer is a minden tube type and the fixtures are easy to use. Once the weather gets good I leave it assembled and have built a tow bar that connects to my tail dolly and i tow the 17 to the runway and off with my car. It is a tank but in the air it will run and run. My water ballast system was real funky so I removed it and now am in the dreaming up of a new system, that is the beauty of experimental aircraft and old airworthiness limitations. It has a forward hinged canopy and I took the fixed panel out and built it so it now goes up with the canopy, new panel, wiring 5 point harness, moved the brake to the stick and much more, and more to do. Cant wait to get the bags out and see what is there and fly with water. Look for me on OLC, I fly out of Bend Oregon and lots of good soaring to you to, I like to say "old glass kicks ass".

John Bentley

On Tuesday, January 20, 2015 at 9:18:30 PM UTC-8, Steve Leonard wrote:
On Tuesday, January 20, 2015 at 12:51:12 PM UTC-6, wrote:
I have many hours in a Nimbus 2 and it was exciting to get into a ASW 17 knowing that they went head to head in the early 70's as the best in their class. It is a truly big sailplane, 100lbs heavier than my Nimbus was but goes like stink and I can keep up with all friends, most of the time at 1/4 the cost, just need some good friends to help me put it together. It is really fun to know who and when it was flown in competition, i can see Rudy's sailplane (now mine) in the line up at the 1974 and 75 National championships where he finished 8th and 25th. That is fun, now it is time for me to run like Rudy.

I need to step up my game, too. I have about 600 hours in the 604 that AJ Smith use to race, and about 300 hours in the Nimbus 3 that George Moffat and Ray Gimmey raced so successfully. A good one man rigger helps a lot. The 604 is solo rigging capable with the factory trailer and my one man rigger. Takes about as long as it does to solo rig the Nimbus 3.