SSA response to Blanik L-13 grounding

On Sep 3, 12:42*am, mike malis wrote:
Touche'...

FWIW, my comment was meant to be reply to sender.

Let's add Voices of Reason to the FAA AD comment page.

186 aircraft, I'll bet at least 5 times that many regular Blanik
pilots, and ONLY 20 Comments?!

BTW, the SSA says "They can't engineer a solution" on their own, and
will need help from the members. *I have joined thier message list,
have you?

Yesterday I received a call from an AI that runs a soaring operation
using an L-13. He said his AD subscription service did not deliver
these AD's to him, so I e-mailed him copies and the MB plus some
additional information. Fortunately, they hadn't operated his L-13
since the before the 30th, but he missed the original AD also. He's
now on the FAA e-mail notification. I've asked the SSA state governors
to contact soaring operations in their states with this information.
Some number of L-13's are privately owned and operated including one
operation in my state that isn't SSA affiliated. I'm still not
confident that all L-13 owner/operators are aware of the latest AD.
Especially since pros and club volunteers have been found unaware as
late as yesterday.

Indeed, if you are not logged into the SSA web site, the link does not
work, nor do the news items appear on the home page because they are
on the member side of the server.

The SSA is a voluntary non-profit organization. We do not have a
'technical committee' as the BGA once did/does. The BGA technical
committee could authorize modifications to a point and worked with
manufacturers directly. The FAA controls that aspect here and plays
by a different set of rules.

If someone is putting together a list of owners and airframes, I'll
help. If not, I'll get started. Based on the aircraft codes, there
are 211 on the US registry. I suspect a fair number are hulks, but
even if 80-90 are still flying, that's significant, and I know of at
least one that was just about to return to service after a wing
splice.

Frank Whiteley