The Decline of Soaring Awards

Oh and PS: The 2-33 actually goes apart much more easily than you would think. You just need the will, practice, and a larger crew.

Recently, we got our 2-33 apart in less than an hour when it landed out.... and then together in 45 minutes. It helped that we had about nine people involved and several teams working on the wings, horizontal stabilizer, and trailer.

And we were not exactly a well oiled machine; we don't take the ship apart often exactly. If the kit and people involved had more practice, we probably could have had half the people and done it almost twice as fast.

Bobby Templin used to own his own personal 2-33 and he would land out in it without much second thought. He had some tools with him to prep the horizontal stabilizer, take off the skylight and panels to get to the controls and wing pins.

By the time the crew showed up (3 or 4 people?), it was just a matter of simply pulling the struts and wings off and putting them on the trailer. He had it down to a science!

This is not to say that the 2-33 is a super-duper XC training machine. But you COULD do XC training in it. You could land out in it. In fact, the high wing, fabric fuselage and metal wings make it very robust against crops or other kinds of damage.

My point is that a lot of XC flying is simply going out there, doing it, and figuring out how to overcome your own unique obstacles. If there's a will, there's a way.

All the best,
Daniel