Future Club Training Gliders

Tony V wrote:

What else is wrong with the 2-33? An incomplete list would include
- not enough leg room in either seat. *I hate turning with
* *the stick *under* my knee.
- lethargic roll rate.
- Poor visibility from the rear seat - teaching someone to
* *soar in a gaggle is scary.
- ineffective trim - unless the front seater is heavy, you're
* *still applying significant forward stick pressure on tow even
* *with full forward trim.
- ineffective spoilers (but it does slip GREAT!).
- generally poor ergonomics.
- doesn't spin well.

I would add that instructors with big feet (me) have nowhere to put
them except on the rudder pedals. I know students must hate that.

Have you noticed how students seem to drag the right wing far more
than the left on landing? It's because they can't get any left
aileron with the spoilers open whether they lift their leg or not -
the spoiler handle is in the way.


What's good about the 2-33:
- it's cheap
- anybody can repair it
- it's built like a tank. If a student is going to crash, I want
* *him to be in a 2-33.
- doesn't spin well (yeah, I know).

I wonder if you've priced aircraft welding, sheet metal repair or
fabric work lately. Any significant damage to a 2-33 will cost far
more to repair that the glider will be worth afterward. Old geezers
like me who know how to weld 4130 thinwall tubes and own a pair of
pinking shears are getting really hard to find. If those streamlined
aluminum wing struts suffers damage, you're probably out of luck.
Nobody makes them anymore.

I'm not confident the "tank" reputation holds either. It's not hard
to imagine a broken tube penetrating the cockpit - and the pilot
within. If that tube cuts a leg artery the student is in serious
trouble. I know of one such fatality when the skid kicked up a stick
which penetrated the fabric and the students leg.

Given the increasing girth of pilots these days it doesn't happen
often but if you load a 2-33 to the rear CG limit, it will spin - with
alarming suddenness.