Vintage stuff.

For what it is worth.

We have just completed the major work of refurbishing our club's 1956 Scheibe
Bergfalke II/55.

We returned her to the hangar resplendent in new red and white fabric and dope
and with a lot of repairs...

So - for those in the northern hemisphere who have the time to look. It might be
worth looking at your older mounts. We found much evidence of damage that had
not been repaired properly, and was not in the log books. Somewhere in the deep
dark past (before the English logs started in the early 1970s) she was basically
broken in two. Some of the welds were worse than I am capable of. There were
numerous dents and bent tubes, that were not visible without a full bare metal
strip down. What is amazing is the decades of hard use and thousands of landings
without failure. We know of 13,000 flights, and we have logs for less than half
of the aircraft's chronological life.

Scheibe were slow, but very helpful in finding drawings we needed to re
manufacture parts. As an example we had to have bearings made up, because the
original design could no longer be sourced. There were 14 tube sleeves over
damaged tube sections by the time Keith had finished.

One thing is sure though - we can expect many years of solid service from her
again. I wonder how many glass trainers will be as repairable at 38 years old.

I have put a couple of pictures up on the club gallery at
http://www.whisperingwings.org.za/ga...bumName=ZS-GSI

Other club members have more pictures for later.

Bruce

Nice job!

My first flight was in one (Ontario Canada)..... it was sold, it is now
fully restored (by M&H) and is hangared at Harris Hill N.Y. It has a
unique home... winched up to the ceiling in a special sling, and is
accessible to those visiting the National Soaring Museum.

It is still the best I have flown for 'feeling' thermals.... fantastic
off the winch, but you better not be too tall!

I am envious!

Bob


Bruce wrote:
For what it is worth.

We have just completed the major work of refurbishing our club's 1956
Scheibe
Bergfalke II/55.

wrote:
Nice job!

My first flight was in one (Ontario Canada)..... it was sold, it is now
fully restored (by M&H) and is hangared at Harris Hill N.Y. It has a
unique home... winched up to the ceiling in a special sling, and is
accessible to those visiting the National Soaring Museum.

It is still the best I have flown for 'feeling' thermals.... fantastic
off the winch, but you better not be too tall!

I am envious!

Bob

Hi Bob

She is certainly the bird to be in on a weak winters day. We have had people do
their silver endurance in her in the middle of winter. Goes up on the proverbial
and is really fun on a strong day. The standard entertainment in the club is to
humiliate the glass flyers (including me) by slowing down to ~70kph (just above
stall), cranking the wing over and outclimbing everything. I took some pictures
of her from my Cirrus a while ago and was surprised at how difficult it was to
get slow enough, while descending at the same pace. The book says she has an L/D
of 1:27 but that was a loooong time ago.

Come fly her some time - it is not that expensive to get here, and once here the
prices are pretty reasonable. We solved the "tall" problem with a high blown
canopy. Very acceptible for anyone up to 190cm now.

Bruce

I'd love to visit! Maybe one day.....

Our old 'C-FZCM' is not in the museum proper, it is in the club (I
think) hangar near the museum building and is flown often, but maybe
someone from Harris Hill can update us?

I recall that long legged pilots had to fold up their legs quite a bit
too!

I'd love to see a picture of your canopy, can you send a link to it?
Bob

wrote:
I'd love to visit! Maybe one day.....

Our old 'C-FZCM' is not in the museum proper, it is in the club (I
think) hangar near the museum building and is flown often, but maybe
someone from Harris Hill can update us?

I recall that long legged pilots had to fold up their legs quite a bit
too!

I'd love to see a picture of your canopy, can you send a link to it?
Bob

There are a couple of pre-refurb pictures here.
http://www.whisperingwings.org.za/ga...WWFleet&page=4

Beautiful! Well worth all the work. Ours had a multi-piece flat
plexiglass canopy.

Thanks for the link.

Merry Christmas!

Bob