Standard Cirrus 1973 (Grob) no water ballast

Hi all

I am now the owner of a lovely 1973 Grob built Standard Cirrus - a thing of beauty.

What intrigues me is that the the glider has no water ballast in the wings and looks as if it came straight from the factory like this. No connector in the wing root and nothing in the cockpit to indicate there was ever water ballast functionality.

I always assumed that a run of manufactured gliders such as Std Cirrus would have water ballast in the wings across the whole range, but obviously not.

Has anyone else come across this?

Very curious.

Thanks for any info.

All the best
Ian

Wikipedia says water ballast came to standard class in '72. Maybe this one was commissioned before the rule was adopted. Alternatively a previous owner may have removed it.

DT

According to my copy of "Segelflugzeuge vom Wolf zum Discus" by Peter Selinger, water ballast tanks were offered as an option by Schempp-Hirth since July 4th 1971. I suppose Grob followed the same policy.

On Sunday, September 29, 2019 at 5:34:08 PM UTC+2, wrote:
According to my copy of "Segelflugzeuge vom Wolf zum Discus" by Peter Selinger, water ballast tanks were offered as an option by Schempp-Hirth since July 4th 1971. I suppose Grob followed the same policy.

My father used to own Std Cirrus #11 - 1969. It was fitted with water ballast.

Clinton

The earli Cirri did not come from the factory with ballast. Many were retrofitted in the field with bags.

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 08:43:16 -0700, Tony wrote:

The earli Cirri did not come from the factory with ballast. Many were
retrofitted in the field with bags.

Yep. Initial Standard class rules said no water ballast and no
retractable landing gear. I don't know whether the rule changes to allow
water ballast and retractable gear were simultaneous or not.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

On Monday, September 30, 2019 at 5:19:18 PM UTC+1, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 08:43:16 -0700, Tony wrote:

The earli Cirri did not come from the factory with ballast. Many were
retrofitted in the field with bags.

Yep. Initial Standard class rules said no water ballast and no
retractable landing gear. I don't know whether the rule changes to allow
water ballast and retractable gear were simultaneous or not.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

Many thanks for all your replies.

I have contacted Schemp Hirth as well to see if they can shed any information on it.

I will post here if I find out any more nuggets of information.

All the best
Ian

My Cirrus is one of the early ones (1969, s/n 9) and it originally did not have water ballast when delivered. It was added at a later date per a factory supplied mod kit according to the records. This consisted of bags in the wings and dump valve in the lower fuselage. The maximum gross weight was increased from 728 to 860lbs (wet). Unfortunately, the mod was removed long before I acquired the sailplane. It would have been nice to have flown it with water ballast but it does very well without.