Buying a 1-35 pros and cons?

On Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 3:13:28 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Does anyone have any inside info on the pros / cons of buying a 1-35. I am interested in learning cross country. I am mostly looking to hear from any current or former 1-35 owners.

Thanks,
Tim W

I am a brand-new 1-35 pilot (about 4 hours now). I have about 90 hours in gliders and 540 hours total time. Gliders I've flown: ASK-21, jr., owl, DG-1000, Blanik L-23, Grob 103, and a Grob 102 astir.

The 1-35 is a sweet ship. In MN the other day, we had 3-5kt lift in relatively closely spaced thermals. Centering the thermals was easy, the light weight of the glider allowed me to shoot right up to about 6000MSL (ground level 900MSL).

The plane flew like a dream and I am very, very happy with it. It was hard to get back on the ground in moderate lift because the glide ratio is so good. The metal seat pan is "fixable" with a chute and some camping foam. I've seen some nice padded seats on wings and wheels in 1-35's, but my plane partner and I are currently enjoying our "dirtbag" metal glider that is out-performing some of the fancy-looking glass ships.

The assembly is straightforward, but you have to be precise and patient to get everything to line up. IF you do it right, there's minimal resistance to fitting the pieces together (I'm still working on that).

In regard to the bondo: we had a NY pizza slice sized piece fly off when I flew it for 2.5 hours. My plane partner, who grew up on wood sailboats, had it fixed with new bondo and paint in about 10 minutes. Other than a slight change in the paint color, it looked seamless. My plane partner used to own a jantar and stated to me that he is already much happier with the simplicity of the metal 1-35. He regaled me with stories of having to worry about all sorts of things with fiberglass. No such worries with metal, paint and bondo.

The way I got used to the 1-35's flaps was to follow the POH advice as well as the advice of Tom Rent (of the SGS 1-35 webpage fame: http://members.goldengate.net/~tmren...sgs135new.htm). I was towed up on my first flight to 5000MSL. I then ran through every flap setting and paid attention to the site picture at about 50-60 knots indicated airspeed. With 80 degree flaps, you have to really push forward on the stick to keep your speed above 50kts. AS Tom Rent told me and my plane partner, it should feel like you are standing on the rudder pedals, looking straight down at the ground. It was disconcerting on one level, but the approach was very straightforward and the steep approach made the round-out feel easy and gentle. You NEED to fly the glider all the way until the glider comes to a complete stop (if you have ever flown a tailwheel plane, this is SOP).

If you can get the plane for a good price (and perhaps split the plane with someone else), I think that you will be very happy.

Tim:
I owned a "C" model (fixed gear) in a syndicate for many years. I went to it with many hundreds of prior hours hours in other flapped gliders so it was hardly my first ship. But this is what I found:

Pros:
It's the best performing glider that can be reasonably left outside in the weather.

Once you learn how to do it (get instruction from a CFI who knows you and who has flown 80 or 90 degree flap gliders) it is great for off field landings.

Parts are easily available and repairs don't require an experienced composite shop

They don't depreciate much and you can usually sell it for what you paid for it.

Negatives:

The ones that have hinged canopies have seriously restricted maximum pilot weight (all that hardware up in the nose) and there is no good way to add tail weight to fix that. The ones with removable canopies are a PITA

Either type canopy can be difficult to seal well because the rear junctions are complex.

I thought roll rate response ( at least on mine) was on the weak side - the ailerons are tiny and have limited deflection (and that's coming from a high time open class pilot who is used to stodgy roll)

Be aware that they will spin aggressively if provoked and that the best thermaling flap settings are not necessarily as set up by the factory.

Good luck

ROY

I summarize the 1-35 flaps thusly: it is neither necessary nor abnormal to use full flap in a typical land-at-home situation. Sure nice to have those flaps and skid landing off-airport (7x for me).


Except in extraordinary gusty conditions &c., I settled into flying downwind at 700' and selecting full flap on base in the C model after gaining about 50 of my 300+ hours in type. Mainly because I am lazy and there's no detent other than full.

Downwind that low put me out of sight behind trees, though, and in spite of my having a radio, a student wing-runner launched an opposite-direction tow as I was turning base. Whatever.