And thats the last we will be hearing from DMcD !!!!
what a shame... it was good while it lasted....
regards
JR
----- Original Message -----
From: DMcD
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 11:00 AM
Subject: [Aus-soaring] Vintage and beautiful or old and ugly.
Congratulations Ian on return to service of Ka6. Nice to see some
refreshing news on this site in regards to aircraft restoration instead of the
usual Blanik/PW5/anything under 40 to1 bashing that wastes so much space at
times. I also returned our clubs Arrow to service yesterday,probably much to
the digust of some who would rather use the wood for a BBQ and insert a new
private (plastic) toy in its hanger space. Would be much the same as sending
your MG to the wreckers because it was old and cant keep up with your
commodore.
Was it me who mentioned Blanik and caused this?
Can I qualify my opinion a bit more?
Many old aircraft are lovely things. Surely there is no modern glider with
the grace and beauty of say a Minimoa? And there will always be a place for
gliders like the Zogling or Grunau Baby, certainly in my hangar.
But not all old aircraft are vintage. There were a fair number of mistakes
and dead ends along the way which might want to be preserved. But more as
museum pieces than recreational gliders.
This is not because the performance is lacking. In many cases the performance
of these vintage aircraft is better than other current aircraft such as
paragliders or hang gliders. It is only to do with practicality and
maintenance.
What worries me is that gliders like the Blanik are used in clubs as on-line
training aircraft where the maintenance becomes a nightmare for someone. I
don't have hard statistics but my guess is that a Blanik would take close to 5
days for a proper form 2 compared with 1-2 days for a glass glider. For what
return? Cheap flying?
The Norfolk club in NZ has about 5 Blaniks and they don't charge anything for
flight time, only for aerotows. That's a pretty good deal for students, but
not for the maintenance people. I have heard it said here and there that Kiwis
have a different attitude to maintenance.
I think clubs which are trying to be active and attractive clubs for new
members are digging a hole in the ground if they choose to fly aircraft whose
value in scrap aluminium would not warrant putting them on a truck to take away.
Wooden gliders are probably a but easier to maintain than alu ones so long as
they don't get wet. But they do need gangs of dedicated volunteers like you.
And at some stage you have to ask the difficult question as to whether such and
such an aircraft is worth preserving as a flying aircraft. DH Comet. Yes! DH
Mosquito. Abolutely!! Wirraway or Bolton and Paul Defiant? No no no! The game's
just not worth the candle. Ditto Blanik.
Probably the same applies to MGs. A mass produced, low cost, sports car for
the masses. More MC TCs were made in 4 years than Morgans in 60 years. And I
have never driven a Morgan which was worse than an MG TF.
Moving right along...
The next question is PW5. Why? Was it a mistake or did they do it
deliberately? Because if it was a mistake, maybe there's something we can do
about it.
It is not to do with the performance, it's the aesthetics. It would be
difficult to draw something as ugly as the PW5. I find myself wondering whether
there was a deliberate plan to make something which looked like a low-cost
glider so as not to detract from sales of the high end gliders.
Some designs stand outside time, and will probably always be beautiful. For
example a Bugatti Type 52. A 3 litre Bentley. Spitfires, Tiger Moths, Horten
wings, Minimoas, Olys, Aston Martins (most) and so on.
Other designs are dated in months, or weeks or before they left the drawing
board. P76 for example. EH Holden. Wirraway, Aircobra, Blanik. PW5.
The idea of a low cost, medium performance glider is excellent. So why make
it look like the low cost option?
In advertising there is a process called "polishing pooh". It doesn't matter
how much you polish, it's always pooh. You can' t polish a Blanik.
And many congratulations to anyone who preserves anything of beauty. I'm
doing my best with my wife.
DMcD.
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