For those that are interested there is a brief history of this
restoration and a picture at:
http://www.bendigogliding.org.au/Main/ImageGallery
Cheers,
Dennis
Mike Borgelt wrote:
At 10:30 AM 21/12/2008, you wrote:
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.
The K6e was surely the last classic wooden glider.
Probably performs about the same as a PW5 although I got an argument
about that last night from a former K6e owner over dinner.
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.
This is a very relevant question. This was done over some years at the
top level of the IGC. There doesn't seem to be anything to stop a
similar bad decision being made nowadays. It wasn't as though lots of
people didn't express their concerns before this happened.
And it is ugly. They should have put the wings on an SZD55 fuselage,
or just chosen the SZD55 or LS4 etc etc etc. BTW I took the trouble to
fly one when I had the chance. Spent 1.5 hours in it on the ridge at
Whaharoa. This contrasted nicely with the 1.5 hours I spent right
after that on the same ridge in a Ventus CT 17.6. Same experience at
twice the speed and no concern about getting back to the airfield.
I doubt there was any deliberate attempt to make it ugly. Never
ascribe to malice what can be put down to incompetence. Although I did
see a statement once to the effect "sufficiently advanced incompetence
is indistinguishable from malice". Certainly in its effects on the
sport. Still people wonder why gliding continues to lose participants.
BTW whose idea was it to give a penalty for straight in landings at
the Grand Prix in an attempt at spectator appeal? What were they
thinking? As a result in the first 2 days there I saw 3 examples of
extremely poor airmanship relating to this rule and heard another
example on the radio.
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - manufacturers of quality soaring instruments
phone Int'l + 61 746 355784
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