in Container

New two seat training glider

By John Switala - President

Last year while the GCV Committee was formulating its 5 year plan, one of its top 5 items was the change over of our training gliders, IS28s, to two seat fibreglass gliders. A sub-committee was formed to determine the right glider for the club. The sub-committee choose the ASK-21. The K-21 (as it is more often referred to) is a popular training aircraft in Europe with 750 aircraft being produced to date. Many Australian clubs are also looking at the K-21 for their future training needs.

The K-21 is a fibreglass two seater in current production and it provides an increase in capability over our IS28s, such as 110 kilos pilot load in each seat (concurrently!). The “AS” of the model number stands for Alexander Schleicher, the well known glider manufacturer based in Poppenhausen in Germany. The “K” in the model number stands for the designer, Rudolf Kaiser. The number is the next number in sequence for the manufacturer.

We looked at the second hand market, especially in Europe where the volume of aircraft is a lot higher, and were very surprised at the cost of the glider second hand as compared to new. One second hand twenty-five year old K-21 was quoted as $80,000AUD – a new one was $125,000AUD. They were holding their value very well! The asking price for some of the second hand K-21s taking into account their age, our intended use and the wear and tear on the second hand glider was not representing value for the club.

The GCV Committee has decided to purchase a new ASK-21 rather then a second hand aircraft.

The normal production waiting time is approximately 6 – 8 months for the factory. However, the factory had a K-21, which was ordered for the American agent but fell through. So we had an opportunity to purchase that glider's ‘spot’ on the production line. We went ahead. Our K-21 will be complete and out of the factory between the middle to end of September this year!

There are a few things that need to happen after that, like getting it out here; which will take between 5 to 7 weeks transit time by the ship (depending on routing and stop overs) plus transit time at both ends of the process. We then have to perform a Form 2, install some instruments and do the required paper work before it can fly!

If you’re an optimist you’d like to think it could be out here by mid November and flying by December, if you’re an optimist! A pessimist would, of course, declare that it will be late out of the factory, if not, the ship will hit an iceberg at the equator, if not, the container will fall off the ship on the Melbourne dock, if not, the wings won’t fit when we rig it, etc, etc. I’m an optimist.

It was never going to be easy to change over our training fleet from what we have become so used to something new. This is our first step toward an all fibreglass training fleet. I’m sure we’ll all enjoy our new K-21!

NOTE: This picture is not just some K-21 - it is OUR K-21 packed and leaving the factory.