The Open Cirrus Association

Newsletter

Volume I, Issue 4

November 1, 1996

1997 Cirrus Fly-In ! !

The big news is that Steve Cameron (Cirrus No. 37, N5557) <SCAMCOT@aol.com>, (864) (948-0506, is working as we write to organize a Cirrus Fly-In. The plan is to have it at the Airscapes glider operation in Spartanburg, SC on May 2-4, 1997. Steve’s volunteered to work with Dave Treinis of Airscapes to put together the event. Ideas? Share them with Steve. Please check your calendars, and get in touch with Steve if you can come. So far, for sure we’ve got two - No. 37 and No. 67 (Steve’s and mine).

Although this is on the east coast, it appears that there are at least a half-dozen Cirri within a day’s drive of Spartanburg, which is in the northwestern corner of South Carolina. If this works, maybe we can get a volunteer later to work on a "western" fly-in. 

Letters:

From: H. Fredine (Cirrus No. 24, N3441) <Fred.Spectral@internetmci.com>Just a word to let you know N3441 and me are still in the air. July 13th I flew from Lawrenceville IL to the Carlyle Dam (toward St. Louis) and return (190mi) in 6 hours and 20 minutes. Obviously no record breaking flight, but was good for diamond goal out and return flight and good for my soul.

From: Gary Nelson (Cirrus No. 70, Cirrus N8145) <gnelson@execpc.com>For the brag board: I earned the bronze badge on July 5th in my Cirrus with a 2.7 hr flight. It would of been longer but I had to come down due to prior commitments on the ground. Such is life. If you'd like to replace one "Location: Unknown" on your Status List, my plane is kept and flown out of Hartford Airport in Wisconsin.

From: Peter King (Cirrus No. 83, N6663)

[Re: "Performance Data?" in the August Newsletter] I read "Polars of Eight". Polars are relative to other planes anyway. What does it matter? Besides, mylar control seals make it outclimb a Discus and run with it in the low and medium speed ranges. My article on mylar is on the SSA home page.

The thing to remember about "polars of Eight" is that Bickle down graded everything he tested. That’s a statement about manufacturer’s testing procedures, and does not change the performance of an Open Cirrus against the rest of the fleet. I’ve flown WT against any number of speed wings with a 42-44 l/d and surprised their pilots with my "classic" bird. Do you really expect me to believe that my Open Cirrus has a 37:1 l/d? Forget about an ASW-19 or LA-1; I have to drop my gear and crack my spoilers to fly with them. They’re listed at 38:1. Bickle didn’t discover anything radically new, other than lowering the whole range. So? You could add the same number of points to each glider and we’re right back to where we started. ….. None of us have anything to apologize for in our birds, Paul Bickle’s article notwithstanding.

From: Chris Yeates (Cirrus No. 77, C-GUIL) <yeatesc@ra.isisnet.com>

The one man rig mentioned in the August newsletter is similar to the gear we use -- but -- our wing holder/dolly was built by a Bluenose club member. He builds them for about $600US. The fuselage holder, used clear of the trailer, is a simple pair of padded strap metal bands supported by more strap metal -- made locally for $75US. A fixed wingstand holds up the first wing put in place, as you noted. Tom Foote (XGU) has used the same rig fixtures for several seasons.

Cirrus Refinishing

Charles Yeates and Dick Vine (Cirrus No. 77, C-GUIL) are planning to refinish their bird right after the first of the year, and are interested in information that might help them do this. Their plan is to do it themselves. Given the several current Cirrus owners who have rebuilt or refinished Cirri, seems logical that one or more might have some first hand information on materials, costs, and other aspects. (Jim Kellett, Cirrus No. 67, N8169, has also been interested in refinishing this one for years. Some time ago, he got a reluctant estimate from Jay Gehrlein in Erie, PA of about $11,000 to re-gelcoat a Cirrus.) Would any owners with experience or information on refinishing share that with us? 

The Current Fleet

Thanks to Charles Yeates, we’ve nailed down three more Cirri - Numbers 15, 42 and 69! I’m attaching a current (to the best of my knowledge as of this date) version of the North American fleet.

Note that Peter King has moved, and that a couple of typos and other errors have been corrected in the attached version which supersedes the earlier lists. If you can find additions or corrections to this list, please let me know!! 

"Is This a Cirrus??"

From Fred Wollrad of the Edmonton Soaring Club comes information on C-FSNZ, a machine that first flew in the spring of 1974, which was built by Willie Krug. Called the "KW-45", it was advertised for sale in SOARING earlier this year, but I don’t know if it’s been sold. Seems that Willie set out building a fuselage and tail group (a T-tail) with the intention of putting Nimbus 2 wings on it. However, in the four years it took him to build the fuselage and tail, the price of the wings fose from $6,000 to $12,000, which led him to purchase a set of Cirrus wings (for $7,200 delivered). The estimated L/D is 45. There was an article, with several nice pictures, in the July/August 1979 Free Flight. 

Contributions

Several have asked about contributing to the newsletter. Yes, contributions are much appreciated! The only real expense is postage - as long as I can sneak back into the office I recently retired from to xerox the stuff!! (And thanks to Steve Cameron whose donation arrived as this was being written!)

At the 1996 SSA meeting, several folk contributed enough to almost pay for two newsletters, which includes this one. So if you’d like, a few bucks for stamps (or just a roll or sheet of stamps!!) would be appreciated.

 Electronic Cirrus Mailing List

Jim Hendrix <hendrix@felix.TECLink.net> has started a "Cirrus E-Mail List". He owns a Standard. The list got started with a posting on the newsgroup <rec.aviation.soaring> a few months ago, and how has a substantial listing. I’ve communicated with Jim, pointing out that there are very significant differences between the Open and the Standard, but at this time he’s trying to put together a single mailing list for all Cirri. I provided him with the e-mail addresses that I had for the Open owners (hope that’s "OK"), so if you get mail from Jim on Cirri, now you know why.