The Open Cirrus Association Newsletter
http://classicsailplane.org/Cirrus/
Volume VII, Issue 2
October, 2002  

First, our apologies for such a long time between newsletters.  But, hey, that's what you get from a free, volunteer "organization", eh?  

Cirrus Polar in Excel Format Available

Adrian Pierorazio, No. 55, has developed a Cirrus polar in Microsoft Excel format.  Here's a print of one of the several pages available - - you can view the plain polar in both US and SI units, and examine (and tinker with) the raw data if you wish.  If you'd like a copy of the file, just e-mail me at Jim@Kellett.com and I will send it as an attachment to an e-mail response.

New Owner of No. 105 has Questions

Joe Flores (bearsoars@netscape.net)of Alpharetta, GA is the new owner of No. 105.  Joe reports that he's surprised by the "heavy" rudder, taking several seconds for full deflection, and assumes it has something to do with the damper.  Has anyone else had similar expriences?  He's also finding it difficult to get the gear retraction handle to lock firmly down in the "down" position.  Again, has this shown up in other Cirruses??

Wear Problem in Tailwheel??   

Bob Cassels (casselsfamily@dsl.pipex.com), No. 129, reports a chronic wear problem in the axle housing of the tailwheel.  Although the bearing is perfectly free, the axle regularly wears the hole in the glass into an oval, or worse, cracks appear. The axle is properly located so that it cannot itself rotate. The cracks never travel any distance into the mounting, only the short distance from the axle hole to the edge. Our Cirrus has been in our club since new and this area has never been damaged, apart from this wear problem. The axle spindle originally sat straight in the hole in the glass, no metal reinforcement at all but some years ago we improved the situation by creating two thin walled "open ended top hat" devices which sit in the glass. This improved the situation but has not cured it. We have regularly needed to have work carried out to repair and reinforce the rear wheel mounting.  Anyone have any suggestions??

Balkan Cirri

Richard Cawsey (richard@rcawsey.fsnet.co.uk) sends  knowledge of his discovery of a Cirrus, OM-2908, which he found while touring in Slovakia last spring. It is a VTC Cirrus and is based at the Aeroklub Prievidza. He couldn't find a serial number, but the first digit of the registration indicates it was probably new in 1972.  Anyone know any more about this ship??

And Milan Petkovic (milanair99@hotmail.com) clarified the Slovenian issue a bit more: "YU4207 and the other seventeen meter glider (dont know the reg. number) were the first two Schemp Hirth gliders built in Yugoslavia  in VTC Vrsac under German supervision and licencing. These two gliders flew in the open class.

To my knowledge there is only one more Cirrus imported from Germany (its a std. class Cirrus) in the late seventies and this one flew in the world championship in Australia. It was badly damaged during transport, later repaired and is still flying. I made a couple of flights on that one as well and if you are interested I could look up the reg. no. in my logbook.

Now, there are a bunch more Cirruses (both open and standard) in Yugoslavia and all of these were built by VTC Vrsac. (Vrsac is the town where 1972 world champ. was held). This was a licenced factory by Shempp-Hirth in Yugoslavia. Just like the Discus CS, which is being built in the Czech republic nowdays.

What is probably the missing piece of info. for you is that Yugoslavia split into 6 independent countries ten years ago and you are looking in the register of Slovenia only. Slovenia is a former republic of Yu. bordering Austria and Italy to the north. Small country in terirtory but they have very developed gliding."

Cirruses Changing Hands

Bob Wicks has sold No. 4 to Larry Golomb of Mifflinville, PA.  And Walter Puckett has sold No. 105 to Joe Flores at bearsoars@netscape.net (see related note above.)

Others that may change hands "soon" (several in the US alone) include No. 37 (Steve Cameron's plane) and my very own No. 67.  No. 41, at the Scottish Gliding Centre in Scotland, and No. 46, in France, are also up for grabs. More information on all these ships on the "Sales" page of this website.

A "Puzzler Challenge" from Steve Lindenbaum

Steve's stumbled upon a tidbit of glider lore that should pique the interest of the historical-minded among us!  He writes:
   "In your quest to locate all of the Open Cirruses in the world, I have a challenge for you. The original Schempp-Hirth Nimbus (sometimes now referred to as the Nimbus 1) was constructed from an Open Cirrus. Holinghaus used an Open Cirrus fuselage and tail, lengthened the tail boom, moved the wing to a shoulder position on the fuselage, produced a new 22-meter 4-piece wing that had 90-degree landing flaps. It was nearly uncontrollable but had an L/D estimated around 50. It was flown by George Moffat in the 1970 World Championships in Marfa, Texas. It was the first world championship won by Moffat. (Reichmann won the Standard Class in an LS-1C that same year.) What ever happened to that one-of-a-kind ship?"