Double retrieve

Trailer retrieves are usually pretty easy. Sometimes, when two gliders land in the same field, a double retrieve is necessary. This is somewhat harder, but not usually a big deal. It gets really interesting when nobody in the crew is familiar with disassembling the two aircraft.

At the end of Wave Camp this year, we were faced with trailering home PI (our borrowed Blanik L-23) and our towplane, having put neither one on a trailer before. It was a 2-day ordeal.

On Friday, Mike and Andy put our Blanik trailer back on the road, which involved building wing stands in order to liberate the trailer saddles, and the usual struggle to get the trailer lights working.

The next day, a hardy band of volunteers (Andy, Andy, Bob, Christopher, George, Karl, Tim, Sonny, Walter) traveled back to Gorham and pounced on the L-19. After a couple hours of work, the fuselage and wings were lashed onto trailers provided by Bob and Karl (thanks, guys).

The team then moved on to the L-23 which went onto our old trailer without too much fuss, once they figured out how to remove the horizontal stabilizer.

By 2pm, the convoy was on the road for Post Mills, with the Blanik in the lead, followed by the L-19 fuselage, the L-19 wings, and Andy bringing up the rear in his rolling toolbox.

Back home, they unloaded the wings so Karl could take his trailer home. In all, the double retrieve required 35 man-hours of work, and it isn't over yet. Winter is coming and we still have to move all the bits and pieces of our fleet into their final storage and work spaces. Don't forget to volunteer, especially if you weren't part of the fun last weekend.