and an L13 Blanik once that everyone said would not fly right. It had a MASSIVE trim tab riveted onto the port aileron and this was bent fully upwards. Obviously the aircraft was a bit 'out of true' - but not unusual for a metal aeroplane of this type. The Aileron was a bit out of adjustment but it was impossible to adjust within the limits of the control rods.................
When the wing went down after landing it went down with a thump and we never worked out why. After scraping paint off the wing during maintenance we found it was a different wing to the rest of the airframe (obviously a 'bitsa') and had all been oversprayed to match. I assume at some point it had been trashed and it was quicker to fit a new wing than repair the old one. Even more interesting was the fact that the salmon fairing on the wingtip was full of concrete (approx 4lb) that had been injected into the void to try and use the 'law of the lever' to balance the glider............. !!
We fitted a new salmon fairing and the CFI flew it again. The aircraft was completely uncontrollable above 70Kts and poor above 50Kts. It was at this point (after a hasty landing at low speed and full flap) that the GSA scrapped the airframe..........................
Sometimes you just gotta walk away................
Arc