Back in the 1990s, I had the pleasure of living in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a few miles from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
On clear days (as were most), I could look northwest and and see bright yellow Schweizer SGS 2-33a gliders soaring high
above the Rocky Mountain Front Range. The aircraft were being flown by AFA cadets who were participating in the pilot
training program. The video below is a brief accounting of the program.I have on order from Aerosente a 1:8
scale radio control model of the
Schweizer SGS 2-33a. It will
be finished to look like the full-size aircraft on display in the USAF Academy's Visitor's Center. The building and
flying process will be documented on this page. Stay tuned... OK, the [short] kit arrived today, and I must
say that I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the workmanship. The two plans sheets look very well done, and
the laser cutting of the parts is excellent. I have not tried to fit anything together yet, so I cannot vouch for the
accuracy. Time will tell.
  To
the left is a photo of all the parts that came in my kit. I counted nearly 80 laser-cut plywood parts (fuselage formers &
doublers, dive brakes, wing root ribs stiffeners, etc.). Three laser-cut 1/16" balsa sheets provided ribs, sheer webbing,
while a single 1/8" sheet contained tail component parts. Metal rods and tubing for wing joiners, nylon hinges, wheel
collars, the main landing gear wheel and the two small wingtip wheels, and even Golden-Rod pushrod sets were included.
A nicely done molded canopy topped off the deal.
 Since
this is a short kit, which usually means you only get the components that you cannot easily obtain elsewhere, the inclusion
of a few goodies was a nice bonus. It will be a couple week before I get started on the building process, but
I will keep this page updated with photos as I progress. There were no instructions included, so I will also try to
post some useful notes along the way. If you have one of these kits and care to contribute your experiences, I will
be glad to post them.
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