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The Avia Variations - an Enigma, or how not to buy a glider, by Bob Gibson.

When we first saw the advertisement (in VGC News No 92), nobody had heard of Avia, let alone knew what an Avia 60P was, but there was quite a lot of interest in the apparently low asking figure and the suggestion that it only needed a bit of re-covering to produce a flyable glider. But although the matter was dropped, it kept coming back to me over the next two days, because ever since that delightful rally at Camphill last year when I was conned into joining the VGC I have had a yen to own my own vintage glider, but I couldn't afford that and keep my share in the ASW20. But if I cleared out that long chicken house and found something that needed rebuilding perhaps I could. I knew that my friend Derek Phillips would offer to have it at his workshop, but he already has two K13s, a K18, (or is it two?) a Weihe and one and a half K8s in various stages of rebuild, as well as being in syndicates for a Slingsby Eagle, an Oly2b (he bought it as a 2a and did the mod) and an ASW20FL, and anyway a project like this needs to be on hand so that you can spend the odd half hour on it or stare at it while you drink your coffee.

And so on the Friday night I rang the number and spoke to Beverley George. He told me that the Avia 60P was the French version of the L-Spatz 55. He gave me a lot more information but then said a bloke from Eaglescott, Chris Kaminski, had just phoned about it and had arranged to go to see it at Lasham on Sunday morning. I admit I did think of doing the dirty and going down on Saturday to beat North Devon to it, but even I could not do that and anyway, on Saturdays I have grandparental responsibilities. However, I rang Derek to give him the gen and he said "Tough luck, forget it". Then he promptly rang back and said "What the hell, it's only a few gallons of fuel and anyway we won't be flying on Sunday because it is forecast to rain."

The journey to Lasham was easier than I thought and so we arrived quite early and had a wander around, ending up in the Vintage area among the trees. There seemed to be a lot of people there and when we spoke to one of them he said that most of them were the day's duty crew, and as only one ab-initio had turned up it didn't seem worth getting out all the gear.

Getting back to the clubhouse, the first person I saw was a large bearded type that I recognised instantly from Camphill and guessed was Chris from North Devon. He was surprised when he found that I knew him and why he was at Lasham, and looked quite po-faced when I said that we had come to look at the Avia. But I soon assured him that we were not there to queer his pitch but just out of interest.

Just then a dapper little figure in bright orange overalls appeared who could only be Beverly George, and together with Chris's friend Dick Andrews, we all repaired to the clubhouse where Beverly gave us the gen on the Avia.

Then back to the Vintage area to decant the glider from its trailer. When I saw the forlorn collection of tubes that was, in fact, the fuselage my first thought was thank goodness I hadn't made any committment, but the more we looked and listened to the encouraging comments of my peers so I began to feel quite envious. But when the rudder was lifted out, and a load of obvious mice (or squirrel?) habitation also dropped to the floor I began to wonder again, and when at Derek's instigation, Beverly started to rip the covering off the wings to disclose not one, but three, further nests, envy faded. At this juncture I was feeling a bit out of it, as some of the technicalities were beyond me so when another big bearded chap came asking for assistance in taking the wings off a Stemme S10 I readily gave a hand.

On my return there were smiles all round because the woodwork was thought to be structurally sound, and obviously Chris was now the proud owner of Avia 60P Hotel Charlie Papa.

So I still haven't got a vintage glider, but if anyone has any suggestions on what to do with a 19ft 6ins chicken house (apart from keeping chickens, that is) please get in touch, and watch these pages for pictures of the beautifully restored glider which I am sure will result from all this. Talking of pictures, you would reasonably expect that there would be photographs with this article, but there is one thing about photography that I have recently learned-- you get the best results when you have a film in the camera!

There is an interesting sequel to this. A few days later, a chap with a foreign accent rang asking about the Avia, and Beverly had to tell him that it was sold, but where was he ringing from? When the reply was Toulouse and the name was Ragot, Beverly realized he was talking to the François Ragot who was the French glider pilot so successful in the World Open Championships in the 1970s.

You're in good company. Chris!

(In VGC News No 93 Chris Wills put the story right in explaining that the real Avia 60P was a pre-war, one-off motor glider, but this so-called Avia 60P was the French version of the L-Spatz produced by a firm called Avialsa. ie AVIAL Société Anonyme and is called the A60 Fauconnet Ed)