Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

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grumpybear
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Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

Post by grumpybear » Sat Jul 18, 2020 1:46 pm

Long time lurker, first time poster...

A team of my 14-18 year old explorer scouts (UK) used the lockdown period to finish converting an old 2-seater K7 air frame into 2 independent simulators. We found many helpful bits of information in this and the cockpit builder forum that helped us along our way, so thank you to all these posters. Some of our solutions to the problems we encountered may not always be the textbook ones but they work and were what we could do with the tools, materials and money (i.e. very little) available to us.

We've ended up with the rather challenging concept of 1 aircraft, 2 pilots, 2 different flights: https://youtu.be/UQHECYnUS4g.

There's a longer video summary of our build here: https://youtu.be/7cL6pk13TtY and more details including all our 3D models and high level schematics here: https://endeavouresu.uk/gsim/.

I hope this can be of use to others.

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Bre901
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Re: Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

Post by Bre901 » Sat Jul 18, 2020 2:58 pm

Great job indeed Image Image

But IMHO the glider was a K13, not a K7

https://www.alexander-schleicher.de/en/ ... hoenadler/
CN: MPT — CondorUTill webpage: https://condorutill.fr/

grumpybear
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Re: Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

Post by grumpybear » Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:03 pm

Thank you.

Definitely a K7 - registration G-DDYR. It was the University of the West of England (UWE) gliding club's old glider very kindly donated to us. We have flown in it when it was still flying (decommissioned 2015) and the old ARC placard is still in the aircraft. I have the DI book and some of the aircraft paperwork.

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Bre901
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Re: Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

Post by Bre901 » Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:19 pm

It must a be a British local denomination then, but for me there is no doubt at all it's an ASK13, not a K7
Google shows ASK13 pictures when searching for "K7M"

The K7 has high wings (see pics on the link I posted above), whereas the ASK13 is a mid-wind design (same wing actually)
https://www.alexander-schleicher.de/en/ ... ge/ask-13/
CN: MPT — CondorUTill webpage: https://condorutill.fr/

grumpybear
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Re: Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

Post by grumpybear » Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:33 pm

This is definitely a K7(M). K7 and K13 are not the same. We fly K13 regularly and there are differences (COVID-19 allowing). In fact our gliding club recently completely refurbished a K13 so we got a chance to see the differences in the structure of the aircraft under the canvas as well as in its shape. K7 and K13 are different aircraft types, not a UK denomination.
From the CAA G-Info site:
MANUFACTURER: ALEXANDER SCHLEICHER OHG SEGELFLUGZEUGBAU
TYPE: SCHLEICHER K 7
YEAR BUILT: 1960
DE-REG. DATE: 14-Jan-2019

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dgtfer
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Re: Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

Post by dgtfer » Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:51 pm

Indeed, according to Wikipedia:
"The K7 can be converted into a K7/13 with a conversion kit to lower the wing to the mid-wing position and installation of a one-piece canopy, rendering the aircraft similar to the ASK-13."
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Bre901
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Re: Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

Post by Bre901 » Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:58 pm

dgtfer wrote:
Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:51 pm
Indeed, according to Wikipedia:
"The K7 can be converted into a K7/13 with a conversion kit to lower the wing to the mid-wing position and installation of a one-piece canopy, rendering the aircraft similar to the ASK-13."
I stand corrected
I had never heard of that modification which is neither mentioned on the Schleicher website nor in Richard Ferrière's book on Schleicher gliders
... but then, the "M" shouldn't be omitted from the name (nitpicker, me ?)
Last edited by Bre901 on Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
CN: MPT — CondorUTill webpage: https://condorutill.fr/

grumpybear
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Re: Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

Post by grumpybear » Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:59 pm

That's helpful, thank you. It's similar to a K13 but not identical. Looking at the actual frame (since we removed the canvas when we cut the frame), this one shows no sign of conversion. It looks like it came out of the factory as a K7M. Otherwise it was a very clean conversion.
From memory, the canopy shape is also different from the K13 canopies we have in our K13 (flying) gliders.

One of the problems we had was the sheer variety in the diameter of the tubes in the structure. Even allowing for the layers of paint, the different diameters forced us to create a lot more 3D parts than reasonable. We also had to use a fair amount of electrical and self-amalgamating tape to reduce the number of parts.

grumpybear
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Re: Dual sim conversion of an old K7 air frame

Post by grumpybear » Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:01 pm

The funny thing here is that I got "accused" of being pedantic by our young people and some gliding club members when I insisted on calling it a K7M ... so it got shortened to K7 :D.

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