Blanik L13 and L23

[Jim Lee]

Minden Soaring Club Inc (501c3) just purchased a Blanik L13 and we already broke it!  Everyone knows about our famous wave conditions here in Minden, but the unfortunate by-product is the wild wind on the ground which breaks planes.  Even with the rudder gust lock on, the left rear rudder pushrod broke.  We have an inquiry to Blanik America for a new one, but asking here in case anyone has parts.

We also may be interested in buying a parts L13 for future needs if anyone can help.

MSC has gone from not owning any aircraft, just providing youth scholarships, to now being a full service glider club with 4 Pawnees, Duo Discus, 2-32, and L13.  Our primary charter continues to be providing youth scholarships.  We intend to purchase one of the CAP L23's when they become available.

We have another strong wave day approaching this Wednesday, and yes, all of our aircraft will be inside hangars when it hits!

Thanks in advance for any advice, information, or help.  My primary email is leejimseventeenatyahoodotcom.

[David S]

In addition to Blanik America, parts are now available from Blanik USA.  The contact info from the back of the Soaring magazine is blan...@gmail.com and phone 630-660-3959.

Hope this helps,

   ...david

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[Thomas Dixon]

Ouch, sorry to hear that. Tom 

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 10, 2025, at 12:28 PM, David S <david.s....@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Tom Seim]

The L-13 does not have a rudder pushrod - the rudders are actuated by cables.

Tom

[Eric Greenwell]

That's true for the front pedals, but the rear pedals are connected to the front pedals with a push rod. When that breaks, the rear seat pilot can't use the rudders, but the front seat pilot still has full control of the rudder. I was in the back seat of an L-13 when the push rod broke - very disconcerting; fortunately, the front seat pilot knew how to land the plane, which he did immediately, as we were still near the airport. We were really worried whatever broke might jam the rudder, but it didn't.

Eric

[Tom Higgins]

Hey Jim, Tom Higgins the A&P/IA at Seminole-Lake here. 

Had the same thing happen when we had N109UA at SLGP, but it was the right side. 

We just ordered the tube from Vitec at Blanik America. The L-13 Service Manual gives you all the procedures to replace only the tubing. Saves a whole bunch of money then replacing the entire rod assembly. If your able to source out a supplier in the NV area (West Coast) that sells 2024-T3 Aluminum tubing I believe the manual also gives the required diameter and wall thickness, in millimeters of course.

Cheers

[Bob Kuykendall]

I'm not an engineer, but I do some engineering under supervision. And one of the things I learned from engineer Stan Hall's "Homebuilder Hall" columns in Soaring magazine is that the critical metric for most push-pull tubes is Euler column buckling under compression. The neat thing there is that the critical metric for column buckling is not the strength of the push-pull tube material, but rather its stiffness. And all aluminum alloys and tempers have about the same stiffness; it is an inherent property of the aluminum itself. For that reason, most aircraft control push-pull tubes (including those in my gliders) are made of garden variety 6061-T6. So I would be very surprised if Blanik used anything but the Czech equivalent of 6061.

Thanks Bob K.

www.hpaircraft.com

[Tom Higgins]

Hi Bob

Thank you for that piece of information. I’m not a home builder so I’ve never read any of Stan Hall’s columns and was not aware of that property of aluminum. Interesting fact.

I agree that 6061 can be used for control rods in some applications but in this instance I need to respectfully disagree with you. I don’t currently have an L13 manual but I have the L23 MM and it says to use Czech spec. 424203 or Russian spec. D16 aluminum when replacing the push-pull tubes. The international alternative to D16 is 2024. Here is a technical quote from Blanik Aero, CZ:

Replacement Substitutions: In regions where original Czech-specification materials are unavailable (such as Australia), approved substitutes for structural and control components include 2024-T3 aluminum for simpler parts and 2014-T6 aluminum for more complex formed components.

Cheers,

Tom