It'll be years before I finish my Europa, and I have no particular
intention of trailering it. This, however, is primarily because outside
tiedown space in the USA is cheap and readily available--and so are used
20-foot marine shipping containers. A coat of reflective white paint,
perhaps a solar-powered fan for ventilation, and voila`!--an instant
hangar, and a pretty bulletproof one, at that.
That being said, as an old glider pilot who's landed out more times than
I care to remember (and _way_ more times than I'd planned to!), I see no
problems if your trailer and aircraft mounting systems are well
designed. My old Zugvogel IIIB has probably logged well over 10,000
road miles with no significant adverse effects.
One point worth noting: if you intend any metal-to-metal contact with
aircraft mounting components (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it
gives you a _very_ rigid way of securing things), make the trailer bits
out of something a little softer than the airplane bits! On my trailer,
for example, the glider's steel spar fittings are captured by trailer
pins with brass bushings--thus, the brass wears rather than the steel
(and I've replaced the bushings a couple of times over those 10,000
miles; the steel remains pristine).
Good luck!
Peter Lert
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