Little bit of history:
The design was to provide a more aerodynamic fuselage for the well known Grunau Baby with an option to put an engine with push propeller at the back of the fuselage.
This fuselage could be self made with available plans.
So the wings and elevator are the same as a Grunau Baby 2 and 3.
There are models with and without airbrakes, and with and without main wheel.
Designers of the first Cumulus were Gerhard Reinhard & Karl Heinz-Kneschke, first flight on 25th of August 1951 at the Wasserkuppe. The two designers did the first 2 flights, the third flight but first official flight was preformed by Hanna Reitsch the day after. This glider had the registration D-6000 and was the first glider to receive a permission of build after WW2, last flown at Brasschaat early 1960's, there it crashed and dissapeared. In the year 1958 there were some experiments with a motor of 15hp and a 3 bladed fold propellor at the back.
There are about 20 registered builds, but I have no clue how many are still flying. For now I only know 2 that are airworthy.
D-5480 (my Cumulus)
The fuselage was made at the aero club of Münster-Telgte (Münsterland). First flight was made on the 22th of September 1956. The Cumulus was sold to Harry Vanmolkot, he flew there in the 1960's. He bought it in 1966 for 100 Deutsche Marke, back then it was 1250 Belgian franc, about 30,99 Euro. Harry moved to Congo and the Cumulus disappeared to a storage place of a club member at that time. In 2016 Raf Torfs a member of Diest Aero Club discovered the glider again. It was in a hangar of an other old club member.
We went to take a look and decided to move the Cumulus to the hangar of Diest Aero Club.
Harry decided to sell the glider to me for 30,99Euro 😉.
Harry with his "D-5480"
During the visit we discovered the left wing had some serious water damage.
After inspection the left wing is damaged beyond repair, luckily there is a spare Grunau Baby wing which we can use.
This was also stored at the same place as the Cumulus. Probably with the intention to use it for the restoration. This wing was from a Grunau Baby 3 "babycham" from Diest Aero Club that had crashed in the 1970's. The pilot who flew the Grunau Baby climbed in a thunderstorm but had to make a crash landing in Tessenderlo, he survived the crash and only the left wing was usable. Lucky for us is this the wing we need!
Crash at Tessenderlo.