John,

The Discus 2CT isn't intended to improve on the Ventus
- they are different model lines, one derived from
the 15m racing class Ventus, and the other from the
standard class Discus 2. The Discus 2 is not 'club
class' but winner of the first three places in the
recent world championship standard class. You already
have a non-flapped standard class derived 18m glider
in your list (LS8t) so the D 2CT would be directly
comparable to that.

All of these 18 meter gliders have such good performance
and handling that unless you are at world championship
standard the differences in performance are unimportant
and the glider that feels best and most comfortable
to you and does the things you want it to do would
be best.

It sounds like the Antares electric self launcher might
interest a man of your means if you want the absolute
leading edge of technology:

http://www.lange-flugzeugbau.de/english/english.html

John Galloway


At 12:48 07 October 2003, John Mason wrote:

'John Galloway' wrote in
message ...
? add Discus 2CT (18m turbo) to your list. Of course
it hasn't flown yet but will do fairly soon and deliveries
start next year.

The D2CT basically seems to be a single seat Duo in
that it shares very similar wing design in wing section,
swept plan form, and polydihedral and there seems
to
be every reason for it to share the Duo's exceptionally
sensitive and benign handling characteristics. It
also seems to have the new Maughmer winglets that
seem
pretty successful on the Ventus 2CX. These are my
own thoughts and not based on any comments from the
factory.

Thanks for this information.

The question does follow though: What improvement
the Discus 18m can give
on the flapped Ventus and why if it is a better aircraft
than the Ventus
that the factory consider it worth developing a new
model rather than
improve the Ventus?

I suspect it is the case that the new Discus is really
made to be a 15m club
class option and they thought they could just stick
on some wing extensions
for those people who don't like flaps or for those
15m pilots to have the
option of 18m as a low cost extra. If this is the
case it doesn't sound
like a solution designed for the job I need, which
is a no compromise top
performing ship.


IMHO the benefits of a self launcher over a turbo
are
far outweighed by the extra cost, weight and maintenance
demands of the SLMG. In the UK just take a winch
launch and pop the engine out if you need more height
instead of wasting money on an aerotow.

For me weight is the only issue. I can afford the
extra costs and can pay
the extra for maintenance, I am not too bothered by
the resale issue. I
have a current PPL and so the SLMG PPL is no big deal.
I do like the idea
of being independent and not needing a club launch
with its inevitable
waiting around. For me this is the main trade off.
Does the weight
disadvantage of a self launcher compared to a turbo
offset the advantages of
time saving, independence and climb rate that you have
with the self
launcher?

So really I have a two part question.

1. Turbo vs Self Launcher?

2. Which ship?

Cheers,
John