In article ,
Marcel Duenner wrote:
Is my impression correct that in the U.S. many if not most fly around
with handheld radios only?
If yes - why?

In (continental) Europe virtually all sailplanes have built-in radios.

None of our 5 club gliders have radios. Part of it is to
keep the rent cheap, cheap, cheap. Another part is simplicity:
nothing to break, repair, steal, or recharge. Another part is that
we very seldom have simultaneous tows, and the 400 foot width
of our main runway makes unplanned simultaneous landings a cinch.
Finally, there is very, very little "radio required" airspace
within even 50 miles, and I don't know anyone who has
made it to 18,000 above our sea level airport (18,000 feet is
again where radios are required).

I suspect in Europe there is much less open land, and much less
uncontrolled airspace. And I suspect gliding is much
more popular because petrol is so expensive and in some
countries one must get a scheduled "slot" to fly a plane.
I imagine this is why winches are popular too.
On aerotow, there are signals that don't require radio,
and are easy to see from 200 feet.
On winch, I bet radios really help a lot.
Don't the flight levels start at 6000 in some places too?
Do you need radios for this?

Now on the US East coast, I couldn't say if radios are
commonly installed. I suspect it's more likely since
the controlled airspace on their sectionals seems to
appear with some regularity...

Perhaps someone could tell us what radio requirements
are over the pond, or in other parts of the world.
In the US, the bahamas, and mexico, it's very easy
to fly anywhere, except major (500,000 person+) city
airports, using only a handheld.