Mr. 89-

Speaking as a VentusB owner, I would make the following
comments:

1.) Do you fit? Does it have winglets?

2.) What are your flying goals? How many hours/season?

Ventus are excellent at going fast. They are not so
excellent in regards to handling. The trailing edge
approach control devices are different then spoilers.
If you were striving to start a lot of cross-country
and/or racing, and were conservative in your approach(Not
so sure you would be flying it this season). I might
say 'maybe'.

But I think as first glider for a low time pilot,
it might not be such a good idea, IMHO.


At 23:42 01 February 2004, Solo89 wrote:
Let me first apoplogize for posting a first glider
question. What the
heck, there's not much soaring weather out there to
distract us this
time of year.

A Ventus A is up for sale at a very attractive price
in the local
club. I currently have about an hour on my brand new
ticket. I think
the plastic is still warm.

Assuming I have the discipline to fly 20 - 30 hours
in G102/G103 (the
103 was my trainer) what are the odds of surviving
with a Ventus A and
not much experience ?

I am a conservative person by nature and doubt I'll
do anything
actively stupid. Passive stupidity is an entirely different
matter.

At the very least, I think the first few landings may
be intimidating.
I will have the luxury of about 4000' feet of grass
or 5000' of
pavement when landing.