Bill Daniels wrote:
Welcome to soaring, John.

The 'crowded skies' bogy is largely a fabrication of the evening news
'talking heads' and their editors who want to frighten people into watching
their programs (and their sponsors commercials).

In actuality, on the busiest days, there are only about 5000 aircraft
airborne over the 48 states at any time. Most of these are at altitudes
much higher than gliders usually fly or in the vicinity of major airports.
As avgas prices increase, the private piston fleet flies fewer and fewer
hours so the traffic density below 18,000 feet may actually be decreasing.
Most glider flying is done in remote areas where air traffic is very low.
In summary, there's LOTS of room in the sky to fly gliders. The glider
fleet could increase tenfold or more without problems.

Where a problem might arise is with the 'uphill capacity' of a local soaring
operation to launch a large number of gliders. A solution is 'self-launch'
gliders or my preferred solution - winches.

Unfortunately, it's a fact that the population of glider pilots is shrinking
which translates into fewer businesses and clubs where one can find gliders
to fly or tows to launch privately owned gliders.

The choice is a shrinking sport, a stagnant one or a growing one. I think
the happiest choice is a growing one. Cheaper gliders are a part of the
solution.

Bill Daniels



Hey Bill

Happy to announce that in some parts soaring is growing. We had four gliders in
one thermal on Sunday for the first time since I joined the club four years ago.
We could have launched one more, but the bridle for the Blanik failed launching
#1, so #2 had to go back to the hangar.

Used to be we battled to have enough members around to get an instructor and
student up reliably. On a good day we might launch two simultaneously, but three
was very very rare.

For what it is worth we had a very strange day with 7/8 or more cloud a lot of
the time, but lots of lift. Presumably the cold air caused by rain in the area
was drifting in and displacing relatively warmer air. In the occasional bit of
sunshine the thermals were very tight but very strong. Had the unusual
experience of getting 3-4m/s up at 20minutes to legal sunset. Airbrakes open for
most of the last fifteen minutes... (Thinks, maybe this is how the British
weather works)

Strange but fun. Which is the point, focus on it being fun and people join, I am
no longer the youngster at the club (at 40). This is also good.


"JohnWN in Burke, VA" wrote in message
news:Uvpld.1596$iR.1168@lakeread04...

I'm so new at soaring that I have only taken one glider ride in my life.
Having established that I'm not an expert on much of anything, here's my 2
cents worth. The VOLUME envisioned to make an affordable plane would
possibly make VFR flight impossible because of the huge number of planes

in

the air. So getting a cheap sailplane, might kill the sport that you want
to promote. I can imagine having to apply for an airspace usage permit

much

as we have to apply months or years in advance for reservations at some of
the most popular National Parks. On the other hand, I'm one of the people
that will have to join a club to have afford access to a plane.

My two cents


...john___________________________________________ __________________________
_____________________________________

"smjmitchell" wrote in message
.au...

I don't think that performance is a big cost driver.

The major cost drivers a
* development costs
* certification costs
* labour (for production)
* raw material costs

I suspect that all of these drivers will have a similar value

irrespective

of whether the glider is a APIS, 1-26 or LS-4. OK ... maybe the material
cost will vary a little but the difference is not going to result in a
glider that is 1/3 or 1/2 cheaper.

The biggest issue with the cost of airplanes is quite simply VOLUME. ...