Michel Talon wrote:
Bert Willing wrote:

In rural France, maybe... but then, who wants a house there :-)



A lot of brits apparently :-)


For an estimation of the "real price" of a glider, real estate is not of
much help. If you compare it to the mean of yearly gross income, you will
find that gliders haven't become that much more expensive.


Income of whom, exactly? If of drug dealers, perhaps, yes. If of honest
civil servants, then salary is straight the same as ten years ago and
gliders are twice as expensive.


And anyhow, looking at 2-years+ delivery times, these prices don't seem to
be a big problem to a significant number of pilots.


So significant that many glider manufacturers went belly up. Let's be serious,
gliders have become out of reach for almost anybody here.


I just had my wife's first car refurbished. She is irrationally fond of it, so
the money is well spent.

Some observations - her "mom's taxi" is a high tech airbag equipped 7 seater
with more processing power than the moon lander. An Opel Zafira, it is nothing
special in the school parking lot.

Now her concourse 1976 1275cc Mini GTS with it's 12" rims and 58kw motor, and
leather upholstery DOES stand out in the same car park. It has been returned to
better than original, at a cost of 10x it's original purchase price. The mini
was a popular moms taxi when I was at school. Compared to the house prices of
the time, I suppose the comparison is similar. Both the car and glider are
vastly more sophisticated and more expensive. The house is also vastly more
expensive, but it has changed a lot less relatively.

So - I get to drive a 1970 revision of a 1950s design, that in a nutshell
equates to the comparison between my Std Cirrus and a new Ventus 2Cx.

The modern vehicle is an imense advance over the 35 year old, irrespective of
the condition. And yes, I have an enormous amount of cheap fun in both the mini
and the Cirrus too...


--
Bruce Greeff
Std Cirrus #57
I'm no-T at the address above.