At 21:49 26 December 2007, Brad wrote:
I think that the success of the Russia proved that
there was and maybe
still is a market for these lighter sports ships. I
also sorta think
that they saturated the market, and I also think that
if the Russia
had the 'look' that we sailplane pilots have come to
expect, that they
would still be in business. That is, if their price
stayed somewhat
the same. If the Apis was around at the same time as
the Russia, I
wonder how many Russia's would have been sold? Given
that the price
point was very close and the appearance of the Apis
is so close to
what we 'expect' I think the Silent may have been around,
but don't
think there was a US distributor at the time.

Brad

Any glider which has the 'look' that a bunch of old
geezer sailplane
pilots want is doomed to fail. Soaring has to evolve
into a fun
sport which is affordable to people in their early
working years and
what a bunch of old men want won't qualify. Soaring
in America needs
high altitude high capacity winch launch locations,
two seat trainers
which are economical to buy and operate and a single
seat glider with
launch and handling capabilities similar to the trainer
so a student
doesn't need to re-learn to fly so he/she can fly it.
The K21 has already
proven to be a great training aircraft and at US$64,000.
might be
economical to buy and operate. At over $100K it can't
earn enough to
pay for itself + instructor + insurance etc... That
design could be
brought to the US, made in larger volume, simplified,
rougher surface,
and no one learning to fly would care one iota about
its performance.
Ditto for a single seat glider which could handle a
large number of winch
launches and still have a return on investment. In
a club or rental
operation people would want to go flying, to hell with
performance if it
adds significantly to cost. And they won't care about
class because they
won't be flying in competitions. That's what old geezers
with plenty of
free time do.