At 20:00 02 February 2009, Derek Copeland wrote:

So how *do* we explain the continuing (I hope) popularity of the
Schweizer
1-26 in America?

Masochism perhaps?

Maybe I'm missing something - is cross country soaring supposed to be
easy? OK, there may be places where you can't even sustain local soaring
in something like a 1-26, but I would guess there are very few such places
in the US. And I always figure that if you can stay up locally for an
hour or so without too much sweat, then you can go somewhere. Even in a
1-26.

One thing we've got organized at Blairstown is a season-long competition
for 1-26s, called the Do-It-Yourself contest. The contest manager
specifies a course of local turnpoints for a course of around Silver
Distance. This can (and should) be done without being beyond glide range
of the home field. But it demonstrates that flying to a specified point
and returning is not the same as just doodling from one thermal to another
to stay aloft locally. Every month of two the task changes, and there are
some very nice awards given at the end of the season. It's a pretty good
idea.

Jim Beckman