On 11/6/2010 2:35 PM, Bob Whelan wrote:
On 11/5/2010 4:02 PM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:44:18 -0500, Jim Logajan wrote:

wrote:

Snip...

1) Do you think you can get *ANY* young person interested in
soaring if
what they see is a 2-33? After playing any modern computer game? After
watching movies like "The Fast and the Furious"? The 2-33 looks
like a
dog and flies slowly.

I started lessons when I was 52. I didn't have a problem with the
club's
2-33 because it is possible I'm not a shallow youth anymore. ;-)

I started learning when I was 54, and that was certainly thanks to a
ride
in an ASK-21. I'd had a couple of trial flights 8-10 years previously in
an ASK-13, but though it was a nice experience it didn't inspire me to
take up gliding. However, and I don't know why, that flight in an ASK-21
in the fall of '99 at Front Royale set the hook and I joined
Cambridge GC
in the UK at the start of the 2000 season, picking them for no better
reason than they were the only local club with a glass training
fleet. As
it happened I couldn't have chosen better given the club's strong xc
culture. This became apparent at the 2001 Regionals when I got my first
cross-country ride in the club's G103: I had a ring-side seat as my P1
won the day on handicap.


OK, I'm convinced. Having as many as possible intro gliders into
soaring is better than having fewer...regardless of WHAT the intro
gliders look like!

Bob - options are good - W.

P.S. Now I'm ready to be convinced it makes economic sense within our
non-growing sport to junk perfectly functional sailplanes - i.e.
sailplanes that meet *some* (or they'd've been retired already) real
club/commercial operator needs - in favor of replacements carrying
considerably higher up-front replacement/ongoing insurance costs, just
because the former were designed before 'ergonomics' gained favor!

Our club had an ASK 13; later, it had a Blanik L13. An ASK 21 might have
helped us get a few more members, but what we really needed was a
tricycle gear towplane! Over the years, it got harder and harder to find
pilots with enough tail dragger time to fly the tow plane. So, towards
the end of club's existence, the club glider, the private gliders, and
the tow plane often sat on the ground because we couldn't find a tow
pilot for the day.

If we'd had a trike gear airplane, like the 150 hp Cessna 150 we
rejected in favor of the Citabria when we bought our tow plane, we
would've had pilots fighting for the chance to do tows.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl
- "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation Mar/2004" Much of what you need to know tinyurl.com/yfs7tnz