At 16:42 09 November 2010, bildan wrote:

If they persisted, they got pitched a $7,000+ "training package" in a
2-33. Once they looked at the 2-33, that deal became a really hard
sell.

A few of them walked over to the club to find they could train in a
well maintained G-103 or DG 505 for a small fraction of the cost, then
passed the word around. The 2-33 deal became nearly impossible to
sell.

I'll bet the commercial operator really appreciates the competition. Do
you not advertise? Why would *anyone* patronize the commercial operation
if you guys are available on the same field?

Certainly if a club can afford to put that kind of gliders on the field,
it's a much better situation than flying 2-33s (at least in some ways).
But my club would have to sell off our entire fleet of five gliders (wanna
buy a Blanik?) to finance just half the price of an ASK-21. It's really
hard to see how we get from here to there, particularly in these
hard-pressed times.

Jim Beckman