The ASW20 in its day was/is a racing thoroughbred, set up properly and
flown by a experienced pilot was the best glider in its era. But it is not
tolerant of mishandling, in particular use the flaps wrongly and it will
bite you and in common with other designs of the time the wing is biased
to a climb profile.
Later designs used by the LS6, ASW27 and Ventus had much more cruise
biased wings and outclassed the 20. The earlier LS6 A and B were OK but
the 18m LS6C is the gem, as is the 18m LS8 and command premium price. As a
15m ship the ASW27 is still at the top of the tree and should be included
in this discussion.
In short if you are a switched on pilot with not many bucks you will love
the ASW 20 and accept its vices. If you value the extra refinement and can
pay double the bucks the LS6C is a damn good choice. Enjoy either for your
own pleasure and goals, neither will make you world champion,

Dave

At 17:44 05 February 2011, Marc wrote:
On Feb 5, 5:16=A0am, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
On Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:31:23 -0800, Marc wrote:
I've owned a 20B, plus had several flights each in a couple of
differen=
t
20s and a 20C. =A0The 20B and 20C both had beautiful handling, no
tende=
ncy
to spin unless forced, and were well mannered in all configurations.
One 20 (low serial number, IIRC) would spin without much warning in
thermal or landing flap and always in the same direction (over the
top
if I was turning the opposite way), the other would do so only in
landing flap, both seemed a bit twitchy at times. I suspect
Schleicher
was still learning how to build glass gliders in a repeatable
fashion
during the 20 production run, the 20B/C show the benefits of
experience
(plus reduced landing flap travel)...

Curiosity: have you any idea what the serials were for those 20s?
Mine was 20034, so fairly early...

The worst of the two was in the single digits, it was destroyed
several years later in a fatal stall/spin accident with a low time
pilot at the controls. The other one I have no idea about. I'll also
mention that the most important reason I had at the time for buying a
used 20B instead of a 20 was the automatic elevator hookup, I've had
two soaring friends die as a result of disconnected elevators, and
both were far more diligent pilots than I...

Marc