I'm glad you came out to Avenal and had a good time. The practice day
was a pretty good day to be there. Sunday was spectacular as well.

RAS should get you many dollars worth of .02. Also worth searching
the archives as this is a reasonably common question that pops up and
you'll be able to find all the common answers that come up.

You've got a few unique aspects that need to be addressed though given
the need for hand controls.

Experimental Airworthiness would be good to simplify the requirements
for the hand control installation.
A glider with a hand lever brake or at least hand in addition to the
dive brake activated would be good. LS-4 uses toe or heel brakes I
think, I don't know about an LS-3. But you'll be able to retrofit
most gliders I'm sure.

You've got a good list. Schempp-Hirth and Schleicher are hard to
beat. The DGs fly well, but the company irritated more than a few
people with their expensive service agreement on older planes.

Flapped vs not is endlessly debatable. One advantage of flaps for you
is that once you've selected landing flaps, you would have your hands
free for stick and rudder. Less modulation than spoilers.

ASW-20s are pretty good value for performance and the cockpit is
pretty roomy. Stay away from those A model SH gliders. You really
wear those.

Hopefully you can sit in a few gliders and get a feel. If you come
back down to Avenal, we have an ASW-20, a DG-100 (Same fuse as a 300
essentially), Discus and even a B model Pik (flaps only, no spoilers)
we could pull out of a trailer and let you sit in it.

Auto hookups would be really nice (Discus, Ventus, ASW-24...) since
you're going to be relying on volunteers to help assemble your ship.
Fewer things to have to check or connect would be good especially
since being able to check your own control connections could be a
hassle.

As you'll see from old posts on this subject, do not discount the
trailer. A good Cobra trailer is really, really worth it. Again,
it'll help with getting your buddies to help with assembly. The
difference between a good trailer and an OK trailer is really
significant.

Good luck in your search. If you want to come down to Avenal again
some time, I'd be glad to pull a few gliders out of trailers and let
you sit in them and get a feel for cockpit size and then we can go fly
in my Duo and I'll kick the rudder pedals for you.

Morgan

On May 17, 3:23*pm, Justrolln wrote:
I’m new to the sport and am thinking about getting my first glider
this summer. *I was hoping that you guys would all put your 2 cents in
and help me sort through all the wonderful why A is better than B…
Some things I’m concerned about are

I’m 6’2” and mostly torso. *When I sit in a DG 1000 I take up a LOT of
the cockpit. *It’s not uncomfortable, but I don’t think I would go any
smaller…

I’m paralyzed from about the waist down – so I will be using a hand
controlled rudder (even more reason to have a good sized cockpit) –
Also, pushing myself around all day in my wheelchair has made my
shoulders a bit wide… *And, because I sit on my butt all day long, it
would be nice if I could fit a 1-2” pad under my butt while flying –
to prevent pressure sores on those long flights.

Ease of assembly: *since I can’t do it myself – I’m sure to be asking
others for help – and I’m sure people won’t hate me as much if my
glider is not a pain to put together…

Motor: *If I land out, it might be a really bad day for me. *Sitting
in the glider waiting until crew arrives could be a big bummer… *not a
total necessity, but a good thing to keep in mind.

Flaps: *I think I’d rather not have them… *I’m not sure how often you
adjust them in flight, but I’ll have right hand stick, left hand
stick, trim, spoilers, radio to worry about operating with my hands
already. *I figure one less thing would be ok… *But, if they really
help out maybe I should get them – I’m not too sure on this one

Type of flying: *I made it out to avenal for a day last week and had a
blast, while I will do a fair amount of hanging around my local
airport (crystal) my main goal will be cross country and racing.

$: *this is most likely the most important thing… *I would like to
keep it around the $50,000 or so mark. *I would pay more if there is
an engine in there (I’ve seen some DG 400s in the 60s…) *and if I can
spend $30,000 and get 95% of a $50,000 ship, i'd rather do that

Any input would be great, or if you have questions that I haven’t
thought of that would be great too.

Ships I’ve considered
ASW 20
ASW 24 (how do these handle – fast thermaling speed?)
Genesis 2 (big cockpit – but how does it fly)
Discus (with large fuselage)
Ventus
DG 303 elan
LS-3
PIK 20E
DG 400
Ventus CM

Thanks again for any help -