On 10/4/2014 7:26 AM, wrote:

Now, I enjoy a flight in a 1-26 as much as anyone - fun little retro ship
- but for a new convert to the sport, its the shiny glass that attracts!

Have not seen the article and pics yet, but will tell you that shiny also
runs off many people when they find out how much it cost.

The 1-26 allowed me to purchase my first glider while the kids were still
in the house, begin flying contest, and do all my badge work through
diamond.

It is important to let people know that they can get in and play for the
price of an old used car instead of a mortgage.

I saw shiny glass before ever seeing anything else (clubmembers' H-201 and AS
W-12 at their respective homes as I was being handheld into the sport as a
wet-behind-the-ears collich grad), next weekend viewed the club's 1-26, and a
weekend later took my first flight in their (almost brand new!) 2-33. Forty
two years later I can even remember a brief, unvoiced, spot of mental dismay
at the perceived chasm between those glass babies and the club's equipment,
but since none of the "real soaring-capable adults" seemed to notice or care,
I remained silent...and forgot about it for several years as those unsexy
metal cans introduced me to soaring's charms.

For some, it's the activity that matters, not so much the equipment.

(Does snow in the mountains count as winter yet?...)

Bob W.