On Friday, January 4, 2019 at 9:57:07 PM UTC-6, John Foster wrote:
On Friday, January 4, 2019 at 7:16:48 PM UTC-7, WB wrote:
We just went to one of our local banks. Told them we wanted to finance an aircraft and stipulated that we wanted a loan where we could choose to just pay interest if we wanted. I seem to remember that it was Suntrust Bank.. They were OK with that. I think we paid maybe $1500 down on a Ka7 that was going for around $8000. Don’t remember the interest rate. Lea County State Bank in Hobbs, NM specializes in glider loans (thanks to their relationship with SSA). They would probably be the logical place to start.

Thanks. I'll look into those two options.

On a separate note: how was the Ka7 as a first club two-seater? I realize that visibility from the rear seat is sub-optimal, but was it an OK glider to start with, for the money? I've been given a Ka8, which I intend to restore and use as a club glider, but it could only be used for licensed glider pilots, and right now, there are only two of us in the area.

We currently use a Ka7 as our primary trainer. The Ka7 is fine trainer, but getting a little old. There have been a couple of catastrophic failures of Ka7 wings in the past few years, so if you are looking at a Ka7, have it carefully inspected by someone who knows wood aircraft. Apparently, compression damage in the wings spars is the thing to look out for. Also, be careful about the condition of the fabric. The factory only used adhesive with no rib stitching to attach the wing fabric. I know of one Ka7 that lost most of the fabric off the bottom of one wing in flight. Luckily, the top fabric held and a safe landing was made. That Ka7 now has new, rib stitched covering on the wings. Ka7's ground launch very well, but remember that ground launching can put quite a lot of stress on the wings if not done correctly. As a trainer, the Ka7 will do a better job of training students for transition to high performance gliders than a 2-33, however, it will take students a few more flights to solo the Ka7 than it would the 2-33. Assuming it's airworthy, one major downside to a Ka-7 is the requirement to have a dry place to store it, preferably a hangar where it can be kept assembled. The other problem is that the front cockpit is kinda small for the "modern physique". Ka8's are the logical single place glider to complement the Ka7. We have 2 Ka8's now that are flown by everyone including solo students. We also have a fiberglass 2 seater (Scheibe SF-34), and a Standard Cirrus reserved for rated pilots.