On Saturday, August 3, 2019 at 7:51:39 AM UTC-4, Terry Pitts wrote:
I have periodically seen Pilatus B4s for sale. Mostly in the mid-teen price range. There was one in Germany a couple years ago for $5,500 w/o a trailer - THAT wasn't going to work!

I have come to enjoy glider aerobatics. I live in Augusta, GA. If someone were to have a Pilatus they wanted to sell, I could be interested in buying one.

I don't want to pay a huge premium to convince someone to part with their "family heirloom, Oshkosh best of show, little old lady only did aeros on Sunday" but I'm sure there are underused/unused gliders out there not too far from Georgia that someone just hasn't gotten around to listing for sale yet.

A Swift and a Fox are an order of magnitude out of my price range. My club has an ASK-21 I do some aerobatic training in.

I'm looking at a non-aerobatic single seater in the same price range and thought I'd ask about B4s before spending money and then "the perfect Pilatus" shows up on Wings and Wheels! I can best be reached at my Yahoo address of ltcterry2006 and you know the rest.

Thanks!

Terry

Terry - if you are looking for a decent combination between aerobatics and XC-capabilities, I would add the H101 'Salto' to the list. I flew one for a summer and actually did my first 300km triangle in it. Later models were available with wingtips boosting the wingspan to slightly over 15m (don't even ask why!). The V-tail is absolutely no problem in flight.
I also flew a B4 and can tell you that the H101 is the better XC performer!
The only limitation is the size the pilot can be. I am 6-1 and did fit well but much taller folks may have a problem.
Finding one that is for sale may as difficult than finding a B4 ...

Uli
'AS'