Apart from being a poor choice as a first glider in terms of rigging,
handling and approach control, you would be unlikely to want to stick
with an early Nimbus 2 for many years which would negate the logic
of wanting to buy it in the first place.

As a general point the early generation of GRP flapped gliders really
don't gain much from the flaps relative to slightly later unflapped
gliders - especially those, like the Nimbus, with Wortmann FX- 67
series profiles which are very badly affected by rain and bugs. The
standard class gliders from the LS4, Discus onwards are all seriously
useful, well sorted out gliders.

John Galloway



At 06:10 13 March 2015, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Friday, March 13, 2015 at 6:31:41 PM UTC+13, Surge wrote:
On Friday, 13 March 2015 05:23:49 UTC+2, Bill D wrote:
I have owned a N2C and I would not recommend it to a pilot
without
seve=
ral hundred hours experience in another high performance flapped
glider.
=20
Wow! That bad.
I found a similar thread with similar advice
https://groups.google.com/fo=
rum/#!topic/rec.aviation.soaring/zwO51PdZW00
It's just a pity that access to other flapped gliders is rather limited
o=
r expensive in my case.

I've never flown a Nimbus, but I've got a fair bit of experience in the
fir=
st generation Janus, also with flaps and all-flying tailplane.

To be honest, I'm not sure that hours matter that much with these
aircraft.=
You either "get" them or you don't.

I had 75 hours total, 54 hours PIC, when I started flying the Janus. It
was=
new to our club and expensive and they were very protective of it,
so I
ha=
d to do nine dual takeoffs and landings in a variety of weather
conditions
=
before they gave me my (pax) rating in it.

I've seen other people, experienced instructors in Grobs with
hundreds of
h=
ours, who took one or two flights in the Janus and declared they'd
never
se=
t foot in it again.

I definitely would recommend you to find an early model Janus and
do a few
=
dual flights in it before flying the Nimbus (preferably before
deciding to
=
buy it), even if you have to travel to do so.