On Tuesday, October 6, 1998 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, William Hoadley wrote:
Does anybody have experience with the Russia sailplanes AC-4 series of
gliders? I was curious about how they might be for a pilot not interested
in competition, just sport and badge flying. Any comments would be helpful.
Bill Hoadley

Well... It has been a long time since I owned the Russia, but since I have about 700 hours in the AC4-A I can say it was a fun ship to fly. Easy to maintain, and easy to rig. As far as a cross country ship I did every thing I wished to do in it. I never found the lack of penetration to be an issue, just had to circle more than some others, and it took more time to get home on those days. The ship is made light weight, and it does take a bit of care not to put hangar rash on it. Mine was the first AC4 in the country so there wasn't much to compare it to. Some guys wanted to compare it to a 1-26 and it is clearly not. I learned quite a lot flying this ship. I had not learned to thermal well before owning this machine so I was doing a lot of learning the ropes with it. It climbs well with the fairings added. Many engineering types tell me the fairings are too big and should have been half the size. It didn't matter to me as they did improve the performance markedly. If you can buy one with a good trailer you will have no trouble with it. The price is right and all that considered. And yes I did complete my Diamond Goal flight, 1999 in this ship. Took six hours to go 300 K the first time. Did repeat many more 300 K flights in a lot less time after that. I sold the Russia to a gentleman in 2004 and hes since sold it to another pilot who lives in Maine. It still is flying as far as I know.

Tom Udd