On Tuesday, December 25, 2018 at 11:57:31 PM UTC-8, Senna Van den Bosch wrote:
Op woensdag 26 december 2018 08:56:40 UTC+1 schreef Senna Van den Bosch:
Op dinsdag 25 december 2018 21:50:41 UTC+1 schreef Eric Greenwell:
wrote on 12/24/2018 5:56 PM:

Senna,

Let me tell you my opinion about what 13.5 meters did for our Club.

For the longest time, we thought our members needed access to a single-seat 15-meter glider. With this, they could try cross-country, we thought. Eventually, members might buy their own 15-meter glider and go big time.. Well, that was not happening.

Then, we acquired a Russia. That got the Club interested in cross-country; but still, they were not breaking the string between their comfort and getting beyond glide of home base. For those of us with 15-meter cross-country experience, we didn’t realize that we were not relating to the members who wanted to fly cross-country, but not the way the rest of us were thinking. These 13.5-meter cross-country pilots were tickled silly to fly a 50 km flight. Who’d a thunk it.

Then, we acquired a PW-5. We held ground school sessions for the glider; the attendance was spectacular. We had solo student pilots checking out. The PW-5 schedule filled up to the point where members overflowed into the Russia.

Now we call it the 27-meter pilots.

Why did the PW5 energize the students/others so much more than the Russia? I've
flown both, and they seem nearly the same.


--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf

I was more looking into mini LAK, AS 13.5, GP 11, ... PW-5 looks interesting as a trainer but wouldn't be sufficient for me

Also pricing is hard to come by, second hand 13.5 meter gliders even more rare.

I went to Lithuania in October, flew an experimental version of the LAk 17b FES that had been upgraded to self-launch, and then the MinLAK FES. I liked the Mini so well that I bought it. The deciding factor for me was that when pushed, it seem to hold altitude almost as well as my LS-6. The wing profile and the fact that it will take water probably make the difference. wing loading (with water) is the same as my LS-6, which does Xcountry very well.

However, if price is a limiting factor for you, the Mini may be out of reach. The glider is very new, and there are currently only 3-4 in the US. It will probably be some time before you are able to find one used. But among 13.5 gliders, the Mini in MHO is the standout choice.