This has been a fascinating discussion. From my perspective as a weekend warrior flying a 32-year-old DG-400 just for fun, I have a couple of thoughts.. The idea that the high price of self-launching, open class ships capable of setting new national records is damaging the growth of our sport is specious. With or without a powerplant, the cost of these ships is well out of reach for the vast majority. National records are set by the very best pilots flying the very best equipment. People contemplating learning to soar don't say "Damn, that $200,000 top-end sailplane is too pricey, so I won't be able to set a new National record, so I guess I won't bother learning how to fly in the first place."

My first ship was an SGS 1-35, and I started flying cross-country in it. I had so many land-outs and retrieves in one season that folks suggested that rather than buy my tireless retrieve crews dinner, I simply pay for the whole club's annual holiday dinner party! This gave rise to the dream of a glider with "self-retrieve" capability. With the "iron thermal" behind my seat, I very rarely have to inconvenience anyone now, although it does happen.

In my experience, not flying for records, but attempting Diamond and personal best flights, I have made a very conscious decision to go below my "hard floor" for an in-air restart while trying to scratch out from a low point -- and I've landed out instead of starting the motor. My point being that if I'm pushing hard to make or continue a flight, I'm going to forget about using the engine for anything but the launch.

For an in-air re-start with the "infernal combustion" engine self-launcher, I will be on downwind for a suitable field, with the wheel down and the landing checklist complete, before I raise the engine. I plan to land, and if the engine starts (it has yet to fail) I am able to fly home. The soaring performance ends at that landing spot, just as it used to in my 1-35. To set records, (or, with my more humble aspirations, notch a 500K flight,) I can't let the soaring performance end, therefore I will fight gravity until it's far too late to use the engine and I must capitulate and land. However, I'm no Mitch Polinsky. Experts like this don't use their engines for a different reason -- they just don't get low in the first place, which is clear in reading his accounts of his record flights.

There are probably a dozen reasons why I prefer to have an older, self-launcher rather than a comparably priced, higher performance, more modern, non-self-launching glider. That's a topic for another thread.