At 14:27 07 September 2017, Tango Whisky wrote:
Le jeudi 7 septembre 2017 13:30:07 UTC+2, Paul T a
=C3=A9crit=C2=A0:
or maybe it wasn't supported by several prominent national=20
aeroclubs/national gliding organisations which primarily have
leadership=
=20
dominated by wealthy individuals with expensive toys that tend to
over=20
focus resources on their bit of the playing field and not on others.

Nonsense. In the price range of the PW5, and below, there has always
been
t=
he Club class (or Sports class) which is extremely popular in Europe.

The PW5 story stalled because there was just no incentive to buy a
brand
ne=
w, very ugly glider when you can have more performance for less
money by
bu=
ying a nice looking Cirrus.


So now we have 6 classes for the 'rich boys' and 1 class for the
'poorer/average income guys' and a sport that is in serious decline. As
stated the PW5 was meant to be a first solo club ship that could be used
in competition - just like a modern 1-26. Some aeroclubs/national
organisations got on board with this, some did not - and there was
certainly a lot of 'snobbery' re the PW5.