On 31 Jan 2009 12:45:03 GMT, Jim Beckman
wrote:

At 22:52 30 January 2009, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:32:48 -0800 (PST), toad
wrote:

So how many pilots can show up and expect on a good day to get a 3-5
hour XC flight in ? 7 gliders doesn't seem like enough for 80 pilots.

Usually 2 gliders are reserved for XC, each pilot has got about 5 to 6
weekend days per season where the glider belongs to him.

Let's see if I can manage these numbers at all. 80 pilots,
five days, that's 400 days. Divide by 2 XC gliders, that's
200 days. Divide again by 2 days per weekend, that comes
to around 100 weekends per season. Where did you say all
this happens? And I don't suppose it ever rains?

Not everyone is flying XC in my club every day.
First of all, you have to deduct 25 student pilots, resulting in about
60 licensed piltos who are alowed to go XC.

Of those, in 2008 22 pilots took part in XC-flying with club gliders,
some reserving a glider for their vacatiuon or for a competition. We
reserved two gliders per day (two single seaters or one single seater
and one double seater) for XC. Depending on the weather, some XC with
a reserved glider pilots don't even show up, freing up the glider for
someone else. Most of the XC flying on club gliders is done during the
week.

All of the "really serious" XC pilots own a glider.
Works pretty well - actually, often we don't even use all the glider
we have.