Why does PW-5 get no respect?

(Chris OCallaghan) wrote in message . com...
The selection was based on much more than handling or aesthetics.
Cost, licensing for manufacture, home building options, long-term
factory support...

And how many homebuilt PW-5s have been completed? Or for that matter,
it seems the factory support has been a bit iffy?

The point is not which glider was selected, but that any selection
would have failed. (snip)

Good point, unfortunately. If they used the sailing model for
one-design classes, they completely missed the point. The popular
one-designs in sailing are either relatively inexpensive (such as
Lasers) so beginners can easily get into racing (Sorry, the PW-5 is
not inexpensive!), or very high performance and/or very expensive
(Finn, America's cup etc) so that they attract the serious racers. So
the World class concept was doomed unless it sanctioned a hot racing
ship (let's say LS-8), or came up with a design that 18 year olds
could afford to buy (like a used 1-26).

Obviously, neither happened. Some of the other criteria are bogus.
Homebuilding! Give me a break. Racers do not want to spend their time
building it, they want to be out flying it so they can win! The
emphasis should have been on mass production, not homebuilding.

And unfortunately, aethetics do count a lot in this sport. Sorry all
you PW-5 fans out there, but it just doesn't look like a racing
glider, by current standards. So most serious racers just blow it off
(probably unfortunately, since in the right conditions I'm sure it's a
lot of fun to race!).

If it ever gets common and inexpensive enough (think 1-26) it may then
have a chance, by default. I hope so, because nothing else seems to
be out there in sufficient numbers yet.

Our experience out here in AZ is that several pilots (both new glider
pilots and experienced racers) bought PW-5s a few years ago - and
after a few seasons most got rid of them and either moved up to higher
performance used ships or motorgliders!

Hopefully the PW-5 will have a future as a 1-26 replacement in club
and commercial rental fleets (in the US at least).

Kirk