Attracting the kids

On Aug 15, 8:13 pm, Tom Gardner wrote:
The K13s benefits do have to be "explained" to adult trial flighters
and potential
members; the DG505 doesn't have that image problem. The club is
solving
that by ordering a couple of PW-6Us to replace a couple of the K13s.

Aston Down. At first I thought they were mad, as they charge quite
steep fees, but then thought about it some more and read about
Lasham's experiences with the DG1000s, so wrote

These PW6s look quite good value and make far more sense than the PW5
ever did. They're much cheaper than anything else in their class and
they make a good impression - a good, strong, modern ship. It might
take 10 years for a club to pay for one, but think of the benefits -
impresses visitors (=more members), can be used for XC training (=more
membership progression), generally a damn sight nicer to fly than a
tired old glider...

and then

I personally believe modern GRP trainers may well be worth it.
Membership costs seem to be surprisingly inelastic, and I suspect many
potential members would rather payer somewhat higher fees in return
for *far* better gliders.

On Tuesday. That said, I have a very soft spot for K13s and one in our
club was recently restored, and is now actually quite a smart ship.
People seem to like the bright colors it's painted in, and they have a
good view from the large one-piece canopy. K13s also typically enjoy
lower insurance and maintenance costs, as metal, wood and fabric is
cheaper to repair than GRP. Ergo:

That said I think
the K13 is the perfect trainer and if I ran a club with a fleet of
those, I'd just repaint them and keep them, then add a K21 or G103 for
XC training (consider that a mid-performance glider may be preferable
for early XC training, as it's unlikely that your new early XC pilots
will have access to gliders with any better performance!).


Dan