Why are so many Stemme S10-VT motorgliders for sale?

Stemme motorgliders are complicated, without a doubt,
but you can do some amazing things with them. Take
a look at some of the trips that Marty Hellman has
documented on his web site, http://ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/soarin
g/photos.html. If you are interested a resource you
should consider is Glider Bob in Telluride. He gives
rides, instructs and acts as a sales agent for many
sellers. I think he has been involved with Stemmes
since they first came to the US. Unlike Marty and
Glider Bob I am a relatively new owner but I am happy
to try to answer any questions.

Forest

At 00:06 30 October 2007, Pigro wrote:
On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 04:23:25 -0000, VARR wrote:


Are these people already upgrading to the Antares?
;-) I'm not
trolling, but rather am looking for actual information
and opinions on
the S10-VT motorglider.

I have been granted the right to use a Stemme for 2years,
tgether with
4 other friends. I must say I was lucky to get this
opportunity.

I've had some good flights, including a trip from Italy
to Morocco and
back.
It was an S10-v (not 'T'). Excellent performance in
cruise, not ideal
takeoff perfo. But I must say, with 2 people and full
tanks, I was way
beyond MTOW.
Good for taking friends in the air, excellent for soaring
safaris,
quite good for serious XC, especially if the center
of gravity had
been optimised (if setup for a 70kg solo, than it's
quite awkward in
thermals with 200kg in the cockpit...)

I never lost a day due to technical malfunctions.
TE probe never worked well.
Manoevrabily with positive flaps is less than satisfactory:
better
revert to zero, manoever, than +flaps again.

Maintenance costs are quite high, due to low propeller
TBO almost
doubling engine costs. I was told that later the TBO
had been
extended, thus reducing propeller costs by some 30%

Tough for landing in a crosswind. Things get easier
on a long runway.
The long legs of the undercarriage are much tougher
than they look.
But you do need a smooth surface.

Beware of small holes, ditches etc when taxiing on
grass: it's quite
easy to damage the propeller on a ground impact.

The VT has much better takeoff performance.

I regret having lost the opportunity to fly it: the
owner has finally
sold it.

Aldo Cernezzi
dg600M