Which 18m FES sailplane to buy?

On Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 1:42:36 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 8:14:37 AM UTC-8, Sean Fidler wrote:
...Dave Nadler's Antares 20e is for sale and is ready to go...

I certainly considered it. The Antares 20E is my dream machine.
Dave was of the opinion that it's not suitable for a low-time pilot,
I guess because of the need to handle the possibility of the motor
not starting and the motor pylon failing to retract. Also, because
of the increased complexity of a self launcher in general.

To repeat what I said to Ben:

The Antares is a VERY easy machine to fly, with failure modes
(especially sink with pylon out and motor stopped) more benign
than anything except FES (but Antares has fewer controls!).

Ben informed me he has 50 hours experience, with
no experience in high performance or with flaps.
Please no offense, but you're discussing the merits of various
models, with a guy just received driver's permit,
in the Ferrari showroom.

50 hours is IMHO no where near enough to be considering motorized
gliders and certainly not self-launchers. FIRST get a 100 or 200
hours of experience in high-performance, including XC and a few
out-landings, THEN get the self-launch training and endorsement.

A seriously motivated person can do this quickly by booking continuous
training courses at any number of advanced operations (available
certainly in Europe, Oz, not in USA this time of year). Certainly
I know folks that have gone from zero to complex gliders including
self-launch quickly and safely this way. Flying with most clubs
it will be VERY hard to quickly get up to the level of experience
needed to be safe in advanced machines (even in the few USA clubs
with the appropriate equipment and instructors). No disrespect
to Ben's club either, and I'd love to see it work, but truly...

Hope this helps clear some of the fog,
and Ben hope you have a blast learning,
Best Regards, Dave