Buying a glider, advice on type and prices

OK, My two cents..

Just get a one man rigger, and you won't ever have to lift the wing
roots any more. I have used one for the last 20+ years, and they
work great. The bonus is that you don't have to trust some non-
glider person from the general public to not drop a wing when you
don't have any savvy glider types around. You can even land after
everyone else has left the field, and de-rig by yourself.

I am also 6'2" tall and 205 Lbs. Until I got my Discus-2b in 1999,
I had never been really comfortable in almost all prior types I had
flown. I was always worried that I was either going to put my head
through the canopy on an off field landing, or my head was stuck so
far back (almost behind the canopy) that I had to use glare shield
mirrors in order to see other gliders behind my wing line in a
thermal. (positively dangerous at a WGC level with 50+ other
aggressively flown gliders in the same thermal with you)

I was amazed when I sat in the prototype D-2b at the factory. Tilo
and Biggo just had big smiles on their faces, and said "We finally
designed a cockpit where everyone can be comfortable." I couldn't
believe it when I put a normal chute on, left the seat back in place,
sat in the seat, had my legs flat on the floor, and had to pull the
rudder pedals back 2 notches. I have done a fair amount of contest
flying, and most of my competitors had always had a comfort
advantage over me before the D-2b. Not any more.. My D-2b is
now 17 years old (with no spar waves), and it still goes with the
best and the newest Standard Class that are out there today. Oh,
the handling also happens to be superb, and the control hook-ups
are automatic. Yes, the newer gliders are more expensive, but in
this case, I definitely got what I paid for, and it has been well worth
it for me....

Good luck..

RO




Thanks again everyone for keeping the discussion going, I'm
learning a lot.
We don't have many high performance gliders at our site and few
pilots
seem=
to go cross country.
Have started visiting other clubs to fly different types with flaps
etc.
Al=
so helping more to rig and see how easy or difficult they are.
Definitely keeping away from older types, gell coat problems, poor
spares
a=
nd heavy wings. I've built and maintained aircraft for years but no
longer
=
have the facilities, patience and time on my side to be repairing. I
just
w=
ant to fly as much as possible.

Essential that it is light and easy one man rig due to my age and
lack of
a=
ssistance most days.
In current production or easy to obtain spares.
Yes I would like it to have a good resale value if possible.
Discus, Discus 2 and LS8 keep popping up.
Not sure why a difference of opinion on the ASW27 and ASW28
otherwise
these=
would be on the short list too. I thought they would be good
machines and
=
hold the price well?
SZD55 may not hold price so well but much cheaper to buy
initially?
Semi-aerobatic would be a bonus, just the odd loop and chandelle
on poor
so=
aring days. (we get a lots of them!)
I'm not really in to competitions.