soaring into the future

Those with long memories, and who followed the 'World
Class' saga from the beginning will recall that an
initial part of the specification included a low production
price. The objective was for an International affordable
class.

IGC delegates who neither supported nor opposed the
concept didn't worry because any competent engineer
knew that you couldn't manufacture a new glider for
the target price, so the concept was a non-starter
anyway.

When that became obvious at a late stage, the price
requirement was quietly dropped and the World Class
had too much momentum to stop; meanwhile the very successful
Club Class had already filled the objectives and we
have a (albeit fun to fly) white elephant.

All somewhat reminiscent of the confusion which resulted
in 2 15 meter classes, and which took nearly 20 years
to get to the 18 meter class we could have had in the
70s.

At 08:48 27 December 2007, Cats wrote:
On Dec 26, 10:54=A0pm, Marc Ramsey wrote:
wrote:
Well, the PW-5 did not failed. It was designed to
meet the
requirements and concept promoted by the FAI. That
concept called for
glider =A0with L/D in low 30-ties. So, it wasn't
the glider as much as
the pilots who failed by demanding more performance
and not
understanding the concept. The 'One Design' class
will fail again in
the future regardless of what kind of glider is used
for that specific
purpose. And that is sad.

I agree, and that is why I say that some of us in
the soaring community
need to rethink what we are doing (those of you with
an Antares on
order, carry on 8^).

Most of us can't afford an Antares, but many second-hand
good-
condition, well-equipped 40:1 ships are affordable,
so why spend a lot
more money on a 30:1 ship than on a 40:1 ship?

Maybe the failure was the initial performance specification
from the
FAI. I can't remember if the Junior was a contender
or not, but it
fits a lot of the criteria - L/D, suitable for early
solo, fixed gear
and so on - and having just started flying a 40:1 ship
instead there's
no way I'd consider spending my hard-earned cash on
a new PW5 instead
of a second-hand 40:1 Club Class ship.

Is it a failure of mine to want to be able to progress
into wind? Or
to want a glider where serious XC (not that I'm capable
of that yet!)
can be done in a wider range of conditions, not just
on the 'day of
the year' which just about *always* is a working day?