Beginner questions about buying a sailplane...

You pose a good topic for this group. There are going to be several
opinions offered so I will submit my commentary and hope this helps.
If you are serious about purchasing a glider even in a year or so, do
some research and focus in on a specific type of machine. Whether it
is glass, wood, or any other construction, find one to look at, sit
in, ask to help rig the machine. Ask lots of questions of an owner
who regularly fly's that particular model and type. Ask about the
sailplane log book and read the entries about maintenance and
depending on it's AW certificate type find out if there are entries
for each instrument installation, and modification. Purchasing a ship
with bad or sloppy paperwork can be difficult to rectify during an
annual inspection if you inspector goes strictly by the book. Check
to see if the hours are up to date and it has a current annual
inspection. Cheap prices can mean there are large maintenance items
pending. Having someone you pay to inspect and look for issues is
very cheap insurance to avoid potential problems to repair later. If
you do find a good machine, it must have a good trailer and fittings.
Nothing makes a misery more than a poorly organized trailer. The
annual maintenance costs will vary with each machine, be prepared to
spend at least $1000 annually. You may not have to spend this much,
but i'd be suprised if you didn't. after all you will need a better
Vario, or a updated PDA or maybe a flight computer, a new main tire,
or tailwheel, Self rigging dolly and the list goes on and on...


Buy what you can have fun with and stay within your budget,

Hope this helps

TU

All good answers above.

My suggestion is to ask the seller to have you help them assemble the
glider. This will be telling. It will tell you if YOU will be able
to assemble the glider easily and two people can do it, or if it too
difficult and needs more than two people. It will also tell you how
good the trailer is. To understand the continum of easy to difficult,
help those in your club assemble their gliders. This happens often
for glass (once a flight), but not very often for non-glass (once a
year). Or bring along someone experienced who will give you a rating
1-10. That is a good idea anyway to spot things that you might note
(blinded by visions of a new glider).

Hidden expenses - Not many. Insurance (get a quote) and annual
inspection is obvious. Tape, polish, etc is cheap. What might be a
surprise? An instrument that isn't working. They can be expensive
but this happens surprisingly seldom. But how can you test when you
are on a buying trip and the glider is on the ground short of a test
flight? (unlike powered, you will almost never get a flight before
buying unless its a two place) Answer, you basically can't. So get
the seller to guarantee the instruments are good. Most sellers will
not have an issue with this.

Trailers - Someone told me that the first glider you will buy for the
fuselage and cockpit, and the second for the trailer. For the $10K
range, you will most likely not get a great trailer. The assembly
test above is key to seeing if the trailer is good enough for you. I
love my trailer and its a homebuilt! The only problem is that it is
heavier than the nicer fiberglass/aluminum trailers. How mechanical
are you? You might be able to take an iffy trailer and fix it up
(easier than fixing up an iffy glider's airframe). I went from a
trailer that was OK to rig to one that is really quite easy to rig by
adding a few innovations of my own.

Automatic control hook ups - For $10K you probably won't get this. I
have a DG-101 and it has hotellier. Not too bad. Again, a trial
assembly is useful. DG's are basically easy to rig and easy fly.

My $0.02.

Good Luck,
John DeRosa
http://aviation.derosaweb.net/dg101