IGC 13.5m class discussion

On Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:37:52 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

Experienced Sparrow Hawk pilots one
man rig without a 800 dollar one man rigger.

For the $44.000 you currently have to pay for a Sparrowhawk you can
buy a really nice ASW-20 and at least 15 one-man riggers of $800
each...



There are seveal really neat gliders that will
be able to fly in the 13.5 meter class. Think of all the time,
effort, and money that has been spent designing and building these
gliders.

If you have not tried it, don't ____ _____ __.

Problem of any less-than-15m class is that noone is interested in such
a glider in the countries where soaring is poular (German, Austria,
France, UK, et cetera), therefore - as Markus Graeber pointed out -
participation in an international contest in such a class is always
going to be poor. No manufacturer is ever going to design a glider
that offers less performance than current club-class ships.



What I always wonder about:
Since most of these gliders are concentrated in the US, why don't you
simply organize your own contest and ignore the IGC classes?

One of the most popular competitions in Germany is the "Pokal der
alten Langohren", a competition for obsolete open class ships like
ASW-17 and Nimbus 2. Since a couple of years we have competitions for
obsolete 15m-class ships, Ka-8, the French have an ASK-13
competition...



Andreas