What gliders do you hate?

I mentioned 2-32 in my comments...you replied with 2-33...

There is plenty more to transition to gliders than how a particular glider "handles"...you know, like all that soaring and stuff like that!

Sometimes you don't have a choice of what you get to teach in...so sometimes its a 2-32, sometimes 2-33....

Personally I like teaching beginners or transition pilots in ASK-21...if I had the choice...

But really, is there all that much difference from one glider to another? I mean, it's not like you need type ratings!

Cookie


On Saturday, January 3, 2015 6:29:47 PM UTC-5, Bill D wrote:
On Saturday, January 3, 2015 10:03:27 AM UTC-7, Cookie wrote:

My airplane transition pilots always seemed to like the 2-32 because it flies more like an airplane than it does like a glider.

Which would seem to be precisely the reason one would NOT want to use a 2-33 for transition. If it flies "just like and airplane" then what's the point of the transition? A trainer that flies like a real glider results in a transitioned pilot who knows how to fly a glider.

On Saturday, January 3, 2015 4:53:10 PM UTC-7, Cookie wrote:

But really, is there all that much difference from one glider to another? I mean, it's not like you need type ratings!

That's a difficult thing to get one's head around. Experienced pilots who have flown many types seem to feel most gliders handle pretty much alike but to beginners, the differences seem huge.

I think an airplane pilot transitioning to gliders needs a machine that provides the greatest commonality with what they will fly in the future so they can build on their transition experience rather than start over. A 2-32 or 2-33 just doesn't give them that.

ASK-21's are expensive and therefore somewhat rare in the US but they do represent an excellent common denominator for the existing fleet of high performance gliders. I would advise any airplane pilot transiting to gliders to seek out a place where they can use one.