Hi... and some questions from a beginner

I have been saving up for a soaring vacation for over 5 years now, and it has finally materialized and is coming up in a couple of weeks.

I am going to be spending 6 straight days in Minden - no work - maybe just a little bit of internet - and a little bit of hiking and a little bit of photography - but mostly just flying. I am super excited.

I first got the soaring bug about 20 years ago during my last semester of undergrad @North Carolina State - where I started taking lessons on the weekend and was able to accumulate about 16 hours of PIC plus two very unimpressive solo flights in a 2-33. I wasn't able to finish up because life and acceptance of a job got in the way and so I headed out west for a career. I briefly tried to fit gliding into my hectic lifestyle out there and accumulated another 10 hours or so in a L23 but never solo'd it. The L23 then suffered a slight mishap, and then a move to Truckee and I kinda lost interest.... until recently... And boy is that interest as strong as ever (and I am now back on the east coast).

So I have decided to give myself a dream vacation. I have 6 straight days of lessons at Minden in a ASK-21 - it's ok if you are jealous! Is this the right way to do it? I don't know... but being super busy, I feel like finally getting the vacation of my dreams is something I can't turn down.

1) Here is the thing... my local club (back on the east coast) uses a 2-33 as their trainer. I am a little uneasy about the transition from the K-21 back to the 2-33. I mean, I do hold some sentimental value with the 2-33, but I kinda want to move on. The club also has a Grob 103 Twin II - however, they no longer use this for training. Hmmm... Advice on this transition would be very helpful.

2) Anyone know what the average age group is on RAS? How about the average age group of the SSA?

3) What is the European equivalent of the SSA?

4) I assume south-eastern US thermalling is a completely different skill set than ridge/wave, or desert thermalling. Is soaring in the south east really that bad? I remember learning how to look for things like pig farms, asphalt parking lots, and birds circling... I guess that is what I got to learn to recognize.

5) I work in the tech industry, and thus am fascinated with the progression of tech used for soaring and sometimes the seeming "lack" of progression of tech. I have been playing around a bit with both iGlide and WinPilot - both are neat, however, I don't expect my CFI to be well versed with either of these. While learning about iGlide, I noticed the completely sexy line of Air Avionics systems and the Butterfly S vario... Then I started reading about it and noticed this really crazy part of the docs.

Something to the effect of "Note: The artificial horizon feature is not allowed for contest soaring".

Help a newbie mind understand this concept. I mean, I get it - you are not suppose to fly in clouds, however there are definitely recent incidents where pilots have been caught in clouds unexpectedly and wouldn't you think that any type of safety device would be more helpful than no safety device? Why would a AH not be allowed?

6) Anyone know what the percentage of participants in the SSA own their own glider, vs have a private partnership, vs rely on club gliders only?

Greetings, and it's good to be back (almost)