Pete Reinhart wrote:
Well now,
It seems to me that if you are truly an excellent instuctor, it shouldn't
make a lot of difference what you're flying to teach in.

If you were a truly excellent instructor, you would realize how much the
trainer affects what you can teach. The other problem, of course, is
most of us aren't truly excellent instructors, just as most of us aren't
truly excellent pilots. So, we have things like automatically connecting
controls to make it easier for us to do the right thing. I've flown in
2-33s and instructed in Blaniks, and I know a 2-33 would make it much
harder for me to prepare a student for the glider I hope he/she will
purchase for post-licence flying. I don't care how good you are as an
instructor, you are still limited by the student's ablity to learn (in
general) and what you can demonstrate in particular (glider limitations).

That is, if you are teaching people to fly rather than just operate a
perticular kind of aircraft. There is something to learn from every flight
no matter what it is in. I am not comfortable in the back seat of a 2-33
anymore and I hven't taught in many years, but I admire the 2-33 greatly for
what it is and what it does. I've not done any x-c in one but I know people
who have and it's true that they are a pain to de rig in an off field
landing but so what.

"So what" is big problem. A hard to derig and retrieve glider really
discourages a student from even contemplating cross-country unless he
can be sure of landing at airports for an aero retrieve, and the low
performance means it is impractical to stay within reach of airports.
Practically speaking, it means most students won't take a 2-33 away from
the home airport.

They do the job they were designed for admirably IMHO.

I agree, but the job requirements have changed in the 40 years since
they were designed. It is not a criticism of the Schwiezers to say their
40 year old design is no longer the best choice!

As for retarding the sport, how many glider pilots would there be now if it
weren't for the ready availibility of a functional 2-33? We have two of them
in our club and they are rarely unflyable: our Twin Astir has been down for
maintenance over six months in the preceding year, and it's not a delicate
machine.
"Course I'm not selling anything and I don't have the opinion that only a
european glider is worthy of my effort to fly it.

I don't have anything to sell and I don't have the opinion that only a
European glider is worthy of my effort to fly it, but I still echo
Robert's comments. Please stick with responding to what a person says
instead of disparaging motives you can only speculate about.

--
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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA