"Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote in message
. ..
Low L/D, taken in isolation, offers no benefit whatsoever in a trainer. In
fact, higher L/D is a safety feature that gets an inexperienced pilot back to
the runway after a bad judgement call.

I MOSTLY agree (see below) ...

In spite of this, there is an instinctive reaction among most glider pilots to
inversely relate L/D and safe handling qualities.

A high L/D implies a very slippery airframe. Unless any high L/D glider
trainer is very carefully engineered, a moment's inattention to any nose-down
attitude could quickly result in airspeeds beyond Vne.

Only a fool would try to learn flying in a "Primary".

I don't know that I go quite that far, but as I have said before, I would not
recommend a primary as a flight training aircraft. That said, building one
might be a great learning experience at the EAA chapter level and flying it
would be a great activity for the annual chapter picnic.

Vaughn