On a slightly different tack, if a club mandates solo in old, cheap
equipment, that says they don't trust the new member students or their
instructors. If a club can't trust its instructors, it has a far worse
problem than the training gliders.

Bill Daniels
Bill - You point to SSB as an example of the kind of club you want - but
they do exactly what I am talking about which is to use their 505 for
advanced training and do training and first solos in the old G103. (my son
Dan is the maintenance chief for that G103) Same with
Sugarbush, Franconia, GBSC and virtually every club that has a high
performance and a low performance 2 seater.

You argue that better equipment attracts new members and you are right. I
argue that lower cost attracts youth into the sport - and I am right. It's
all in how you value things. I've been in gliding for 33 years hand seen
this debate for most of them (I have been director of 6 clubs, member of
10, past SSA Director, etc.). I have learned that there are 2 types of
students: Those who have time but not money and those who have money but
little time. You run very different clubs (with very different equipment)
depending upon which constituency you serve. But - if you take the big
picture, you don't denigrate one club model compared to another.

Roy