I've had a very interesting e-mail (thank you!) from someone involved
at a club who are looking at PW6Us, and I'm sure he won't mind me
passing on some of his comments.

1. Yes, punters do like shiny gliders, but the ones who really want to
fly don't mind what they're in.

2. DGs are quite tricky for early-stage trainees, as they gain speed
rapidly with only small changes in pitch, and have very little wind
noise.

3. The PW6U is half the price of a DG1000. I agree with the my
correspondent that fleet consistency is important - we do have trouble
with pupils in my own club who mostly fly the 13s, but then have
flights in our single 21. It takes them a while to get used to the
different glider, which wastes instruction time. The price of the PW6U
makes a fleet of them realistic; a fleet of DGs is not.

3. PW6Us spin - K21s and G103s don't. (DGs do, at least with their
tail weights fitted.)

4. When they had the PW6U it wasn't thermic, so there's a question
over their XC performance, given their short wing span.

5. K13s and 2-33s led onto K8s and 1-26s perfectly. Nowadays pilots
spend little if any time flying non-GRP single-seaters before moving
on to higher-performance gliders. Something like the PW6U leads into
GRP single-seaters better.

6. The maintenance costs on old gliders can get high - new GRP gliders
don't have that problem.

7. The PW6U has been in full production for some time and reports on
their durability are good.

With regards to point 4, I looked up some values from the Dick Johnson
flight tests of the K21, G103 and PW6U (meters, pounds, fpm, and
knots!):


Glider K21 G103 PW6U
Span 17.0 17.5 16.0
Empty 850 860 760
Test 1230 1240 1150
Min sink 150@41 150@43 160@46
Best L/D 32@53 33@53 31@50


Dan