wrote:
On Aug 14, 4:11 pm, Greg Arnold wrote:
When buying new, what lead you to get a second DG-1000 rather than
diversifying by getting a Duo Discus?
[snip]

I don't think we would have thought fleet diversity was a benefit.
With relatively low time pilots joining out club and working towards
flying the DG-1000S the less differences in the fleet the better. It
saves hassle with extra checkouts. And in a club all the little things
about procedures on how you rig gliders, charge batteries, connect
PDAs, where things get left, tied down etc. all is a pain the more
things are even the slightest bit different can cause lots of
problems.

Bingo. Fleet diversity is a double-edged sword. While it protects you
against a pain in the ass factory (*cough* Centrair *cough*) it
increases complexity of the club and introduces confusion and/or
currency issues for members who fly less frequently.

I suspect some members would have also resisted getting the Duo
because of the differences in effectiveness of spoilers, worrying if
they might be pilots who get over-reliant on the very effective
DG-1000S spoilers.

There were several strikes against the Duo in our early discussions
about buying the DG-1000 or a Duo. The Duo didn't have back seat gear
control, had a bit less ground clearance, lower spoiler effectiveness,
and no option for aerobatics (not that we really exercise that ability
as often as some thought we might).

And then there are physical comfort issues. The DG-1000 back seat can
be uncomfortable, but you can adjust the height and pad the heck out of
it. And it's roomy. The Duo, as we all know, has a front seat with no
spare room. We BASA pilots carry lots of little gizmos with us (well,
some do).

Being able to play with all the ballast weights in the tail is nice to
have, but for a club I sometimes think it's an unnecessary complexity...

BTW BASA requires 60 flights and 30 hours PIC in a "high performance"
glider (L/D 33:1) for members to fly the DG-1000S but try to give
new members lots of opportunity to fly in the DG-1000S, including
cross country, with other members. Up until then new members (mostly
freshly minted pilots training in 2-32s) can fly in the club Junior or
Grob 103. BASA has an all plastic fleet, does not do flight
instruction, that is handled at local commercial schools.

We do allow flight instruction in BASA ships. It's just that you can't
join the club until you've got a private certificate. But I did my
commercial work and checkride in a BASA ship (as several members have).

Personally if I was buying a two seater XC machine I'd buy a Duo-X
just for the much better handling and thermalling 'feel' of the
glider, flying the DG-1000S feels like a truck at times compared to
the Duo

Agreed.

I almost bought 1/4th (or was it a 1/3rd?) of a Duo a couple years back.
It's too bad the exchange rate keeps sucking. I'm starting to think
we missed a really good opportunity...

Jeremy