On Jan 24, 11:50*am, bildan wrote:

But, if the number of classes keeps proliferating, the chances of a
long production run keeps dropping.- Hide quoted text -

Here's the thing:

Soaring as we know it is hosed. EOL, game over. Time to dig a hole in
the back yard. Fortunately, we still have the opportunity to
rediscover and reinvent soaring as we've never known it.

A lot of this process of reinvention will happen rationally,
incrementally, and logically. But some if it will be the result of
blind faith and blind luck and happenstance. So my advice would be to
just try a bunch of different things, as many as we can, and see which
ones stick. And that's exactly what I intend to keep doing.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that cutting the price of a
production sailplane by 30%, from $120K down to $84K, is going to make
a measurable difference in factory orders or in incoming student
pilots. I do think that there is still a market for a $25K sport racer
that requires some sweat equity, but again that's just me.

I also think that a pretty nifty 12m all-carbon racer could be built
and flown for something like $12K to $18K given some desperation and
resourcefulness. It would have a best glide of only about 32:1 or
33:1, but its light weight and short span would open up about as much
territory to outlanding as its modest span subtracts. It would be
rugged and mechanically simple, with no airbrakes but with terminal
flaps interconnected with the ailerons. It's 18-foot panels would fit
into (and out of) a standard garage, and its 22-foot trailer (25 feet
with tongue) would fit in most driveways.

Thanks, Bob K.