"Darryl Ramm" wrote in message
...

Get to the point of flying some high performance single seaters cross
country by yourself and lead/follow with your mentor. If all you have
flown is a Blanik and and say went off an brought a Stemme you will
have gone from a Volkswagon Beetle to a Mac truck and have missed the
Porsche Turbo handling of a 15m or 18m class glider. It would be a
shame to buy a Mac truck if what you really wanted was that Turbo but
never bothered to test drive one. You similarly might be completely
frustrated with a lower-end touring class motorglider with L/D of the
low-mid 30:1's if what you really wanted was an 18m ship with L/D ~
50:1 and an ability to stick the nose down and really go places fast.
You won't know until you've flown more types.

Darryl Ramm
ASH-26E Driver (but I fly real gliders as well)."

I agree with Darryl, save for the Mack truck reference in the above snippet.
Like Darryl, I own an ASH-26E, and before that a Stemme S10-VT. If the 26E
be a sports car (and it is), then the Stemme is a luxury performance sedan.
Sure the Stemme is heavier in aileron response and slower in roll, as you'd
expect from a big span two place ship. While not spritely in roll, the
Stemme makes up with stellar climb and cruise performance under power, far
in excess of any other two-place motor glider of similar L/D I'm aware of.
Turbocharged and intercooled, it'll keep right on briskly climbing to the
flight levels if that's your pleasure (makes saw-tooth a breeze). It will
stow in a T-hangar, power cruise at 125+ knots, taxi out and launch in 35
knot winds in conditions that would see a regular glider packed away in its
box. It can also operate out of busy towered airports where a more
conventional glider would be unwelcome. Other adjectives come to mind, none
involve trucks.

Darryl's right in that it's hard, maybe near impossible, to make a go of a
ride business using a high performance motorglider such as the Stemme. I
know of three who've tried.

bumper
Minden, NV
Purveyor of Quiet Vents ($6) and MKIII "high tech" Yaw Strings ($10) to the
unwashed masses.
In the spirit of non-partisanship, I'll also sell them to clean masses - -
same price.