tstock wrote:
Sad news. The all metal L-23 has been a venerable 2-place glider for
club operations for many years.

Indeed for very many years. Come on, the Blanik is a 60 year old design
with a L/D of less than 30! By these standards, even the venerable ASK
21 is a high performance ship!

How does this diminish it's role as a trainer? Why would a club want
to waste a modern high performance ship with a 50:1 glide ratio doing
patterns and teaching the basics of flying?

If there are multiple lessons going on then they would need more than
one, and attempting the airbrake failure (slip to land) required for
checkout in a modern sleek ship seems like it would add even more
complications for a beginner.

Since a student pilot is not racing, but just flying in circles, I
don't see why he or she would care if it's 28:1 or 48:1.

-tom

Well, since one has to pay for the tow aloft, the longer you can stay
up, the less the cost per hour of flight...me, I don't care if it's 3:1
or 50:1...I just love to fly

Scott