Want a one deign class today with plenty of ships in the fleet that meet the above criteria? Start a Std Libelle class.
Just Musing
UH

Hmmmm. I like it.

- Lots of gliders (600 manufactured, approx. 95 of which show up in the FAA registry in the U.S.)
- Reasonably inexpensive
- In good repair (the gel coat on 201s seems to last a looooong time)
- Still supported (by Streinfeneder)
- Little to no performance difference across versions (the later ones have water, top-surface-only dive brakes, foam core wings, and a bigger horizontal stab but I never saw any difference in performance, nor did the low and high canopies seem to matter). The fillets, winglets, etc., that we see on European Club Class 201s haven't showed up much here.
- A joy to fly
- Light and easy to assemble (my first solo-rigging experiments)
- Performance sufficient that pilots won't feel like they're taking an alarming step down
- Performance sufficient that owners will be happy flying them outside of contests

Admittedly I'm biased. I flew a 201 competitively for seven years and loved every minute of it. I was not always so happy flying a 1-26 before that; I'm not Ron Schwartz and just found it too difficult to stay airborne at times. I feel like I learned how to fly fast more quickly once I hopped into the 201. In it, a mistake meant I was slow. In the 1-26, a mistake put me on the ground, usually for the rest of the day.

I've owned my ASW 24 for 26 years and still love it. But if I were looking for a more economic class and there were a groundswell of interest in a Libelle 201 one-design class that drew participation from some top pilots, I would be tempted.

The latter factor is important. Sometimes our knee-jerk reaction to these classes (e.g., Club) is to restrict them to pilots who aren't already established in the higher ranks. But having the top pilots participate helps provide legitimacy. And not being able to fly and measure myself against them would be a deal breaker for me.

Chip Bearden