On Friday, November 24, 2017 at 6:21:28 AM UTC+3, wrote:
So buy a flapped ship and lock the flaps in neutral (not really, just think of the as fixed). Fly thermals 5 knots faster, cruise with less efficiency, land with slightly less control,

That seems like a very bad idea. If it's got flaps then the designer assumes you'll use them. A flapped glider in 0 does not in general have the same airfoil as a non-flapped glider -- the airfoil may be thinner and the max CL and AoA may be less.

If you're going to leave the flap lever locked (which I emphasise is not a good idea) then I'd suggest locking it in +1. Then the glider will work as designed for takeoff and thermalling. You'll lose performance in cruise of course, but that happens as soon as you ignore the minus settings anyway. Check the manual to see if this will reduce Vne or load factors (it probably won't).

Back when my club had a Janus and I was giving trial flights in it, I'd set it in +1 (6 degrees) before handing it over to the student. It pretty much turned the Janus into a Grob :-) Much easier for them.

But buying a flapped glider and then not using the flaps is worse in every way that just buying a non-flapped glider. Don't do it.