Senna,

Let me tell you my opinion about what 13.5 meters did for our Club.

For the longest time, we thought our members needed access to a single-seat 15-meter glider. With this, they could try cross-country, we thought. Eventually, members might buy their own 15-meter glider and go big time. Well, that was not happening.

Then, we acquired a Russia. That got the Club interested in cross-country; but still, they were not breaking the string between their comfort and getting beyond glide of home base. For those of us with 15-meter cross-country experience, we didn’t realize that we were not relating to the members who wanted to fly cross-country, but not the way the rest of us were thinking. These 13.5-meter cross-country pilots were tickled silly to fly a 50 km flight. Who’d a thunk it.

Then, we acquired a PW-5. We held ground school sessions for the glider; the attendance was spectacular. We had solo student pilots checking out. The PW-5 schedule filled up to the point where members overflowed into the Russia.

Now we call it the 27-meter pilots.

Raul Boerner
CFI
BFSS