If numbers are increasing then why on earth would you train in 2-33's? Hell, I don't know why you do it NOW -- most of the rest of the world has been training in glass for several decades.

In a lot of the world, including clubs in NZ, numbers are static or declining. This means that the fixed costs per head are increasing; a big lump of that is insurance and maintenance. Clubs with older non-glass gliders (i.e. Puchatek, ASK13, Ka7, 2-33) have much lower insurance costs and the gliders are (relatively) cheap to repair. This keeps the smaller clubs in the black - THAT's why clubs keep training in older gliders.

The difficulty with this is that, at some point, the student will need to progress into something with "longer legs" or they'll just get bored. Most students don't mind doing the hard yards of basic training IF they can see a series of stepping stones to going cross-country.

Often the thing that forces clubs to move to glass (or fold) isn't the L/D of their trainers, it's the increasing rarity of people who are qualified to inspect and repair wood, metal and fabric. Oh, and the limited lifetime of glue.

DH