On Jan 10, 11:36*am, "Mike Schumann" mike-nos...@traditions-
nospam.com wrote:
It would be really helpful if we could get one of the companies marketing
steel hangers to come up with a standard glider hanger design so that
interested clubs would be able to order economical hanger kits that they can
either self build, or have erected by a local contractor.


Mike -

The "Ensign" hangar and the "Sidewiser" hangar are standard designs
that are available as affordable kits. However, they're really only
good for 1 - 2 gliders. An economical solution for 5 - 20 gliders
(such as the design of the hangars at the Scottish Glider Centre) is
what we could use (and I suspect what a few other clubs could use as
well).

John -

Its funny you mention the time limit. That's really the ONLY reason I
went out and bought my Russia. Our club's Apis is being used so
seldom that I could have had a lot of fun in it - but I want to fly XC
and around here that means 3 - 5 hours. Our club limits the use of
club gliders to 1 hour (or 2 hours if you make radio contact after the
first hour and no one is in line for it). Some members claim that
there's an "exception clause" that allows the Apis to be flown all day
if you're the first person to rig it - but I have not found that rule
written into our club's bylaws and refuse to "cheat" the system that
way.

I have no "hard evidence" to back it up - but I personally feel that
it is a big discouragement to limit the flying time like that.
ESPECIALLY if people have to go through the trouble of rigging and de-
rigging the glider just to fly it for 1 or 2 hours!

...As far as training goes: I like the idea of kicking people out of
the 2-seaters at some point. I don't know if we can do it _right_
after solo - but certainly at some point afterwards. We are trying to
slim down our fleet some and people have objected to reducing our
Blanik count from 4 to 3, because they're used "so heavily". If we
only allowed instructional flights and demo rides in the Blaniks, I
think we could get away with only having 3 with no problem.

We get a lot of interested students who come out and sign up (and the
XC pilots in our club are really driving a lot of the interest and
enthusiasm around here); but then the new members leave the club
because they don't feel that they are getting timely instruction or
guidance. Some of that is their fault (showing up mid-day and
complaining about not getting more than 1 flight) - but some of it is
a lack of organization and operational rigidity. Instructors aren't
paired with students on a regular basis, you just come grab whatever
CFIG is available that day and he hops in the cockpit with you and
goes. Definitely less than ideal, IMHO.

It also doesn't help that our current club uses a clunky 1-36 as its
"transition trainer" to single-seaters. No one likes the aircraft, so
there's not a lot of enthusiasm to get students into it. Also, the
club that merged with us had a flight rule that _required_ students to
land a 1-26 out in a field, disassemble it, and trailer it back to the
airport. They had to do this before they could ever go cross-country
in club equipment.

These are all known issues that we're working to correct.

Information from other clubs on similar issues and how you've
conquered them are always appreciated!

Take care,

--Noel