There are about 120 000 glider pilots in the world.

At the last WGC in Sweden (where I was the comp director)
there were 116 pilots from 25 nations competing. Let us
assume that there are 500 serious competition on an average
in these 25 countries. That gives us a total of 12 500
pilots who are serious comp pilots or about 10% of the whole
gliding community - and I amsure this is an overestimation.
Now I ask my self why the other 90% would prefer a glider
with a little preformance advantage in which you are not
even able to wear your shoes to fit in.

I think what you really should look for is not only
performance, but flight characteristic, comfort, pilot
safety, craftmanship etc etc.

On the other hand, we glider pilots have always been a
liitle bit crazy.

But presonally I will never take of my shoes just to fit in
a glider! Sorry Ben.

Robert


Owain Walters wrote:
If you fly your glider in weak lift conditions most
of the time, the
picture will be a complete different one.


I own a Discus 2a but I am yet to learn how to fly
it properly (I think Ben says you need 200 hrs to be
kind as he knows I have about 100 hrs and I fly it
terribly!). I fly in the UK and have on occasion (!)
flown in some pretty weak conditions. The ASW28 is
the only new glider that I have not struggled to out
climb. I feel the LS8 is the best weak weather Std
Class glider. I think that the D2a is noticeably better
than any other Std class glider at high speed.


BTW, there are only few ASW28 for sale, while you can
fill oceans with
second hand LS8 and D2.


I think that is a factually incorrect and certainly
misleading. There does appear to be a glut of LS8's
at the moment but I know of only 1 D2a. On the flipside
of that, I know of at least 3 ASW28's that have been
for sale for over a year. Why is that?

I think they are overpriced and underperforming.


If you´re looking for a ASW28, look have a look at:
http://home.planet.nl/~holsw007/asw28/
;-)


They need all the help you can give them.......;-)

Owain

PS. Why are people so interested with looking at their
tail?
PPS. You will notice I say “think” and “feel” a lot.
I have not measured anything but my views are from
my experience and anecdotal evidence.