Op maandag 11 januari 2021 om 19:42:58 UTC+1 schreef :
40 hours before flying an LS-4?!

It has to be the easiest flying glider I've ever been in. I've heard that some European clubs put students in it for their first single seater.
These are just our club rules, as I said, they have pretty high standards
You are free to leave the club and go somewhere else where they don't have these rules though.

Yes you can buy whatever you like, but if the CFI or other instructors think it is unsafe for a low experience pilot to suddenly fly a flapped glider or open class, you are not allowed to take off.
If you do this on weekdays, you can get banned.

We train new students on 2 ASK13, then after they have 10 solo flights, transition to our 3 ASK8's. When you have 20 hours of solo experience, you can fly the SZD Junior. At 30 hours you can fly our 2 Grob Twin Astirs. At 40 hours and having passed your exams and got your licence, you can fly our 2 LS4's and Pegase. Then after 75 solo hours is our Duo Discus. They are however rebuilding these rules since many clubs around us fly glass as trainer and solo like the G103 Twin Astir and G102 Astir.

Most of our income is from ASK8's though, low cost, all repairs can be done by club members and they fly every day. At a price of 0.08 EUR per minute, it's hard to resist an hour in an ASK8 on a weak day

Anyway, back on topic. If you are allowed to fly a Nimbus as a low hour pilot, consider yourself lucky. Some clubs, like mine, have very weird rules when it comes to private gliders, as we already have so many private pilots. The reason I bought mine is because I don't want to fly an hour only to be called back down because 4 other members want to fly that glider. I wanted to do my own thing and fly as far and long as I wanted. Some wonder why I even bought it in the first place, as I fly my DG 101 less than 30 hours a year. It's just my way of flying and enjoying my hobby. Make sure you like what you're going to do and enjoy it. Everyone enjoys the hobby in a different way.