On Sunday, September 6, 2015 at 5:59:07 PM UTC+3, wrote:
If every glider club in the US got 50 new members, few thousand total new pilots I guess. Clubs wouldn't scale to private airports with cafe's and a fleet of Duos. They'd be crushed, who is going to put in all the 2-33 backseat time to fix the world? Besides 50 new weekend punters are useful $ wise but can be more of a operational drag then boon. You really need a few that are obsessed. Preferably obsessed and having money and time, although an abundance of one can some what make up for a lack of the other.

It a horde descended overnight then I guess clubs could get crushed, but how likely is that? If it's over 5 - 10 years then no problem.

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. My club switched from Blaniks to Grobs in 1995 (and we were on the trailing edge in NZ I'd say), and then to DG1000s a dozen years later.

Is anyone doing basic training in Duos? The DG1000 is just fine (especially with the 18m tips). The Duo would be no problem in the air, but unsprung undercarriage doesn't seem like a good idea for student landings.