Muttley,

Great point. Mostly, 17a's have been converted to FES in Europe. There are far more 17a's competing than 17b's at this point worldwide. 17b's are sometimes confused for 17a's in the registration sheets because 17b's are fairly rare.

Not sure how many are in North America. I only know of 3 or 4 at this point. I do not know if any have competed (regional or national US competition) outside the Uvalde Worlds in the USA to date (those where non US pilots).

I am thinking about purchasing one, although I am also thinking of purchasing a 29. I think there is one other competitive Canadian who is thinking of a 17b as well. Would be interesting to see them compete in the US against the others.

One thing is getting a proper handicap for the FES vs. non FES (pure) version in the US. The propeller on the FES injures performance 1-2.5% depending on speed. As it stands now the US has not made a handicap for FES equipped gliders.....................hint, hint, hint handicap committee.........As it stands you have absolutely NO performance degradation in your handicapping. Only the gross weight is factored. This is unfair.

Sean
F2



On Tuesday, October 22, 2013 4:30:30 AM UTC-4, Muttley wrote:
On Saturday, October 19, 2013 4:46:54 PM UTC+1, Paul T wrote:

So Lak are producing a 21m tipped LAK 17B - so a glider you cn fly in 15,



18, and Open Class - will it be competetive in any?



Many of the Lak 17 FES flown in the European competitions were the A Models

I believe the B version is an improvement.