Miguel,

The Jantar Std 3 is a great first ship. Actually it's a excellent ship.
I have 250hrs of x-country in both Jantar Std 2 and 3.
Between these two, I'd stick with the 3, which has a single piece canopy and
additional seat and rudder pedal positions when compared with the 2.

Advantages :
-Very, I mean, VERY robust construction. It's like a tank.It will take a lot
of punishment in landouts. I've had the experience of landing in the same
plowed field with other gliders, and seeing Discuses lose or damage their
gear dors and scratch their bellies, while the Jantar was standing strong,
undamaged.
-150L (330 lbs) of water ballast in "wet wings" (no "bags"), very good
ballast system
-Very docile. Forget the comments about spinning. It's a non-issue.
-No Gel-coat, all the ones I know are poly
-Very good performance in strong conditions, especially with 40-45 Kg/sqm
-It's a real dream to perform aerobatics.

Disadvantages :
-Seating position is not as good as some other gliders, it requires a
"turtle back" parachute to be confortable for 6hr flights.
-Not all controls hook-up automatically. You have to manually hook the
ailerons and elevator when you assemble the glider. Ballast and airbrakes
do hook up automatically on assembly.
-Aileron rod bearings do fail, and you have to open holes on the wings if
you have to replace them.
Check to see that the stick movement is light (it IS very light normally).
If they are a bit on the heavy side, chances are you'll have to replace
those bearings, or someone already did, and didn't do a good job. I've seen
it happen.
-Not the best climber in weak thermals, but Hey, when you master this ship,
believe-me, you'll be able to climb with everyone else anyway. And then,
when you fly other ships, you'll be able to outclimb anybody else in any
other glider.
I used to practice staying in weak thermals as long as I could before giving
up and landing.
It was worth a lot later in competition, when most people landed out in all
kinds of gliders, and I still survived and made it, leaving behind an
SZD-55, Nimbus-4, DG-500, ASW-20, Libelle, and some other ships.

Performance wise, with no ballast, it will be slightly less then a Pegase.
With strong weather and high wing loading, it will probably be on pair, if
not slightly better than a Pegase.

Transition :
-I've made my way from the Blanik L-13, then a single place wooden glider,
similar to a Ka-8, directly into the cockpit of a Jantar Std 3. No problem
at all.
A Libelle is harder to fly than a Jantar Std 3.

Hope this helps.

Arnold


"Miguel Lavalle" wrote in message
...
What is the performance of the Jantar Standard 3? How suitable is it as =
a
first glider ofr a new pilot?

Regards

Miguel