Plenty of advice, not many real suggestions.
A Libelle was mentioned, beautiful glider, Glasflugel workmanship and
design, easiest ever to rig, slightly tight cockpit if you are well fed,
brakes not the best, need getting used to.
ASW15, same performance as Libelle, bigger cockpit, better brakes, not
quite so easy to rig.
Std Cirrus, elevator very light, apart from that very good.
ASW 19/Pegase better performance than those above, excellent gliders.
If you can find one at your price, a Discus in a Cobra trailer.
Almost as easy to rig as the Libelle, excellent performance (43), good
cockpit, quite good brakes, very easy to fly, I think some clubs used them
as first solo when they came out, but could be wrong on that. If you get
ambitious, they will carry lots of water.
BTW Mike, I had a Jantar 19 for 15 years or so, and rigged it single
handed, (preference not necessity) unless it was windy, with 3 trestles
and two dollies.
Basically you won't go far wrong with any European series production
glass glider, so get the best you can afford. I can't comment on those
made in the USA, as I know nothing about them. However general advice
would be initially, stick to 15 metres and no flaps.
Dave




At 19:05 02 December 2010, Sparkorama wrote:

I'm getting back into the sport after a long hiatus and flying in the
Boston area. I'll be putting some winter flying time in and I'm
considering buying my first glider once I'm back to comfortable solos
and my private license. (Naturally, I won't fly anything until I am
competent and ready). Any suggestions on a first glider? Because of my
price range, I realize I'll be looking at some older birds. I would say
my preferences are as follows. Under 20k, easy to fly, easy to maintain
and safe. Naturally, I'd like to see some decent glide performance,
just
thinking that some future performance would be good for keeping the
plane for some time. (currently I'm considering an IS29D2 Lark)
My club has competent instructors and the following fleet (winter flying
in only the 2-33):
1 Puchacz (two place, 30/1 performance; advanced trainer, aerobatic)
3 Blanik L-23 (two place, 30/1 performance; advanced trainer,
sightseeing)
1 Blanik L-33 solo (single place, 30/1 performance; cross-country,
sightseeing)
1 Schweitzer 1-34 (single place, 34/1 performance)
1 Pilatus B-4 (single place, 35/1 performance; cross-country,
aerobatic)
1 Schweizer 2-33A (two place, 23/1 performance; trainer)
1 Schweizer 1-26E (single place, 23/1 performance; aerobatic)
Your thoughts would be appreciated.




--
Sparkorama