On Friday, January 8, 2021 at 5:48:42 PM UTC-5, kinsell wrote:
On 1/8/21 3:42 PM, wrote:
On Friday, January 8, 2021 at 2:45:39 PM UTC-5, MQ wrote:
On Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:54:10 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 11:54:31 AM UTC-5, Dave Springford wrote:
Conspicuously missing from this thread, up until that last post is the Ventus. I think if you look at WGC statistics you will see that the Ventus has more wins than the 20.

I had a 20 in the 90's, nice ship, great flaps and a joy to fly. I then moved to an LS6b, it was nicer to fly than the 20 and closer to ASW-27 performance than was the 20. The LS was better coordinated with a higher roll rate than the 20. It did take me some time to learn the feel of the LS6's stiff carbon wing after years of flying the floppy 20 wings.

So , while I might not call the 20 "the greatest", it certainly was one of the great gliders of its day and has provided thousands of hours of enjoyment to pilots world-wide.
Dave, I flew my 20 for over a thousand hours, E9 and I both had 20"s along with E8 and EA, every day was a joy to fly the 20, mine was the original floppy wing 20L. Both E9 and EA could not keep up with that ole floppy monster. Bennie Flowers bought a new Ventus and still could not keep up with the 20. I never had a problem with the roll rate of the 20, it rolled just fine. The Ventus that Bennie had almost killed him , myself and a guy named Gary. That dang glider would automatically deploy the spoilers when near VNE, it happened to me and to Bennie as well.
Not taking away from the Ventus performance, but the difference in wins was the pilot, if those guys had been flying in the 20 the results would have probably been different. I still say it is the GOAT!
Come down to Vero this spring, I promise a great time. Bob
I think 20's are great but, with my back, I would not trade the seating position, warm feet and comfort of my DG300 for a 20. I also preferred the DG300 responsiveness. The canopy gave me plenty of room to give a nice wave as the 20, 27 and 29s go by though and the trash talking was justifiably immense when it was me rarely going by.
DG300 - 511 produced from 1983 to 2006 for comparison.

Geoff
MQ-5C

Geoff, the DG 300 is a nice sailplane, just not on the same level as the 20. I never flew a nicer ride than my old 20L, I look at the DG and compare it to kissing my sister, I could do better or I could do worse!

Seems like back in the day, the '20 had a reputation for spinning in a
lot. Maybe Darwinism helped weed out the pilots with inadequate spin
training?
Real aft CG....yes it spun....I was behind the aft CG with different pilots flying.....I was the light guy....didn't check discs when I flew, wanted more aft CG....didn't realize another dropped discs....found out out about "over the top"spins real fast....still flyablable, but twitchy when stalled (zoomie roll into a thermal).,,owner/towpilot made a comment while I was doing it....
Still a great glider....