I'm not a frequent reader of rec.aviation.soaring, so at the risk of
asking a common question, I'll pose my question. I fly cross country here
in the meaty middle (cheesy middle? ) part of the US-- mostly Wisconsin,
often Minnesota, sometimes Iowa, Illinois, South Dakota, Michigan. I often
land off-field (in 50 cross country flights, or attempts, I've landed
off-field on 26 flights).

While landing off-field seems to be a downside for some pilots, I take it
as just a natural part of aggressively flying cross country. Of course, I
fly in a part of the world where this is often possible. There are usually
fields with low crops or cut hay fields in good abundance in this part of
the US. And, for whatever reason, I've had very good experiences with
farmers!

I want to change ships. Presently, I fly a Schweizer 1-35. While I enjoy
the heck out of flying this ship, and have it pimped out just right , I
have reached max gross weight on the ship, and want to add more toys. For
example, I want to take my ship out West to do some mountain flying, and
thus need to add an O2 system. While some people decide to fly over max
gross weight, I don't choose to do so.

My budget is in the same range as the cost of a Schweizer 1-35 (around 20K
US dollars). I don't particlarly feel the need to go up in L/D
performance. My thought is while that would give me longer legs, my
soaring enjoyment largely comes from challenging myself to the next
longest flight in my current ship-- I don't see the need for more than
35:1 or so. I'd rather work on my skills than add L/D to my ship.

I think a 15-meter ship is best for my flying. While there are many nice
ships with longer spans, I have landed at relatively narrow private
airfields. I don't know if a span winder than 15-m would fit. Plus, I
often like to pull off of an asphalt runway, between landing lights, to
give way to traffic. I'd rather not do that with longer wings.

So, given this wing span (15-m), budget range (20K-ish), and this
performance range (35:1-ish), and my frequency of landing off-field, and
my need to have enough gross weight for a reasonable equipment load
(normal glider instruments, plus transponder, dual batteries, off-field
landing kit, O2 system, GPS etc) what's the best ship?

My thoughts right now have put a priority on a T-tailed ship, and one that
sits up really high on the gear. Perhaps I should state: top-wing-only dive
brakes too. A T-tail ship should keep the horizontal stabilizer away from
any crops, and the same rationale applies to the dive brakes. Having the
ship sit up really high on the gear helps not only with the crop, but any
furrows in the field, to reduce scraping on the buttom of the hull, and
gear doors.

Within my price range a Jantar Standard seems to fit these criteria. The
DG-100/101 from what I've read, can be fitted with an extra large wheel.
That might be a good option though, though I'm not sure how much larger
that extra large wheel can be, and how much higher it makes the ship sit
(I need to contact DG).

Thoughts?

Thanks, and Safe Soaring!
Chris.