On Dec 10, 8:34*am, Sparkorama
wrote:
I am now officially obsessed.

--
Sparkorama

Well that's the most important thing! :-)

Let me make a couple of comments, speaking as someone who just bought
his first ship in 2007 (and a stroke of luck allowed me to sell it and
buy a better ship in 2008).

1) DO NOT RUSH. TAKE YOUR TIME. I spent 4 months looking for my
first ship and 8 months looking for the second one; and if I did it
all over again I'd take as much (or more) time. You are going to want
to buy a ship you have confidence in, with a trailer that works.
There are a lot of old/abused/weathered airplanes out there (both in
powered-aircraft and in sailplanes). There is NO substitute for an in-
person inspection of the glider before you buy it. I spent the money
to fly to 3 potential aircraft (and drove to a 4th), and I don't
regret a dime of that money being spent. A few months of searching
and a couple of $300 airline tickets are peanuts, compared to a
$20,000 investment and years of flying-time! A pre-buy inspection by
an A&P who's familiar with gliders is also a really really good idea.

2) Try to stick with ships that were produced in enough quantity to
have some kind of support. Some of the "one-off" ships you mentioned
in your last post will be hard to get parts for or keep maintained.
Well-known ships (whether factory-built like the Libelle or homebuilt
like the HP) are going to be less of a headache in the long run.

3) Research the snot out of the gliders you are considering
purchasing. One good place to start are the "Johnson Reports" on the
SSA website. If you're a member, sign in to your account and then
look on the left-hand side of the webpage for "Soaring Magazine", then
"Johnson Reports". Don't believe every word you hear or read online -
lots of people provide "expert" opinions about ships they've never
flown. Find people who've flown a ship, then get their thoughts. If
they love the plane, factor that into their glowing praise and adjust
your expectations downward. If they think the plane is a deathtrap,
factor that into their rants and adjust your expectations upward
(slightly). Also, remember that competition pilots think about
aircraft performance in a different light than most - when I was
buying my DG-300 I was mocked by 1 contest-pilot "because DG stands
for Doesn't Go!". But the performance difference between gliders in
the same class/vintage is often less than 2% - if you're not flying
wingtip to wingtip with someone, you won't notice the difference.
During many days of flying, I have gone farther than my friends who
are flying LS-4's and Discuses (Discii?). A lot of these ships are
within 1 or 2 points of L/D of each other. There's a definite
difference between 35:1 and 40:1, but you'd be hard-pressed to tell
the difference between 38:1 and 40:1 or 39:1 and 42:1. Also (on a
brief tangent), consider your local weather: If you live in an area
with weak or low thermals, consider the glider's minimum sink-rate and
minimum wing-loading. If you live in an area with really strong
conditions, these aren't as big of an issue.

4) Think about safety as much as performance. There are lots of
factors to consider, and lots of tradeoffs:
Automatic control hookups are safer than L'Hotellier fittings, but
they are typically found only on newer/more-expensive ships (note:
manual hookups aren't a deathtrap - they just require more care).
Flaps can get you into tighter landing spaces, but make for a higher
cockpit workload and provide another system that can go wrong.
A well-harmonized control system is arguably safer than a ship with
unbalanced controls (some of the early all-flying-tail sailplanes have
really light elevator stick forces and heavier stick forces in
roll).
Are you comfortable with a CG hook, or do you want a nose-hook (and I
suggest you fly both before you form a strong opinion)? Bigger wing-
spans and older gliders tend to be heavier and harder to rig. They
are also a factor when landing in a field or at an unusual airport, so
think about how likely you are to land out (or how the threat of a bad
landout may change your flying style or options). Is the higher
performance (or in some cases the lower cost) worth the hassle to
you?
The list goes on and on... I suggest you list out all of these
factors (and think of as many as you can), then rate them in order of
importance. For me, I valued automatic hookups and ergonomics quite
highly - so I ended up buying a DG-300 (its one of the earliest modern
fiberglass ships with automatic hookups and a well-contoured
seatpan). Also factor in your "mission objectives" - if you want to
fly long cross-countries or competitions, then other things take on
new emphasis - like the ship's L/D, a relief-tube, off-field landing
performance & safety, etc. If you just like floating around the sky
and enjoying a serene flight, then less-expensive lower-performance
aircraft become more of an option.
[Word to the wise: Don't buy a glider with lower performance just
because you can afford it. You'll outgrow it and get bored with it.
Better to stretch for something that you can grow into; or get into a
partnership with a better glider]

It can be HUGELY beneficial to get all of your preferences down on
paper, and figure out the relative priorities and importance of each
item. Listen to other people's advice, but ultimately you have to
make your own decision on how strongly you should weight each factor.

5) I have a few thoughts/comments about a couple of the ships you
mentioned. Many of them are out of your price range or not generally
abvailable, so I'll skip them; but here are a few opinions:
* The LAK-12s were produced in the Soviet Union. Several were stored
for many years and then imported for cheap after the Iron Curtain
fell. They are not deathtraps, but you should be aware that their
airfoil is an old one (from the 1960's), they don't have some of the
amenities and features of other modern sailplanes, and their wings are
reportedly very heavy (a consideration for rigging & de-rigging).
* For someone's first ship, the LS-4 is definitely near the top of the
list of fiberglass gliders (along with the DG-300, ASW-19, ASW-20,
Pegasus, and 1 or 2 others). Unfortunately, that makes them highly
desirable and hard to find for a good price (unless they've been
abused).
* AMS Flight has recently been implicated in some bad business
practices and possible financial difficulty; so use care. ALSO,
remember the Euro exchange rate - anything you buy from Europe right
now is going to be pricey and require a lot of money to ship/import to
the USA.

Best of luck! Take care,

--Noel