Welcome back Jeff. Lots of us have made the trip back.

Looks like you are in Arizona if the SSA database is current. Awesome place to fly.

If you want to race, the glider you pick will have some impact on your racing options and possibly your satisfaction.

You can get pretty much any glass ship and fly Sports Class, which is a good place to start. It's handicap flying and not every contest offers sports, though it's pretty common. Club Class restrict you choices to gliders that are a couple of generations old. You only really gain the right to fly Club Class Nationals, so I wouldn't necessarily go there unless you are budget constrained.

If you want a ship that allows you to fly in non-handicapped contests and not feel at too much of a disadvantage then you are looking at one of the last two generations of gliders. ASW-27/ASG-29 or Ventus/Ventus2.

You can look at Standard Class as you suggested, but many Standard Class racing pilots have moved to 15/18 Meter as there are no current production Standard Class Gliders so ultimately Standard Class unhandicapped racing will become pretty rare. You will mostly find yourself flying in Sports/Club or FAI Handicapped. The problem here for you if you fly in the west is that there is no really good way to apply a fixed handicap to make a non-flapped glider equivalent to a flapped glider over all weather conditions. A Discus 2 plus 2% can compete with a Ventus 2 in typical eastern conditions, but you need 7-8% at typical cruise speeds in the west. A variable handicap system is just not going to happen any time soon.

Also, if you fly at high density altitudes you might want landing flaps to get into tight spaces on hot summer days up high.

Therefore, I'd recommend and ASW-27, Ventus or Ventus 2. It depends on your budget. In the long run 15/18 and 18/21 are the planforms that will have the most pilots, but 15 Meter will be around for a while because of the 15 in 15/18.

Andy Blackburn
9B