On Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 7:37:43 AM UTC+3, Jeff Morgan wrote:
After a 12 year soaring hiatus to advance my airline career, I am back in.. I rejoined my old club and got a flight review, and am happy to report the passion is still there.

However, I am at a crossroads, much like before. Our club is all metal ships. Between that and the club time limit per flight, cross country is out of the question. To progress I need to get my own ship sometime between now and next season.

The question is the best path. I know I want to fly XC. I have never had more fun in flying than my few XC flights (believe it or not, I find glider XC more fun than jets). Being very competitive, I *think* I want to race. But having never done it ... can't be sure until I actually do a race.

Being light on the glider experience (120 hours, 15 glass) I was thinking at least one year of cross country flying, probably two, before I have any business entering a contest.

So what glider to get? I find myself wanting Standard Class more than 15 meter just for simplicity and enjoyment. But flapped ships are not completely out. To some extent, I have to take what the used market has to offer over the next six months.

The Current Thinking is to go all-in and just buy a ship that is currently at the top of the class (which today means DIscus, LS-8, Ventus, or ASW27). That way I do all of my learning in the ship I would eventually (hopefully) race in 2019 or 2020. And if racing does not fulfill me, I still have a great ship.

But some doubts about the wisdom of that approach have crept in. Perhaps I should be looking at a ship less competitive but still solid for XC that would be traded later?

Something with 17 meter tips perhaps. The older Ventus gliders jumped to mind first, but they are long in the tooth and in the game of musical gelcoat chairs, the music would stop and I would be the guy left without a chair..

The 304CZ then came to mind. Being generally newer, gelcoat and trailer would likely be great, and still great when I sell. I could even do a few races with 15 meter tips "just to see". The downside, I would have to buy and get in tune with a new ship before serious racing.

Or maybe I am just over-analyzing this thing?

"just buy a ship that is currently at the top of the class (which today means Discus, LS-8, Ventus, or ASW27)"

If your finances are such that you can easily plunk down cash for one of those without crimping the rest of your lifestyle then there's no reason not to. They not only perform better, they are easier to fly and have safer handling (and better crash properties) than older gliders.

I wish I was in that position!

Flaps are also a big safety benefit in outlandings. Std Class ships come in comparatively much hotter. If you don't need a copilot in your ear to remind you to put them down (or up) when appropriate then they're a good thing. They do constrain what contests you can enter though.

For cross country flying on your own, it really doesn't matter what you fly if it was designed in the 80s or even late 70s. A 2% or 3% performance difference is huge in racing, but isn't going to make the difference between making that 500 km xcountry or not -- you might take 5 or 10 minutes longer is all.

Don't be scared of contests. At the lower levels gliding contests are pretty much a way to do some organised cross country flying with the benefit of an expert picking the task, briefings, and lots of support to come and get you out of a field if necessary. It's not about winning and losing, and everyone helps beginners. It's EASIER than planning and executing your own xcountry flights if you're inexperienced.

Main thing is getting comfortable planning and executing precision approaches in your glider into places you've never landed before, with a low energy touchdown within 5m or so of where you planned to, and being able to get down and stopped within 100m of the start of the field (assuming a standard 1.2m (4 ft) fence).