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Old September 15th 10, 11:21 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
ray conlon
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Posts: 60
Default Future Club Training Gliders

On Sep 15, 5:35*am, "Surfer!" wrote:
"JS" wrote in message

...

The one redeeming quality of the 2-33 "Dragmaster" is that it laughs
at anything roughly resembling a landing.


However I suspect there could be a substantial amount of retraining required
to fly other more slippery ships...

snip

The PW-6 has been around for a while. Perhaps it is a decent trainer?


Fine to fly but allegedly somewhat delicate.

Ka13 is a lovely glider to fly, but getting old.


Lots around, cheap, the largest club in the UK has a fleet of them for it's
primary trainers, now (I think) all with the nose wheel mod which is far
safer than a skid for a messed-up landing.

snip

DG500 isn't bad, not sure about maintenance.


Lovely to fly but not a primary trainer.

snip

AS-K21 gets my vote for this job. Comfortable, sturdy, reasonable
handling. Available new or used. Great support.
Jim


Agreed.


A large part of the problem in attracting new pilots into soaring is
the cost involved in getting started, you can buy/fly/insure 5 2-33's
for the cost of 1 glass 2 seater, we are talking about a basic trainer
here, not something to race 4 times a year. If the Blaniks and 2-33's
go away, the SAA and number of glider pilots in the USA will shrink to
no more than a couple of thousand pilots. Look at GA, anyone see long
lines of people standing in the Mooney,Bonanza tents at Oshkosh
lately? Notice the crowds in the Light Sport Aircraft tents? The only
growth i sport flying is in the LSA area, you know ,the simple
affordable aircraft.