Making a Good Choice

I am in the market for a sailplane and am having a difficult time in
choosing among five of them. They all seem to be one or two generations
before current "state of the art" aircraft. The ones that I am
interested in are as follows: DG-300,LS-4,LS-6,Discus B,& ASW-19. I
realize that the LS-6 is flapped and the others are not. I have
approximately 120 hours in gliders and currently checked out in the
Blanik L-23,Grob 103,Sparrowhawk and the PW-5. Does anyone have any
opinions or advice that they would want to share concerning the five
which interest me the most? I want to have something which is docile
and with no suprises in flight characteristics. It needs to be one
which can go cross-country
with a reasonable chance of being able to complete a task without
landing out. I realize all sailplane pilots will land out occasionaly
if they are pushing their individual envelopes and trying to better
their skills. (I have aleady landed out once safely with no damage.)
These five sailplanes all seem to fall in a price range of $30-45K.I
would appreciate any objective,unbiased opinions.( I realize this may
be impossible.)

skysailor wrote:
I am in the market for a sailplane and am having a difficult time in
choosing among five of them. They all seem to be one or two generations
before current "state of the art" aircraft. The ones that I am
interested in are as follows: DG-300,LS-4,LS-6,Discus B,& ASW-19. I
realize that the LS-6 is flapped and the others are not.

I have flown all on your list at one time or another (and owned a
DG-300). I don't think any would be a problem for a low time pilot with
appropriate training. If money isn't an issue, I suggest narrowing the
list to the DG-300 and Discus B, simply because they have automatic
control hookups (I've known a few too many pilots who have been killed
or maimed due to a missed connection). Of those two, the Discus has
slightly better performance, lighter controls, and more pleasant
handling. The 300 has a more comfortable cockpit, better visibility,
better divebrakes, lands slower, has a stronger undercarriage with more
ground clearance for landouts, and can take more abuse in general.

LS6c and LS4b are also fully self connecting. The LS6c is a very docile
glider and the best performing of the bunch listed.

ASW19 is the the cheapest and not self connecting but a very pleasent glider
for the money.

All on your list are good but my order of preference would be LS6C, Discus,
LS4b, other LS6 or LS4, DG300, ASW19.

Basil

"Marc Ramsey" wrote in message
. ..
skysailor wrote:
I am in the market for a sailplane and am having a difficult time in
choosing among five of them. They all seem to be one or two generations
before current "state of the art" aircraft. The ones that I am
interested in are as follows: DG-300,LS-4,LS-6,Discus B,& ASW-19. I
realize that the LS-6 is flapped and the others are not.

I have flown all on your list at one time or another (and owned a DG-300).
I don't think any would be a problem for a low time pilot with appropriate
training. If money isn't an issue, I suggest narrowing the list to the
DG-300 and Discus B, simply because they have automatic control hookups
(I've known a few too many pilots who have been killed or maimed due to a
missed connection). Of those two, the Discus has slightly better
performance, lighter controls, and more pleasant handling. The 300 has a
more comfortable cockpit, better visibility, better divebrakes, lands
slower, has a stronger undercarriage with more ground clearance for
landouts, and can take more abuse in general.

Skysailor,

The idea of choosing one with automatic connections,
as has been suggested, is an excellent idea.

While all the gliders on your list don't have auto
connections, they are all very capable gliders.

One main thing to look for in your search: A GOOD
trailer. A GOOD trailer can be a Cobra or Komet or
even a homebuilt, but they all have to be set up to
make assembly, disassembly, and towing easy.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

At 05:00 07 September 2005, Skysailor wrote:
I am in the market for a sailplane and am having a
difficult time in
choosing among five of them. They all seem to be one
or two generations
before current 'state of the art' aircraft. The ones
that I am
interested in are as follows: DG-300,LS-4,LS-6,Discus
B,& ASW-19. I
realize that the LS-6 is flapped and the others are
not. I have
approximately 120 hours in gliders and currently checked
out in the
Blanik L-23,Grob 103,Sparrowhawk and the PW-5. Does
anyone have any
opinions or advice that they would want to share concerning
the five
which interest me the most? I want to have something
which is docile
and with no suprises in flight characteristics. It
needs to be one
which can go cross-country
with a reasonable chance of being able to complete
a task without
landing out. I realize all sailplane pilots will land
out occasionaly
if they are pushing their individual envelopes and
trying to better
their skills. (I have aleady landed out once safely
with no damage.)
These five sailplanes all seem to fall in a price range
of $30-45K.I
would appreciate any objective,unbiased opinions.(
I realize this may
be impossible.)

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 06:49:09 +0100, basils27 wrote:

LS6c and LS4b are also fully self connecting. The LS6c is a very docile
glider and the best performing of the bunch listed.

ASW19 is the the cheapest and not self connecting but a very pleasent
glider for the money.

All on your list are good but my order of preference would be LS6C,
Discus, LS4b, other LS6 or LS4, DG300, ASW19.

Add the Pegase to your list as well. Consider it as a better
performing ASW-19 and you won't be wrong. The Pegase 101 models are not
self-connecting apart from the elevator but the Pegase 90 is fully self
connecting. Comfort is the same as the ASW-19 (the Pegase 90 has a raising
panel) because its essentially the same fuselage.

--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Landing out is the most fun in a 1-26!

Bob Johnson

skysailor wrote:
I am in the market for a sailplane and am having a difficult time in
choosing among five of them. They all seem to be one or two generations
before current "state of the art" aircraft. The ones that I am
interested in are as follows: DG-300,LS-4,LS-6,Discus B,& ASW-19. I
realize that the LS-6 is flapped and the others are not. I have
approximately 120 hours in gliders and currently checked out in the
Blanik L-23,Grob 103,Sparrowhawk and the PW-5. Does anyone have any
opinions or advice that they would want to share concerning the five
which interest me the most? I want to have something which is docile
and with no suprises in flight characteristics. It needs to be one
which can go cross-country
with a reasonable chance of being able to complete a task without
landing out. I realize all sailplane pilots will land out occasionaly
if they are pushing their individual envelopes and trying to better
their skills. (I have aleady landed out once safely with no damage.)
These five sailplanes all seem to fall in a price range of $30-45K.I
would appreciate any objective,unbiased opinions.( I realize this may
be impossible.)