Ka-6CR

It's a fine ship. Pay attention to the comments about
pre-buy inspections, though. Gren Siebels flew one
for several years and he was 6'+. The E model is more
comfortable yet.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a 1-26 (yes, I have owned
one). I have also owned a Skylark 4 (which I wish I
still had) and an SH-1 - in my opinion the ultimate
wooden sailplanes. The performance of the 1-26 is very
poor compared to a Ka-6 and you will be extremely frustrated.

Always buy the most performance you can afford.

In message , John Price
writes
snip

Always buy the most performance you can afford.

That you have the ability to fly. There's no point if you start by
scaring yourself silly with tender handling and/or a complicated ship.
BTW how strange to call a glider a ship - I doubt they float very
well...

--
Surfer!
Email to: ramwater at uk2 dot net

Surfer! wrote:
In message , John Price
writes
snip

Always buy the most performance you can afford.

That you have the ability to fly. There's no point if you start by
scaring yourself silly with tender handling and/or a complicated ship.

Yes, some people do find the transition from a slower, easier to land
glider to the higher performance glider intimidating, and don't develop
their cross-country skills because prospect of a field landing becomes
too worrisome. And some will pursue cross-country a bit too exuberantly,
not realizing the difficulty the higher landing speeds and their limited
field selection abilities will cause them. I'm glad my cross-country
career began in a Ka-6e. It saved me from myself a couple times.

But, low performance isn't just for inexperienced pilots. There is an
advantage to a very good pilot that wants to fly as hard and as long as
possible: at the end of the day, you are not nearly so far from home.
Jim Hard's exploits come to mind. If he was doing those kinds of flights
in a 15 meter glider instead of a 1-26, it would be costing him a lot
more in time, money, and burned out retrieve drivers.

--
Note: email address new as of 9/4/2006
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

Im pretty sure that Jim's retrieve drivers are still burned out after
the amazing cross country flights he does in his 1-26. I havent been
able to keep up with his status this year, but last year he had two
diamond distance flights, the most in our region!

Tony wrote:
Im pretty sure that Jim's retrieve drivers are still burned out after
the amazing cross country flights he does in his 1-26. I havent been
able to keep up with his status this year, but last year he had two
diamond distance flights, the most in our region!

Maybe he needs to go back to the 2-22, like he flew when he was in our
club a long time ago.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

And in a higher performance glider Jim Hard would not have had nearly the
achievement that he attained in a 1-26!

Mike Schumann

"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
news:fvdSg.2751$422.1077@trnddc03...
Surfer! wrote:
In message , John Price
writes
snip

Always buy the most performance you can afford.

That you have the ability to fly. There's no point if you start by
scaring yourself silly with tender handling and/or a complicated ship.

Yes, some people do find the transition from a slower, easier to land
glider to the higher performance glider intimidating, and don't develop
their cross-country skills because prospect of a field landing becomes too
worrisome. And some will pursue cross-country a bit too exuberantly, not
realizing the difficulty the higher landing speeds and their limited field
selection abilities will cause them. I'm glad my cross-country career
began in a Ka-6e. It saved me from myself a couple times.

But, low performance isn't just for inexperienced pilots. There is an
advantage to a very good pilot that wants to fly as hard and as long as
possible: at the end of the day, you are not nearly so far from home. Jim
Hard's exploits come to mind. If he was doing those kinds of flights in a
15 meter glider instead of a 1-26, it would be costing him a lot more in
time, money, and burned out retrieve drivers.

--
Note: email address new as of 9/4/2006
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org