We need an ASW-19 rebirth for $25,000

At 02:43 16 March 2017, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:

;940545 Wrote:
What we need in soaring is a new glider built for a reasonable
price.
$150,000 for a new glider is just not even a consideration for
mos
people. Let's face it, you can get a low mileage Ferrari for half
tha
price!

The PW-5 was a terrible failure. The engineers made the
wingspan to
short, without a common T-tail and failed to have the gear
retract.

What we really need is something that looks like an ASW-19
bare bone
that is brand new for $25,000.

It needs to have only the basics:
-15 meter wingspan
-T-tail
-Retractable landing gear
-Hinged canopy
-Airspeed
-Altimeter
-Basic VSI (no audio)
-Tube trailer
-Mag compass

With a basic tube trailer similar.

If the PW-5 can be made for around that price, so could
something lik
this.

Just to get a basic sailplane for $25,000 that has a 35:1 to
40:1 glid
ratio, pilots could once again afford this sport and it would be
on
less reason for pilots to not get into soaring.

Cheap launch is more important than somebody selling a new
sailplane fo
$25k. Until winch launch becomes wide spread, as it is in
Germany, yo
can kiss this sport goodbye. It will never totally die out but it wil
atrophy to near nothing. That's a fact. Aero tows are simply to
expensive




--
gotovkotzepkoi

They have winch launching in Europe -there is still a decline in
numbers. Interestingly in the UK there as been a strong move for a
lot of clubs to use the 100/115hp Eurofox for towing -halving the
cost of a tow and being more environmentally acceptable -even
clubs that where solely winch based before now have a Eurofox.

As for the general decline -I don't think their is a one stop solution
- there is a lot more competition for peoples leisure time and
generally in the west I believe over the last 10-20 years for the
average working joe 'disposal income and time for leisure' has been
on the decline. The thing is is to look at the successful growing (or
not declining as rapidly clubs) and see what they are doing.