How to buy a glider affordably - redux

my recommendation on how to buy a glider affordably is this:
buy an old homebuilt ship with poor to decent performance.
spend the rest of your money on gas for retrieves and extra tows for
relights
enjoy staying up and going cross country when the lift is weak.

Tony wrote:
my recommendation on how to buy a glider affordably is this:
buy an old homebuilt ship with poor to decent performance.

Or...get a partner, then buy a low(er) cost motorglider like the Apis or
Silent, or a used Russia AC-5M, DG 400, PIK 20E.

spend the rest of your money on gas for retrieves and extra tows for
relights

Won't need the money for tows or retrieves, but you should put some away
for mechanical problems.

enjoy staying up and going cross country

Oh yeah!

when the lift is weak.

This part doesn't work out so well with the extra weight of the motor,
but you can still have a nice flight if you don't mind starting the
motor a time or two (I don't mind).

--
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

ive never understood the logic of having a partner in a glider. seems
to me both partners are going to want to be flying on the same days.
maybe if you find someone with the cash to buy half a glider but not
the time to fly one then it would work out.

Hi Tony,

All the partnerships I've been in have been wonderful. The 3 of us never
flew as often as we wanted to so there were very, very few days when we 2 of
us wanted to fly. It was great to be able to share the cost of ownership
and expenses with 2 other people. It also made it much easier to afford
instrument upgrades and hangar fees, etc. I highly recommend partnerships
if you can find people you trust.

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com

"Tony" wrote in message
oups.com...
ive never understood the logic of having a partner in a glider. seems
to me both partners are going to want to be flying on the same days.
maybe if you find someone with the cash to buy half a glider but not
the time to fly one then it would work out.

Tony wrote:
ive never understood the logic of having a partner in a glider. seems
to me both partners are going to want to be flying on the same days.
maybe if you find someone with the cash to buy half a glider but not
the time to fly one then it would work out.

Maybe that's because most people fly less often than they think they will.

Jeremy

Tony wrote:
ive never understood the logic of having a partner in a glider. seems
to me both partners are going to want to be flying on the same days.

That's one of the challenges of finding a good partner. It's not as hard
as you might think, especially with a motorglider, because you aren't
constrained to flying only on weekends at the glider club, as you
usually are with a towed glider. If at least one of the partners can fly
during the week, both partners can have plenty of access to the glider.

You may also be able to base the glider close to where you live and/or
work, so it's easy go flying without a 2 or 3 hour drive to the
gliderport and rounding up a tow pilot in addition. And finally, you are
able to fly days you normally wouldn't use because the weather is
unpredictable, and you're worried you'll need a retrieve if you go cross
country.

maybe if you find someone with the cash to buy half a glider but not
the time to fly one then it would work out.

This is not an unusual partnership, in my observation! Some people do
enjoy being around gliders, tinkering with them, flying occasionally,
and hanging out with other glider pilots. Doing it at half price seems
like a bargain to them, even though those of us that fly many more hours
a year think it looks awfully expensive. Generally, I found pilots like
that are interesting people and a real asset to the sport, even though
they may only fly 5 or 10 times a year.

--
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

"Tony" wrote in message
ups.com...
my recommendation on how to buy a glider affordably is this:
buy an old homebuilt ship with poor to decent performance.
spend the rest of your money on gas for retrieves and extra tows for
relights
enjoy staying up and going cross country when the lift is weak.


Tony,

Not all old homebuilts require "gas for retrieves and extra tows for
relights."
http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/Tr...ding_Post.html
http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder

Wayne
HP-14 "6F"
http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/N990_Near_Arco.jpg

It's been a long and hard-fought battle, but the prize for wandering
off topic furthest and fastest in r.a.s. history can now be awarded!
Well done!

(And, since my office is next to the guy who invented the term
"efficient markets", I can't help but thank Andy for following up on
this one.)

John Cochrane

Hi John - How are you ? How come you weren't at the Hinckley
end-of season cook-out this evening ? I bet we can move this
thread to women and soaring if we keep at it...
See ya, Dave

PS: and of course you know about our Fair Value product...

BB wrote:
It's been a long and hard-fought battle, but the prize for wandering
off topic furthest and fastest in r.a.s. history can now be awarded!
Well done!

(And, since my office is next to the guy who invented the term
"efficient markets", I can't help but thank Andy for following up on
this one.)

John Cochrane

BB wrote:
It's been a long and hard-fought battle, but the prize for wandering
off topic furthest and fastest in r.a.s. history can now be awarded!
Well done!

Now just a moment here! The subject is "How to buy a glider affordably -
redux", and that's what we've been talking about. Maybe it should of
been "How to make enough money to buy a glider that isn't affordable",
but it wasn't. Frankly, it's the Original Poster who was off topic! Or
is that what you meant? Going off topic in one posting? You know, that
is exceptional...

--
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