2-33

On Sep 15, 10:45*pm, wrote:

Sounds like Harris Hill has an excellent and well rounded fleet for
people to work through. Many of us in smaller clubs are not so
fortunate and the top of the line is or was an L-13. Having those
next step aircraft available seems key to me in retaining members or
driving them down the road to ownership. Give them a taste of things
to come with an incentive ride in a Duo or K21 or anything that is
smooth, well handled and quiet and I think you stand a better chance
at them sticking with soaring and progressing their skills. That's my
primary argument for quality glass dual ships.

What percentage of club members show up on any given weekend during
the soaring season? Also, how big is the club?

There are many things that are out of our control. The weather, our
location relative to population centers, but if your club has managed
to find such successful ways of attracting and retaining members I'd
encourage or even beg you to share that info. It's certainly more
useful use of keyboard time than blamestorming around which glider we
should hold responsible for the success/failure of soaring.





We typically have 30-40 juniors.

Peter - that's fantastic. How do you attract and keep that many?

Don't want to speak for Peter, but maybe flying low performance,
affordable aircraft that enables a rating without a second mortgage
has something to do with it.

And of course, perhaps the glassholes dissing older trainers that may
not produce the latest champions are flying somewhere else...

Aerodyne

On Sep 15, 10:45*pm, wrote:

And of course, perhaps the glassholes dissing older trainers that may
not produce the latest champions are flying somewhere else...

Aerodyne

Have you looked closely at your club/FBO's finances?

In almost all circumstances that I've seen, the yearly operating &
maintenance costs of a glider are FAR surpassed by the costs of
maintaining tow-planes. 1 year of hangar costs, fuel, insurance,
maintenance, repairs, and reserve funds for a towplane are likely to
dwarf even a couple-thousand-dollar AD on a glider!

Admittedly, I've only been in the sport for a few years... But I
firmly believe that a better club glider does not have to equate to
dramatically higher club fees.

--Noel

Admittedly, I've only been in the sport for a few years... *But I
firmly believe that a better club glider does not have to equate to
dramatically higher club fees.

Well, except for when the club has to pay for the better the glider...

On Sep 15, 8:22*pm, Peter Smith wrote:
The Harris Hill Soaring Corp. is fortunate to have 3 2-33s, 4 ASK 21s,
a 1-26, a 1-34, a single place Discus & a Duo. Our juniors are trained
in the 2-33, & they then progress to the higher performance ships.
I've not seen any resistance on their part to learning to fly in the
2-33.

Former HHSC Juniors now fly for the USAF, American Airlines, Fedex,
Corning Corp. & who knows what else - lots of our members have become
aviation professionals.

We typically have 30-40 juniors. They don't seem to mind that the 2-33
doesn't look "cool."

They also don't seem to be at a disadvantage with respect to contest
soaring because they started out in a 2-33. We train top notch cross
country & contest pilots.

Having said all that, I learned to fly in a Blanik L-13. Nice glider,
wish it wasn't grounded.

This agrees with experience at VSC.
(3) 2-33's
(2) 1-26's
(1) 1-34
(1) ASK-21
It is a real benefit to have gliders to look forward to progressing
to.
UH

On Sep 15, 7:22*pm, Peter Smith wrote:
The Harris Hill Soaring Corp. is fortunate to have 3 2-33s, 4 ASK 21s,
a 1-26, a 1-34, a single place Discus & a Duo. Our juniors are trained
in the 2-33, & they then progress to the higher performance ships.
I've not seen any resistance on their part to learning to fly in the
2-33.

[snip]

They also don't seem to be at a disadvantage with respect to contest
soaring because they started out in a 2-33. We train top notch cross
country & contest pilots.

I learned to fly in 2-33s at Texas Soaring Association in the late
1980s. Eventually the club sold off the old birds and went to Puchacz
and then to ASK-21s, but I know lots of pilots who learned the basics
and much more in old Tubby The Trainer.

It was and is a great confidence builder and it's dirt cheap--two
virtues in a club trainer. Also, like the J-3 Cub, "It's so safe it'll
just barely kill you."