GP Gliders

Yes I hear you Mike. As for the club class, I like the concept but the handicapping definitely needs some tweeking. For example, I know some tremendous contest experienced libelle drivers, but the way the handicap works, the more modern ships always score higher. That tells me something is amiss.

Club Class should be 'FAI definition' club class but the USA always
seems to go its own perverted little way for whatever reasons.However
FAI are now trying there best to make this more expensive to
participate in by changing the handicaps to make newer - read more
expensive ships have a competitive edge. The change in handicaps they
recently brought in and the anomaly's were so ridiculous you had to
laugh. The FAI are helping to slowly kill off the sport along with all the

'regulators' out there. World class was a good concept - maybe the
wrong choice of glider - if it had been an ASW19B/LS4/Discus 1 one
design class- probably be the most popular class now.

I hear ya there Paul. That's why I fly with the 1-26 guys. Sure I would like to race with something more forgiving L/D wise, but I am not willing to put up with all the b.s. that "modern" racing entails. The 1-26 assoc has always been common sense based, minimalistic in regards to rules and eminently affordable. Not to mention they are a really great bunch of guys. Super competative and competent. But totally willing to help out newcomers with any tricks to make these little machines or their pilots perform better.

Dan, I found the same camaraderie amongst the pilots at the 13.5m WGCs, especially the recent one in Hungary.

Hi Tony,
I sure hope the class catches on. Only problem being the ships are now pretty pricey. And if the whole class is going to have to be motorized, that will in essence financially exclude the great majority of us guys. I just feel bad about not having a true "one-design" class of racing. They picked the wrong machine. I think if they had picked the Russia AC series, it might have caught on here in the states, as that machine performs pretty good and was definitely affordable.

On Thursday, January 4, 2018 at 3:01:36 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Hi Tony,
I sure hope the class catches on. Only problem being the ships are now pretty pricey. And if the whole class is going to have to be motorized, that will in essence financially exclude the great majority of us guys. I just feel bad about not having a true "one-design" class of racing. They picked the wrong machine. I think if they had picked the Russia AC series, it might have caught on here in the states, as that machine performs pretty good and was definitely affordable.

The PW-5 World class gliders that came to the US were mostly not bought by people who wanted them as one design class competition machines. Most that bought them did so because they were inexpensive, light to assemble, and easy to fly. All good attributes that make them good to own and fly. Kind of a modern 1-26.
Want a one deign class today with plenty of ships in the fleet that meet the above criteria? Start a Std Libelle class.
Just Musing
UH

Hi UH, actually, a standard libelle class could probably work lol.

I guess the bigger unstated problem is the vast majority of fliers are not really interested in going anywhere xc or even fewer have a passion for racing. At my club here we have three 201's, and a 301. None of the guys fly more than a couple miles away from home even on a booming day.
My last club had a nice astir 102, and guys had a mini nimbus and a LS-1. None of these three ships has put up a xc flight in ages. I guess the guys are happy to just float around at the top of the thermals. To me, that just breeds bad habits lol. But to each their own is how it goes.

Want a one deign class today with plenty of ships in the fleet that meet the above criteria? Start a Std Libelle class.
Just Musing
UH

Hmmmm. I like it.

- Lots of gliders (600 manufactured, approx. 95 of which show up in the FAA registry in the U.S.)
- Reasonably inexpensive
- In good repair (the gel coat on 201s seems to last a looooong time)
- Still supported (by Streinfeneder)
- Little to no performance difference across versions (the later ones have water, top-surface-only dive brakes, foam core wings, and a bigger horizontal stab but I never saw any difference in performance, nor did the low and high canopies seem to matter). The fillets, winglets, etc., that we see on European Club Class 201s haven't showed up much here.
- A joy to fly
- Light and easy to assemble (my first solo-rigging experiments)
- Performance sufficient that pilots won't feel like they're taking an alarming step down
- Performance sufficient that owners will be happy flying them outside of contests

Admittedly I'm biased. I flew a 201 competitively for seven years and loved every minute of it. I was not always so happy flying a 1-26 before that; I'm not Ron Schwartz and just found it too difficult to stay airborne at times. I feel like I learned how to fly fast more quickly once I hopped into the 201. In it, a mistake meant I was slow. In the 1-26, a mistake put me on the ground, usually for the rest of the day.

I've owned my ASW 24 for 26 years and still love it. But if I were looking for a more economic class and there were a groundswell of interest in a Libelle 201 one-design class that drew participation from some top pilots, I would be tempted.

The latter factor is important. Sometimes our knee-jerk reaction to these classes (e.g., Club) is to restrict them to pilots who aren't already established in the higher ranks. But having the top pilots participate helps provide legitimacy. And not being able to fly and measure myself against them would be a deal breaker for me.

Chip Bearden

I was hoping the 13.5 meter class was going to be this way, but it has gone exactly like tge other classes.

On Thursday, January 4, 2018 at 12:03:04 PM UTC-7, wrote:
I was hoping the 13.5 meter class was going to be this way, but it has gone exactly like the other classes.

Club class should be first generation type Std. Class sailplanes.

Std. Libelle
ASW 15
LS 1
Std. Cirrus
15 meter Phoebus A/B
STD. Jantar 1/2
Astir CS


Plenty of affordable examples available and the performance is close enough to handicap effectively.

Still a dreamer.

Mike