Looking for first glider

One more thing: Make sure it has a REALLY NICE TRAILER. Nothing will
make the soaring experience sour quicker than having to struggle with
a goofy, poorly designed trailer.

Make sure you take the time to rig and derig any gliders you are
thinking of buying - preferably with an experience glider pilot friend
along to point out things you may not notice.

Remember, instruments and parachutes can be replaced or upgraded, but
you will have to live with that trailer for a while!

Kirk

Jeff,
Buy a nice LS-4!
It's well in your budget range.
Many have been refinished and upgraded.
Almost all will come with useable instruments, radio, etc.,and usually a
good trailer.
They have earned many accolades for exceptional handling and benign flying
qualities.
They hold their value far better than almost any other glider and there is
always a buyer waiting in rhe wings when you are ready to move on.
Resale is an important consideration.
You can use the money left over in your budget for lots of tows, upgrades
or, you could just send it to your favorite charity.
Cheers!, Pete

"Kirk Stant" wrote in message
om...
One more thing: Make sure it has a REALLY NICE TRAILER. Nothing will
make the soaring experience sour quicker than having to struggle with
a goofy, poorly designed trailer.

Make sure you take the time to rig and derig any gliders you are
thinking of buying - preferably with an experience glider pilot friend
along to point out things you may not notice.

Remember, instruments and parachutes can be replaced or upgraded, but
you will have to live with that trailer for a while!

Kirk

At 18:18 07 September 2004, Kirk Stant wrote:
One more thing: Make sure it has a REALLY NICE TRAILER.


Ditto on the trailer...and automatic hookups. Remember
with hotelliers...if you rig correctly 99.9% of the
time...u crash.

Stewart,

Do you tie your own shoelaces? Or do you still wear
velcro shoes to avoid the danger of getting it wrong
01% of the time?

Automatic hookups are nice yes, but nothing is 100%
guaranteed. Hotelliers take a little longer and are
a little more fiddly but they aren't the factor on
which a glider should/shouldnt be bought.

Trailer is though!! ;-)

At 05:24 08 September 2004, Stewart Kissel wrote:
At 18:18 07 September 2004, Kirk Stant wrote:
One more thing: Make sure it has a REALLY NICE TRAILER.


Ditto on the trailer...and automatic hookups. Remember
with hotelliers...if you rig correctly 99.9% of the
time...u crash.

Check out the Apis 13 or 15 meter sailplanes. I own a 13m and have a
partnership in a 15m.........both are well made, good performing
sailplanes. You would be quite happy with either one.

Brad





Jeff Runciman wrote in message ...
I have been reading the posts and archived posts and
I am looking for some advice on a first glider. I will
be spending quite a bit of time in a 2-22 and should
have my licence in two weeks. Here are my experience
details and performance hopes:

Experience: Private pilots licence 140 hours current
Hang Glider 480 hours current
Glider 3 hours, 18 flights, 8 solo.
Ultralight 42 hours not current.

Performance Hopes: 40:1
Fiberglass
02 system
not scary to fly with
my experience
15 meter (maybe 13 meter
club class)
does not have to have
flaps
later than 1985

Can spend up to 35,000 U.S. dollars with trailer. (maybe
more based on your recomendations. ) Any help would
be appreciated.

Jeff

Mark Brown wrote:
Automatic hookups are nice yes, but nothing is 100%
guaranteed. Hotelliers take a little longer and are
a little more fiddly but they aren't the factor on
which a glider should/shouldnt be bought.

There are most certainly a factor for me (and many others). I will no
longer buy a glider which has manual hookups (except for one of those
vintage jobs I've been lusting after, and won't be flying frequently).
I know I'm unlikely to get them right 100% of the time.

Over the past 15 years I've been acquainted with at least six or seven
careful and experienced pilots who have managed to take off with a
Hotellier fitting disconnected. Three dead, one unable to fly or walk,
one with permanent leg damage.

I know one person who had an in-flight failure of an automatic hookup,
and that was a flaperon fitting on an LS-3 (which can barely be
considered automatic). She managed to bail out.

The odds look pretty clear to me...

Marc

Mark Brown wrote:
Stewart,

Do you tie your own shoelaces? Or do you still wear
velcro shoes to avoid the danger of getting it wrong
01% of the time?

Automatic hookups are nice yes, but nothing is 100%
guaranteed. Hotelliers take a little longer and are
a little more fiddly but they aren't the factor on
which a glider should/shouldnt be bought.

It is for me. After 5000 hours, I know what I can and can't do reliably.
If you don't make mistakes with details, or don't expect to keep the
glider for more than a couple hundred hours, then maybe manual hookups
are OK.

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

At 10:00 08 September 2004, Mark Brown wrote:
Stewart,

Do you tie your own shoelaces?

Yep, and I trip on them if they come undone.

Or do you still wear
velcro shoes to avoid the danger of getting it wrong
01% of the time?

Automatic hookups are nice yes, but nothing is 100%
guaranteed. Hotelliers take a little longer and are
a little more fiddly but they aren't the factor on
which a glider should/shouldnt be bought.


Don't want to start a flame war here, but I have to
disagree. Affordable ships on the used market come
with automatic hookups...and not only do they make
things safer...but with a self-rigger one does not
need assistance...which means more flying for some
of us who fly from remote airports.
Trailer is though!! ;-)

At 05:24 08 September 2004, Stewart Kissel wrote:
At 18:18 07 September 2004, Kirk Stant wrote:
One more thing: Make sure it has a REALLY NICE TRAILER.


Ditto on the trailer...and automatic hookups. Remember
with hotelliers...if you rig correctly 99.9% of the
time...u crash.