Airbus 380

Excellent news, and presentation.

It is heartening to see the same logic applies world wide. In my region the
local gliding club has been bumping along with just enough members to about keep
it alive, flying vintage gliders and getting out of touch with the "market".

A couple of years ago a couple of dreamers decided it must be possible to do
things better. Starting from just about nothing in the neighbouring town, look
at them now http://www.akavlieg.co.za/ (well maybe not, as their web server
seems to be down). A fleet of representative glass, and a thriving club full of
ambitious young pilots.

Bruce (Currently working on a campaign to change the world. or at least the club)


Frank Whiteley wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/yxety3
You may want to download this powerpoint presentation and view it
(13.3MB)
The presentation shows 7 in the original fleet, perhaps that was owned
as I recall a Krosno and another glider on their old web site, for a
total of 9. Perhaps leased and not owned.

Frank

Jack wrote:

Jim Vincent wrote:


Another one that drank the coolaid.

"Frank Whiteley" wrote in message
groups.com...

Ah, hurdles. One of the banes of the soaring experience. Philadelphia
Glider Council eliminated the hurdles a few years back by changing to
an all glass fleet with 3*G-103's for training, 2*G102's for early
single seater and XC, and an ASW-19 for a bit better XC experience. By
eliminating the hurdles, they wound up with 6 gliders doing the same
amount of work of 9 diverse gliders in the previous fleet. Secondly,
the examiners said they were turning out better pilots.

PGC's Bob Lacovara gives a convincing talk on delivering on the promise
of soaring. We promise the sleek, sexy glass slippers, but stick
students in the beat 2-33's. Better to deliver on the promise. Don't
be afraid to dream a bit.



So, what's your solution, Jim?


Jack

Well, I opened the link and waited...nothing. Any chance one of you could
email it to me directly or point me to the source? TIA.

"Wayne Paul" wrote in message
...
Jim,

I didn't have any trouble with the link, or with downloading the
PowerPoint presentation.

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


"Jim Vincent" wrote in message
...
Link is broken, I think.


"Frank Whiteley" wrote in message
ups.com...
http://tinyurl.com/yxety3
You may want to download this powerpoint presentation and view it
(13.3MB)
The presentation shows 7 in the original fleet, perhaps that was owned
as I recall a Krosno and another glider on their old web site, for a
total of 9. Perhaps leased and not owned.

Frank

I'm a newbie here, and this is my first post, so please be patient.

I'm a student glider pilot. In fact, I'm such a newbie that I'm
scheduled to solo this weekend. In the blazing hot Super Blanik.

I have a few thoughts as a recent glider convert that might be
illustrative to enticing people into the sport.

I'm pushing 40, so I'm no kid. I got into glider flying quite by
accident. I was trying to con a friend of mine into giving me SEL
instruction, since I've wanted to fly since I was a pup. He suggested
that I take a few glider lessons, stating that the fundamentals I built
would serve me well when I started flying power (I also think that he
wanted to get me out of his hair, but that's another story).

20-ish flights later, and I'm completely hooked. Why? For one, soaring
is truly flying for the fun of it. With airspace restrictions and
insurance woes, power flying is just not that fun. (caveat, I live
smack in the middle of Class B airspace, and have to commute about 30
miles to fly. Your mileage may vary.) Soaring is also very instructive
as far as the fundamentals...you can just hear/see/feel what the
aircraft is doing better in the L-23 than in a C172.

I'm a bit of a contrarian when it comes to cost. Yes, soaring is
expensive, but less so IMO than flying power. In this neck of the
woods, wet-rate rental for a C172 is a little bit more than $100/hr.
Add to that the instructor fee, and it gets very pricey. The days of
the "hundred-dollar hamburger" are gone...its more like the $300
burger! The AOPA's "Project Pilot" material compares a flying lesson as
"about the same as a round of golf". Where, on the moon? I'm no golfer
but I can't see a round of golf costing $200.

To be fair, there have been $200 days at the gliderport, but not on
average, and as your skill level in thermaling increases, the cost
should go down, yes? And even though sailplanes can be very costly,
compare that glass rocket sled to the cost of a new DA20 or Cirrus. And
don't forget tie-down fees and insurance.

$.02

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote in
:

"nate_fl" wrote:

I'm a newbie here, and this is my first post, so please be patient.

As a self proclaimed "newbie," do you mind a few questions?

How important do you consider the performance/appearance of
the glider you train in? Is the Super Blanik a negative,
given fiberglass trainers? Would an older Blanik L-13 or
even a 2-33 have been a big negative? Would you have paid
more for better equipment?

How did the people at the glider field treat you the first
few times? Did you think they were snobbish and elitist or
inclusive and friendly?

As another newbie, approaching 50 and not yet near
solo standard after 10 flights...

Appearance: yes the glass planes are undoubtedly more
sexy than the wooden planes. Do I care? Only very
slightly, since I want to use whatever is best for me.
OTOH, the DG1000 did do what I wanted it to, unlike
the K13

I do think it beneficial for there to be a mixture of
grunt learning on K13s, with the occasional flight in
a modern plane to see what we can look forward to. OTOH,
one of the more memorable flights was in a K13 where
I was acting as ballast for an hour:
- the P1 kept up a running commentary of what
he was doing and why
- he knew how to fly the thing; it was a very
pleasant surprise to stay up for an hour
when the competitors in the regional
competition couldn't be bothered to fly
because the max thermal gave 2-3knots upwards

I've been to four fields; the smaller fields were
definitely more actively welcoming, but that tends
to true of any smaller community. I haven't
encountered any snobbishness or eliteism, but
I wouldn't have expected to run into it in the time
I've spent there. Ask me again in a year

tom gardner

Personally, the type of glider I trained in didn't matter so much. The
Super Blanik was fine, in fact I liked the fact that it seemed so
substantial. IMHO, pre-solo instruction involves so much altitude
losing maneuvers (stalls and slips, plus poorly coordinated turns) that
any ship you fly will be an underperformer. The only other ship I've
flown in is a G103, and it wasn't really that "pretty" either. I would
think that most glider operations will not put their new, shiny ships
out there to be kicked around by some ham-handed student (like me)
doing everything possible to make their aircraft fall out of the sky.

As far as the folks, the operators and instructors at my place have
been super. Very supportive and accomodating. A lot of the folks that
hang around are friendly too, some more than others but you could say
that about any group of people.

As an initial impression, it seems as though soaring as a recreational
activity hasn't done a very good job of selling itself. Also, at least
here locally, airspace restrictions are a big issue with getting people
interested. The people that would probably like soaring best (young,
adventurous, eco-friendly) probably mostly live in urban areas that are
not conducive to flying a glider.

On Nov 16, 4:03 pm, T o d d P a t t i s t
wrote:
"nate_fl" wrote:
I'm a newbie here, and this is my first post, so please be patient.As a self proclaimed "newbie," do you mind a few questions?

How important do you consider the performance/appearance of
the glider you train in? Is the Super Blanik a negative,
given fiberglass trainers? Would an older Blanik L-13 or
even a 2-33 have been a big negative? Would you have paid
more for better equipment?

How did the people at the glider field treat you the first
few times? Did you think they were snobbish and elitist or
inclusive and friendly?
--
T o d d P a t t i s t - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)