Economy Class

How about creating new FAI Class-The Economy Class. New gliders you
can buy for , let's say $40,000 or less. To hell with the other specs.
The only one shall be...40G. It will screw the high end producers, and
should flood the market with hundreds of very good, simple and
affordable gliders.
rrk

This has been done in Europe! It'scalled the club class. It was also
tried everywhere and called World Class!

Bob

On Jan 24, 8:10*am, RRK wrote:
How about creating new FAI Class-The Economy Class. New gliders you
can buy for , let's say $40,000 or less. To hell with the other specs.
The only one shall be...40G. It will screw the high end producers, and
should flood the market with hundreds of very good, simple and
affordable gliders.
rrk

It was also
tried everywhere and called World Class!

And, unfortunately, it didn't work. Didn't work because of us - the pilots.
It's because if only we get a few hundreds of hrs. so we could appear in the
competition world, most of us want to fly gliders of more and more L/D. "Why
should I, THE PILOT with say 500 hrs. fly a bicycle like PW-5 with 30:1 or
something? I'm to good for that, I need 50:1 at least"

Maciek K.

On Jan 24, 6:59*am, "Maciek" wrote:
It was also
tried everywhere and called World Class!

And, unfortunately, it didn't work. Didn't work because of us - the pilots.
It's because if only we get a few hundreds of hrs. so we could appear in the
competition world, most of us want to fly gliders of more and more L/D. "Why
should I, THE PILOT with say 500 hrs. fly a bicycle like PW-5 with 30:1 or
something? I'm to good for that, I need 50:1 at least"

Maciek K.

If the glider selected hadn't looked like a "Smart Car", maybe I'd
have bought one.

-T8

On Jan 24, 6:51*am, wrote:
On Jan 24, 6:59*am, "Maciek" wrote:

It was also
tried everywhere and called World Class!

And, unfortunately, it didn't work. Didn't work because of us - the pilots.
It's because if only we get a few hundreds of hrs. so we could appear in the
competition world, most of us want to fly gliders of more and more L/D. "Why
should I, THE PILOT with say 500 hrs. fly a bicycle like PW-5 with 30:1 or
something? I'm to good for that, I need 50:1 at least"

Maciek K.

If the glider selected hadn't looked like a "Smart Car", maybe I'd
have bought one.

-T8

True, there are lots of cheap gliders, they're just used ones. The
contest for them is the Club or Sports Class. The glass is more than
half full.

If you want new, high performance racing gliders that are still
affordable, there's a way - but it's tricky.

Far more than any other factor, the cost of new gliders is determined
by the production run. Potentially, there are huge economies of scale
if the production run is large enough. Here's the tricky part; the
manufacturer has to know how long the run will be when he designs the
glider.

So, how would he know that? There has to be a "one-design" class that
guarantees a long run.

Where the World Class went wrong is the implicit assumption that cost
is most directly related to performance - intuitive, but wrong. If
the World Cass design had been 50:1, the class would have been heavily
subscribed and the production run would have been huge and the cost no
more than the PW-5.

...Potentially, there are huge economies of scale
if the production run is large enough...

Yeah, potentially so. But the curve seems to be fairly flat in the
region of most glider production runs. You'd just about have to double
the size of the worldwide fleet in five years or so before you see a
really meaningful price reduction. Not that that isn't possible, just
that it isn't all that likely given the way we're doing things today.

Personally, I'd like to see a new 12m class that replaces the World
Class. A while back I did a preliminary design of a set of carbon
fiber wings for Monerai for a friend, and the costs and panel weights
look pretty attractive. It'd be fun to make a nice fuselage for those
wings to suit smallish pilots and toss a few into the air.

Thanks, Bob K.

wrote in message
...
On Jan 24, 6:59 am, "Maciek" wrote:
It was also
tried everywhere and called World Class!

And, unfortunately, it didn't work. Didn't work because of us - the
pilots.
It's because if only we get a few hundreds of hrs. so we could appear in
the
competition world, most of us want to fly gliders of more and more L/D.
"Why
should I, THE PILOT with say 500 hrs. fly a bicycle like PW-5 with 30:1 or
something? I'm to good for that, I need 50:1 at least"

Maciek K.

If the glider selected hadn't looked like a "Smart Car", maybe I'd
have bought one.

-T8

Most gliders are things of sensuous beauty. the PW5 has that in spades . . .
or at least one bull thought so :c)

bumper
zz
Quiet Vent and MKIII "high tech" yaw string (now w/long lasting synthetic
yarn or natural wool)

On Jan 24, 8:17*am, "bumper" wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Jan 24, 6:59 am, "Maciek" wrote:

It was also
tried everywhere and called World Class!

And, unfortunately, it didn't work. Didn't work because of us - the
pilots.
It's because if only we get a few hundreds of hrs. so we could appear in
the
competition world, most of us want to fly gliders of more and more L/D.
"Why
should I, THE PILOT with say 500 hrs. fly a bicycle like PW-5 with 30:1 or
something? I'm to good for that, I need 50:1 at least"

Maciek K.

If the glider selected hadn't looked like a "Smart Car", maybe I'd
have bought one.

What's the best L/D on a Smart Car?

9B

On Jan 24, 3:38*am, "
wrote:
This has been done in Europe! It'scalled the club class. It was also
tried everywhere and called World Class!

Bob


None of gliders in Club Class is new. Club class do not stimulate new
designs.
In fact, nothing in todays soaring sport stimulates designing and
building of unexpencive gliders.

RRK

On Jan 25, 9:33*am, RRK wrote:

In fact, nothing in todays soaring sport stimulates designing and
building of unexpencive gliders.

There are still valid inspirations for innovative new sailplanes in
what's left of the US soaring scene. There are plenty of folks besides
me following through on them. You are certainly welcome to help. Feel
free to ask me how.

Thanks, Bob K.