Hi Mike! Please comment on the questions below!
Why do you need water ballast or a retractable undercarriages in a trainer? Why do you need a more modern airfoil in the ASK 21 when the current one has proven close to perfect for a trainer? Aren't there more important attributes for a training aircraft? Aren't we doing our sport a disfavour by training people in unnecessarily complex aircraft? Aren't more complex gliders more expensive to maintain and insure? Aren't we doing our sport a disfavour by training people in more demanding aircraft? Isn't this one of the reasons for students' frustrations? Isn't this one of the reasons why it takes them much longer to fly solo? Isn't this increasing the costs for students? Aren't we losing members because of the high cost of reaching solo status? Isn't all of the above contributing to our poor member retention rates? Please answer my questions one by one and, if possible, please come up with something constructive for a change! Kind regards Bernard -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mike Borgelt Sent: Thursday, 19 August 2010 2:01 PM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Sale of..... At 12:37 PM 19/08/2010, you wrote about the ASK21 Yes I'm sure it is a very nice obsolete glider. It badly needs a new wing with a modern airfoil, a retractable landing gear (taildragger like the vast majority of single seat gliders) and a new lower drag tail. Then it would be called a Duo Discus I guess. If a person wanted to learn to fly gliders and was offered a K13, ASK21, Blanik etc and was told this will take months and months if not years, you will spend all day the the gliding club and get maybe 3 15 to 20 minute flights and be pushing gliders around or retrieving them from the far end of the strip when students misjudge while learning to land and there was a 98% chance that you would NEVER become a competent glider pilot because you would leave the sport out of frustration after having spent heaps of time and money at an organisation not properly set up or dedicated to flying training or offered a Jabiru (poverty pack model under A$70,000 ex factory and perfectly adequate for basic flying training) and 50 hours flying during which only you and the instructor need show up and you would be competent to take off and land, fly around, do visual and GPS cross country navigation, do field selection and generally develop airmanship followed by a gliding conversion of a dozen or so aerotows and a few hours learning thermalling and some short cross country flights in a high performance glider like a Duo,which do you think the person would choose? Mike Borgelt Instruments - manufacturers of quality soaring instruments since 1978 phone Int'l + 61 746 355784 fax Int'l + 61 746 358796 cellphone Int'l + 61 428 355784 email: [email protected] website: www.borgeltinstruments.com _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
