Ann Woolf: Whilst on the subject, lease don't forget Jock Barratt's
Pelican, built in the 1930s which is now being restored.
Peter Champness: Gary Sunderland's MOBA is probably the best known,
even though it has not been seen for quite a few years.
The Beaufort Gliding Club Zephyrus two seater still flies regularly.
It was designed by Doug Lyon and built by the club members. I have
just completed the annual form 2. It has done 17,162 flights and 6,694
flying hours! On that basis I would say it is the most successful home
designed and built glider in the world.
Then there are the John Grant JG1 and JG2. Two examples of the JG2
were built. David House can probably provide more details but I think
that they are all potentially airworthy.
Thank you all for the thread which reminds us that gliding is going
through a transition as full of impact as the one during the 1930s to
1940s. At that time primary gliders which previously had been 'gliding'
disappeared, and the era of two seat training and soarable enclosed
cockpit airframes became the norm.
You remind us all that today is the era of composites and minimum 40:1
to be 'gliding'.
However, the prior generation in this case hasn't yet disappeared. In
some places it is hanging on even in the training role.
And there are a very few people happily puddling about in airframes
with glide ratios which don't deserve to be included in 'gliding' as we
are now wishing to define it.
(We can have a whole other thread on the PLU aspect of this).
This schism of course will be invisible to people looking in from the
outside.
So we may have to get a lot better at describing up front what part of
unpowered flying is 'gliding', and that yes there is that other
remnant, but we hope it will be gone real soon now.
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