Re: [RCSE] Re: Beginner Sailplane recommendation

[Ed Whyte]

Ok, lets get down to the two standards of the industry for a trainer. First off it should be recognized that building the glider will teach the beginner most of the basics and give him or here the knowledge of what to look for in a future kit or RTF. The Lee Renaud / Airtronics Olympic II and the Olympic 650, I believe have been used to get more glider pilots started in the right direction. They are inexpensive easy to build fly great and can be repaired if something should go wrong. The Oly II is larger has better visibility and is a little more forgiving than the 2 Meter 650. The Oly II is available from Ray Hays at www.skybench.com the Oly 650 will be available shortly from www.aerosphereonline.com EW. Ed Whyte WHYTE WINGS 7207 Cornerstone Drive Caledonia, MI 49316-7879 616 698 8668 ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Soaring@airage.com Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 9:00 PM Subject: [RCSE] Re: Beginner Sailplane recommendation I see it now, the suggestions are going to keep escalating to higher-performing and more expensive planes. Forgetting that the user is going to be  a youngster  first-timer.  And suggesting slope oriented planes for thermalling seems weird to me.  Not that it's impossible, but because it makes little sense to me in the context of the target user.  Very inexperienced newbies I know of tend to need lightweight gasbag planes, and preferably poly ships that are as stable as possible.  You guys seem to forget that most of you are elite flyers and high performance ships are your normal stock in trade.  I work the lower end myself, and am quite happy with 2-meter  2-channel poly floaters with inexpensive gear. I think that that direction is a good one for beginners as well.  If you put an EPP nose on a Gentle Lady fuse and traded the GL wing for one with an EPP leading edge, carbon tube spar and main cores of styrene, I think you'd have my perfect trainer.