Cheapest Club (was Best Gliding Club Website)

On 12 Nov 2003 16:48:02 GMT, Ray Lovinggood

Indeed... and I have to admit that I forgot to mention that these friendly people are active pilots (this is the nasty side of my club... lol): Anyone has his kitchen duty weekends once or twice per year (tendency is towards one weekend these days since the club has grown a lot since you left, Ray. 85 active members compared to 55).

))))

... did I already mention that we have more female (and really pretty!) young pilots than males at the moment?

Bye

Hmmmm, emigration beckons.

In 99% of Polish clubs (some 50 clubs) the equipment has been handed by the goverment bodies during the communism era (It's the only nice thought I have got on it). There are very few gliders bought after 1989yr and most of them were funded by municipalities or other goverment supported bodies. Just to give the example, the PW-5 in my club was bought with the help of the mayor of Czestochowa, or the two PW-6s used at Rzeszow were bought by Rzeszow Polytechnic University, which has an aviation department. Add to this few modern competition gliders bought by the Polish Aeroclub to provide equipment for the National Team (most of them fly at Leszno).

Now, the most new registrations of gliders in Poland are privately owned gliders, mostly Jantars which are reexported back to Poland from Russia or CIS countries in general. They have a good prices and in my club there are three Jantars Std. 3 which came back to their home country and a LAK-12.

So... You may be right, the apples may differ at least...

It's just like Hungary

You sound positively rich.

Our club owns six gliders: three two seaters, and three single seaters (all glass). The two PW-5's are only eight years old, but everything else (2 x Twin Astir, 1 x Janus, 1 x Std Libelle) is 25 or more years old, though all but the Libelle have been purchased in the last ten years.

In fact the vast majority of the privately owned gliders (which far outnumber the club ones) are also more than the 15-17 years old you

Hmm... how does your club work (number of members, fees, et cetera)? maybe we are comparing apples with oranges here....

Indeed - used old gliders offer a lot of little money, but in my opinion it's not necessarily the best thing for a club to have old equipment only.

Bye

Are these active pilots?

Hmm.. looks pretty expensive to me I have to admit, but I guess it's normal niveau for the US. How many hours do the club's gliders fly per year? What special expenses does your club have to pay (tow plane maintenance, instructor fees, aifield maintenance, insurances, etc.)? Many owners of private aircraft wo seldom fly the club's aircraft? How many student pilots?

I know.. a lot of questions..

Well... to be honest, the difference between our 'old' G-103 and the 'new' DG-505 was not that great. The cause why we usually buy new gliders was and is simply that with our medium-term financing a new glider is as expensive as a used one. It's more important to have a sufficient number of seats than to have a glider with 7 points better L/D.

Bye

Some of course are not that active.

So far this spring the most gliders I've seen in the air at once is 13, with the tow plane sitting doing nothing once they were all lanched.

This is in New Zealand. I haven't flown many places in the US, but they have generally been much more expensive (except, possibly, for tows), and have usually had worse equipment (e.g. 2-33s). The Chicago Gliding Club is I think the only exception I've seen, but I'm pretty sure it's unusual for the US.

I agree and I would not support the above proposal. While it might be nice to replace the Janus with a DG1000 (or Duo Discus), as far as I can tell there is almost zero performance difference, with only the 'handling' being better. I think the Janus is just fine, but perhaps it would be more useful as a trainer with some small modifications, such as a nose hook. Reducing the number of available seats would be I think

No, it doesn't. Read your own statement, and if you don't see snobbery, it's because you're blind to it.

Our sense of community extends far beyond some wisp like activity, usually extending to the REAL community we just happen to live in.