42:1 glide ratio, very forgiving and a good dancer.
In reply to 914Driver:
Is that yours?
There wasn't any NMNA in the title or post...I'd guess it is.
It is. I enjoy the challenge of staying up without an engine, but drilling holes in the sky doesn't get me from point A to B. I'm training this summer in power and want something SWMBO and I can use for weekend getaways or just going out to lunch in. A 914 that flies.
The club I belong to has four ships I can take at any time.
Dan
Got a few emails from 3 or 4 people, serious questions, seem legit. Guy is flying here next week from Seattle to look at it. Then he flies home, gets the wife and does a cross country forth and back trip towing the glider back.
Film at 11 ....
Where's the fun in towing it from New York to Seattle? Glide it home. It's got a 43:1 glide ratio, for crying out loud!
He only needs about a 350,000 ft high tow and he should make it in 1 shot.
I would tie it off to the bumper and tow it home. Watch the overpasses!
42:1 you could about thermal over the interstate couldn't you?
I have. 1200ft. AGL and should be looking for a place to put down. I was 40 miles from home and got a little pop off Rt. 67, heat off the tarmac. OK, up 50 feet, coast; pop, up 20 ft, try to breathe. Made it to the end of the runway at 1,000ft. Never wanted to kiss the ground so bad in my life!
Wonder what the people in cars thought.
914Driver wrote: I have. 1200ft. AGL and should be looking for a place to put down. I was 40 miles from home and got a little pop off Rt. 67, heat off the tarmac. OK, up 50 feet, coast; pop, up 20 ft, try to breathe. Made it to the end of the runway at 1,000ft. Never wanted to kiss the ground so bad in my life! Wonder what the people in cars thought.
That is flying IFR, I follow roads. I have done it to get home after losing one engine.
Isn't IFR Instrument Flying? I called it flying scared E36 M3 less.
In reply to 914Driver:
Instrument Flight Rules is the real definition. Pilots that are not instrument rated often follow roads as the visibility get worse and the ceiling lowers. These same pilots often hit antenna guy wires and powerlines.
Called IF Arrrrrgggghhhhh!
When I first started learning to fly I couldn't see over the panel, heck I could barely see out the side windows. So dad taught me how to fly via instruments. While I'm not instrument rated... I have no doubt I can find my way somewhere without seeing where I'm going in an aircraft. Stopwatches and compass headings. :D Glass panel? GPS? WTF is that? Shooting ILS approaches with dad @ 13.
I went and looked at a flight school that claimed to be able to put you in a regional aircraft in less than 2 years when I was younger. As part of the tour they put the 4 of us on the tour in a simulator and made us fly the pattern in IFR conditions and land. I LOL'd when the 3 others were told that while they were on the ground, their aircraft were very likely damaged. The guy running the simulator looked at me and told me "you've done this before." 
Sold.
congrats!
Did the paperwork and boxed up the DG this morning, off and running west. Happy buyer!
I am looking at a motorglider; it's an OK sailplane and an OK airplane, not fantastic at either. It will certainly check all the boxes for me and the bride toodling around locally, going out to lunch etc.
The Grob 109 (1st image) is good build quality, fair L/D for soaring with plenty of aftermarket support. VW based boxer air cooled engine. The Bad? Very long, low set wings over a narrow wheel track could make cross wind landings an adventure.
2nd shot is a Blanik L-13 Vivat. In line four cylinder engine dependable as gravity, retractable landing gear and wingtip wheels. The mono landing wheel makes me more comfortable as it would act like a sailplane on landing, ground loops are a bit tougher to initiate.
Motorgliders are more common in Europe, a very nice 109 in Germany is 19k Euros + $3k to ship it here, pick up in Rhode Island.
Film at 11:00.
Dan
NICE! Actually this thread got me looking at aircraft again. The stuff offered in Europe is amazing compared to what we have stateside. The impulse 100 looks perfect to me, and some of the pipstrel aircraft are really amusing.
I went up in a Pipistrel Virus once, you get beat up pretty good on a gusty day or when there's a lot of lift.
I was looking for a Light Sport plane at first. With older pilots not being able to meet the medical benchmark, they buy up LSAs; now the price of these are out of sight. Some fly so fast and need so much runway to land, I'm not sure I would be comfortable if something happened, and you probably couldn't drop one into Farmer Brown's field if you had to.
Good to know about the Virus.
This is true. But to be fair, farmer Brown's field has gotten a lot smaller over the years.
Got to looking around, and I used to dislike the low wing platform. From a comfort point of view I can dig it. A mid time PA-28 is teens to ~30k depending if you want to purchase things like wheel pants, gap seals etc before hand or afterwards. I'm thinking I can deal with the low wing and ~6 gph burn for that price tag. You can snag a C152 in that same price range but they're usually timed out or near it, and 2 seats versus the "4" of the Piper. (it would be used for dogs 99.9% of the time) Slower, louder in the cockpit(IIRC), and harder to see out of in front of you. Convincing SWMBO we need it now is the fun part. The road trip in July for her family reunion coming up would be the perfect time to convince her that 4 hours one way in the air with a car rental and a 20 minutes ride there. Beats the hell out of 13 hours down the interstate one way.
I've wanted to fly a sailplane since I was about 14. A buddy of mine has been after me to spend the ~$200 and head over to the Boulder airport and do one of the introductory "try it out" specials. I'm afraid it could be a very expensive $200 in the long run 
My club charges $500 to join then $20/month. For that you get to use their gliders and it includes all of your instruction, you have to pay for the tows; $20 - $35 depending on height.
To get to the point where you solo in a small power plane is $9,000 at a local flight school.
Try it anyway, very quiet, peaceful, no headsets.
Dan
You train in a Grob 103, then once you solo and they think you know what you're doing, you can use the Grob 102.
No need to ever buy a glider.
Just looked into the local club. 500 a year plus tows.
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