Thanks Joe! Yep, that would help but this is flying for fun. I’ve spent a lifetime in competition, winning a couple national championships, second in the world, although R/C sailplanes, now I only fly for fun. The Stemme makes it easy and fun.

Oh cool!! Never mind then. How do you like your Stemme? I may get one in the distant future

@@jrf664 The S12 is simply amazing. It has polyhedral, 3 degrees in the last 5 feet that on a 45 degree bank cause it to need no opposite aileron! None. I have 10 hours in a S10, also a great airplane but they need a fair amount of opposite aileron. They are comfortable. My longest flight is 4:15 from Columbia SC to KUSE in NW Ohio. The 82 ft wings get a lot of attention at new airports!

How nice! The S12 is definitely on my list of potential motorgliders

Thanks for the suggestion. I've never used 10 degrees of flaps for anything and will try it next time. I use 5 when I'm circling in lift, and zero when cruising from thermal to thermal Using 10 will certainly help with speed control. I use 5 degrees for landing always although I practice with 16 once in a while for the time that I have to get over something tall at a different field. You are right, weather was the best that I've ever seen.

Try as follows: Flaps L landing - little wind. Flaps 10 or maybe 5 when there is more wind on the field. Circeling: 5° (little) -10° (strong) - You want to go slow to stay a long time in the thermal - speed decreses lift! Gliding to the next thermal: Flaps -5 or -10° speed 150 km/h or even more. Speed when thermaling - try 90 km/h 45° Bank ... if you thermal left ... thread 1 cm right to zero line ... Have fun - greetings from Germany - Emsland. D-KAIT (S10-VT)

I will try flaps 10. I do have trouble focusing on speed in a thermal.

@@ricklederman You are doing very good - just practise

Thanks for the suggestion. I often reply with something like "Here in NW Ohio I've tried working wave lift on Lake Erie and it's 6 ft waves, didn't work well. I'm sure the rotors and stupid strong thermals are difficult to manage, but I'll stick with home.

Agree that you should shoot for 40-45 degrees bank to stay in the core. And more flaps to get slowed down for thermalling sounds like a good idea. No expert here but I did fly 280km yesterday in a Pipistrel Sinus using full flap (+18 degrees) and 40-50 bank angles when circling here in south Florida.

The Stemme is amazing, the S12 has serious advantages over the S10. You are correct, you can fly one with your SPL but with a self launch added. Yes you can land with the engine running. Many S10 owners seldom or never land with the engine running. I land with my engine running 90% of the time and never have had trouble. The S12 landing gear is a little taller, and a little wider but having great landing technique helps. I've actually landed my S12 with a direct crosswind, 18 kts gusting to 24 kts and had no trouble.