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By noahkarch
#403744
Hi all,

To start, this is not me soliciting an ad in the forums.

I have been given the task of selling what I believe is a Seagull 3 Hang Glider (near impossible to try and confirm this or find listings) and it has never been flown and has been stored on the ceiling of a garage. Per his description "New, Never flown, with swing seat, prone harness with hang glider cover."

From what he told me, he had ambitions of getting a quick disconnect so that he could fly it behind a boat and disconnect in the air, but he did not end up pursuing that, and he is an older gentleman now and wants to see it go. What kind of price am I looking at to list this? I really have no expertise in hang gliding.


https://imgur.com/CkcHZwc
https://imgur.com/xdysVei
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By red
#403746
Noah,

The Seagull 3 has no battens in the sail. You have an old Seagull Seahawk there. There may be a silvery sticker on the keel tube, top or bottom, front or rear. That glider is about forty years old. Very well made, for their day.

http://www.delta-club-82.com/bible/296- ... eahawk.htm

Hate to say, but the glider has little if any market value. An instructor might have a use for it, but even that would be rare. The newer Seahawks had washout tips under the sail, and luff lines from the kingpost. Those parts would be the automatic dive recovery system, and I do not see them in the pictures. It may be a good thing that the glider was never towed, without those parts. I doubt it would be worthwhile to update that glider, given the state of the art theses days. There is no factory support for it now, so any one broken part could be the end of the glider.

The glider probably flies as well as any good Seagull, but without the new dive recovery parts, it is really not a safe bet to do that today.
User avatar
By Ken.de.Russy
#403761
Nearly all old gliders, those made in the last century and even many newer, have only a negative value which is the disposal cost. The possibility of locating the rare person that could actually put it to responsible, safe, and good use is so small as to be effectively zero. Almost anyone who might accept it would be completely ignorant of the danger and should they attempt to use it the outcome is vastly more likely than not to be disastrous. The noble thing to do is to disassemble it, recycle the metal parts and offer the sail on Craigslist as a party decoration. Most sensible people will be understandably dubious of this suggestion but you should cut your losses now and move on. You will in any case reach this end point eventually so save yourself the aggravation and get it behind you.

I hate writing this.

On a happier note I just added a bunch more cool videos to my channel. Click on the link below. I just got set up finally to digitize and have the better part of 1000 hours left to post. It is an interesting collection even though my youthful arrogance is hard for me to watch!
By noahkarch
#403762
Thank you all for your input, I am fortunate to have a knowledgeable base to ask and will relay on your information. I am sure he won't be too happy though!

Thanks again!
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By Ground Slammer
#403768
That Seahawk of your's does have a group of old time pilots that would not surrender their Seahawk. They were the entry level glider that people kept and used when the conditions were light. I know of more than one pilot that had progressed to double surface w/vg but preferred to fly their Seahawk. So I don't think it would bring a big price and it does need a retro fit of dive recovery -would I fly and keep it? YES! But I am not in the market. Today the Falcon has the same place, it's the entry level glider you don't sell and prefer if the conditions warrant. 2 old gliders that no one wanted to part with- Olympus and Seahawk.
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By Karl_A
#403776
It's not a worthless old glider. It's a museum piece, an artifact from a bygone era, never used, in perfect condition.

I think the best thing would be to donate it to a museum, which might give you a highly inflated estimate of its value for use in calculating how much of a tax write off you get for donating it.

http://united-states-hang-gliding-history.com/
http://www.british-hang-gliding-museum. ... index.html
http://www.hangglidermuseum.com/
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=36040
By cheesehead
#403838
My instructor in 1988 could only afford junk to teach with. My first couple lessons with him were on a Seagull 3. I had fun, got airborne, didn't know any better. Now I wouldn't (he doesn't anymore) use one personally or as a trainer. Modern beginner's gliders require so much less pitch control throughout a launch. Unfortunately, hang gliders don't become cool collectible classics as they age--they just become worthless. And take up a lot of space.