Though I have been flying electrics for a year, I'm not that familiar with sailplanes. I'm looking at the Art Hobby Odyessy and am wondering if anyone has any experieince with that plane. I am wanting to find a plane that will thermal well, fly with light lift and be able to penetrate wind. If there are other planes I need to be looking at to achieve this feel free to make any suggestions. Budget wise I would like to stay below $600 for the airframe. Would like to be at 2.5 Meters or larger. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Welcome to the uplifting side of the hobby, rharris.

I only have a couple minutes but stick around for a day or two and you will get lots of sage advice. All that I will say for now is to hold on before a purchase. I can't say anything bad about the Odyssey but I'm not sure it would make the best first sailplane despite your experience with powered planes.

I've had 2 Art Hobby sailplanes and they are nice but I find them a bit on the heavy side. I love my 2 meter Renny which I've had forever now. I've flown it in just about any condition imaginable. It really has proved to be a great sailplane. Skip Miller sells it now as the Avenger. Check it out.
Another which I think would suit your needs is the 2.5M Avia sold by Esprit Models. I haven't flown it, but it seems to be a good all around sailplane.

Hi again, rharris.

The Odyssey is a high performance sailplane and, by all accounts, a very good one that I would not disparage. However, as a general policy, I recommend a sailplane with a more modest performance and flight envelope for learning how to soar. Something that flies itself, like a Gentle Lady or a Radian or a Calypso, leaves a pilot to learn how to find and utilize lift without worrying about getting the best performance out of a more sophisticated sailplane.

An experienced pilot like yourself would not find the Odyssey to be too difficult to fly at normal altitudes and distances but it would be less forgiving of losing orientation at long range or even failing to notice the subtle little wobbles that one needs to exploit for soaring flight. If you have experienced thermal hunters to fly with then this becomes less of an issue and I would, of course, defer to anyone who has an Odyssey and could contradict my feeling that it's a bit more of a handful than a simpler glider. As for cost?

One could get both a cheap, entry level, sailplane and one of similar performance to the Odyssey and still stay under $600.00 for the airframes while one could pick and choose so that the electronics can be swapped.

Cheers!