jetsetter, you need to fly gliders....look up your local club. No go around, get it right first time. Probably don't need to bother with radio, not too many instruments to get in the way of getting the feel of it. Simples.
hehe. This sounds familiar. In my 50 year old Ka6: The altimeter sticks, then jumps a couple of hundred feet; The mechanical vario is tempremental and only ever reads max up or max down, but the audio vario works fine; the ASI is optimistic; some idiot (me perhaps?
) connected the radio with the wrong polarity so now it is intermittant.
Basically the only instruments that can be relied on are the piece of wool that is the slip indicator, and my own Mk1 eyeballs. However I do remain compliant and the transponder works fine. I do carry a hand held radio and GPS if I'm anywhere near controlled airspace, and the GPS gives a good idea of altitude and rate of climb.
However it is amusing to take off with almost no instruments and outclimb the modern glass gliders in light thermals. I'm almost disappointed that the annual inspection is due next month and I've get to fix all those uneccessary instruments.