Actually, Fred Slingsby just went cheap on the development of the T38. He re-used the large number of surplus T.7 wings, stabilizers and rudders he had leftover from converting the RAF T7s into T8s, and resold them to the RAF as Grasshoppers using a new fuselage copied from the SG-38 – and modified a bit. Makes great business sense to sell the same parts twice to the same customer as different airframes… however, the wings were relatively heavy for a glider as they were designed for a heavier sailplane. Hence the high wing loading and poor handling at slower speeds. The rudder is also too small as it is designed for a vertical stabilizer which the T38 does not have. Rudder control is practically non-existing.