Soaring Convention: What was new, interesting, best?

[soarski]

Well done

Soar Point

The fact that he comes out with his points just once in a while,
makes it very interesting!

BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
items?

Thanks!

Dieter

[Paul Remde]

Hi,

I thought is was a good convention, but I was busy working in my booth most
of the time.

If you missed my talk comparing soaring software and complete soaring
instrument systems, you can view it as a PDF file at:
http:///www.cumulus-soaring.com

The big news in my little world was that both SeeYou and StrePla announced
Pocket PC flight software. They both looked very impressive with
topographical maps and many other nice features. Of course, as the person
who sells and supports Glide Navigator II, I would have to suggest that they
are more complicated to use than GN II.

I very much enjoyed meeting many of the pilots that fly with Glide Navigator
II, Cambridge Aero Instruments products, and the other items I sell.

The soaring flight simulator Sailors of the Sky was also a big hit. I
haven't played with mine yet, but it looks fantastic.

I particularly liked that my booth was next to the Schempp-Hirth booth so I
got to drool over their nice gliders all week. Some day I'll own a
DuoDiscus... I liked the Duo they had on the floor. The contest number was
6B and the open airbrakes had "Six Beers" written on the orange blades in
large letters. Cool.

I'm already looking forward to the 2005 SSA convention in Ontario,
California.

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde

I am looking forward to the
"soarski" > wrote in message
om...
> Well done
>
> Soar Point
>
> The fact that he comes out with his points just once in a while,
> makes it very interesting!
>
> BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
> some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
> items?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dieter

[Jim Newton]

The web address you gave does not work when I tried this evening.
Jim
"Paul Remde" > wrote in message
news:98UWb.301255$na.452598@attbi_s04...
> Hi,
>
> I thought is was a good convention, but I was busy working in my booth
most
> of the time.
>
> If you missed my talk comparing soaring software and complete soaring
> instrument systems, you can view it as a PDF file at:
> http:///www.cumulus-soaring.com
>
> The big news in my little world was that both SeeYou and StrePla announced
> Pocket PC flight software. They both looked very impressive with
> topographical maps and many other nice features. Of course, as the person
> who sells and supports Glide Navigator II, I would have to suggest that
they
> are more complicated to use than GN II.
>
> I very much enjoyed meeting many of the pilots that fly with Glide
Navigator
> II, Cambridge Aero Instruments products, and the other items I sell.
>
> The soaring flight simulator Sailors of the Sky was also a big hit. I
> haven't played with mine yet, but it looks fantastic.
>
> I particularly liked that my booth was next to the Schempp-Hirth booth so
I
> got to drool over their nice gliders all week. Some day I'll own a
> DuoDiscus... I liked the Duo they had on the floor. The contest number
was
> 6B and the open airbrakes had "Six Beers" written on the orange blades in
> large letters. Cool.
>
> I'm already looking forward to the 2005 SSA convention in Ontario,
> California.
>
> Good Soaring,
>
> Paul Remde
>
> I am looking forward to the
> "soarski" > wrote in message
> om...
> > Well done
> >
> > Soar Point
> >
> > The fact that he comes out with his points just once in a while,
> > makes it very interesting!
> >
> > BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
> > some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
> > items?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Dieter
>
>

[Mark James Boyd]

In article >,
Larry Pardue > wrote:
>>
>> BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
>> some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
>> items?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Dieter
>
>I hadn't been to a convention for quite a few years and got a big kick out
>of it.
>
>The Charlie Spratt Roast, alone, was just about worth the price of
>admission. After an all-star cast of roasters finished, Charlie himself got

Larry,

Thanks so much for the wrap up. I'm glad you had a
good time and I'm sure sorry I missed it :(

Mark

P.S. If you've seen the latest Soaring magazine issues, they are also
quite excellent. This sport seems to be getting a bit
more exciting of late...I'd still like to see the SSA trade
a staff member or two with the Ultralight and/or parachute
association for a month or so, to get a little
cross-interest...

[Larry Pardue]

>
> BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
> some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
> items?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dieter

I hadn't been to a convention for quite a few years and got a big kick out
of it.

The Charlie Spratt Roast, alone, was just about worth the price of
admission. After an all-star cast of roasters finished, Charlie himself got
up and repeated some of his stories to yelled prompts from the audience. We
got such classics as "Sailing at Hobbs" and "Blowing Up The Boat." I was
laughing so hard I could hardly get a breath. Can't wait for Charlie's
book, which is supposed to be out soon.

There was a slight scent in the air of shift of center of gravity from
Germany to Poland for glider manufacture. I think the Diana is probably the
most impressive glider out there and the Diana 2 presentation was
impressive, not to mention that the Diana 2 is absolutely the most
breathtakingly beautiful glider design I have seen (my opinion). It has the
ultra-slim (and tight for big pilots) fuselage of the Diana with a beautiful
swept back and wingleted new wing, without the angles of the Discus.

I thought salesmanship was lacking at the Diana booth in stark contrast to
the DG people who were all over you trying to answer questions and
demonstrate features. The DG folks tried to explain the situation with DG
and LS and I guess I understand it a little bit better. They said they
expect a final resolution in a few days.

The Silent people had a glider and a videotape of the jet self-launcher,
that played all the time. Bob Carlton would not give performance figures
because of the very clunky box they had the jet engines mounted on.
Streamlining should help a lot there. Bob did say that heat on the tail was
no factor at all. I think he said the vertical stabilizer got up to
something like 125 F during the worst case of taxiing in a crosswind. The
engines are canted out slightly. Bob also said the Silent flies better
inverted than anything he has tried. Much better than his Salto.

I found the Sparrow Hawk to be astounding and impressive. I think they need
to come up with a better way to rig the ailerons than some half hitches. I
am perfectly willing to trust my life to rope knots, but still do not like
them in this application. Dick Johnson is scheduled to do performance
testing soon. I spoke briefly to Dave Stevenson about his experience at the
2003 Sports Nats and he had nothing but good to say about the glider. I
wish more people would fly it in contests so we could get a better feel
about it.

Dick is also going to test the PW-6 that was on display.

Dick Butler's presentation on the ASW-22DB (Eta Biter) was a highlight for
me. He has made many modifications, with factory help, and thinks the
performance is fairly close to the Eta. Some of the mods are retractable
tailwheel, which he does not recommend, increased span, new airfoil, longer
tail boom and smaller (ASW-26) horizontal tail. He mentioned his wife was a
bit skeptical as he was sawing the tail off. He made all these mods while
competing each year.

The star, of course, was Klaus Ohlmann who gave presentations on both his
3,000 km flight, and for the awards banquet his 2,000 km straight out
flight. Unfortunately there were audio problems at the awards banquet.
Klaus emphasized that Argentina is a glider paradise and we need to preserve
it and use it with great care. Among the prerequisites are learning
Spanish. Klaus is worried that there will be some sort of air traffic
incident if a bunch of pilots start flying down there who do not know the
ways and the language well enough. He said he started planning when he was
a kid and got out his atlas to see where the big long mountain ranges are.
He also made a lot of preliminary flights to learn certain areas. It is
hard to resent someone like Klaus, even though he does have the beautiful
French airline pilot wife and even though he has now retired from denistry
to be a full time glider pilot.

That's the best I can do for highlights . I don't have a good memory and am
sorry for all the factual errors I probably made.

Larry Pardue 2I

[Jim Phoenix]

Let me add my thanks Larry,

That was great and thanks for taking the time to type it out. Would love to
hear lots of detail about the ASW-22 mods, maybe Technical Soaring could be
resurrected for that kind of thing?

I got a great telephone report from the convention floor from my buddy Dave,
but I still don't see the Seeyou Pocket PC product on their website - I
eagerly await.

Jim

"Larry Pardue" > wrote in message
...
> >
> > BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
> > some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
> > items?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Dieter
>
> I hadn't been to a convention for quite a few years and got a big kick out
> of it.
>
> The Charlie Spratt Roast, alone, was just about worth the price of
> admission. After an all-star cast of roasters finished, Charlie himself
got
> up and repeated some of his stories to yelled prompts from the audience.
We
> got such classics as "Sailing at Hobbs" and "Blowing Up The Boat." I was
> laughing so hard I could hardly get a breath. Can't wait for Charlie's
> book, which is supposed to be out soon.
>
> There was a slight scent in the air of shift of center of gravity from
> Germany to Poland for glider manufacture. I think the Diana is probably
the
> most impressive glider out there and the Diana 2 presentation was
> impressive, not to mention that the Diana 2 is absolutely the most
> breathtakingly beautiful glider design I have seen (my opinion). It has
the
> ultra-slim (and tight for big pilots) fuselage of the Diana with a
beautiful
> swept back and wingleted new wing, without the angles of the Discus.
>
> I thought salesmanship was lacking at the Diana booth in stark contrast to
> the DG people who were all over you trying to answer questions and
> demonstrate features. The DG folks tried to explain the situation with DG
> and LS and I guess I understand it a little bit better. They said they
> expect a final resolution in a few days.
>
> The Silent people had a glider and a videotape of the jet self-launcher,
> that played all the time. Bob Carlton would not give performance figures
> because of the very clunky box they had the jet engines mounted on.
> Streamlining should help a lot there. Bob did say that heat on the tail
was
> no factor at all. I think he said the vertical stabilizer got up to
> something like 125 F during the worst case of taxiing in a crosswind. The
> engines are canted out slightly. Bob also said the Silent flies better
> inverted than anything he has tried. Much better than his Salto.
>
> I found the Sparrow Hawk to be astounding and impressive. I think they
need
> to come up with a better way to rig the ailerons than some half hitches.
I
> am perfectly willing to trust my life to rope knots, but still do not like
> them in this application. Dick Johnson is scheduled to do performance
> testing soon. I spoke briefly to Dave Stevenson about his experience at
the
> 2003 Sports Nats and he had nothing but good to say about the glider. I
> wish more people would fly it in contests so we could get a better feel
> about it.
>
> Dick is also going to test the PW-6 that was on display.
>
> Dick Butler's presentation on the ASW-22DB (Eta Biter) was a highlight for
> me. He has made many modifications, with factory help, and thinks the
> performance is fairly close to the Eta. Some of the mods are retractable
> tailwheel, which he does not recommend, increased span, new airfoil,
longer
> tail boom and smaller (ASW-26) horizontal tail. He mentioned his wife was
a
> bit skeptical as he was sawing the tail off. He made all these mods while
> competing each year.
>
> The star, of course, was Klaus Ohlmann who gave presentations on both his
> 3,000 km flight, and for the awards banquet his 2,000 km straight out
> flight. Unfortunately there were audio problems at the awards banquet.
> Klaus emphasized that Argentina is a glider paradise and we need to
preserve
> it and use it with great care. Among the prerequisites are learning
> Spanish. Klaus is worried that there will be some sort of air traffic
> incident if a bunch of pilots start flying down there who do not know the
> ways and the language well enough. He said he started planning when he
was
> a kid and got out his atlas to see where the big long mountain ranges are.
> He also made a lot of preliminary flights to learn certain areas. It is
> hard to resent someone like Klaus, even though he does have the beautiful
> French airline pilot wife and even though he has now retired from denistry
> to be a full time glider pilot.
>
> That's the best I can do for highlights . I don't have a good memory and
am
> sorry for all the factual errors I probably made.
>
> Larry Pardue 2I
>
>

[Henryk Birecki]

"Jim Newton" > wrote:

>The web address you gave does not work when I tried this evening.
>Jim

Take out one of the slashes

try http://www.cumulus-soaring.com

instead of >> http:///www.cumulus-soaring.com

[Eric Greenwell]

Jim Phoenix wrote:

> Let me add my thanks Larry,
>
> That was great and thanks for taking the time to type it out. Would love to
> hear lots of detail about the ASW-22 mods, maybe Technical Soaring could be
> resurrected for that kind of thing?
>
> I got a great telephone report from the convention floor from my buddy Dave,
> but I still don't see the Seeyou Pocket PC product on their website - I
> eagerly await.

SeeYou Mobile, as it is called, looked very good. It doesn't have all
the features of WinPilot, but given their history with SeeYou, I expect
them to reduce the gap quickly, and it is much cheaper at about $200US.
The CDs were flying out of their booth! The convention was the first
announcement of it, and it'll be on the web site as soon as they recover
from the convention.

--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

[F.L. Whiteley]

"Jim Phoenix" > wrote in message
...
> Let me add my thanks Larry,
>
> That was great and thanks for taking the time to type it out. Would love
to
> hear lots of detail about the ASW-22 mods, maybe Technical Soaring could
be
> resurrected for that kind of thing?
>
My understanding from talking with LB from OSTIV is that SSA has agreed to
publish TS for another year to see what the response is. Consideration of
digital format in the future was part of the agreement if I understood
correctly. Since Leszno, there has been material available. I also picked
up a list of back issues that are available. (If you are an OSTIV member,
you get one of these but that's like preaching to the choir since OSTIV
members receive the publications anyway). I chided LB for the lack of
publicity on this.

[David Stevenson]

The SeeYou Mobile software can be downloaded for a trial run at
http://mobile.seeyou.ws/

Enjoy!

David Stevenson

[Jim Kellett]

"soarski" > wrote in message
om...

> BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
> some reports, stories.

Atlanta was the eighteenth or nineteenth SSA convention for my wife and me.
While I never fail to find something new and exciting in both the
presentations (this year, the "news" from Steve Northcraft and Bob Lacovara
were the most informative, with Mark Keene's marathan two session discussion
close in trail) and the exhibits (the prototype sport aviation certified
glider caught my eye), I've come to treasure even more the once-a-year
chance to hob nob and lift a glass with the luminaries of soaring that you'd
otherwise only read about.

The new film "A Fine Week of Soaring" was a particular surprise . . .
sitting in the room, when it was described as a "close look at a full week
of a contest" I whispered to my wife "I've seen too many boring videos of
competitions . . when the lights dim, I'm going to sneak out". Well, a
little over an hour later, I was still there, enthralled, and promptly
skipped out to buy two copies. Didn't hurt that sometimes, flying my own
glider down in the Shenandoah valley, I've "lurked" on frequency about a
hundred miles out while Karl talked some of his XC trainees around a course.
.. . the film visualized what I'd heard in the chit-chat. Very cool.

Enjoyed Dennis Wright's plain-talking membership meeting (where WAS
everyone?!?) and the dialog with the CAP Glider Program folks. It was
obvious that big things are a-brewin', new instruments and new gliders
notwithstanding . .

Jim Kellett, Resident Curmudgeon
Chief Flight Instructor, Skyline Soaring Club
Captain and CFI(G), Civil Air Patrol
Chairman, Classic Division, Vintage Sailplane Association
Webmaster, Open Cirrus Website
"If Flying Were the Language of Man, Soaring Would be its Poetry"

[miriano]

"Larry Pardue" > wrote in message >...
> >
> > BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
> > some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
> > items?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Dieter
>
> I hadn't been to a convention for quite a few years and got a big kick out
> of it.
>
> The Charlie Spratt Roast, alone, was just about worth the price of
> admission. After an all-star cast of roasters finished, Charlie himself got
> up and repeated some of his stories to yelled prompts from the audience. We
> got such classics as "Sailing at Hobbs" and "Blowing Up The Boat." I was
> laughing so hard I could hardly get a breath. Can't wait for Charlie's
> book, which is supposed to be out soon.
>
> There was a slight scent in the air of shift of center of gravity from
> Germany to Poland for glider manufacture. ...

> Larry Pardue 2I

Have you seen the "Apis" from AMS-Flight??? How does it seem???

Miriano

[Jke4034]

There was a self launching version of the Apis (15M) on display at the Apis
Sailplanes Inc Booth.

It was a very nice looking machine with a very reasonable price. A friend who
flies an L-33 sat in it and felt the cockpit was very comfortable. It appears
they have done a nice job.

There is additional info on the web site if you have not seen it at
http://www.apisgliders.com/

John
John Earlywine
_|_
------------()-----------
Fort Wayne, IN