I'm interested in learning how to get the maximum possible height on a winch launch, without compromising safety in any way. This question has two parts really - how should the pilot fly the launch (pretty much how should he operate the elevator during the launch), how fast should the glider fly,...

From another thread recently, thought it might be a good topic to paw around with everyone... For me, soaring is great fun. I've been doing it consistently for about 5 years now. I've met a bunch of amazing, great, kind people and have learned a tremendous amount about the sport (light years...

In days of old the phrase was "Nothing beats wing span". Now it seems as if these short wing "open" birds, i.e., JS1C are beating the long wing birds.. Rarely even see a 23 meter bird in the open class. Having almost half my glider time in the open class I miss the long beautiful wings and at...

I'm a Mid-Michigan based pilot looking to rent a Club Class glider and road-ready trailer for the 2017 & 2018 seasons (needed by late April prior to R3 "Sports Class" Contest). I would prefer to fly a Std. Cirrus, Mini-Nimbus, or HpH 304C but I'm open to other models with larger cockpits (242+lb...

Hi All, I built a cable for My Power FLARM portable according to the drawing on the Tech Tips portion of the ClearNav site but The CN does not connect to the Flarm. I have a cable tester and the cable checks good. I've tried baud rates from 19.2 to 57.6K and still no luck. I also spoke with...

Just FYI, we're convening another one of our Akaflieg gatherings at our Arnold, CA 95223 workshop 21 through 27 January 2017. As at previous such events, we have dorm-style accommodation at a rustic cabin (with WiFi, of course), with catering and a guest speaker in the field. We charge $75/day,...

FAI has ratified the following Class D (Gliders) North-American record : ================================================ Claim number : 17837 Sub-class : D13.5 / 13.5m Class Gliders Category : General Group : Not applicable Type of record : Distance using up to 3 turn points Course/location :...

An owner of a 15m with 18m tips told me his glider was designed as 18m and the manufacture cut the tips to make removable and that it did not fly well as a 15m. My question is this common or glider specific? How do manufactures design a 15/18m? Do they start with design of 15m and add 3m and...

Would anyone be interested in creating a yearly event for 1-26s on or around January 26 ?

Does anyone have a temperature probe for Clearnav vario sitting around looking for a new home? Looking to adopt. Chris green eggs and jam @ yahoo .com

Does anyone know if you can drive an ILEC electronic vario with a Clear Nav digital vario? The reason I am wondering is I am debating buying a Clear Nav vario but I prefer the dial over the tape display. If I can drive the ILEC then I will opt for the square Clear Nav with the tape display and...

I have been using SPOT for a number of years, and have found it spotty, frequently missing large gaps. Considering going to inReach, and wondering the merits of Explorer vs SE, and what tracking intervals people are using with the newer devices. Also, wondering about the number of missed hits...

How does Oudie IGC derive TAS and Wind? Especially when there is no thermalling. It does not have Ptot/Pstat input and does not have heading info. The TAS (5 bytes) and GSP (5 bytes) are recorded in the *.igc file --in the B-Record, as configured by the I-Record. Also--quantities TRT and VAT are...

Hello! I had a close call this summer and decided to try to illustrate a few dangerous situations using Condor. This effort was received with some enthusiasm in our local gliding community. I would love to hear examples from real life that could be used for more videos. Please give me...

Does anyone on this forum currently own/fly and American Falcon or Spirit? I am keen to talk with you. Please send me an email off the forum ) or give me a call 250-792-4850. Thanks, Andrew Doepner

The 'Single 180 Turn From Downwind to Final' (aka 'military style pattern') and 'Stall-spin on Turn from Base to Final' are both well discussed as independent topics on RAS. But I've not seen anything about how these pieces fit together. Having recently tried the 'Single 180 Turn...' and LIKED it,...

Where can one acquire one of these. Windy here in Australia. Thanks, Sean

So for race tasking it is a bad idea to call a task that has pilots do an out and return, 180° U-turn and turn back into oncoming traffic. So a 0° angle between incoming and outgoing traffic certainly is bad. What angle is sufficient to be relatively safe, 30, 40, 60? And does this vary with...

Not being an aerodynamicist, I was wondering if winglets decreased ground effect. So would an ASW-20 (without winglets) be able to glide further in ground effect than an ASW-20 (with winglets), all else being equal?