The United States and the world soaring community lost a giant in the history of competition soaring on September 5th 2004, with the passing of Andrew James Smith. AJ passed away with heart failure at age 80 in his home in Tecumseh, Michigan. He began soaring in the 1950's with his close friend...

Bill Gawthrop who won the U.S. Open Nationals at Montague on July 3rd, is doing well after the crash of his beautiful JS-1c Jet at Truckee, CA. I have not talked directly with Bill, only his wife Dianne. The circumstances of the crash remain unclear, but seem to be unrelated to any mechanical...

I wrote a new article on how to use computers to help judge glides. http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john.cochrane/soaring/docs/safety_glides.pdf or the first item here http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john.cochrane/soaring/index.htm#maccready This will probably end up in Soaring sooner or later,...

Yes I know they’re problematic. Just returned our PA 25-235 from its annual, where one of ours was rebuilt (locked solid) and both serviced. Like I assume many of yours are, our Pawnee has no hopper and will never see gross weight again. So should the air side of the struts still be 575psi per...

Ralph Kolstad has announced that his father, Ken Kolstad, passed away yesterday, June 18th, at the age of 96. Ken and his family have had a long involvement with Colorado soaring. Ken and Mid Kolstad received a Paul Schweizer Lifetime Achievement Award at the SSA Convention earlier this...

Is there any new news about the status of Seminole? Are all the legalities regarding the owner finally cleared up?

USAF Request For Proposal: FA8617-10-R-6210 They need approximately 20 new gliders, several trailers, support equipment, spares and contract maintenance, for delivery at Colorado Springs, CO (USA) in the next two years.

As used at the recent WGC in Benalla... An excellent forecasting tool has been released in the USA, first available for the SW. More to come? https://skysight.io I have flown using Matthew Scutter's SkySight website when in Australia and found it extremely useful. Jim

Some time ago potential purchasers of the (US) PowerFLARM brick were offered the choice of the bundled display or the 57mm panel mount display. No information on either seemed to be available from US dealers so it was impossible to make an informed choice. Butterfly has advised me that no English...

I've browsed the old discussions on gelcoat maintenance to learn what I can before developing a maintenance routine of my own, for my recently acquired V2C. One thing not yet clear to me is the best way to use/apply 3M's Finesse-It II, which seems to be the consensus cleaner/polisher compound: With...

Hello, We are installing a Tost E-85 tow hitch on a Super Cub. We wrote up a nice 337 for the Feds. They approved of the bracket we fabricated. However, they are refusing to sign off on the E-85 hook. Think we've run into the same Feds who tried to ground Bob Hoover. Anyway, they are saying...

I have recently started gliding again after a long absense. I no longer have funds to support my power plane habit and am soaring as less expensive means of getting airborne. I am surprised to see that winch tows in the USA are still almost non existant. Why not. Surely a winch is much cheaper...

1. The World Women's Gliding Championship staged at Lake Keepit in Australia concluded on January 17 leaving a rather nasty taste in the mouths of 9 of the 10 competing countries. 2 A collective protest from team managers saw the International Jury penalise all Australian pilots with 250 points...

Fellow r.a.s.'ers: Tell me about the Lark. I don't yet know which model, but I hear that our club is about to acquire one. Should I be ecstatic, or concerned?

While aero-towing a Mode-C transponder equipped glider, and using PowerFlarm and transponder in the tow plane, most of the time the glider will show up on the PF as a threat aircraft. Since the PF prioritizes threats, this precludes another more distant "intruder" aircraft as being displayed as a...

I am making this posting in the hope of saving someone from going through what I have been going through and to ensure that it gets the coverage it deserves amongst the gliding community. It revolves around a business transaction between myself and Ales Cebavs, the managing director of AMS-Flight...

All - With DVD #2 shipping out I just wanted to make a quick post on RAS about the DVD series. I bought the first DVD with some hesitation; I wasn't sure what kind of recording quality it would be, or how well the DVD would be edited/structured... But knowing the folks at Wings & Wheels, I...

Glasflugel Hornet 206. Total time 3,458 hours, aerotow only. Year of Manufacture 1977 Wings refinished in 1992 and fuselage refinished in 2002. All AD’s completed and fresh annual for 2004 Automatic Control hook-ups. Avionic Dittel ATR 760 radio with boom mic Blumenauer EFA1 electric vario and...

Anybody got one would appreciate a post to

Due to a senior moment, my cobra trailer became unhooked as I was pulling it out of my back yard. The emergency trailer brake activated and broke the safety chain I had installed as well as the trailer wiring, fortunately all this happened at a very slow speed before I got on the road and it was...