This article details talks about laying optical fibres within composite structures to detect failures. http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0964-1726/13/6/002/ I wonder if one of the manufacturers will snag onto this and lay a few fibres up the mainspars of new ships and perhaps along some areas of...

Does anyone have a set of coefficients for the Nimbus 3 in 25.5 m mode? A reasonably accurate polar diagram is acceptable too. Thanks Ian --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.602 / Virus Database: 383 - Release Date:...

I find it quite surprising that quite a few people posting to the MCU forum are passing comments about dropping WinPilot in favour of MCU. From what I gather these people already own a very capable moving map and final glide calculation package in WinPilot and most will have laid out...

Two well known pilots were killed on Monday in South Africa as a result of yet another mid air collision. There have been 3 midairs with fatalities in the past month and about 8 in the past year or so. Guys, we need to face facts, we are doing something very badly wrong! I have heard about more...

Karel your proposal wording still does not quite work! For example someone could declare Start - A - B - A - Finish where start and finish are the same as TP B ( or just 10 metres away from B ) - its a double out and return, a yo-yo! you still need to seperate any waypoints ( TP's or start and...

I have a 10+ year old 57mm Winter vario that has just started sticking when it reaches its full positive deflection. A gentle tap on the glass releases the needle. I guess it will need a trip to Winter this winter (no joke intended). Out of curiosity, does anyone know what causes this sticking...

Hi all I am now the owner of a lovely 1973 Grob built Standard Cirrus - a thing of beauty. What intrigues me is that the the glider has no water ballast in the wings and looks as if it came straight from the factory like this. No connector in the wing root and nothing in the cockpit to indicate...

Does anyone know how or where I could contact either Derek Sear or his boyfriend? I moved to Oz in the early 90's and have lost contact with them. Please feel free to mail me. I am particularly keen to speak to his boyfriend. Cheers Ian

Does anyone know how or where I could contact with Derek Sear's ex-boyfriend? I moved to Oz in the early 90's and have lost contact with him. Please feel free to mail me. Cheers Ian

Does anyone know how or where I could contact either Derek Sear or his boyfriend? I moved to Oz in the early 90's and have lost contact with them. Please feel free to mail me. Cheers Ian

The P-124 Aviator Emergency Parachute seems appealing because of its low descent rate and rapid opening time. Since its design is more like a sport canopy than a regular round emergency canopy I wonder if anyone can speak authoritatively to its use by glider pilots who have never jumped any kind of...

Has anyone got a pdf copy of the repair manual I can have. Living in Portugal it made more sense to move to the german register because there are no BGA inspectors here; but oh how complicated- that might be the way I described it. I would be grateful- need it for the paper work.

This GFAC announcement has been prepared with the agreement of the IGC GNSS Committee and the IGC Bureau. It was put out a couple of days ago on the FAI IGC email mailing lists and ). A question that has been asked is where the current 24 types of IGC-approved...

New type of Flight Recorder gains IGC-approval. The SaFly GNSS Flight Recorder manufactured by the DSX company (www.d- s-x.net), has gained IGC-approval with effect from 31 August 2011. The approval level is for badge flights up to and including the three Diamonds, and other flights that are...

The Colibri II GNSS Flight Recorder manufactured LX Navigation (www.lxnavigation.si) has gained IGC-approval with effect from 20 November 2011 for "all flights". For IGC-approval levels, see para 1.1.4 of Annex B to the Sporting Code for gliding. This brings the number of IGC-approved Flight...

The LX9000 flight recorder with an external MOP (Means-of-Propulsion) sensor box has gained IGC-approval from 10 January 2012. The LXNAV MOP box is designed for use with jet engines in motor gliders, and enables the main recorder to be in the cockpit and the sensor box to be placed close to the...

The LX7007FC flight recorder (FR) has gained IGC-approval with effect from 22 January 2012. It is included in an updated IGC-approval document for the LX 7000 series from LX Navigation. Compared to earlier 7000-series models, the LX7007FC has a colour display and a different microcontroller. The...

The LX8000 flight recorder with an external Means-of-Propulsion (MOP) sensor for jet-engined motor gliders has gained IGC-approval from 31 January 2012. There are now 51 types of IGC-approved Flight Recorders from 19 different manufacturers. These are listed in a table with links to their...

On 10 August a number of updates to IGC-approval documents for Flight Recorders were issued. Details are given below At the same time the IGC web site for Flight Recorders has been updated. This follows over a year during which this site has been either non-existent or had out-of date...

I am pleased to announce that on 25 August 2003 the IGC GNSS Flight Recorder Approval Committee (GFAC) agreed updates to the IGC approval documents for Cambridge GNSS flight recorders. These updates involve only small changes of wording and are currently being placed on the fai/gliding/gnss web...