In the good old days, this was a buzzing place. By comparison, nowadays, the sagebrush is blowing across my screen. Where is everybody? John Roake ... Peter Masak (whatever did happen to the Scimitar?) .. Iain Strachan ... all gone, it seems. It's pretty clear that usenet is dying on its feet, but...

As mentioned on a previous post, the needle fell off my CAI-302. I've tried calling and emailing CAI and get no response to email and only voice mail at the factory. Are they not open on Mondays? Their website says to call before sending instruments in for repair... Can anyone suggest...

Hi, while putting together our flying club histoire, I tracked one of our old Blaniks to have been sold to form. Yugoslavia back in 1992, tracing it forwards to Slovenia where it was registered under S5-7108. It'd be nice to hear if it still exists and/or what happened to it. This Blanik was a...

Any idea where?

just a quick question for yuz,If yuz don't mind that is. Is Paragliding on the decline in the UK,I ask because I *always* used to see gliders round the top of a ridge near me,(Swhat got me interested in them).But lately there hasn't been any.I also used to see them around Glyder fawr near...

Hi all. I just upgraded to Condor version 2 (glider racing simulator), but no one appears to be flying in the races anymore (see gliderracing.com). When I had Condor version one a couple of years ago, usually about a dozen pilots would be in each US nightly race. I wonder what happened,...

I was reading up on the recent accidents and one had me wondering. This was the damage to a K13 at Buckminster in the UK on 15 January. You can read about it here - http://www.gliding.co.uk/accidents/detail.php?acc_id=59&pageNum_AccidentSummary=1&totalRows_AccidentSummary=23 It appears from the...

I tow behind several excellent tug pilots in their 70's, one who is 84, and several 'young' tug pilots who are in their 50s. Where is the next generation of Tug Pilots? Do pilots suddenly take up towing gliders in their 50's-60's? (perhaps when they retire from the military?)

Where do those big holes in the spars of composite gliders come from? You know, the ones where they put the bushings that you insert the main pins through? Somebody with a big drill drills them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ3rISscO2I Thanks, Bob K.

Hi, all. I have a PW-5 that I bought but have never flown. Since the PW-6 is the 2-place trainer for the PW-5, I was hoping to train in a PW-6 for and hour or so before attempting the PW-5. I just spoke with Seminole Lake Gliderport (here in Florida) who said that their PW-6 is down for...

hi does anyone know where i can get hold of an upto date map so i can do some x-contry this year? cheers taz

I'm looking for someplace in the USA to get dual instruction in a glider that has flaps. (yet another reason to regret the grounding of the L-13s)

I'm replacing my Cobra trailer axle with a new one that uses different wheels than the original axle , so I'll need three wheels with 14" diameter, 5" to 6" rim width, and a 112 mm, 5 bolt pattern. Standard steel wheels would be fine, but I'd like to upgrade to something fancier. My problem is...

Just reply with a country name.. - Denmark

So what is the latest on the availability of the Butterfly vario? Wonder if it will "fly" in any Uvalde WGC sailplanes? Also, will it deliver full featured or will the featurs dribble in over time? Sure would like to see something on YouTube including a sampling of the audio. How about it...

The advertisement for CFIG's recently posted, and the discussion it spawned, made me realize something. I have yet to see a soaring club that had enough CFIG's. I'm sure they're out there, but I bet they're not the norm. Some have waiting lists to join if you lack a glider rating. Some have...

I am looking into buying a used single-place glider (38:1) but am having difficulties in finding many ads for them. Soaring Mag used to have many, many pages of glider adverts, but now usually publishes less than a single column. I know about Wings and Wheels and the SSA classifieds, but are there...

If it already does, my apologies. Its been a year and a half. When will this feature be available to me as it was a significant part of the reason that I purchased one. I am becoming less and less fond of the permanent indefiniteness of this process. Thanks, Sean F2

Our tow pilot crashed our Wilga yesterday at dusk. He was coming in with the flaps down and the power pulled back. At about 200ft he decided his descent rate was too great and pulled the flaps up. He said he was too slow but never added power and the high rate of descent continued right into...

I will be starting glider flying lessons this year once the weather warms up sufficiently, and am wondering at what point I should consider getting a parachute. I also plan to get my own glider, hopefully sooner than later, but will obviously need to be a certified glider pilot before that...