Last week I noticed a growing hump in the floor over the axle of my Komet trailer. Investigating, I found cracked welds where the axle attachment subframe is welded to the lower longerons of the welded steel truss that makes up the sides of the trailer. The rear welds on the subframe had failed...

Today a Pawnee had a wheel bolt lose its nut and back out of the wheel enough to strike the brake caliper. I know of two other ocasions where this locked the wheel leading to a groundloop and to severe damage to the tug. In this instance, the bolt bent about 45 degrees producing a loud ticking...

http://www.spacemart.com/reports/The_M2_F1_An_Aircraft_Without_Wings_999.html

Here is a couple of videos from YouTube of the modified Tost winch that set the altitude record and and of the view from the cockpit as the pilot does aerobatics on the way down. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VlRd9-wxQI (Search YouTube for "Hohenflug" if the link doesn't work.) BTW 1500...

I don't think there is any future in joining or affilliating with either the AOPA or the EAA. Now these are fine organizations to which I have belonged but the culture is very different from the soaring community and I am sure there would be issues that would not favor us. Associate yes, but...

Is it legal/possible/reasonable to install just Mode A transponder (No altitude reporting)? Whenever I hear "Traffic 12 O-clock 3 miles, altitude unknown" I look EVERYWHERE. ahead. Might this provoke more visual scanning by aircraft crews which could spot gliders without transponders in the...

I broke my TE probe at the fin socket. (Imagine cussing and dirt kicking) After a bit more cussing, I managed to fish the broken end out of the fin socket. (Of course, I did this AFTER assembling the Nimbus.) The TE probe appears to have been a RU single function type with aluminum two-hole...

This type of accident has a long history. I've had pilots pull the spoiler instead of the release, retract the gear on downwind after flying all day with it down and pull the rudder adjustment instead of the release. I've known several to reach for the red knob on the panel expecting to...

I susspect that anything as obvious as the following has been thought of and rejected for equally obvious reasons that I'm also not aware of. Anyway, here goes.... Why not adjust turn area tasks so that turn area diameters are porportional to a competitors handicap - i.e. small diameter turn...

This week I had the pleasure to fly with a couple of freshly minted 2nd Lt.'s from the US Air Force Academy class of 2006. They were converting their glider time from the USAFA soaring program to civilian CFIG's. To say this young lady and gentleman are "good sticks" would be an understatement. ...

I have been conducting some bench experiments with my Bohli taut-band bellows with capillary leak vario to determine the system time constant. The set-up is a 0.45 liter glass vacuum flask attached to the vario with .5 meter of 3mm Tygon tubing with a 1cc syringe teed into the tubing at the flask. ...

I heard a rumor that there was a wave XC flight eastbound from Minden to Colorado within the last few days. Anyone have details? Bill Daniels

To celebrate the Spring Equinox, I hauled the Nimbus to Boulder, Colorado yesterday for the year's first flight. The 21Z ETA Blipmap forecast looked strange to say the least and I wasn't convinced that it was accurate. The blipmaps showed a strong subsidence over the mountains just west of...

I can't figure which thread to put this suggestion into, so here's a new one. Filling a cockpit with raucous warning noises is very likely to be confusing in a stressful situation - fortunately, there is another way. Instead of an electronic noisemaker, use small .wav files burned into EPROM's of...

This thought popped into my mind today. Lets say an occasion arises requiring the use of your out-of-date parachute. You leap clear of your damaged glider and pull the ripcord and, as we all expect, the 'chute works perfectly. Through dumb luck and many yanks on the risers, you manage to land on...

Apparently, there are a few people out there working with Linux for gliding applications. (Thanks for the links) Maybe it's a good thing. I keep thinking that the potential user base in this space is so small that if the PDA based apps split it, there won't be all that much profit to support a...

The discussion of wearing parachutes is an interesting one. Parachutes are cheap insurance and, when one is needed, nothing else will quite do the job. So, why aren't they universally worn? In a word, weight. The available two seaters, for the most part, have weight limitations that almost...

I have searched the archives for opinions on these flight planners/analyzers. There's not too much current data. They have progressed a lot in the last year. I need some opinions and comparisons to make a choice. Which do you use and why? Bill Daniels

Very nice mid-winter threads on spinning gliders. I'll bet a lot of people will be a bit more careful this spring. Now, for a very easy way to inadvertently spin a racer from an aggressive thermal entry. Assume you are cruising between thermals at a lower than desired altitude. It's early Spring...

OK, it's cold outside in Earth's northern hemisphere and here's something topical. http://www.webolutionary.com/3d/images/terraformed_mars-1.jpg What do you think the soaring possibilities would be on a terraformed Mars with an atmosphere as dense as Earth's? For one thing, your compass wouldn't...