All, Some of the recent RAS articles about SPOT got me thinking that this is a nice device with some important safety features. I decided to do a quick and dirty analysis of the benefits of the SPOT device versus the various ELT/PLB devices. Both basically fulfill the same function, which is to...

Please excuse this post. I am unable to post the following message to "Blew off my hatch" from Google Groups. I keep getting a "We were unable to post your message". No other message or help. I tried to post "testing please ignore" to the same thread and it worked fine. I am wondering if there...

Full Details http://chicagolandglidercouncil.com/seminar Overview ------------- The ChicagoLand Glider Council is sponsoring a day long spring soaring and safety seminar open to all soaring pilots. Safety, medicine, racing, competition, gear, gliders and gab will be on the agenda. The...

It is winter here and the only soaring we are doing in Chicago is in the hangar . During an energetic discussion on the pros and cons of various soaring programs, I mentioned I fly "Direction-Up", rather than "North-Up". WHOA! You would have thought that I had said I was going to give up soaring...

Here are some YouTube videos all entitled "Crazy Glider" (or variations). Now, why can't we have an SSA party like...

I have noticed that there are lots of sports that also use variometers and I have some comments/questions. These variometers are for Power Parachutes, Hang Gliders, Balloons, Ultralights, Parafoils to name a few. Here are some links; http://www.ascentvario.com/ http://digiflyuk.com ...

This has been posted before in a thread (about a lost aircraft registration document) but I thought that a unique thread on the subject would be useful. For $10, the FAA will send you a CD filled with every Airworthiness and Registration document for your glider (nicely imprinted with the FAA logo...

I stumbled upon this very well done glider video of a long cross country glider flight in Wangaratta, Austrailia. It uses a well done voice over to explain all that is happening during the flight. This would be a good introductory XC video. Notice that they mention the "Diamond C" badge which,...

I finally got around to watching this 1967 movie which I bought on eBay more than a month ago. It was surprisingly well done. Not that Walt ever put out a bad product, his production values were always top notch. However, when the popular media shows soaring, I often see realism and accuracy go...

http://www.canadabizmart.com/bootstrapper/collection/spectacular-cockpit-photos/ This web site has some nice pictures of aircraft cockpits, including two gliders. If you scroll down you will find an LS-4 flying inverted. What caught my eye is that there appears to be four (4) varios in...

I live in a fairly busy area, airplane wise. Just last weekend I spotted a single engine plane coming more or less straight at me at my altitude. I quickly banked to 1) get out of the way and 2) be more visible to the approaching airplane. I didn't notice any reaction so I don't know if he saw...

With all the talk about the movie, "The Boy That Flew With Condors", does anyone have details on the people involved in the video; Christopher Jury, Margaret Birsner, Fred W. Harris and/or Milton O. Thompson? Thanks.

Like many of you, I have been searching for several years for this particular sailplane related video. I set up a recurring search in eBay about a year ago to help in the search and just recently it began to bear fruit. Several copies per week of the movie seem have now begun showing up on eBay...

A recent accident (disconnected aileron) got me thinking about positive control checks. I searched the RAS archives and didn't find any details on how people do this. I was trained by my CFIG, like most of you I hope, to do a positive control check every day. Actually it was more like it was...

I spotted the following statement in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoiler_%28aeronautics%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_brake_%28aircraft%29 "Spoilers differ from airbrakes in that airbrakes are designed to increase drag while making little change to lift, while spoilers greatly...

Question: Can a conventional powered airplane take off from a conveyor belt which is moving at the same speed but in an opposite direction? I was surprised at people's range and passion of answers when I asked this of my glider club. People were absolutely sure it wouldn't work or it would work....

On the cover of the September 2006 issue of Soaring is pictured Eric Mozer's Discus. Cool shot. The question I have is what is the long thin white "things" which appear to be coming from the nose and the right wing of the glider? Thanks, John

I was sent a link to a gadget some college engineers-in-the-making built. http://engenius.sece.rmit.edu.au/Abstracts/Page601.htm. It tries to detect which way a thermal is based on temperature differences between wing tips. Bright boys. I have two questions; 1) Have there been other gadgets...

The prices for these things seem to vary quite a bit from $40 a pair down to the least expensive I have found from Lee-Valley tool. $11.50 a pair or $10.50 if you buy three or more pairs. They carry four strengths, 1.5, 2.0. 2.5 and...

After watching, reading and digesting all the rec.aviation.soaring threads on this topic, which seemed to have sprung from my recent post entitled "Painless Removal of External Male Catheter? (ouch)", I thought that I would write a synopsis of what I learned. I am going to be quite frank and...