I've never flown in a Discus 2b but have fantasized about getting one someday. I do have a dozen or so flights in the font seat of a Duo Discus and while it's a *great* ship to fly, it doesn't have as much room in the front as our club's DG-1000 does (need room for keeping stuff during the flight)...

Groupflights, a new Python program, now updates club/group web pages to show recent personal flight distance and speed improvements, recent top flights and all-time top flights. Updated daily from WeGlide, OnLineContest, and SkyLines. You can see a working example at...

Saratoga NY, news report here http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s3911217.shtml?cat=10114&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Greetings! Summer has begun down under, and my first flight with an iPaq reminded me just how bad the reflections are in bright light . . . sooo hard to read, especially when wearing sunglasses. Were there any solutions that worked well for you Northerners this season?? I have noted a film from...

It appears that there has actually been progress on the Saqqara microlift glider: http://www.diloren.com/index01.htm as is evidenced by this pic: http://www.vole.ch/matmambo/diloren.jpg of a completed(?) example. Does anyone have anymore info on this? I've scoured the Dilorean site many times,...

I just checked the FAA databases, and it shows that John Kerry has, among other ratings, a Gilder Aerotow Only rating.

I was trying to work out the expected height gain from a pull up Experienced glider pilots say you will get a better pull up with a heavier glider / water etc. But I can't see this from my (probably incomplete) equations: total energy = potential energy + kinetic energy total energy before pull...

I am very interested in purchasing one or the other and having difficulty weighing the merits each of because of no direct experience with either. I would like to have some advice concerning reliability, resale values, performance and build quality. Can I compare apples and apples with these two?

I'm shopping for bug wipers for my ASW27B, and am curious to hear from others with experience, especially in this model. Bug wipers are not very common in the US. Thanks John Cochrane

Hi, I imagine someone on this newsgroup can point me in the right direction on a technical/FAA question. Becker offers 2 versions of their AR6201 radio. The original version has frequency spacing that can be set to either 25 mHz or 8.33 mHz. The new, slightly lower cost option has frequency...

With winter upon us in the northern hemisphere, the annual PW5 thread had= reappeared. I started thinking about this ship and one design racing an= d thought I might post this. I started thinking about this topic in the = summer when I saw two full size bus conversion RV's pulling two...

I have an EDS on order and have been reading the manual available from their web site. It says "USE 9V ALKALINE BATTERY ONLY" in caps for emphasis. They then go on to say that you can also use and external battery of any type you choose. OK, so what would be wrong with using a 9V lithium smoke...

At 18:06 10 August 2003, Nolaminar wrote: Has anyone ever experienced an FAA Ramp Check when involved with soaring? Any such experience at a meet or competiotion. Yup. 15-Meter Nationals at Tonopah. One pilot randomly selected by the inspector was asked to pull out of the take-off line until...

The 'which glider should we make cheaply' , 'glider classes' and some of the traditional 'winter threads' seem to be based on the premise that if we could build a 40:1 sailplane for some nominal amount then the steady decline in worldwide sailplane pilot numbers can be stemmed. I am yet to be...

On my way home from Nephi (towing my trailer with the RV) I stopped for fuel and found one of the bolts that holds the Al-Ko trailer tongue together was gone as can be seen in the picture he http://www.foxonecorp.com/images/20160703_154501.jpg In the picture you can see the front hole that has...

Greetings, all! My work will take me to Paris, France Nov 3-10, 2004. Would you please be so kind as to forward me contact information for a glider club or operation where I might fly as a guest on the weekend of Nov 6-7, 2004? I don't need to solo or go cross-country... just a "friend" ride...

I have an old TPX 720 handheld radio. It was sitting for 20 + years and the rechargable batteries were shot. They are 1.2 v nicads, 10 of them. Before I go out and buy more, does anyone know if I can just put regular aa cells in it to see if it works? The nicads are 12 volts total, and the dry...

As most of you'll know by now, these useful reviews have been recently restricted to SAA members only. However, I've found a way round: the site is archived by the Internet Archive http://web.archive.org and is easily accessed from there. Just use this...

I'm getting interested in taking some hd videos on XC missions ... is the GoPro Hero 3 considered the best camera for this type of project. I've also been fooling with a new Video Editor called Power Director ... great app... much better then then older software I had before. I re-reprocessed a...

So, I was getting my first tow at a very busy and very well-respected gliderport, and I saw an area where I wanted to go, so I shift a plane's width opposite the turn direction and stayed there. The tow pilot kept going straight ahead. OK, maybe he didn't see me, or maybe like a fishing guide he...