Sailplane designers, Modern wind turbine blades are strikingly similar to glider wings. They are now now coming out in sizes approaching 50 meters. The market expansion for wind energy is expected to grow rapidly. The ensuing economies of scale from mass produced wind turbine blades just...

Ralph Kolstad has announced that his father, Ken Kolstad, passed away yesterday, June 18th, at the age of 96. Ken and his family have had a long involvement with Colorado soaring. Ken and Mid Kolstad received a Paul Schweizer Lifetime Achievement Award at the SSA Convention earlier this...

USAF Request For Proposal: FA8617-10-R-6210 They need approximately 20 new gliders, several trailers, support equipment, spares and contract maintenance, for delivery at Colorado Springs, CO (USA) in the next two years.

I wrote a new article on how to use computers to help judge glides. http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john.cochrane/soaring/docs/safety_glides.pdf or the first item here http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john.cochrane/soaring/index.htm#maccready This will probably end up in Soaring sooner or later,...

Is there a general consensus on which schools are regarded as the "best" for glider training? I realize this is difficult to compare, as there are lots of good instructors all over the place, but if someone were interested in taking a block of time off and going somewhere to learn how to fly...

http://www.ssa.org/UsTeam/nitra2003/07112003.htm Early report

I've browsed the old discussions on gelcoat maintenance to learn what I can before developing a maintenance routine of my own, for my recently acquired V2C. One thing not yet clear to me is the best way to use/apply 3M's Finesse-It II, which seems to be the consensus cleaner/polisher compound: With...

Our club is looking for a tow hook for 182, in particular Schweizer (partnumber 0500228-2) which is the STC'd approved hook for the Cessna 182. Any pointers are welcome. Thanks Ramy

I am wondering how many others suffer from a mental disorder such as Bipolar or Schizoaffective disorder seek out soaring because of it's lack of medical certification requirements. Also, I am wondering what options there are to taking medications which state, 'to avoid heatstroke it is important...

Bill Gawthrop who won the U.S. Open Nationals at Montague on July 3rd, is doing well after the crash of his beautiful JS-1c Jet at Truckee, CA. I have not talked directly with Bill, only his wife Dianne. The circumstances of the crash remain unclear, but seem to be unrelated to any mechanical...

I have posted on our interent site a short clip of the Marske Pioneer IId in flight. http://www.continuo.com/marske/pioneer/marske/marske%20pioneer.htm If this address is too long click on our site below then look under Pioneer.... then the Marske Pioneer IId -- Marske Flying...

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...

On Scott Richmond's third flight in his newly purchased ASW-24E, at about 500ft, the motor stalled. He had already turned 90 degrees to the right, he turned another 90 towards the airport, did several PIOs, maybe pulling on the manual starter cable, then stalled and spun into an orchard 600 yards...

Hello all! I am trying to gather information on replacement options for my club's aging Grobs. So far I have reached out to SZD for the SZD-54-2 (probably not a factor with no US certification or dealer), the HpH Twin Shark, Shempp-Hirth Duo Discus XL, Schleicher for the ASK-21B and DG for the...

Some time ago potential purchasers of the (US) PowerFLARM brick were offered the choice of the bundled display or the 57mm panel mount display. No information on either seemed to be available from US dealers so it was impossible to make an informed choice. Butterfly has advised me that no English...

After some back and forth discussion, it seems pylon-mounted wings could have a lot of potential for sailplanes. WRT aerodynamics, they make a laminar upper wing and much more extensive laminar flow on the fuselage possible. Structurally, notably yaw forces might be problematic (ground-loop), but...

I am making this posting in the hope of saving someone from going through what I have been going through and to ensure that it gets the coverage it deserves amongst the gliding community. It revolves around a business transaction between myself and Ales Cebavs, the managing director of AMS-Flight...

Is there any new news about the status of Seminole? Are all the legalities regarding the owner finally cleared up?

Good day all, before the season start I downloaded the Flarm verion 6.83 and it installed ok. We just started flying and my declaration is in light grey as the OLC system decla Autocomment: Used Aircraft is FES glider, but MOP logging deactivated. I looked in my flarm info and the licences...

Glasflugel Hornet 206. Total time 3,458 hours, aerotow only. Year of Manufacture 1977 Wings refinished in 1992 and fuselage refinished in 2002. All AD’s completed and fresh annual for 2004 Automatic Control hook-ups. Avionic Dittel ATR 760 radio with boom mic Blumenauer EFA1 electric vario and...