Hi group, Just a note to remind owners of older Becker AR3201 radios to check your internal nicad button cell batteries. These tend to leak after a few years, and if left too long will destroy your PC board ending the useful life of a pretty good radio! I found this green-crystal crud beginning...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wR4aBVyVW0&feature=youtube_gdata_player Please endure the music and watch this video, paying particular attention to 2:00 to 2:25 into the short video. As was often argued with other PNA bases systems recently...why would these well known soaring manufactures offer...

We all know what the manufacturer's polars look like, but what about our individual planes. Has anyone done any work to develop a program that would look at some flight logs and determine what a particular glider's actual polar is? At one point Ball was making a vario system that would determine...

Seems to me that it's been a while since we had a good brouhaha over pretakeoff checklists. Most of use use either ABBCCCDDE (or is it AABBCCDDE? Or ABBBCCCCDDEEFG?) or CBSIFTCB or some other variant. I'm curious what you use and WHY? What have you added or subtracted to the "base" checklist to...

The Southern Eagles Soaring made a formal complaint to the local FAA FSDO in ATL concerning the LaGrange-Callaway airport(LGC)restricting glider flying to weekends only and unwillingness to rent hangars to club members. The LGC board claimed to the FAA that these restrictions are in the interest...

We recently converted from 3/16 7x9 cable to 3/16 plasma rope on our winch. "Plasma", made from Honeywell "Spectra" fiber, seems to have some real advantages over wire or cable. Some benifits include light weight, 11.48lbs per thousand, (that's not much even converted to metric!!), hollow braid (no...

I am going to be in Portugal from September 2 until September 17. It would be great to be able to visit a soaring site and even better to be able to fly. I speak Spanish and understand Portuguese some time... Any information would be most welcome. Peter Kelemen

http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20111013X31821&ntsbno=WPR12FA010&akey=1 Happened to be looking through the NTSB Database and saw that they updated the report about a month ago.

Hi all, I'm here to report that I cheated death and survived a flight in a glider with the dreaded "Landing Flaps and V-Tails of Death". Jim Harper graciously allowed me to fly his beautiful HP-16. What's an HP-16 you say? Well, looks to be just like the HP-18 (or I should say the HP-18 is just...

PowerFlarm officially releasing the new PowerFLARM Fusion. It replaces PowerFLARM Core and comes loaded with features: • Connect smartphones and tablets via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth • FLARM Hub web app for easy upgrades, configuration, and maintenance • GDL 90 protocol for streaming traffic data...

I want to replace the tires on my Komet trailer. The original tire size is P165/80 R13, which is now hard to find. The choice seems to be either a Firestone passenger car radial in the correct size or a slightly taller Towmaster made by Greenball. The trailer tire will have a taller but stiffer...

Some of you might be interested to know that the UK just held its 2015 Junior Nationals a few weeks ago. Nearly 70 juniors pilots (yes, SEVENTY) competed in the event. As an American, I nearly fell over in my chair when I saw the article (and photo of the grid). Back in the USA, the SSA doesn't...

Hi This summer season in Australia has seen our first use of FLARM anti-collision system for gliders. http://www.flarm.com/index_en.html and http://www.rf-developments.com/page008.html (the local manufacturer for Australia) It would seem that FLARM is becoming very rapidly accepted here in

I have noticed over the years that this glider sells for what seems to be a very low price given that it is a near 50:1 glider. But I notice lately that there are also some for sale on Wings & Wheels with relatively low total time: 320 hours $21k 260 hours $20k 200 hours $15k Other than the...

St Louis Soaring Association (stlsoar.org) is interested in a winch demonstration and possible training at our home gliderport (H07) in Highland, IL - located 30 miles East of St Louis right off I-70. We currently aerotow with 2 Pawnees and a Supercub, but are looking at the future...

Wanting a cheap vario that's compatible with my CN2. Any other ideas?

My Ventus C didn't survive the last landing. Insurance company totaled it, and I have the remains. What is unusable (without significant repair in my estimation) are; the wings. The 17.6 Meter wing extensions are completely fine. The Masak winglets are fine. (one has a small crack, easily...

I have been having a problem with shutting down the MZ35 engine in flight on my Russia AC-5M. The engine keeps running (dieseling) for a couple of minutes until it cools down enough and finally quits. I changed the spark plug, took off the cylinder head and cleaned the carbon deposits, but to no...

All, I have been looking into having my glider refinished. Casual conversations with other pilots revealed that most think a "normal" refinishing job would cost about $10k. After speaking with Gaines in Georgia, I believe that is wildly optimistic. Gaines charges $60 per hour, and he says the...

I want to install a Winter 4FGH 40 altimeter with an EASA Form 1 certificate in my S-LSA motorglider with the Becker TSO'd transponder. My avionics shop says that the altimeter must be TSO'd as well. Can anyone cite FAA regulations about this issue? Any information would be welcome.