Soaring Cafe | First Week Digest

We have had a great first week with a number of good posts. We saw
about 1700 visitors which we feel is fantastic for our first official
week. Thank you to everyone that has visited the site and especially
to those of you that have provided comments and feedback.

Please consider sending us an article, story, review, news, or
anything related to soaring you think would have interest to the
soaring community.

If you have missed the posts, here is a summary.

Regards,
Bill Elliott (WE)

Posted Jan 1, 2011

Concordia History
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/concordia-history/

In the year 2002, just not retired sailplane designer Gerhard Waibel
and
competition sailplane pilot Dick Butler formed a pack to design an FAI
Open
Class sailplane. The vision these two individuals had was to design an
Open
Class sailplane maximizing performance from a pure competition
standpoint with
no intent to go into serial production. [...]

Posted Jan 2, 2011

What are your favorite soaring clubs and flying sites?
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/what-...-flying-sites/

With this post, we introduce a new category at the Soaring Cafe --
Clubs and
Sites. We often hear about interesting sites all over the world and
wonder
just how great they really are. We would like for you to provide us
your
thoughts about your favorite site or just write something about your
local [...]

Posted Jan 3, 2011

Soaring Car Tags by Leo Benetti-Longhini
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/soari...etti-longhini/

Leo Benetti-Longhini has been collecting photos of "personalized" car
tags at
soaring and hang gliding sites around the world. We hope you enjoy
them as much
as we have. [...]

Posted Jan 4, 2011

Florida 500km Goal Flight in a Light Sailplane
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/flori...ght-sailplane/

For several years I've had the opportunity of visiting Wallaby Ranch
in Florida
during the week of the EAA's annual Sun 'n Fun fly-in. The Spring-time
weather
has typically been excellent and I have enjoyed sharing the sky with
Steve Arndt
in his Magic Dragon and other ranch pilots. A personal desire has been
for [...]

Posted Jan 5, 2011

AERO Friedrichshafen
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/aero-friedrichshafen/

AERO Friedrichshafen
Author: Jennifer Benetti-Longhini Photos: Leo Benetti-Longhini

Posted Jan 7, 2011

NN on the Sequatchie Valley
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/nn-on...atchie-valley/

Rand Baldwin (NN) Flying north on the Sequatchie Valley in Tennessee,
as the
race begins with other pilots. Photo by Ron Murphy, using a Canon 30D
with a
300MM lense at 500 of a sec at a 400ASA setting. www.murphystudio.com

The Evolution of US Contest Soaring
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/the-e...ntest-soaring/

I start my story in 1985. Races started with the gate, went through
assigned
tasks controlled by cameras, and then a fast final glide to an
exciting flying
finish.

Evolution of US Contest Soaring, Part 2
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/evolu...st-soaring-p2/

Bill Elliott (WE) Chilhowee Gliderport
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/bill-...-we-chilhowee/

Bill Elliott landing at the Chilhowee Gliderport in the JS-1 sailplane
on Sat
Oct 16, 2010. Was a beautiful day to fly, was Oktoberfest, an event
that
attracts people off the road to see what it's all about. Photo by Ron
Murphy
taken with Canon 30D with 35-105 lense in auto settings.

Posted Jan 8, 2011
Evolution of US Contest Soaring, Part 3
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/evolu...st-soaring-p3/

Posted Jan 9, 2011

Evolution of US Contest Soaring, Part 4
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/evolu...st-soaring-p4/

IV. Two Demographic Developments
I have so far focused on technology. Most soaring pilots are analytic,
engineer
types, and a story line that focuses on technology is natural to us.
But in
tracing this story, already we’ve discovered that the technology per
se was
not the central part of the story; it was how technology changed [...]

The ClearNav Vario
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/the-clearnav-vario/

Richard Kellerman now has working prototypes of the long awaited
ClearNav (CN)
vario. The new vario will be tested during our winter by pilots flying
in South
Africa and Australia. Up to now, the ClearNav flight computer has
worked only
with the Cambridge 302 vario. The new CN vario will take over that
task, and
also will work with [...]

ClearNav Changes
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/01/clearnav-changes/

There have been recent changes at the company that produces the
ClearNav flight
computer and variometer. The ClearNav was developed by the Nielsen-
Kellerman
Company, which was owned in part by soaring pilot Richard Kellerman.

Kellerman has now sold his interest in the company. According to NK,
"the ClearNav brand has been acquired by founder Richard Kellerman and
his [...]

On Jan 10, 12:24*pm, Bill Elliott wrote:
There have been recent changes at the company that produces the
ClearNav flight
computer and variometer. The ClearNav was developed by the Nielsen-
Kellerman
Company, which was owned in part by soaring pilot Richard Kellerman.

Kellerman has now sold his interest in the company. *According to NK,
"the ClearNav brand has been acquired by founder Richard Kellerman and
his [...]

Well the news of ClearNav breaking away from NK was certainly
interesting. One of the marketing points for ClearNav was that it was
being supported by a well established company and that people need not
fear a repeat of the Cambridge ownership problems.

Hope it works out this time.

Andy

Hi Andy,

I think it is fine - because Richard Kellerman is one of the owners of NK
and he is still the owner (or one of the owners) of ClearNav Instruments.
He's a soaring pilot and stands behind the ClearNav products. Also, Gary
Kammerer (from Cambridge and NK) is still supporting the products - which is
great news. The fact that they are about to release the best soaring
variometer instrument in the world (in my opinion) should give some
indication that they are on track to do great things.

Paul Remde

"Andy" wrote in message
...
On Jan 10, 12:24 pm, Bill Elliott wrote:
There have been recent changes at the company that produces the
ClearNav flight
computer and variometer. The ClearNav was developed by the Nielsen-
Kellerman
Company, which was owned in part by soaring pilot Richard Kellerman.

Kellerman has now sold his interest in the company. According to NK,
"the ClearNav brand has been acquired by founder Richard Kellerman and
his [...]

Well the news of ClearNav breaking away from NK was certainly
interesting. One of the marketing points for ClearNav was that it was
being supported by a well established company and that people need not
fear a repeat of the Cambridge ownership problems.

Hope it works out this time.

Andy

Why was the great article about Concordia by Dick Butler removed from the
site? It was there on Monday morning, but in the afternoon it was gone.

The Concordia's speed polar is astonishing, 50 L/D @ 210kph or the expected
cruise speed of 245kph.