Soaring Convention: What was new, interesting, best?

Well done

Soar Point

The fact that he comes out with his points just once in a while,
makes it very interesting!

BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
items?

Thanks!

Dieter

Hi,

I thought is was a good convention, but I was busy working in my booth most
of the time.

If you missed my talk comparing soaring software and complete soaring
instrument systems, you can view it as a PDF file at:
http:///www.cumulus-soaring.com

The big news in my little world was that both SeeYou and StrePla announced
Pocket PC flight software. They both looked very impressive with
topographical maps and many other nice features. Of course, as the person
who sells and supports Glide Navigator II, I would have to suggest that they
are more complicated to use than GN II.

I very much enjoyed meeting many of the pilots that fly with Glide Navigator
II, Cambridge Aero Instruments products, and the other items I sell.

The soaring flight simulator Sailors of the Sky was also a big hit. I
haven't played with mine yet, but it looks fantastic.

I particularly liked that my booth was next to the Schempp-Hirth booth so I
got to drool over their nice gliders all week. Some day I'll own a
DuoDiscus... I liked the Duo they had on the floor. The contest number was
6B and the open airbrakes had "Six Beers" written on the orange blades in
large letters. Cool.

I'm already looking forward to the 2005 SSA convention in Ontario,
California.

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde

I am looking forward to the
"soarski" wrote in message
om...
Well done

Soar Point

The fact that he comes out with his points just once in a while,
makes it very interesting!

BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
items?

Thanks!

Dieter

The web address you gave does not work when I tried this evening.
Jim
"Paul Remde" wrote in message
news:98UWb.301255$na.452598@attbi_s04...
Hi,

I thought is was a good convention, but I was busy working in my booth
most
of the time.

If you missed my talk comparing soaring software and complete soaring
instrument systems, you can view it as a PDF file at:
http:///www.cumulus-soaring.com

The big news in my little world was that both SeeYou and StrePla announced
Pocket PC flight software. They both looked very impressive with
topographical maps and many other nice features. Of course, as the person
who sells and supports Glide Navigator II, I would have to suggest that
they
are more complicated to use than GN II.

I very much enjoyed meeting many of the pilots that fly with Glide
Navigator
II, Cambridge Aero Instruments products, and the other items I sell.

The soaring flight simulator Sailors of the Sky was also a big hit. I
haven't played with mine yet, but it looks fantastic.

I particularly liked that my booth was next to the Schempp-Hirth booth so
I
got to drool over their nice gliders all week. Some day I'll own a
DuoDiscus... I liked the Duo they had on the floor. The contest number
was
6B and the open airbrakes had "Six Beers" written on the orange blades in
large letters. Cool.

I'm already looking forward to the 2005 SSA convention in Ontario,
California.

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde

I am looking forward to the
"soarski" wrote in message
om...
Well done

Soar Point

The fact that he comes out with his points just once in a while,
makes it very interesting!

BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
items?

Thanks!

Dieter

In article ,
Larry Pardue wrote:

BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
items?

Thanks!

Dieter

I hadn't been to a convention for quite a few years and got a big kick out
of it.

The Charlie Spratt Roast, alone, was just about worth the price of
admission. After an all-star cast of roasters finished, Charlie himself got

Larry,

Thanks so much for the wrap up. I'm glad you had a
good time and I'm sure sorry I missed it

Mark

P.S. If you've seen the latest Soaring magazine issues, they are also
quite excellent. This sport seems to be getting a bit
more exciting of late...I'd still like to see the SSA trade
a staff member or two with the Ultralight and/or parachute
association for a month or so, to get a little
cross-interest...

BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
items?

Thanks!

Dieter

I hadn't been to a convention for quite a few years and got a big kick out
of it.

The Charlie Spratt Roast, alone, was just about worth the price of
admission. After an all-star cast of roasters finished, Charlie himself got
up and repeated some of his stories to yelled prompts from the audience. We
got such classics as "Sailing at Hobbs" and "Blowing Up The Boat." I was
laughing so hard I could hardly get a breath. Can't wait for Charlie's
book, which is supposed to be out soon.

There was a slight scent in the air of shift of center of gravity from
Germany to Poland for glider manufacture. I think the Diana is probably the
most impressive glider out there and the Diana 2 presentation was
impressive, not to mention that the Diana 2 is absolutely the most
breathtakingly beautiful glider design I have seen (my opinion). It has the
ultra-slim (and tight for big pilots) fuselage of the Diana with a beautiful
swept back and wingleted new wing, without the angles of the Discus.

I thought salesmanship was lacking at the Diana booth in stark contrast to
the DG people who were all over you trying to answer questions and
demonstrate features. The DG folks tried to explain the situation with DG
and LS and I guess I understand it a little bit better. They said they
expect a final resolution in a few days.

The Silent people had a glider and a videotape of the jet self-launcher,
that played all the time. Bob Carlton would not give performance figures
because of the very clunky box they had the jet engines mounted on.
Streamlining should help a lot there. Bob did say that heat on the tail was
no factor at all. I think he said the vertical stabilizer got up to
something like 125 F during the worst case of taxiing in a crosswind. The
engines are canted out slightly. Bob also said the Silent flies better
inverted than anything he has tried. Much better than his Salto.

I found the Sparrow Hawk to be astounding and impressive. I think they need
to come up with a better way to rig the ailerons than some half hitches. I
am perfectly willing to trust my life to rope knots, but still do not like
them in this application. Dick Johnson is scheduled to do performance
testing soon. I spoke briefly to Dave Stevenson about his experience at the
2003 Sports Nats and he had nothing but good to say about the glider. I
wish more people would fly it in contests so we could get a better feel
about it.

Dick is also going to test the PW-6 that was on display.

Dick Butler's presentation on the ASW-22DB (Eta Biter) was a highlight for
me. He has made many modifications, with factory help, and thinks the
performance is fairly close to the Eta. Some of the mods are retractable
tailwheel, which he does not recommend, increased span, new airfoil, longer
tail boom and smaller (ASW-26) horizontal tail. He mentioned his wife was a
bit skeptical as he was sawing the tail off. He made all these mods while
competing each year.

The star, of course, was Klaus Ohlmann who gave presentations on both his
3,000 km flight, and for the awards banquet his 2,000 km straight out
flight. Unfortunately there were audio problems at the awards banquet.
Klaus emphasized that Argentina is a glider paradise and we need to preserve
it and use it with great care. Among the prerequisites are learning
Spanish. Klaus is worried that there will be some sort of air traffic
incident if a bunch of pilots start flying down there who do not know the
ways and the language well enough. He said he started planning when he was
a kid and got out his atlas to see where the big long mountain ranges are.
He also made a lot of preliminary flights to learn certain areas. It is
hard to resent someone like Klaus, even though he does have the beautiful
French airline pilot wife and even though he has now retired from denistry
to be a full time glider pilot.

That's the best I can do for highlights . I don't have a good memory and am
sorry for all the factual errors I probably made.

Larry Pardue 2I

Let me add my thanks Larry,

That was great and thanks for taking the time to type it out. Would love to
hear lots of detail about the ASW-22 mods, maybe Technical Soaring could be
resurrected for that kind of thing?

I got a great telephone report from the convention floor from my buddy Dave,
but I still don't see the Seeyou Pocket PC product on their website - I
eagerly await.

Jim

"Larry Pardue" wrote in message
...

BUT.......for us who could not make it to the Convention, could we have
some reports, stories. What gliders were on the floor, Talks, lectures,
items?

Thanks!

Dieter

I hadn't been to a convention for quite a few years and got a big kick out
of it.

The Charlie Spratt Roast, alone, was just about worth the price of
admission. After an all-star cast of roasters finished, Charlie himself
got
up and repeated some of his stories to yelled prompts from the audience.
We
got such classics as "Sailing at Hobbs" and "Blowing Up The Boat." I was
laughing so hard I could hardly get a breath. Can't wait for Charlie's
book, which is supposed to be out soon.

There was a slight scent in the air of shift of center of gravity from
Germany to Poland for glider manufacture. I think the Diana is probably
the
most impressive glider out there and the Diana 2 presentation was
impressive, not to mention that the Diana 2 is absolutely the most
breathtakingly beautiful glider design I have seen (my opinion). It has
the
ultra-slim (and tight for big pilots) fuselage of the Diana with a
beautiful
swept back and wingleted new wing, without the angles of the Discus.

I thought salesmanship was lacking at the Diana booth in stark contrast to
the DG people who were all over you trying to answer questions and
demonstrate features. The DG folks tried to explain the situation with DG
and LS and I guess I understand it a little bit better. They said they
expect a final resolution in a few days.

The Silent people had a glider and a videotape of the jet self-launcher,
that played all the time. Bob Carlton would not give performance figures
because of the very clunky box they had the jet engines mounted on.
Streamlining should help a lot there. Bob did say that heat on the tail
was
no factor at all. I think he said the vertical stabilizer got up to
something like 125 F during the worst case of taxiing in a crosswind. The
engines are canted out slightly. Bob also said the Silent flies better
inverted than anything he has tried. Much better than his Salto.

I found the Sparrow Hawk to be astounding and impressive. I think they
need
to come up with a better way to rig the ailerons than some half hitches.
I
am perfectly willing to trust my life to rope knots, but still do not like
them in this application. Dick Johnson is scheduled to do performance
testing soon. I spoke briefly to Dave Stevenson about his experience at
the
2003 Sports Nats and he had nothing but good to say about the glider. I
wish more people would fly it in contests so we could get a better feel
about it.

Dick is also going to test the PW-6 that was on display.

Dick Butler's presentation on the ASW-22DB (Eta Biter) was a highlight for
me. He has made many modifications, with factory help, and thinks the
performance is fairly close to the Eta. Some of the mods are retractable
tailwheel, which he does not recommend, increased span, new airfoil,
longer
tail boom and smaller (ASW-26) horizontal tail. He mentioned his wife was
a
bit skeptical as he was sawing the tail off. He made all these mods while
competing each year.

The star, of course, was Klaus Ohlmann who gave presentations on both his
3,000 km flight, and for the awards banquet his 2,000 km straight out
flight. Unfortunately there were audio problems at the awards banquet.
Klaus emphasized that Argentina is a glider paradise and we need to
preserve
it and use it with great care. Among the prerequisites are learning
Spanish. Klaus is worried that there will be some sort of air traffic
incident if a bunch of pilots start flying down there who do not know the
ways and the language well enough. He said he started planning when he
was
a kid and got out his atlas to see where the big long mountain ranges are.
He also made a lot of preliminary flights to learn certain areas. It is
hard to resent someone like Klaus, even though he does have the beautiful
French airline pilot wife and even though he has now retired from denistry
to be a full time glider pilot.

That's the best I can do for highlights . I don't have a good memory and
am
sorry for all the factual errors I probably made.

Larry Pardue 2I

"Jim Newton" wrote:

The web address you gave does not work when I tried this evening.
Jim

Take out one of the slashes

try http://www.cumulus-soaring.com

instead of http:///www.cumulus-soaring.com

Jim Phoenix wrote:

Let me add my thanks Larry,

That was great and thanks for taking the time to type it out. Would love to
hear lots of detail about the ASW-22 mods, maybe Technical Soaring could be
resurrected for that kind of thing?

I got a great telephone report from the convention floor from my buddy Dave,
but I still don't see the Seeyou Pocket PC product on their website - I
eagerly await.

SeeYou Mobile, as it is called, looked very good. It doesn't have all
the features of WinPilot, but given their history with SeeYou, I expect
them to reduce the gap quickly, and it is much cheaper at about $200US.
The CDs were flying out of their booth! The convention was the first
announcement of it, and it'll be on the web site as soon as they recover
from the convention.

--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

"Jim Phoenix" wrote in message
...
Let me add my thanks Larry,

That was great and thanks for taking the time to type it out. Would love
to
hear lots of detail about the ASW-22 mods, maybe Technical Soaring could
be
resurrected for that kind of thing?

My understanding from talking with LB from OSTIV is that SSA has agreed to
publish TS for another year to see what the response is. Consideration of
digital format in the future was part of the agreement if I understood
correctly. Since Leszno, there has been material available. I also picked
up a list of back issues that are available. (If you are an OSTIV member,
you get one of these but that's like preaching to the choir since OSTIV
members receive the publications anyway). I chided LB for the lack of
publicity on this.

The SeeYou Mobile software can be downloaded for a trial run at
http://mobile.seeyou.ws/

Enjoy!

David Stevenson