Tag Archive for Jonker Sailplanes

Interview with South Africa’s Oscar Goudriaan (OG)

After the WGC 2012 closing ceremonies in Uvalde on Sunday, I interviewed Oscar Goudriaan of Team South Africa, who earned a spot on the podium for placing third in the open class. Oscar and his brother Laurens have represented South Africa in world gliding championship for decades and are obviously among the world’s very best glider pilots. It was a privilege to meet Oscar and to get his impressions of the brand new 21 meter JS1C from Jonker Sailplanes that he flew to third place in the open class. The JS1C is one of a new breed of open class gliders that reverses the decades-long trend in the open of incremental improvements and increasing span.

Jonker Sailplanes Announces 21-Meter Variant of JS-1

Jonker Sailplanes is proud to announce the 21m wingspan development of the JS1 Revelation.

The JS1C features the option of interchangeable wingtips that allow either an 18m or 21m wingspan configuration. Instead of the current 1.5m wingtips for the 18m wingspan configuration, new optional 3.0m wingtips can be installed to give a 21m wingspan configuration.

Jonker Sailplanes 2011 Year in Review

[Leo sent me a Merry Christmas email yesterday and I thought I would share it with our readers. — WE] Jonker Sailplanes has had a relatively good year with steady production of JS1 Revelations for customers worldwide, numerous JS1 pilots having contest success, and many fabulous OLC flights. The manufacturing year ended in mid-December with…

WGC 2010, Part 3

Uys continues… Contest Day 5: Crews and pilots woke up on Day 5, still very tired.  Ronald and AP, the JS technical support and crew members, prohibited the pilots from getting up early to help with the rigging.  When Attie and I eventually arrived for briefing, both gliders were rigged, ballasted and ready to be…

WGC 2010, Part 2

Uys continues… Contest Day 1: Finally Day 1 arrived for the 18m Class.  It was a 337 km polygon with 5 waypoints. John Coutts, Attie and I started together at 14:24.  (Couttsie was an integral part of the Team JS.  He might be a Kiwi but we regard him as an honorary South African.  With…

WGC 2010, Part 1

This personal account from Uys and Attie Jonker brings a unique and interesting perspective to the challenges of the 2010 World Gliding Championships.