Your Soaring Café staff learned about the article linked here from Gary “Doc” Childers of the Stemme Owners Group (SOG). While not a conventional soaring tale, it does, as SOG’s Marc Arnold puts it, “… include shutting down an engine and gliding from 70,000 feet … quite a final glide!” We hope you enjoy the story.
We are delighted to report that the “Wings Over Sweden” Kickstarter project was fully funded just before the deadline ( 2-1/2 hours ago as I write), but it was a squeaker! As the final bell rang, the project was only ~$US1.50 over its funding goal!
We at the Soaring Café were deeply saddened by news of Doug Armstrong’s passing last week. Doug was a professional meteorologist and was world-renowned in the soaring community for his weather forecasting at U.S. regional and national contests and in support of many records flown in the Sierra Nevada wave, especially those originating near his hometown of Reno, Nevada.
As reported in the Café last week, the Wings Over Sweden Kickstarter project is in a mad dash to the finish and needs pledges to fund a promo for the Wings Over Sweden TV documentary about soaring. As I write, the project has only 22 hours to go.
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.
Your Café staff is grateful to Tilo Holighaus, owner of Schempp-Hirth Sailplanes, for granting us this interview. Schempp-Hirth’s Quintus M, a new 23-meter open class design, has been doing extremely well at the 2012 World Gliding Championships in Uvalde, Texas. At the time of the interview, Quintus pilot Laurent Aboulin of France was leading the open class in cumulative standings, and Tassilo Bode of Germany was third.
Michael Greiner is the young Schleicher engineer who designed the extremely successful ASG-29 15/18 meter glider. As a young designer, he was mentored by Gerhard Waibel and so, in a sense, he is Gerhard’s protegé. Michael was in Uvalde earlier this week, so I asked if he had time for an interview, and he graciously…
This is the sky from Uvalde ground at 1535 CDT, 14 August, Day 9 of WGC 2012. It’s an interactive 360° panorama, so use your mouse or trackpad to look around. http://360.io/T98wfx More conventional photos…
Tow planes, gliders, launches, landings…it’s all here!
The WGC 2012 organizers erected a large white tent on the Uvalde airport for visitors to relax, buy food and drink, and observe the ground activity. There are also two large screens for spectators to monitor the progress of pilots equipped with trackers and to check scores at day’s end. Here’s a video tour:
