The September, 2011 issue of the Smithsonian Air & Space magazine features a fascinating story about an attempted rescue in 1948 of airmen from two downed aircraft in the arctic using a CG-15A glider.
Paul Bertorelli and Jeb Burnside of AvWeb and Aviation Consumer, recently conducted tests to determine how much pull force several commercially available aircraft tiedown systems will resist before yielding. If you’re in the market for a tiedown system for your airplane, sailplane, or trailer, you may be interested in the results of these tests. The…
In January, 2010, 16 of the world’s best sailplane pilots gathered in Santiago, Chile for eight days of racing over some of the most spectacular and starkly beautiful terrain on the planet. The lucky pilots were invited to compete in the Third FAI Sailplane Grand Prix, a race unlike any other in soaring. The sailplanes all start at the same time and race around a pre-designated course, and the first pilot to cross the finish line wins. To make the race exciting for the uninitiated and the results easy to understand for spectators, the scoring is simple, or perhaps brutal, from the competitors’ point of view. The winner is the first sailplane to cross the finish line.
The FAA has thwarted an attempt by officials in Riverside County, California, to ban glider operations from the airport at Hemet, which has been a premier California soaring site for five decades. In 2009, Riverside County officials took advantage of an FBO giving up its lease at the airport to ban glider operations there, citing…
This year, 2011, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of recreational soaring. In October, 1911, Orville Wright and a friend returned to Kitty Hawk, eight years after he made the historic first controlled flight in an airplane. But this time, Orville brought only a glider. There was little purpose in his visit except to…
At the 2011 SSA Conference, Paul Remde of Cumulus Soaring demoed the LX 9000 flight computer system, which features a larger screen than its predecessor, the LX 8000 and a vario which displays flight information than can be selected by the pilot. The LX 9000 display will be familiar to users of Naviter’s SeeYou Mobile…
At the SSA Conference in January, 2011, Paul Remde of Cumulus Soaring created a video in which he demos the new LXNav Nano Flight Recorder. This device is the smallest IGC-approved flight recorder on the market and, to my knowledge, the least expensive. With an 11-hour battery life and the low price, this minuscule flight…
Saturday dawned bright and sunny, but chilly nonetheless. There’s a huge pile of snow just outside the hotel entrance. It’s been there since Wednesday and it’s not getting any smaller! I started the day with the Governors, Chapters, and Clubs breakfast. There was no formal program for the breakfast, but I enjoyed a pleasant visit…
The first event on today’s personal agenda was the Competition Pilots’ breakfast, moderated by U.S. Contest Committee Chair Ken Sorenson. Ken presented a summary of last year’s U.S. regional and national contest participation by class as well as changes to the 2011 contest rules proposed to the SSA Board by the Rules Committee. Last year,…
Friends, it’s been a looonnnnggg day for Bill and me. We left home this morning at 6:10 enroute to Philadelphia via Charlotte, NC. We were delayed four hours in Charlotte while ground crews in Philly worked furiously to remove the 15″ of snow that fell on the city Wednesday night. But it wasn’t all bad.…
