Hi all, My commercial gliding operation (http://www.crosscountrysoaring.com) is moving to Florida for six weeks (Jan 14 - Feb 28th) with our winch (330HP and a mile of Spectra) and one Grob 103. If you would like to find out what a winch shot feels like, or get an endorsement (which satisfies a...

I had a great time trying a few winch launches with Don at Immokalee Airport (KIMM) today. Honest 2000' launches. If you have never tried a winch launch, you have missed a great thrill in soaring. He will be there a few more weeks and still has gaps in his schedule. Don't let them go to...

Further to Craig Freeman's post of July 28, photos of our new winch are available at our club web site at http://www.permiansoaring.us/ The winch was conceived and built by Craig in about three months of spare time work, which is surely remarkable. Even more remarkable, Craig also wears additional...

If you are interested in winch operations and ground launching, you are invited to join https://groups.io/g/winchops There is a WIKI page with links to the files and photos archives from the former Yahoo groups winchdesign, winchengineer, and pulleylaunch. The posts are a possible work in...

I heard there was some wind damage at Minden with this last storm. Anybody got the facts? Any gliders involved? Who said JJ's an an ambulance chaser? JJ Sinclair

Looks like surface winds at 6 kts up to 47 kts at 18,000' MSL, all pretty much perpendicular to the mountains. Hope there's enough thermal activity to climb into the wave... ;-P

Sixty-two knots on downwind, 23 knots at the surface.Â* I started my base turn while the intended touchdown point was still in front of me and it worked out just right. I learned that my ClearNav gets confused when presented with a 2 kt ground speed.Â* A very interesting day over all. -- Dan,...

Throughout this season I've flown with several friends that use different instruments that calculate wind information while in flight. I use a GPS driving a PDA running LK8000 (I don't use the new true wind function). Ron uses an SN-10, Dan uses a PDA running Seeyou and getting wind information...

http://www.greenbird.co.uk/ On the morning of March 26th, 2009 on the 'dry' Lake Ivanpah, The Greenbird - driven by British engineer Richard Jenkins - smashed the world land speed record for wind powered vehicles. The Greenbird clocked 126.1 mph (202.9 km/h) , eclipsing the old, American held,...

I've picked up the book authored by Jean-Marie Clément, Dancing With The Wind. He makes a point regarding valley breezes channeled by mountains becoming either dextrorotatory vs levorotatory. Supposedly, climbs will be better on mountains facing the valley breeze on a levorotatory rotation of the...

Hi, I guess there must be some theory for the design of windsocks out there? Our wind sock is more like a pair of torn and laddered tights, so we need to rebuild it. Is there some basic theory on size (yes we have the first main ring) and length, also the size of the outlet hole? Is it also...

Hi pilots, I know this subject has been discussed in the past but I am not sure if this particular issue has come up. I run a CAI 302 which drives both Winpilot Pro and a 303 head. The wind speed and directions are often differing by large margins on these two displays even though they must be...

On another forum I visit these was some discussion regarding the design of wind turbines - the number and size of blades, various configurations etc. A question I had that no one answered had to do with what I can only call a "dip" in the blade out near the tip. I looked for a good image but...

If you're tired if IGC filenames not sorting properly in file dialog boxes, follow this link to find out how to fix this 'feature' of XP:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=319827 Tom Serkowski ASH-26E To email me, place '@' after Tom, and append '.com'

I was wondering how many Windex gliders have been built and are still flying. I seems like there are only about a 12 or so. Would appreciate any information. Thank You Rodger R Pescadero CA

In the name of almighty green energy, the government has issued a new ruling: "The newly finalized rule would grant 30-year permits allowing wind farms and other projects to accidentally kill federally protected eagles, provided they meet certain criteria." Full article...

A car passed me the other day. On the rear window was a decal or sticker with the white silhouette of a sailplane. It was approx 10 - 12 inches. This product seems not to be available through the SSA. Does anyone out there know about this, where it can be procured ? Cheers, Charles

Our club is looking for a replacement Mecaplex sliding window, with scoop, for the PW-5. This window is somewhat larger than those found on most other gliders ... about 5 X 7.25 inches. Thanks.

Great wave today in Region 5. https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/daily.html?sc=&st=olc&rt=olc&df=&c=C6&sp=2019 Boggs

I am having a problem using the OLC convertor program that is supposed to convert Cambridge files to a standard acceptable to OLC. It worked fine on my now-dead XP laptop, but won't do anything on my new W7 machine. Any suggestions? HL