I am looking for some advice on the forms and process I need to go through, to buy a glider registered in the US. From what I can tell, I need a Bill of Sale (form 8050-2) and an Aircraft Registration Application (form 8050-1). It appears that the latter form is only available from the local FSDO...

No, I am not planning to buy anything for at least a year ... but I have often wondered what other "hidden" expenses or obstacles there are associated with buying a used glider. I regularly see older planes in the $10K USD range (which is well within my price range). BUT, for future reference,...

Just for fun...... A long time ago, I was told that a compass correction card is required. I was also told it didn't have to be filled out. That may not be a good idea. No need to upset our FAA friends. GA

Lippmann in Germany reports a winch launch to 950 meters (3100'). http://www.lippmann.de/hoistline.htm Has anyone heard of a higher launch? Bill Daniels

Hi, we recently launched a petition against Flarm decision to encrypt their communication protocols. Although Flarm have the majority of the market for anti-collision systems there are others vendors and we think that monopolies are not a good things in any market and more important security comes...

SZD Bielsko is in the final phase of testing of "new" 2 seat glider designed for initial and advanced training. It will be fully aerobatic with 17.5 m wings and with 20 m wings it becomes pretty good x-c sailplane with L/D of 41.8. The reason I am saying "new" with quotation marks is that the...

Pictures and process for refinishing a ventus b fuselage. Work in progress pictures and process as work is completed. http://www.craggyaero.com/ventus.htm Richard www.craggyaero.com

All, I've just embarked on a project to extract US (CONUS) airspace data from the FAA National Airspace System Resource files and process it into more accessible formats (such as OpenAir and Tim Newport-Peace). This is a little more complicated than it sounds, because the NASR uses ESRI shapefile...

Hi all, for those interested in the status of the project, here is a video of current development point, new features etc. http://www.bware.it/xcsoar/LK8000-1.12b.wmv The public version will be available for free at Xmas time. At that point it will also an opensource project, of...

I have been very concerned about our club, which discourages cross country in club gliders. My thought is that purpose of soaring is cross country and if one just concentrates on flying above the airport then ones member ship tends to end when you have your license. We have many airports withing a...

Okay, neither my flight manual nor maintenance manual say what kind of fuses I should be using between the batteries and instruments. The printing on one looks to be T500L250V, which I understand to mean 0.5 amps, slow-blow, 250 Volts. (It's 5x20mm.) I know that to protect my wiring I need...

More bad news in a tough year. Heartfelt condolences to all involved. http://kezi.com/news/local/138726 Craig

Just got one of these Apple gizmos and I'm curious what apps other glider guiders are using. So far I've found some nice non-aviation weather and mapping apps, so now I'm looking for a good NOTAM and aviation wx brief app. How about SPOT, XCskies, DrJack? Kirk 66

Has anybody have a blanik not pass the wing inspection? We're just getting started and are interested in what others are experiencing. Thanks, Jim Dingess

I have a 1998 HK36TTC Katana Xtreme for sale. 115hp Rotax. All AD's completed. Custom Canopy cover. 225 hrs airframe and engine. Immaculate condition. In Australia, will containerise . Looking for A $180K, packed and ready to ship to USA. You won't find a better one. KLX135, Ilec vario, A-H,...

Was so tried of the hard deck discussion thought I would try a discussion of dreams. After seeing the vision of Elon Musk with his Falcon Heavy, I had to pinch myself. Those two boosters landing in sync.. What are some of the innovative, new technology, original thought, scifi dreams, would you...

I'm just starting out with soaring. Simple question for you guys. How many of you fly with an emergency parachute? It looks like they cost around $2000 online. Pretty steep price; although the cost is insignificant if it saves your life. Is this something I should be looking to purchase?

The original question stated a glider doing 100kts with/without 100kgs of ballast. Ignoring the stalling speed for the moment, Does anyone out there think the pull-up takes more than 4 or 5 seconds? Does anyone out there think that the sink rate of the unballasted glider at 100kts is more than...

What a surprise, just today my son brought me a great gift to fight off the flaming liberals at the gliderport. It is a Bulgarian AK47 with 2000 rounds of ammunition. Thank god that I raised this kid correctly, educated him and he achieved the status of a Structural Engineer, PE. He advised me to...

Through the contributions to the avoiding VNE thread runs the theme of the difficulty of avoiding overspeeding and/or overstressing some modern designs in accidental spin recovery. This is made more difficult than in older composite gliders because they had a little more drag and a little more...