Episode #14 of The Thermal is now available at your favourite podcast provider. In this episode , we get an update on how one Canadian gliding club is dealing with the COVID pandemic and flying operations. (1 minute and 50 seconds into the show) In California, Jim Payne has been breaking records...

Hello, I was last an active (licensed) glider pilot 15 years ago at White Sands Soaring Association in Alamogordo NM. Due to a busy military career, I put soaring on hold--but no more! I recently retired from the military and moved to Tucson AZ. Today, I just drove back from El Tiro gliderport...

Back with another question. I would like to know if the assembly hatch cover of the DG 100 is the same as the DG 200.

I have a power core outputing to an Oudie, Butterfly display and SN10b. I bought all the equipment during the glider purchase, and this is my first experience with all of these devices. I updated all the firmware and software with all the equipment and went flying. The butterfly display seems...

Congratulations to Jim Payne for yet another spectacular flight, and to the Nixus team as well. Mike Koerner

My September 2017 visit to GP Gliders: Poland is a beautiful country, especially in early September. The purpose of this trip was to meet CEO Jerzy Peszke and tour the GP Gliders facility. The operation recently moved to Korczyna (2.5 miles NW of Krosno). The original airport building was too...

I am in Twisp, WA right now. Some of my friends got up into a wave and easily made it to 18,000’. There is no wave window right close by. My question is can someone in a glider get an IFR clearance to go above 180? Assuming they have an Instrument rating and the glider is appropriately equipped.

I don't know if anyone else is using this site, but it's nice to see the US weather patterns in a visual summary. https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/us_comp/large/ Craig JN

The record camp at Refugio TX is an official go! A couple of us 1-26 fliers have put together a one week xc camp June 6 thru June 14. The Refugio Soaring club is providing tows for the week. You are welcome to join in specially if you are a low performance glider flier looking for your distance...

Hi Group, I've got a 303 and am interested in anyones' opinions about flying it, I've got 40 hrs in a SHK, 30 or so in a standard Cirrus, a few in a grob 103 Thanks, Scott

I have read, and re-read, the POH for the ASG-32Mi and am uncertain of the recommended and max IAS for the various flap settings. On p. 118 there is a diagram of what I suppose are the recommended, effective flap IAS ranges. On the ASI are marked the max IAS for flapa 5,6 and for flaps L. These...

If I were mayor of Saskatoon I would have an annual Indonesian Islamist day of pedophilic cannibalism supervised by Catholic priests at every Tim Horton's in the area surrounded by tortured trees with decorated idols while black rap music is being played by Doukhobors who are obsessing about their...

Have not had much success with AL-KO (US) by telephone and their email server seems to block anything I send. I need to replace spindle, bearings and hub assembly on the right (passenger? lol) side but it looks like the entire "A" frame chassis is a Euro only item. At this point I'd be happy to...

I use a portable PowerFLARM connected via serial (RS232) cable to a Nook running Tophat (which is based on XCsoar). This setup works nicely, the FLARM is the GPS source for the Nook, and I can see FLARM traffic on the Nook's display, and can send task declarations from the Nook into the FLARM. ...

I got an older Anschau Komet trailer that needs some care and decided to repaint the entire top side, which is white painted fiberglass. What paint would you recommend for doing this? I'd like it to be a bit glossy and waterproof, as the trailer will stay outside in summer but hangared in winter....

I am currently rebuilding another Pawnee and converting from a spray plane to a tow plane. Extensive work has been completed on this bird, and I am about ready to install the tow hook. This is the third Pawnee that I have converted and I have used the hopper dump handle as the tow release handle...

Is there a trick for making the life tracker on the SSA website work? I tried to follow the Perry contest but was only able to get it to work on my iPhone but not on my laptop. Only got a blank screen there. I am using Chrome as a browser and Windoze 7 Professional. Uli

Glideport is refusing to verify my new Garmin Inreach map sharing address. I am using the listed address obtained from the Garmin Inreach site. This address works on the SSA site. Anybody got any ideas?

Trying to get a club member's SPOT registered with glideport. I keep getting the message "Bad URL" when I paste his publicly available shared URL into the list of available trackers. Also tried pasting it to his account on the SSA as a belt and suspenders approach, but we're still not seeing a...

I am looking for a sale plane (i.e., a test structure) to use for Ground Vibration Tests (GVT) during our Hands-On Modal Testing & Analysis Seminar. The objective is to identify the wing "flutter" modes. We'll also create an FE Model for FEM-Test correlation and FE Moel Updating. The plane will...