Graphene gliders

Hype, hype and more hype in Bill Collums story, pure vapor-ware.
Going from a single layer of graphene molecules to a structural part
is not around the corner - unless its the corner of some distant
galaxy. *Remember buckyballs? *We were going to have string materials
of unbelievable strenght, space elevators everywhere to get payloads
for pennies into orbit, surely a hazard to soaring activities.
In my uneducated view graphene is an oddity for materials researchers
to mull over and write papers, nothing to see here folks, move
along...

Herb, J7

Like Herb said, and time for the monthly complaint about Snoaring
Magazine content. Graphene, and advice to use Lemon Pledge in the
centerpiece story about how to clean your canopy. (Hint. Don't) In the
meantime, nothing about how to fly better, what's going on with actual
glider designs we might see in our lifetimes, new instruments under
development, how to fly safer, racing techique, strategy, developments
around the world, new airfoils, modifications and improvements,
interesting places to fly or much else. If they just reprinted
articles from S&G, Gliding international, and other sources it would
be better.

OK, the answer is stop crabbing and write. I'll pony up a contest
corner if the rest of you send in some interesting articles!

John Cochrane

On 12/29/2010 2:22 PM, John Cochrane wrote:


Like Herb said, and time for the monthly complaint about Snoaring
Magazine content. Graphene, and advice to use Lemon Pledge in the
centerpiece story about how to clean your canopy. (Hint. Don't) In the
meantime, nothing about how to fly better, what's going on with actual
glider designs we might see in our lifetimes, new instruments under
development, how to fly safer, racing techique, strategy, developments
around the world, new airfoils, modifications and improvements,
interesting places to fly or much else. If they just reprinted
articles from S&G, Gliding international, and other sources it would
be better.

OK, the answer is stop crabbing and write. I'll pony up a contest
corner if the rest of you send in some interesting articles!

John Cochrane


Well, in all fairness to the SSA members who never write anything, the
problem is with the way that the Board chose the new editor a few years
ago.

The editor of Soaring must be good at two things. First, he must have
wide contacts in the soaring community, and be interested in all the
various topics that John describes above. With that background, he can
approach people for the articles that make for an interesting magazine.

Second, the editor must know how to produce a magazine.

Ideally, the Board would have hired a part-time editor who was good at
the first, and a full-time assistant editor who was good at the second.
As a team, they could turn out a good magazine.

But instead the Board looked for a single person to do both jobs. Maybe
there are people out there who would be good at both, but the present
editor is not the right fellow. He probably is quite qualified at the
second job described above, but certainly not at the first.

On Dec 29, 3:22*pm, John Cochrane
wrote:
Hype, hype and more hype in Bill Collums story, pure vapor-ware.
Going from a single layer of graphene molecules to a structural part
is not around the corner - unless its the corner of some distant
galaxy. *Remember buckyballs? *We were going to have string materials
of unbelievable strenght, space elevators everywhere to get payloads
for pennies into orbit, surely a hazard to soaring activities.
In my uneducated view graphene is an oddity for materials researchers
to mull over and write papers, nothing to see here folks, move
along...

Herb, J7

Like Herb said, and time for the monthly complaint about Snoaring
Magazine content. Graphene, and advice to use Lemon Pledge in the
centerpiece story about how to clean your canopy. (Hint. Don't) In the
meantime, nothing about how to fly better, what's going on with actual
glider designs we might see in our lifetimes, new instruments under
development, how to fly safer, racing techique, strategy, developments
around the world, new airfoils, modifications and improvements,
interesting places to fly or much else. If they just reprinted
articles from S&G, Gliding international, and other sources it would
be better.

OK, the answer is stop crabbing and write. I'll pony up a contest
corner if the rest of you send in some interesting articles!

John Cochrane

I brought up the Pledge use with a plastics expert - he rolled his
eyes. There's something in Pledge - possibly the oderants - which
accelerates crazing. I've tried several waxing finish polishes for
canopies and the old standby McGuire's #10 (gray bottle) does the best
job of temporarily filling in scratches while protecting the canopy.
It should, it was designed for the USAAF in WW2 for exactly that
purpose with a refractive index exactly the same as acrylic.

Canopies are WAY too expensive to be experimenting with furniture
polish.

On Dec 28, 3:21*pm, bildan wrote:
In it he suggests a 50 Lb 15 meter glider will be
possible and I don't doubt it.

Well, where's my hoverboard? My flying car?

On Dec 29, 4:10*pm, bildan wrote:
On Dec 29, 3:22*pm, John Cochrane
wrote:





Hype, hype and more hype in Bill Collums story, pure vapor-ware.
Going from a single layer of graphene molecules to a structural part
is not around the corner - unless its the corner of some distant
galaxy. *Remember buckyballs? *We were going to have string materials
of unbelievable strenght, space elevators everywhere to get payloads
for pennies into orbit, surely a hazard to soaring activities.
In my uneducated view graphene is an oddity for materials researchers
to mull over and write papers, nothing to see here folks, move
along...

Herb, J7

Like Herb said, and time for the monthly complaint about Snoaring
Magazine content. Graphene, and advice to use Lemon Pledge in the
centerpiece story about how to clean your canopy. (Hint. Don't) In the
meantime, nothing about how to fly better, what's going on with actual
glider designs we might see in our lifetimes, new instruments under
development, how to fly safer, racing techique, strategy, developments
around the world, new airfoils, modifications and improvements,
interesting places to fly or much else. If they just reprinted
articles from S&G, Gliding international, and other sources it would
be better.

OK, the answer is stop crabbing and write. I'll pony up a contest
corner if the rest of you send in some interesting articles!

John Cochrane

I brought up the Pledge use with a plastics expert - he rolled his
eyes. *There's something in Pledge - possibly the oderants - which
accelerates crazing. *I've tried several waxing finish polishes for
canopies and the old standby McGuire's #10 (gray bottle) does the best
job of temporarily filling in scratches while protecting the canopy.
It should, it was designed for the USAAF in WW2 for exactly that
purpose with a refractive index exactly the same as acrylic.

Canopies are WAY too expensive to be experimenting with furniture
polish.

At the risk of hijacking the topic, is McGuires #10 better than
Plexus? (I just bought two cans at $23 each. (The guy at the airport
shop said the manufacturer recently doubled the wholesale price.)

On Dec 30, 12:22*am, "Matt Herron Jr." wrote:
On Dec 29, 4:10*pm, bildan wrote:



On Dec 29, 3:22*pm, John Cochrane
wrote:

Hype, hype and more hype in Bill Collums story, pure vapor-ware.
Going from a single layer of graphene molecules to a structural part
is not around the corner - unless its the corner of some distant
galaxy. *Remember buckyballs? *We were going to have string materials
of unbelievable strenght, space elevators everywhere to get payloads
for pennies into orbit, surely a hazard to soaring activities.
In my uneducated view graphene is an oddity for materials researchers
to mull over and write papers, nothing to see here folks, move
along...

Herb, J7

Like Herb said, and time for the monthly complaint about Snoaring
Magazine content. Graphene, and advice to use Lemon Pledge in the
centerpiece story about how to clean your canopy. (Hint. Don't) In the
meantime, nothing about how to fly better, what's going on with actual
glider designs we might see in our lifetimes, new instruments under
development, how to fly safer, racing techique, strategy, developments
around the world, new airfoils, modifications and improvements,
interesting places to fly or much else. If they just reprinted
articles from S&G, Gliding international, and other sources it would
be better.

OK, the answer is stop crabbing and write. I'll pony up a contest
corner if the rest of you send in some interesting articles!

John Cochrane

I brought up the Pledge use with a plastics expert - he rolled his
eyes. *There's something in Pledge - possibly the oderants - which
accelerates crazing. *I've tried several waxing finish polishes for
canopies and the old standby McGuire's #10 (gray bottle) does the best
job of temporarily filling in scratches while protecting the canopy.
It should, it was designed for the USAAF in WW2 for exactly that
purpose with a refractive index exactly the same as acrylic.

Canopies are WAY too expensive to be experimenting with furniture
polish.

At the risk of hijacking the topic, is McGuires #10 better than
Plexus? (I just bought two cans at $23 each. *(The guy at the airport
shop said the manufacturer recently doubled the wholesale price.)

I think so. #10 takes more work to rub it on and wipe it off but the
results seem better.

On Dec 30, 7:43*am, bildan wrote:
On Dec 30, 12:22*am, "Matt Herron Jr." wrote:





On Dec 29, 4:10*pm, bildan wrote:

On Dec 29, 3:22*pm, John Cochrane
wrote:

Hype, hype and more hype in Bill Collums story, pure vapor-ware.
Going from a single layer of graphene molecules to a structural part
is not around the corner - unless its the corner of some distant
galaxy. *Remember buckyballs? *We were going to have string materials
of unbelievable strenght, space elevators everywhere to get payloads
for pennies into orbit, surely a hazard to soaring activities.
In my uneducated view graphene is an oddity for materials researchers
to mull over and write papers, nothing to see here folks, move
along...

Herb, J7

Like Herb said, and time for the monthly complaint about Snoaring
Magazine content. Graphene, and advice to use Lemon Pledge in the
centerpiece story about how to clean your canopy. (Hint. Don't) In the
meantime, nothing about how to fly better, what's going on with actual
glider designs we might see in our lifetimes, new instruments under
development, how to fly safer, racing techique, strategy, developments
around the world, new airfoils, modifications and improvements,
interesting places to fly or much else. If they just reprinted
articles from S&G, Gliding international, and other sources it would
be better.

OK, the answer is stop crabbing and write. I'll pony up a contest
corner if the rest of you send in some interesting articles!

John Cochrane

I brought up the Pledge use with a plastics expert - he rolled his
eyes. *There's something in Pledge - possibly the oderants - which
accelerates crazing. *I've tried several waxing finish polishes for
canopies and the old standby McGuire's #10 (gray bottle) does the best
job of temporarily filling in scratches while protecting the canopy.
It should, it was designed for the USAAF in WW2 for exactly that
purpose with a refractive index exactly the same as acrylic.

Canopies are WAY too expensive to be experimenting with furniture
polish.

At the risk of hijacking the topic, is McGuires #10 better than
Plexus? (I just bought two cans at $23 each. *(The guy at the airport
shop said the manufacturer recently doubled the wholesale price.)

I think so. *#10 takes more work to rub it on and wipe it off but the
results seem better.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Did you mean Maguire's #10 blue bottle?

On Dec 29, 2:50*pm, Greg Arnold wrote:

The editor of Soaring must be good at two things. *First, he must have
wide contacts in the soaring community, and be interested in all the
various topics that John describes above. *With that background, he can
approach people for the articles that make for an interesting magazine.

I agree completely. It was a big reason John Good made such a good
editor during his time at Soaring magazine. He'd call me up and say
"Here's an idea for an article people would like to read, and you are
exactly the person to write it". How could I say no to that? And he
was doing that to other people, too. It worked.

An editor for a soaring publication can't just wait for articles to
appear, because there won't be enough good ones. The editor and the
editorial board needs to find out members want to read, and also
figure out what they should read, then actively seek articles on these
subjects. Many of these articles can and should come from well known
soaring people (the "usual suspects"), but it's absolutely essential
to actively seek and encourage new writers.

Doing this isn't as easy as sorting through what's been sent
unsolicited, but it yields a much better magazine, meaning one the
members really look forward to, and one that better serves the sport.
The editor can't be the only one twisting arms, either, but needs a
number of people with different interests (contests, clubs, technical,
etc) working with him, soliciting articles.

From the potential writer's viewpoint, the assurance that the article
will very likely be published makes the effort to write a good article
seem worthwhile. Without some assurance, a lot of people aren't
willing to go to the substantial effort it takes to write the article
in the first place. This assurance is particularly valuable to new
writers.

On Dec 30, 8:51*am, Eric Greenwell wrote:
On Dec 29, 2:50*pm, Greg Arnold wrote:

The editor of Soaring must be good at two things. *First, he must have
wide contacts in the soaring community, and be interested in all the
various topics that John describes above. *With that background, he can
approach people for the articles that make for an interesting magazine.

I agree completely. It was a big reason John Good made such a good
editor during his time at Soaring magazine. He'd call me up and say
"Here's an idea for an article people would like to read, and you are
exactly the person to write it". How could I say no to that? And he
was doing that to other people, too. It worked.

An editor for a soaring publication can't just wait for articles to
appear, because there won't be enough good ones. The editor and the
editorial board needs to find out members want to read, and also
figure out what they should read, then actively seek articles on these
subjects. Many of these articles can and should come from well known
soaring people (the "usual suspects"), but it's absolutely essential
to actively seek and encourage new writers.

Doing this isn't as easy as sorting through what's been sent
unsolicited, but it yields a much better magazine, meaning one the
members really look forward to, and one that better serves the sport.
The editor can't be the only one twisting arms, either, but needs a
number of people with different interests (contests, clubs, technical,
etc) working with him, soliciting articles.

From the potential writer's viewpoint, the assurance that the article
will very likely be published makes the effort to write a good article
seem worthwhile. Without some assurance, a lot of people aren't
willing to go to the substantial effort it takes to write the article
in the first place. This assurance is particularly valuable to new
writers.

One of the things the Soaring magazine is almost consistently missing
out are articles on products; new or under development sailplanes,
radios, transponders, flight computers, maintanance products,
etc,etc,etc. Model avaiation publications do a much better job at
this. PeterK

On Dec 30, 8:43*am, bildan wrote:
On Dec 30, 12:22*am, "Matt Herron Jr." wrote:









On Dec 29, 4:10*pm, bildan wrote:

On Dec 29, 3:22*pm, John Cochrane
wrote:

Hype, hype and more hype in Bill Collums story, pure vapor-ware.
Going from a single layer of graphene molecules to a structural part
is not around the corner - unless its the corner of some distant
galaxy. *Remember buckyballs? *We were going to have string materials
of unbelievable strenght, space elevators everywhere to get payloads
for pennies into orbit, surely a hazard to soaring activities.
In my uneducated view graphene is an oddity for materials researchers
to mull over and write papers, nothing to see here folks, move
along...

Herb, J7

Like Herb said, and time for the monthly complaint about Snoaring
Magazine content. Graphene, and advice to use Lemon Pledge in the
centerpiece story about how to clean your canopy. (Hint. Don't) In the
meantime, nothing about how to fly better, what's going on with actual
glider designs we might see in our lifetimes, new instruments under
development, how to fly safer, racing techique, strategy, developments
around the world, new airfoils, modifications and improvements,
interesting places to fly or much else. If they just reprinted
articles from S&G, Gliding international, and other sources it would
be better.

OK, the answer is stop crabbing and write. I'll pony up a contest
corner if the rest of you send in some interesting articles!

John Cochrane

I brought up the Pledge use with a plastics expert - he rolled his
eyes. *There's something in Pledge - possibly the oderants - which
accelerates crazing. *I've tried several waxing finish polishes for
canopies and the old standby McGuire's #10 (gray bottle) does the best
job of temporarily filling in scratches while protecting the canopy.
It should, it was designed for the USAAF in WW2 for exactly that
purpose with a refractive index exactly the same as acrylic.

Canopies are WAY too expensive to be experimenting with furniture
polish.

At the risk of hijacking the topic, is McGuires #10 better than
Plexus? (I just bought two cans at $23 each. *(The guy at the airport
shop said the manufacturer recently doubled the wholesale price.)

I think so. *#10 takes more work to rub it on and wipe it off but the
results seem better.

Plexus is nice for a quick clean just before a flight, especially if
the canopy is in good shape. Works nice for getting dust off the
inside (important out west) and for anti-static use.

That said, for an older canopy or occasional deep cleaning, someithing
like #10 is probably better, if more time consuming.

Kirk