Dr. Angelika Machinek 1956-2006
Having achieved a gliding world record, been the German Women’s Gliding Champion several times and also won international competitions, Angelika Machinek was always out in the lead. She died on 12 October at the age of 49 in an accident involving an ultralight plane.

Rieti Mediterranean Cup Competition
Having won the qualification Grand Prix in Nitra, Slovakia in the 2006 season, Herbert Weiss has once again attained the highest peaks of international competition with his Discus 2b. At the International Mediterranean Cup in Rieti, Italy, he defeated the World Cup champion of 1999, Giorgio Galetto, to clinch a victory in the Standard Class after four contest days.

German airspace: further restrictions in 2007
At the 65th German Glider Pilots’ Convention, Dr Herbert Märtin outlined the airspace changes planned for 2007. Some restrictions are to be made more stringent or extended, while others will be withdrawn. The most painful change relates to Hunsrück, where the Transponder Mandatory Zone (TMZ) around Hahn airport is to be extended to an even larger lateral area of D airspace (non-CTR).

OLC2: Desktop*StrePla follows suit
A new version 4.3 of the flight planning and analysis program, Desktop*StrePla, is now available. In this latest version, the program has been adapted in line with the changes made in OLC2. For licence holders of version 4, this upgrade is free of charge (www.strepla.de).

Aerobatic World Cup Championships training between massifs
In preparation for the Aerobatic Gliding World Championships to be held from 16 to 25 August 2007 in Niederöblarn, the Austrian national team trained for a week at the championship venue in the midst of the mountains. German aerobatics instructor Steff Hau was called in to assess the total of over 100 flights.

Meteo research in the Aconcagua
The Mountain Wave Project has gone on a new scientific expedition in Argentina, this time from a base near Mendoza. From there it is only 120km to the almost 7,000m high Aconcagua. Here the subtropical jet stream hits the peaks of the high mountain range with full force. The “team” is using a Stemme S-10VT as research aircraft.

StrePla service: experience flying in Argentina on the PC!
Right on time for the start of the new distance gliding season in the southern hemisphere, 8F Computer is giving the Argentina ONC away free to users of its flight planning and analysis program, StrePla. This will enable flights registered in the aerokurier Online Contest to be followed in StrePla. With StrePla version 4.2, it is possible to watch the flights directly in Google Earth.

Honeycomb aircraft takes shape
Arno Hoffmann set himself the task of building a modern glider using fibre composite material technology – but without the previously time-consuming and costly construction of the negative moulds which are customarily used in aircraft construction today (see aerokurier 10/2005). Since then, Hoffmann has made so much progress on his structural design that, having successfully constructed the tail unit, he now plans to embark on building the 20m wing.

French Grand-Prix
At the qualifier Grand Prix held at the beginning of September in St. Auban, southern France, Mario Kiessling (Ventus 2bxR) succeeded in establishing a three point lead against a strong French contingent. Mario Kiessling, who was last year’s runner-up behind Sebastian Kawa of Poland at the first Gliding World Grand Prix, flying in the same competition area, has thus qualified for the second World Grand Prix in New Zealand.

An introduction to sailplane design
Design, construction and the implementation of new ideas in glider construction are Dr. Vittorio Pajno’s passion. He has now compiled his knowledge of the design of gliders into an English-language book entitled “Sailplane Design”. In the book, Dr. Pajno (pajnovittorio@libero.it) provides general explanations with concrete calculations.

scoring*StrePla
For the 2008 Gliding World Championships to be held in Lüsse, to the south of Berlin, the organisers are backing a new evaluation programme that is under development at 8F Computer. The new evaluation software is based on experiences with the desktop*StrePla and pocket*StrePla flight planning and analysis programs.

German Championships 2007
The German Championships in the Standard and 18m classes will be held from 19 to 31 May in Zwickau. The 2007 German Championships in the Club and Two-Seater classes are scheduled for 30 June to 13 July in Neustadt-Glewe. Finally, the Open and Racing Class competitions will take place between 14 and 28 July where they will constitute part of the pre-world championships in Lüsse.

National League: Königsdorf Gliding Centre in the lead again
After 19 rounds, Königsdorf Gliding Centre was once again in the lead in the Online Contest/Gliding National League 2006. Esslingen Aero Club was in second place, only ten points behind and only one point ahead of Öhringen Flying Club, which came third.

In the Andean wave at 15,453 metres
On 29 August, Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson set a new gliding world record for altitude when they attained a height of 15,453m, overtaking by 507m the record set by Robert Harris of California in 1986. Flying a modified DG-505, Fossett and Enevoldson started out from El Calafate, being towed into the Andean wave lift at around 4000m.

Jet and ASW 27 collide
On 28 August, a business jet and a glider collided at an altitude of around 5,000m over Nevada, USA. The jet crew and the glider pilot, Akihiro Hirao of Japan, survived without serious injury. The pilot of the Hawker 800XP en route from San Diego to Carson City had already started the descent at the moment of the collision, which damaged the nose tip and instrument panel. Nevertheless she succeeded in regaining control over the aircraft and performed a successful belly landing at the destination airport with the instruments on her lap. Akihiro Hirao managed to parachute to safety after sustaining the loss of one wing.

10th Veteran glider convention in Stölln/Rhinow
The anniversary convention of this long established old timer event in eastern Germany could hardly have taken place in a more apt location: Stölln/Rhinow, the oldest airfield in the world that is still in operation. There the Stölln municipality, the Otto Lilienthal Association, which is based there, and the “Otto Lilienthal” aerosports club honoured the first pilot in the world under the catchphrase “115 years of human flight”.

Lower Saxony championships
Competitions in four classes were held at the Championships of Lower Saxony in Rotenburg. In total contrast to the rainy championships of 2004, the 63 pilots (with the exception of the two-seaters) enjoyed eight contest days, at times fast and at times difficult. Michael Pfennig finished in the lead in the overall score for the Racing Class (10 pilots). The Standard Class (21 pilots) was won by Mischa Konings (Rotterdam). The winner of the Club Class (21 entrants) was Helge Liebertz. Finally, in the two-seater Class (11 teams) victory went to Marcus Schmied.

Overflight disaster: Ventus sheds wing above the finishing line
Right on the first contest day (21 May) of the Swiss Gliding Championships in Berne, a sad spectacle was played out on the approach flights before the spectators. At an attitude of less than 100m a Ventus 17.6 lost a wing. Before this, during the rapid approach, the wings had shaken violently.

Archäopteryx for glider pilots
Ruppert Composite in Switzerland has announced the prices for its Archäopteryx foot launched ultralight glider which is expected to enter series production in the summer of 2007. The first 30 standard versions of the high-tech glider are offered for €22,250.

Herbert Weiss wins Grand Prix
Herbert Weiss has won the second of nine planned qualification Grand Prix for the World Gliding Grand Prix 2007 in Nitra, Slovakia. The competition, in which 14 pilots from nine nations were entered in the Standard Class, extended over six contest days. In an exciting race, Herbert Weiss overtook ex-European Champion Petr Krejcirik (CZ) to gain the lead. Erwin Sommer of the German team came third and Sebastian Huhmann sixth.

Gliding weather with Wetter-Jetzt
Wetter-Jetzt [“Weather Now”] is once again offering its established “Information on thermals for distance pilots” for the coming flying season. Further information from www.thermikinfo.de.

Video of the first World Grand Prix
The inspirational video of the first World Gliding Grand Prix held last year in France is now available on DVD. The film, which contains exciting aerial photographs from the Maritime Alps, can be ordered on the Internet from www.customflix.com/Store/ShowEStore.jsp?id=208281.

Aerobatics World Championships 2007 in Niederöblarn
The Niederöblarn gliding centre in Ennstal, Austria will once again host the elite amongst aerobatics performers in August 2007. Niederöblarn previously organised the 1999 world championships.

World Championships 2007 and 2008
The International Gliding Commission (IGC) has decided on the venues for the World Championships for the next two years. The Junior World Championships 2007 will be held in Rieti, Italy, the women’s event will be held in Bailleau, France, the European Championships 2007 in the Standard, Club and World classes will be held in Pociunai, Lithuania, and the European Championships 2007 in the Open, 18m and Racing Classes will take place in Issoudun, France. In 2008, once again Germany will be one of the host countries: the World Championships in the Open, 18m and Racing classes will be staged in Lüsse. The World Championships 2008 in the Standard, Club and World classes will be held in Rieti, Italy.

DDV: direct digital variometer
To complement its Volkslogger [“People’s logger”], Garrecht Avionik in Bingen has now brought out a new digital variometer with the functions TE vario, net vario, relative vario, integrator, airspeed indicator and altimeter. As on the Cambridge 302, the vario values are displayed on a circular dial with a step motor driven pointer.

Anti-collision light with diodes for gliders
Thiesen Hardware und Software Design unveiled an anti-collision light (ACL) based on diodes for gliders at AERO. The device can be integrated into either the winglet leading-edge or the “nose” of the vertical stabiliser. These ACLs are extremely bright, low in weight, economic in power consumption and, above all, they can be fully integrated aerodynamically into the glider.

Catalogue of off-field landing sites for the eastern Alps
The www.landewiesen.org website is now making it possible to go distance flying in the eastern Alps in safety. It presents information on 100 off-field landing sites in the eastern Alps. This “Outlanding Guide” has been redesigned, revised and expanded for the 2005 season under the lead of Alfred Obermayer.

112 is the Europe-wide number to call in an emergency
The world has shrunk by a fraction. In case of emergency, help can now be requested from a standard emergency call number, 112. This number is available in the EU (except in Latvia and Slovakia) with the GSM mobile phone in any network, even if roaming is not available. To ensure you are prepared for an emergency, it is therefore sensible to take your mobile phone with you in the cockpit, if possible attached to your parachute harness, so that it will still be available after an emergency jump. The Heinrich Mertens company (www.fallschirm.de) offers a mobile phone bag specially designed for attachment to the parachute harness.

DVD-Video: “In the sky over Patagonia”
Reiner Sahm has captured the experience of gliding in the south of Argentina, over Patagonia on video, with some fascinating landscape pictures. With his camera he has documented joint excursions from San Martin de los Andes, from where Klaus Ohlmann has been setting out on ever new world records. The film provides a wealth of images of idyllically beautiful flights above the Andes, a world where there are still active volcanoes. The 28-minute DVD will be available for €29 from November in pilot supplies stores.

Video: competing with Karl Striedieck
For a whole week Juan Mandelbaum shared a Duo Discus cockpit with Karl Striedieck, who made his name with his world record in low-altitude flight along the Appalachian chain of hills in the east of the USA, at the Pennsylvania Championships in Mifflin and recorded the experience with several video cameras. The result is a film which conveys the fascination of distance gliding and the excitement of competing in gliding competitions in a fashion not seen before.
     The camera recorded the flights from every possible angle. We are carried at breath-taking tempo 300 metres above the valley along the edge of the Appalachians and witness graphically how showery weather and blue thermal situations are mastered. The twice world champion George Moffat provides a commentary. A DVD version of the video “A Fine Week of Soaring” (69 minutes) is available from Juan Mandelbaum, www.geovisiononline.com/fineweek. Price including shipping: $42.90.

Alpine flying courses in La Motte du Caire
The Alpine flying specialist Jacques Noel, who in 1988 was one of the co-founders of the winch launch centre of La Motte du Caire to the east of Sisteron, has returned as chief flying instructor to the gliding airfield, which has since developed into a popular holiday centre. Noel also offers mounting training courses in the European Mountain Gliding Club’s Janus. Contact details: La Motte du Caire Club – cvvbn@wanadooo.fr, Jacques Noel – jacques.noel11@libertysurf.fr