For two weeks at every Easter since 1962, Scandinavian soaring pilots have gathered to explore lee mountain waves north of the Arctic Circle, launching from the surface of a frozen lake. Yes, its remoteness requires a long trip to get there, but the reward comes in the shape of magical landscapes, wonderful friendships and lenticular clouds like none other. Once seen, never forgotten.

The launch site is a bay on frozen lake Paittasjärvi where several weeks prior to the wave camp, snowploughs and  ice scrapers create a 600-metre landing strip and a 1,200-metre runway. During the wave camp, participants can be accommodated in rustic huts owned by the club, or park their caravans on the lake ice. ...

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In North Germany the soaring season got off to a poor start. Usually, we have a few days of slope lift along Weserbergland or some thermals over Lüneberg Heath; so it seemed like an eternity while waiting for my soaring holiday planned in the South of France beginning March 24. However, our arrival there was greeted by spring in full bloom and the flying was just great. I was in company with my old training group, flying in a team with their ASW24 and ASW19. It was plain right from the start  hat the 1neo is remarkable. No surprise there, because it looks just great.

The popular LS8 has a number of small improvements that raise performance considerably and justify the new type description of LS8-sc neo. These include ...

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In 1935 Hans Jacobs designed the Kranich (‘Crane’) at the GFS German Sailplane Research station with the objective of creating a high-performance two-seater. It went into series production with Karl Schweyer AG in Mannheim and with dual controls was so good that it rapidly gained popularity as a trainer.

Over 1,650 were built, more than any other two-seater both before and during the Second World War. The efficiency of the big gull-wing was demonstrated in the course of many contests and by new records set. In 1938 the crew of Hofmann and Wilcken set a new German distance record of 397 km that stood for 30 years. 

In On 11 October 1940 Erich Klöckner was towed in a Kranich to 5,700 metres by a Heinkel He 46, then continuing to the stratosphere and reaching 11,460 metres. ...

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Depending upon the Class in question, the task set was for 200 to 300 km.

The weather was surprisingly good on the day our photo was taken and most crews completed the task and made it back to Rotenburg. To see so many sailplanes on their final glide at the same time is impressive.

Each phase of the operation went without a hitch. Of course, great care was taken with rigging and de-rigging sailplanes and their ground transport, ensuring there were no accidents. Nor was there any problem when 20 to 30 sailplanes were circling together over Rotenburg waiting for the signal to go through the start gate, or in the final glide ...

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Janowitsch wins Gold Medal for Austria in the 18-metre Class.

Soaring pilots from mainland Europe have a problem when faced with British weather. On the one hand, the British have a long and nation-wide gliding tradition and excellent pilots, but the weather patterns are complex and quite different to those found in most parts of mainland Europe.

For which reason, all the more credit to Austrian Wolfgang Janowitsch for his Saturday flight gaining him victory. Janowitsch has also been 2003 World Champion and five times European Champion. In May 2017 he beat Briton Mike Young and Belgian Bert Schmelzer to win in the 18-metre class.

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Sailplane manufacture is a highly specialised business.

It calls for a lot of known-how, clever people, the highest production standards, attention to detail and close contact with customers to understand what they want. In Germany, the most advanced sailplane aerodynamic knowledge and insights into new materials has come from academic flying groups in technical universities; likewise, the most successful designers.

The leading sailplane aerodynamicists include Karlheinz Horstmann, Armin Quast and Dr. Loek Boermans. Some German sailplanes acknowledge their in-house designers by using their initials in the respective type documentation. Alexander Schleicher have used their designers’ initials: ASK for Kaiser; ASW for Waibel ASH for Martin Heide; and ASG for Michael Greiner. Likewise, sailplanes bearing the initials LS and DG identify their respective designers. ...

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It all began with a visit to Canada by my friend Holger Weitzel from Hamburg with whom I had flown 1,000 km from Ely in Nevada a few weeks previous. Holger had just made a 3,600 km long trip in his VW bus towing an ASW26 from Nevada to visit us here in Oakville, Ontario, and had no thoughts of going flying. But we glider pilots are a peculiar species and quickly change our minds should see Cumulus clouds bubbling up.

Suddenly, we are no longer tired, but straightway decide to drive to the glider strip,60 km away at Rockton, get the aircraft ready and head off to Niagara Falls 120 km away. The flight was quite straightforward, good soaring weather and the photo was taken from my DG 808B while circling over the Falls. The photo demonstrates that not only is Holder a World Class soaring pilot, he is also a talented photographer. I fly to the Falls several times each year, mostly taking advantage of the ‘lake effect’ from Lake Erie, which we use for cross-country flights.. ..

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Hilla und Heinz. Some relationships can almost last a lifetime. One such is that between Heinz and Hilla, a 1954 Mü 13E Bergfalke II built by Scheibe in Dachau near Munich, and which flew for the first time from nearby München-Riem. You can tell an early Bergfalke II from later variants by the top-mounted aileron levers. Hilla still has the small rounded rudder inherited from the single-seat Mü 13 D.

Hilla was originally purchased by an individual for the Fürstenfeldbruck flying club but was damaged four weeks later and returned to Scheibe for repair. In 1965, enter the youthful Heinz Bauer who then got his licence in her. illa continued to fly in Erding from 1968 to 1976 when it was bought back by the previous club and continued in operation. ...

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North Sea Coast Flight Calibration Week. For several years, aeronautical engineering students from Aachen and Zürich have met at Nordholz-Spieka airfield (EDXN) for a week of flight calibration trials. During the week, students, teachers and their scientific assistants fly above the triangular region bounded by the Rivers Weser and Elbe in both sailplanes and powered aircraft.

The primary aim is for engineering students to apply the knowledge gained in the lecture theatre and laboratory to a real situation. The calibration trials cover such subjects as take-off distance, noise measurements, in-flight performance, instrument calibration and airflow visualisation ...

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Electric-Powered Discus Discus Nose Prop (FES). For more than 30 years aeromodellers have fitted their creations with battery-powered electric motors; and now electric power has found its way into full-sized Schempp Hirth Ventus sailplane with the FES front electric sustainer. There is hardly any measurable change in the glide ratio and the advantages are considerable. When the ultralight fraternity took up FES power, Schempp Hirth got in touch with its Slovenian designer Luka Znidarsic.

His design uses a small folding propeller whose electric motor is powered by Lithium-Polymer batteries in the fuselage. This system can raise a Discus to 1,250 metres or help the pilot get out of a problem and extend the flight. ... Bernd Weber of Schempp-Hirth now has experience with FES power and answered the OLC’s questions: ...

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First Flight. Engineer brothers Uys and Attie Jonker with Johan Bosman, plus three technicians, had a goal: to design a contest-winning sailplane that is also great to fly. The result was the 15-metre Jonker JS1, now well established and amazingly successful from the word go. The factory in South Africa now employs more than 110 persons and several highly qualified engineers. M+D Flugzeugbau in Germany supports the design operation and is also responsible for design and certification of the sustainer jet engine.

Just ten years after the JS1 came the 15-metre JS3 – followed by the 18-metre variant – aimed exclusively at winning contests. Since there is no JS2, it is simply known as ‘the second one’. Looking for a further performance improvement, the designers decided on a new fuselage. Instead of wind tunnel experiments they opted for CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics. This makes for efficient and rapid airflow simulation to calculate the forces in operation and understand their effects upon performance. Information so derived is impressive, both in terms of performance and handling characteristics. ...

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It is April 2 and our five sailplanes are lined up ready for launch from the small and delightful little airfield of Alzate near Como, Italy. Above, there are blue skies, the wind is calm, and a few tiny cumulus clouds hover just above the crest of nearby the Bolettone mountain. During the towplane launch we are treated to a breathtaking view of Monte Rosa, the second highest mountain in the Alps, and feel we could almost reach out and touch it. After release, we circle a few times above Mount Bolettone before heading west single file, just clearing Mount Brunate close by Como.

The cloud base is so low that it is hardly worthwhile circling. Then we continued along the western arm of Lake Como to Monte Generoso. Flying as a pack, we take every little bit of climb available at each hill. Over the Swiss border we centre in a weak thermal above the ridge south of Monte Ceneri, where we are already above 2000m. ...

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