RC Soaring World Champs
IT'S THE OLYMPICS of model Soaring. For RC Glider fanatics it's like the Super Bowl and World's Series combined. This is the Big One! The 1987 World Championships event was held the last week in July at the Achmer Gliderport near Osnabruck in the northern part of West Germany. The weather played a big part in the flying, and it was abysmal. It was rainy, cloudy, and cold the whole week. Flying went on in the rain. Flying was stopped only when the rain or low clouds obscured the Sailplanes from view. It's obviously tough on pilots when they launch their planes right out of sight!
Radio Control: Soaring
ATTENTION, Scale Slope Soarers. Remember a while back when we were bemoaning the fact that there were no Scale Slope Soaring events in the U.S.? Well, Wil Byers and the Tri City Soarers of Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco, WA have stepped into the breach. They will be holding the 1988 National Mid-Columbia RC Soaring Scale Fun-Fly and Soaring Social May 27, 28, and 29-the Memorial Day weekend. This is really great news, because while Scale Slope contests and get-togethers are very popular in Europe, they have been sorely neglected in this country. It's undoubtedly a chicken/egg situation: no events-no fliers; no fliers-no events.
Radio Control: Soaring
SCALE SCENE: Bill Liscomb, our more-or-less Scale Slope correspondent from Southern California, has gone into the manufacturing end of things. I hope the photos convey the quality of Bill's retracts-I'm very impressed with them. They are for quarter-scale Sailplanes and are beautifully made from aircraft-grade materials. The wheel in the pictures is three inches in diameter, but the unit can accommodate up to 3 1/2 inches. They are available for two sizes of planes: Standard-size units have three-inch-long mounting brackets and are for planes up to 10 lb.; the Heavy-Duty jobs have six-inch mounts and are for ships over 10 lb. The Standard size weighs 5 1/2 oz. without the wheel.
Radio Control: Soaring
NATIONAL Scale Fun-Fly. Wil Byers wrote to say that planning for the first Scale Sailplane Slope Fun-Fly in the U.S. is coming along nicely. The dates are May 27-29, 1988. The site is near Richland in the southeast part of the state of Washington. Additional details were in my December 1987 column. There is a definite upswing in the interest in Scale Sailplanes, and more and more fliers are finding that flying their big beauties on a good slope is the ultimate thrill. The Fun-Fly will be just as advertised-no competition! There'll be just good flying on a great site, good conversation with old and new flying buddies, and the opportunity to see many Scale ships up close and in the air.
Radio Control: Soaring
THE ESL (Eastern Soaring League) is probably the oldest regional association of Soaring clubs in the country. Ray Juschkus was recently "appointed" to the PR post and sent along the photos and a rundown of ESL activities. ESL consists of 10 clubs: CASA-Capital Area Soaring Association (Maryland) Charles River Radio Controllers (Massachusetts) DBSF-Daniel Boone Silent Fliers (Reading, Pennsylvania) LIFT-(York, Pennsylvania) LISF-Long Island Silent Fliers (Syosset, LI, New York) MVSF-Millstone Valley Silent Fliers (Millstone, New Jersey) NJSF-North Jersey Silent Fliers (Morristown, New Jersey) SKST-Storm King Soaring Team (Pine Bush, New York) TMSS-Tidewater Model Soaring Society (Virginia) VFSS-Valley Forge Silent Fliers (Valley Forge, Pennsylvania)
