Simon said:
"The gliding club was operating with a winch, and the winch operation was
working perfectly well as part of the towered flight operation. The
winch operation had its own radio operator, liasing with the tower radio
operations staff but otherwise running their own operation."
Could you imagine that in OZ?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Simon Hackett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."
<aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 5:24 AM
Subject: [Aus-soaring] Winter soaring in Germany
Dear friends,
Today I have had the pleasure of taking a new Stemme S10-VT motorglider
for a couple of flights in Strausberg, Germany before I have it shipped
to Australial next week sometime.
One of the things it reminded me was the fact that thermals really -are-
a function of temperare difference, not of absolute temperature.
In the afternoon, I flew the aircraft with the ground ambient
temperature holding at a balmy 8 degrees celcius (the morning flight was
conducted an an ambient of about four degrees C!).
On that flight, I found and worked some viable thermals, ultimately
gaining about 1200 feet starting at 2000 feet. And outclimbing two
other gliders to do it :)
Gaining 1200 feet is hardly earth shattering, but it was surprising to
me because of that low ambient temperature. Earlier, I'd spent 10
minutes gaining 90 feet, which is much more what I had expected - but
then, the weather got one notch better, and I got one notch more
sucessful making use of it.
I also had the experience of operating a motorglider in the powered
aircraft circuit at Strausberg (a tower controlled airport), which has a
glider field on the grass parallel to the sealed powered runway. So
there are two, 1200 metre, runways parallel (and quite close) to each
other.
Because the township of Strausberg is right beside the airfield, the
powered and glider circuits operate concurrently as concentric circuits
- with the powered aircraft circuit (in effect) wrapped 'around' the
glider circuit.
It was quite fun doing what amounted to a formation circuit around to a
formation landing on 05L, flying a larger, 'outside' circuit, just
behind a pure sailplane coming in ahead of me on circuit onto the grass
(05R).
The gliding club was operating with a winch, and the winch operation was
working perfectly well as part of the towered flight operation. The
winch operation had its own radio operator, liasing with the tower radio
operations staff but otherwise running their own operation.
Tomorrow, I'll be studying the manuals for the glass cockpit system in
my aircraft, before trying a few more of those winter thermals. And
continuing to get the hang of operating in a country where the radio
calls are in German (the tower controller today was happy to use English
for my benefit, but usually... they don't :) ).
The landscape here has also changed in one large way since I was last
visiting the Stemme factory - in the surrounding countryside, many of
the grassy fields are full of... huge power-generating windmills. In
fact, not so much large as ... 'huge' ! They're most impressive to
watch, slowly turning in the afternoon light...
So - all in all, a great day, and not at all 'boring' :)
Regards,
Simon Hackett
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