Maintenance

Every club or competition seems to have the same quiet tradition: someone, somewhere, is not flying today because of something small.

It's rarely dramatic. No broken wings or wild landouts. More often it's a flat tyre discovered at rigging, or a slightly bent TE probe that "might be okay"… that's of course, until it isn't. The kind of issue that doesn't feel important - right up until it cancels your

Taking proper care of your emergency parachute, no matter the make or model, is crucial to ensuring its longevity and, most importantly, your safety. Regular maintenance and daily care through routine can prevent equipment failure, which, as you know, would bring disastrous repercussions! Here’s a short guide on keeping your parachute in peak condition, ready for when you hopefully never need it ;)

Shawn here, with another brief informative article on sailplane sealing. Sealing can be simple to rather complicated. I am not going into detail about the proper way to seal your sailplane completely. Some pilots spend a significant amount of time on this task.  Sean at Wings & Wheels (W&W) has excellent information concerning gap seals, mylars, videos, etc. I will defer to him. But we will look

This short discussion is not the best subject to review, but it may be the most important for your sailplane investment.

When you arrive at a glider port, what do you usually see? Some gliders? A lot of decrepit trailers, some rotting away? Or does the 3-year-old JS-3, AS33, Arcus, Twin Shark, etc., look like it has the plague?

What does the inside look like with both? The condition of the pilot’s

I had a technical discussion with a sailplane designer recently about my desire to have a retractable tailwheel on my Ventus 3TS.  His reply was, if my glider has an LD of 50.37:1 and yours has 50:1, do you know how long it would take to find a difference of 10m?  The answer is 40min!  This means that we have both landed out before we both see a difference of 10m from 1000m agl..  

Polished

When you are considering replacing or adding new equipment and avionics in your glider, it is important to first consider the category of glider you are working with. Experimental gliders offer a wider and normally cheaper range of options to choose from.  Alternatively, Standard Type Certificated aircraft are held to stricter guidelines for their installed equipment. 

Title 14 of the Code of

The TOST drum brake, used in many gliders, has a well-earned reputation for gentleness. We can make this worse by not knowing how to adjust the cable tension, or by not knowing that the shoes can become glazed and need dressing.

For two decades, I was too busy to do my own maintenance; then retirement struck. Now I had time but no experience.  First, the main tire was bald, due to pumice having

We have begun to reach the colder part of the year and the soaring season has slowed to a halt for many of us. For mechanics like me, this is our busy time of the year. It is a good idea to schedule your yearly maintenance for the late fall/early winter months and months ahead of time. You have the least chance of missing a good soaring day and worst-case scenario, if an issue is found there is more

Editors Note:  Braking systems have evolved well past the skid.  Effective sailplane braking is important to every flight.  Here is an article from Tost on brake maintenance adjustment.  Tost produces some of the most effective sailplane braking systems available today.

By Barbara Dorflein
 

Tost Shoe Brake Wheel

Shoe brake wheel advantages are simple construction, reduced space requirements,

In wintertime, we receive many customer releases from all over the world every day for overhaul. So, what does it take to overhaul a tow release? 

Register the Release

The first step is to register them by release type, serial number, special features like release lever type, special external levers or brackets, mounting bolts, the position of the lever on the semi-circular (we call it segment),