Maintenance

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

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?

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..  

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. 

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

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
 

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

Editors Note: Tost has been manufacturing sailplane tow releases since 1952. Their releases are a worldwide standard known for safe gliding launches. More than 73,000 have been produced. Tost uses only precision components: hook, segment, housing, ring cage, and release lever. We are fortunate to have Susanne Dupont as our guest author. Susanne's grandmother Anneliese co-founded Tost G.M.B.H in 1945.

The wing wheel at the <Name Redacted> soaring club had been flat for quite some time.  Members literally kept using it until it fell off the rim, then bending the rim and causing damage to the structure of the wing wheel.  The one person in the club