SSA Convention 2016 DVD
General Description
SSA Convention 2016 DVD W&W recorded footage of the 2016 SSA Convention in Greenville SC. 15 DVD's with over 22 hours of great speakers and special presentations have been documented for you. You can select individual DVD’s or get a discount on the complete set of 15 DVD's.
FREE SHIPPING!
DVD #1
Perlan 2 Takes to the Skies: Perlan 2 Update
Jim Payne
The Airbus Perlan 2 is a pressurized sailplane designed for flight up to FL900. It first flew on September 23, 2015. The Perlan 2 is now undergoing flight testing at Minden, Nevada. The Perlan team is scheduled to take the Perlan 2 to El Calafate, Argentina in June of 2016 for high altitude flights using the Polar Night Jet aka Polar Vortex. Jim Payne will provide an update on the testing and the preparations for high altitude flights.
Jonker Sailplanes: JS1, 18–21 M, Self–Launcher Development
Uys Jonker
Uys Jonker is the managing director of Jonker Sailplanes (Pty) Ltd. And co–founder of the company also along with his brother, Atti and aerodynamicist, Johann Bosman.
DVD #2
Alexander Schleicher: Current Developments
Rex Mayes and Uli kremer
Rex Mayes and Uli Kremer discuss Alexander Schleicher Current Developments. Rex and Noelle Mayes of Williams Soaring Center are proud to be the new USA agent for Alexander Schleicher Sailplanes. They were very pleased to announce Uli Kremer of Schleicher and Michael Schirnhofer of Austro Engines attended this year’s convention.
Fly Faster: Fly Farther
Garret Willat
Garret is a 3–time US National Champion and 5–time pilot on the US Soaring Team. His lecture shares many topics, concepts, and mistakes that have gotten him to the top of the score sheet. Starting with planning before task flying, thermalling tactics, speed to fly, planning on course and final glide ideas. Mental preparation and staying focused to the flight are key to a successful flight. Garret also covers mistakes, from rookie mistakes to ones that have kept US Team pilots off of the podium. Following his advice can help you go faster on course or post that winning OLC flight.
DVD #3
Building Better Clubs
Mark Lenox
The health of soaring as a sport is largely dependent on the health of our clubs. Many of us learned to fly in a club environment as commercial operators are few and far between and it makes sense to bank together to defer the cost and enjoy the camaraderie. Even so, there are relatively few thriving clubs in the USA, and we all face growing pressure with rising costs and declining membership, Mark’s presents material and ideas developed by the Soaring club of Houston and has an open discussion on how issues were tackled.
Automatic Flaps: A Year's Experience in the Duck Hawk SV ***BONUS VIDEO***
Bill Thar
This video describes automatic flap design, operation of the system, impact on flight and implication for flap technique on existing flapped ships. Also, possibilities for retrofitting existing gliders are discussed.
How to Preserve and Extend the Life of Composite Sailplanes
Hank Nixon
Hank’s video presentation is on how an owner can extend the useful life of a composite sailplane. The discussion will include storage, periodic maintenance, as well as some techniques for improving and protecting the surface finish on older gliders in order to delay the point when refinishing is needed. In addition to flying, Hank spends a good bit of time in helping maintain the club fleet. He has restored or resurrected more than 30 aircraft over the years, mostly gliders.
DVD #4
SeeYou: Planning for Tomorrow
Andrej Kolar and Bernd Fischer
Planning flights with SeeYou has just become much more fun! Naviter has teamed up with TopMeteo who create soaring weather forecasts for the entire US, Europe and parts of Africa. An integrated weather forecast gives the ability to plan your flights on top of the soaring weather overlay within SeeYou. Now you can plan your flight to the borders of usable weather for that day. Andrej Kolar (Naviter) and Bernd Fischer (TopMeteo) present how the partnership started and how it works in practice in this DVD.
Let's Talk About Team Flying
Peter Deane
Ever wonder how? Not really difficult to do but very easy to mess up. Hear some simple guidelines for making it work from a 2 time US Team member, and see a demonstration of how it can be successfully practiced with a minimum of preparation.
Peter has won numerous Regional Championships and hold the National Standard Class 750km Out and Return speed record of 95.4 mph set in 2002. Peter represented the US in 2 Standard Class World Championships in 2010 and 2013.
DVD #5
Soaring Product News
Paul Remde
This video has an overview of the latest new soaring instruments and other soaring products. Paul provides an unbiased opinion of the latest new soaring toys. Learn about the latest products from Butterfly, ClearNav Delorme, esa–systems, FLARM, ILEC, LX navigation, Naviter, etc. Also get a quick overview of the latest soaring books and videos.
OLC/XC Camps Are Amazing in so Many Ways
Bruno Vassel
Organized soaring events can be REALLY fun to participate in. You fly a bunch with many other gliders, strengthen your soaring skills, and meet some really cool people. However, every year just a small percentage of glider pilots participate in any soaring event. Why is that? A few pilots in Utah have been experimenting with some new formats, resulting in some really fun events. Nephi UT has held three sold–out OLC/XC camps and one regional contest over the last 3 years. We are finding that non–standard soaring camps are part of the solution for getting more pilots interested in attending an organized soaring event. Bruno speaks on what has been learned (both good and bad) from past events in Nephi and shares some exciting new plans and future ideas.
DVD #6
Austro Engine–Engineering
Michael Schirnhofer
Michael Schirnhofer spoke about Austro Engine-Engineering Innovations–Products, Development and Future Outlook. Rex and Noelle Mayes of Williams Soaring Center are proud to be the new USA agent for Alexander Schleicher Sailplanes. They were very pleased to announce Uli Kremer of Schleicher and Michael Schirnhofer of Austro Engines attended this year’s convention. Six of Schleicher's latest model sailplanes were displayed; ASG–29 Es, ASH–31 Mi, ASH–30 Mi, ASK–21 and 2 brand new ASG–32 Mi's.
The INs and OUTs of ADS–B
John Fisher, FAA
Mr. Fisher provides and overview of the surveillance system by quickly describing the generational leap from ATCRBS, to Mode S and now to ADS–B. He discusses the benefits of ADS–B IN by explaining three “IN” applications, SURF, AIRB and ATAS. The video also outlines ADS–B rules regarding airspace, and closes by describing the ANPRM as it relates to the Glider ANPRM.
DVD #7
Dissecting the Sky: Discovering Energy Lines
Pete Alexander
Pete takes you on a pictorial journey selecting from his collection of photos to discuss and illustrate finding energy lines in the sky with or without clouds while soaring in thermals, ridge, wave, and convergence when soaring from different locations in the US, New Zealand and Europe.
Variometry for glider Pilots
Richard is from ClearNav instruments speaks about variometer concepts, theory and the direction we are moving towards in the future. You will learn about Total Energy (TE) basics and limitations. You will find out about the difference between total energy, netto and relative total energy. Richard discusses how horizontal gusts effect sailplane handling and vario indications.
Richard Kellerman
DVD #8
Weather to Fly Revisited
Dan Gudgel
As soaring meteorology forecasting has become more sophisticated with the use of numerous computer algorithms and computer modeling, there still exists a need for soaring pilots to intuitively understand the basic meteorological lift processes that enable soaring flight to better understand what computer modeling is offering the community. Utilizing diagrams, pictures, and narrative descriptions, Dan Gudgel presents aspects of atmospheric lift mechanisms. This video will be useful as an introduction for new soaring pilots but yet still provide a review of the concepts for experienced pilots and flight instructors
Anti–Collision Technology for Glider Pilots: Now and the future
Dave Nadler
Glider collisions are a frightening and dangerous hazard technology can help avoid. But, what technology? How can FLARM and ADS-B help prevent collisions today, and in the future? Between gliders, and between gliders and other types of aircraft? What about transponders?
Dave cuts through the hype and clearly explains these technologies, how they can (and cannot) help us glider-guiders, with minimal technobabble. If you’re baffled by the barrage of confusing articles and advertisements (and especially nonsense on rec.aviation.soaring newsgroup), this video is for you.
DVD #9
Building & operating a winch
Ulrich (Uli) Neumann
Five years of winch operation at Carolina soaring Association: What have we learned, what would we do different if we had to do it over again, what’s in the future?
More than five years ago, the members of CSA embarked on the journey of building a winch. There have been many iterations before the winch was at the state it is today. This video is a summary of the past experiences and what we would do to improve a future winch.
Preliminary Design & Development of an Airborne Thermal Location Predictor
Mike Davis; presented by John Bird
Today’s glider pilots rely on experience and knowledge of the land to successfully navigate through the air to reach thermals that provide lift. Students in the Electrical and computer Engineering departments at Colorado Technical University are working on developing a sensing unit that displays near real–time data on thermal uplifts. A smart adaptive device called the Thermal Sensing and Imaging Guide will allow pilots to increase their flight times as well as help instructor pilots provide better feedback to their students. The idea is to adapt a thermal sensor to a glider that will wirelessly communicate with a tablet and display the surrounding temperature. The sensor will gather data from the surrounding area in an undetermined field of vision and wirelessly transmit that data collected to a tablet in the cockpit. An android based app on the tablet will then overlay the temperature of the surrounding area on a topographical map for viewing by the pilot. This will allow the pilot so see near real–world data and adjust the glider’s course to the most efficient route. The Thermal Sensing and Imaging Guide will allow better training of student pilots as well as help seasoned pilots to become more efficient in their flight through thermal uplifts.
DVD #10
Racing in the Future: Should We Moderate the Impact of Technology?
John Godfrey
This video is part presentation and part town hall. John has a road-map for coming technologies and their possible impact on how we race. John’s key interest is in increasing participation by making / keeping racing fun and affordable for people.
DVD #11
Electric Glider Power: The Future is Now
Paul Randall
Electric power is especially well suited to sailplanes. It is clean. Quiet, reliable and the associated controls make it ‘goof–proof’ Electric powered sailplanes that can self-launch open the door to soaring whenever the weather is favorable and the pilot and sailplane are ready. This is a tremendous advantage over ‘pure’ sailplanes.
This video is aimed at the pragmatic sailplane pilot that can find the time to soar but who has had difficulties assembling the team that is frequently needed to launch. Slovenia is ‘The Silicon Valley of Electric Glider Power’. The video includes information gathered during visits with key Slovenian suppliers November 2015.
Practical Use of the Newest Meteorological Models
Walt Rogers
Thermal forecasts from boundary layer information in the latest high resolution models such as the HRRR ca easily be visualized with the right software tools. Better yet, the data is freely available in the United States. This presentation will review the use of four applications for plotting thermal height and other sounding information: 1) Skew–T viewer from NOAA 2) RAOB – A commercial application 3) BUFKIT – freely available model sounding viewer $) IDV – a flexible open source tool for 2D and 3D visualizing of the atmosphere with examples from the HRRR model geo–referenced for soaring. Additional comments are made on future enhancements to NOAA models, satellite (GEOS–R) imagery and what this might mean for contest operation including “weather in the cockpit”.
DVD #12
Building & Flying the Concordia: Lessons Learned
Dick Butler
The Concordia was on display on the convention floor. The idea for the Concordia was born in 2000. It took two years to design and six years to build. Its wingspan is 28 meters and it has a glider ratio of 72–1 at 80 knots. Dick Butler is a retired aeronautical engineer who has been competing in sailplanes since 1974. The Concordia was test flown in 2012 and has competed in two World Gliding Championships.
Moments Aloft: The first Women Glider Pilots
Pat Valdata
A five–hour duration flight was just a dream for any glider pilot when Geneve Schaffer, Maxine Dunlap and Anne Morrow Lindbergh first flew gliders. This video discusses these pioneers of gliding, and other women who achieved firsts in aviation, including the first woman to solo a hot air balloon and the woman who flew a powered aircraft months before the Wright Brothers.
DVD #13
Flight Tracking: Spectator involvement and Pilot Safety
Pedja Bogdanovich & Lane Bush
GlidePort.aero is the preeminent sailplane tracking software used by pilots and crews, spectators and enthusiasts all over the world and is directly available from the SSA home page. It allows you to see who is where and how they are doing relative to other pilots in near real time. This video presentation will go over new feature and functionality of glidePort.aero.
Soaring Birds of Prey
Karl Striedieck
This video is intended to acquaint glider pilots with the identifying features, range and flying characteristics of most of the birds we are likely to encounter while soaring. Karl has practiced falconry for 25 years and holds a Master Falconer rating.
Few people have been more involved in US Soaring than Karl Striedieck. A former USAF and Pa. ANG pilot, he was the US Rep. for Schleicher from 1974–86. He has accrued 18,000 hours of flying time with 8,500 in gliders
DVD #14
Design Philosophy for the New Ventus (Ventus 3)
Christopher Wannemacher
Christopher is one of the four engineers of Schempp-Hirth's development team responsible for design of the Arcus and the new Ventus. This video covers history of Schempp–Hirth’s wing development starting with the original Discus. Progressive airfoil and wing planform developments were made with the Ventus 2, Duo Discus and Arcus leading to the new Ventus, also known as the Ventus 3. Best L/D was not the highest priority for establishing fast cross country speed. This video explains why and much more.
13.5 Meter World championships: New Gliders, Electric Power & Team Flying
Tony Condon
Tony shares his experience preparing for and flying in the 13.5 Meter World Gliding Championships in Lithuania. Get some insight into the pre-contest training and preparation, learn about flying an electric powered glider, see team flying in action, and relive the low points and the incredible joy experienced at the contest, including how Tony and his partner François pin got Team USA on the podium.
DVD #15
Advanced flight Analysis with SeeYou
Sean Fidler
This video focuses on Sean’s method of identifying key soaring performance patterns via SeeYou. Sean is a member of the 2016 US Soaring Team, an avid sailboat racer, member of the US Sailing team and 1991 Pan American Games gold medalist. Sean applies the same analytical approach taught by some of the world’s best sailing coaches to identify and isolate key performance patterns in sailplane racing.
Winch Launch: Where We Are Now and Where Are We Going
Bill Daniels
Bill presentation is a winch launch 10 year progress report on accomplishments, challenges and future directions.
