Search Results for : Flight Design

ST. PAUL, MINN. — Airwave is back! Not long after I announced that the enterprise was for sale (June ’99 "PL"), a deal was done and former European Wills Wing distributor Markus Villinger is the owner. By now, the new Austrian base for Airwave Gliders should be running and shipping gliders. They plan to add paragliders to the mix once again, although like so many PG vendors, they will have the wings sewn elsewhere. • Villinger Birdmen Enterprises will start by marketing the Pulse and Fly 2 (known to Americans as the Double Vision). Villinger also reports they will offer the Skye, which he calls "the next generation skyfloater." Most credit Villinger with inspiring Wills Wing to market their then-new Falcon for use in skyfloating — and the recent 95 mile flight by David Glover using this posture proves it is viable for more than simply drifting around the launch site.

ST. PAUL, MINN., — The glare of spotlights this month turns to GW Meadow’s U.S. Nationals which took place at Quest Air the week after Malcolm Jones’ Wallaby Open concluded. ••• Weather wasn’t quite as cooperative and the organization was different, but the U.S. Nationals are now history and Jim Lee is our national champion, edging out top-ranked Mike Barber by a mere seven points (nothing, really, in the course of a whole contest week). Prior to the two Florida events, Barber had been #1 ranked in the U.S. team scheme though new stats will now be needed. • Neither man outdid the dynamic duo of Manfred Ruhmer and Oleg Bondarchuk (ranked #4 and #1 in the world scheme prior to these two meets). In addition, web writer Davis Straub also indicated several pilots from Brazil did well… as all these non-USA pilots had done at the Wallaby meet. • All in all, Florida was host to two grand events and both are angling for a repeat next year, so say the rumor mills.

KNOXVILLE, TENN. — This edition of "Product Lines" comes to you from the combined convention of the Soaring Society of America, USHGA, US Ultralight Association, and the International Aerobatic Club. Signs showed the general public how to enter, referring to the event simply as "Air Expo 99." ••• Thanks to outstanding preparatory work by Yoo-shga Executive Director, Phil Bachman, the event generated a large amount of TV, radio and newspaper attention. At least two live broadcasts occurred from the convention floor, all three major network affiliates gave coverage, and the ABC affiliate Channel 6 repeatedly used the daily theme "Flying High Week" leading up to the convention. Radio station 98.7 gave a steady series of ads to get their place on the radio dial printed on convention badges. I’m not aware of this sort of market media saturation since all the Chattanooga TV affiliates and newspapers fawned over American Cup pilots back in the 1970s.

ST. PAUL, MINN. — Before we get started this month, I want to make note of HG editor Gil Dodgen’s passage into his third decade of preparing our monthly magazine. If memory serves (and it occasionally doesn’t these days), Gil has logged 21 years as this is written. Starting in January 1978, he preceded my own entry by a year or so. "Product Lines" is approaching a big birthday as well, clocking a full 20 years with the upcoming May issue. Geez! Twenty years of a column a month (I think I missed only one along the way)… gosh, are we all getting old? Naaah! We’re all getting higher in better gliders and with greater ease than ever. What’s to lament? So, on with the show. ••• Info arrived from a small survey of leaders in the worldwide hang gliding community coordinated by Dutchman Bart Doets, whose writing I long followed in Britain’s SkyWings.

ST. PAUL, MINN. — I recently paid a visit to Lookout Mountain Flight Park. What changes! Back in the early ’80s, I ran a flight shop and school called Crystal Air Sports. I’d been at it five or six years when Matt Taber came to Chattanooga. He took over the already-well-known site at Lookout and quickly proved to be a worthy competitor. Eighteen years after his arrival, his business shows the results of long hours and hard work. Its a sprawling, ambitious enterprise of million-dollar proportions. ••• Recently, Wallaby Ranch’s David Glover jumped tracks and took employment from Lookout after several years with Malcolm Jones’ operation in Florida. On my visit, Glover had logged a couple months in north Georgia and was becoming quite comfortable with his new digs. He and Taber gave me the royal tour of the place, although they couldn’t produce quite the right conditions for me to sample some of the park’s flight toys.

ST. PAUL, MINN. — Following on bits left over from October’s "Product Lines"… ••• In the land of hurricanes and tropical storms, we find the East Coast’s Turbulent Talent Triangle… I’m referring to the movement of talent, to headhunting (yes, within our little sport!) and to new relationships among leading east coast centers of hang gliding activity. But let’s set the record straight. The east may not have the mountain peaks or the sky-high reputation of the west coast but more students are trained in the east than anywhere in America. Look at the list published every month. Nine months into ’98, three schools accounted for 45% of all Hang Is issues and 35% of all Hang IIs issues (LMFP has 28% and 24% by themselves). From these flight factories come people with experience and that’s the point here. • David Glover, until recently manager of Wallaby Ranch is now at Lookout Mountain Flight Park.

ST. PAUL, MINN. — Response to the mention of Mondial De L’Air (the French light aviation airshow) was surprisingly strong. Though I believed Americans were only mildly interested in international hang gliding news, evidently some readers perceive that European innovations are worth following more closely. Examples of recent impactful developments include topless gliders and D-cell rigid wings… both ideas sailed across the Atlantic to significantly affect the wings we buy and fly here at home. Fascinating. • Anyway, let me provide an address to write for info (several of you asked). Contact: Edition Retine (the same as the publishing office of Vol Libre), 3 rue Ampere, 94200 Ivry-sur-Seine, FRANCE. Call: 011-33-1-46-72-74-60 or fax to 011-33-1-46-58-97-52. Though a 1999 event appears certain, no date has been announced to my knowledge. ••• John Heiney’s new Altair company is about to offer their new Saturn hang glider, proving this isn’t a one-glider company. Every now and then a new glider comes along, but failing to acquire enough market mass, it disappears without a follow-on design ever emerging.

ST. PAUL, MINN. — Long recognized as the premier hang gliding contest of the year, the 1998 Nationals are over and we have a winner. Well, in a sense, "we" don’t because the two top placing pilots in flex-wings (Class I) are not Americans. Congratulations to one of the world’s winningest pilots, Manfred Ruhmer, flying his Icaro Laminar ST. In second place was a Ukrainian not well known to U.S. pilots. Oleg Bondarchuk flew his Aeros Stealth KPL past the first Class I American, Chris Arai, in his Wills Wing Fusion. All three pilots deserve a virtual round of applause. As with other contest reports, I’ll leave the main story to a follow-up article, but in this edition of "Product Lines" we’ll look at the gliders that made up the field. ••• Certainly the U.S. Nationals bore more than a passing resemblance to the Atlantic Coast Championships last April (both directed by USHGA president GW Meadows, by the way).

ST. PAUL, MN — Well, I don’t know about you, but I was most impressed in March when I looked at the then-new Hang Gliding. The issue was full of new four-color ads. These were from American companies, too! Terrific. ••• Welcome to eye-catching displays from U.S. & UK Airwave for their Xtreme, developed at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee; from Thinair Designs on behalf of manufacturer Brighstar for the Millennium; and from U.S. Aeros for their Stealths and gear. They join regular color advertisers Seedwings, Wills Wing, and Altair. ••• All totalled, I counted no less than nine suppliers of gliders and that’s the best news I’ve seen in a while. Of these, five brands are Made-in-America gliders. Welcome newcomers! I can’t believe the established brands have much to worry about; their wings have weathered other foreign invasions and new domestic brands. More hopefully, perhaps such combined efforts will help in enlisting in new enthusiasts to the sport.