The Perfect Gift!

We go the extra mile to make this a first class gift.  The gift certificate ships in a colorful "blue metallic gift envelope" so it is a very presentable gift. The gift envelope is placed inside another colorful envelope for shipping to you.  The use of a shipping envelope assures that the gift envelope is free of any shipping labels or stamps. 

• Spouse
• Soaring friend
• Retrieve Crew
• Contest Crew
• Contest Volunteer
• Towpilot
• Soaring Instructor
• Gliderport operator

I have long been a fan of the beautiful and efficient sailplanes from Schempp-Hirth.  I have owned a share of a Ventus b in the past and was impressed with its performance.  I have also had the opportunity to fly a Discus b and was blown away by how easy it was to fly (my favorite glider so far) - and yet how well it performed.  I have also had a few flights in the extremely big Nimbus 3DM and 4DM gliders with pilots such as Ingo Renner and Carl Herold.  The performance was awesome!

 

Schempp-Hirth has recently announced a new version of their extremely popular 20 m (65.62 ft) span DuoDiscus sailplane.  The "Duo" has long been praised for its high performance (~46 to 47:1) and excellent handling.  The new model is the DuoDiscus XL.  This comes just a year or so after the DuoDiscus X was announced.  The DuoDiscus X included many very nice enhancements and the new XL version adds a few more great features.  I have not yet had the opportunity to fly a DuoDiscus (invitations welcome) but I have heard many extremely positive comments on the how the glider handles.  With the new airbrake/flap system and larger cockpit, I'm certain it will be a very popular glider for many years to come. 

 

Below is a summary of the improvements made in the DuoDiscus X and then the further refinements available in the new DuoDiscus XL.

 

Improvements in the DuoDiscus X

• New sprung undercarriage
  • Low operation forces when extending/retracting
  • Operation and locking now possible from the back seat
• Winglets - designed by Prof. Dr. M. Maughmer
• Improved cockpit comfort
• Improved airbrake system with added trailing edge flaps
  • Lower lift-off and touch-down airspeeds
  • Faster roll rate
• Optimized light weight construction
  • Full carbon fiber construction (since Oct. 2006)
  • Compensates for the additional weight of the new airbrake and undercarriage systems
• New all up weight of 750 kg (up from 700 kg) (since Oct. 2006)

Improvements in the new DuoDiscus XL

The XL version includes all the features found in the X version, plus:

• New ergonomics in the cockpit
  • New positions of the handles
  • Vent nozzles in both the front and rear seats
  • A completely separated seat pan with no holes between the front and rear seats
  • An improved waterballast dump valve lever - easy to operate with low operating force
  • Tilt-up front instrument panel and more room in the rear seat - to make it easier to get into and out of the glider - and to get out fast in an emergency
  • 10 cm longer cockpit for more room in both seats to accommodate pilots taller than 2 m (6' 6") tall.
  • Backwards extended rear seat
  • Backwards extended canopy - for improved rear seat visibility - and enhanced safety
  • A new ventilation system in the front of the canopy that is easy to set to exactly the desired airflow
• New Option: Behringer wheel with disc brake which is approx. 2 kg (4.41 pounds) lighter than the Tost wheel with disc brake.
• Certification of simple aerobatics including spinning because the airbrakes are now sufficient for diving with 45° angle while staying below Vne.

Join the Fun

• 4 to 5 people to help with setting up and tearing down my tradeshow booth.  Setup will be on Wednesday, February 13th and teardown is after the convention hall closes on Saturday, February 16th.  Setup takes a few hours and teardown usually takes about 1 hour.
• Multiple people to work in the tradeshow booth with me during the convention.  You can sign-up for 2 hour time slots before or at the event.  The work consists of processing orders and pulling together the desired items from inventory.  It is a great way to meet glider pilots from around the world and often you get to meet soaring legends.

The Cambridge 302 and 302A were designed so that the flight log memory could never "fill up".  The units store about 100 hours of flight log time when using a 4 second recording interval.  When the full 100 hours have been used the unit makes room for the ongoing flight log by deleting the oldest flight log in memory.  However, it is rumored that the "memory wrap" may not work perfectly.  Some pilots have had flight log security failures that appear when downloading flight logs using the Cambridge 300 Utility. It is my impression that most of the flight log security failures are caused by:

• The use of an old version of firmware in the 302
• An old version of the 300 Utility on the PDA or PC
• A PDA shutdown in the middle of a flight log download 

Hot New Product

• Richard Kellerman - Soaring Pilot (recent Hilton Cup Winner), businessman
• Dave Ellis - Soaring Pilot, Ran Cambridge Aero Instruments for 14 years, Driving force behind the Cambridge C-NAV, M-NAV, L-NAV, S-NAV, and the first IGC Approved Flight Recorder - the GPS-NAV.  He also developed the Cambridge 302 and 303. In my opinion the Cambridge products were industry leaders in regard to ease-of-use.
• Chip Garner - World level soaring competition pilot, Software Engineer, developer of Glide Navigator and Glide Navigator II (originally Cambridge Pocket-NAV) soaring flight software.  Big proponent of the "keep the instruments simple - keep your eyes out of the cockpit" instrument design philosophy.
• Phil Schlosser - Worked with Dave Ellis at Cambridge Aero Instruments for 14 years or so.  Firmware developer for the Cambridge 302 and many other products.
• Rick Sheppe - Soaring Pilot, functional designer of the Cambridge S-NAV, L-NAV and GPS-NAV.

Key Features

• Large, extremely bright 5.5" diagonal color LCD screen (the largest PDAs are 4" diagonal).
• The display is not a touchscreen - to maximi