News

2-7-10

Uli's Visit to Sylacauga Photo by Doug Mansfield

Although, the weather was terrible at Sylacauga, we did have a bright spot which everyone on hand enjoyed very much. German National Soaring Champion and member of the German National Team, Uli Schwenk visited us with his daughter Daniela and fellow soaring enthusiasts Eule Ulrike & Heiner Beutel. They where given a warm welcome by John & Doug Mansfield, Jason Holcombe, Robert Watson, and Steve Wallace along with a tour our facilities and equipment.

We than adjourned to a local resturant for food & hot drinks to ward off the cold. Our conversations with Uli ranged from soaring differences between the US and Europe, launching sailplanes, best equipment to use, flying techniques and overall we simply found a delightful man full of warmth and humor, who just happens to be one of the top soaring pilots in the world.

Uli was kind enough to show us a short video of Grand Prix style racing video on his lap top. Uli is very into the promotion of the sport of soaring and has found that the Grand Prix style of competition as seen on videos like "Gladiators of the Sky" brings a lot of interest in soaring from the pilot community and surprisingly from a larger percentage of non pilots. This interest is generated by the technology that allows people to follow the competition as it progresses and than catch live finishes of the winners as they scream in dumping water. (There's a lesson to be learned in this comment.)

Eule and Heiner are both soaring pilots and instructors who Uli characterized as his idol's for their work with youth back home. They have recently moved from Germany to our area to work at the Mercedes plant. It is our hope that these charming and talented people will visit us again and join the SSS in flying over Sylacauga and other turn points. I think the odds are in our favor.

Uli will be competing in the US World Class Nationals (I think) this year and hopefully we will have a chance to visit with him again. I believe we are more likely to see Daniela since she is handling most of the US marketing & customer service for Jaxida Covers which are made in their home town of Munsingen.

Steve Wallace