What does Van do for fun?

[glider4]

Flying his Schempp-Hirth Ventus 2CM sailplane, Richard VanGrunsven wins 2007 Region 11 (Northern California and Nevada) Sports Class Soaring Championship on 6/22/2007. The contest site was Douglas County Airport, Minden, NV. Van has been competing in regional soaring contests for many years. He beat out a small but talented field including a very experienced John Sinclair from Placerville, CA. I believe this is Van's first soaring regional championship title. Details of the 2007 Region 11 Contest may be found here:

http://www.ssa.org/members/contestre...estresults.asp

Al Thomas
N880AT
RV-8A QB (Finishing & FWF)

[Bill Dicus]

Congratulations, Van. You're an inspiration to us all. Bill

[Bob Axsom]

Counts money.

Bob Axsom

[rv9aviator]

Hey Bob, don't you mean "counts our money". Well, it used to be our money.

[Rivethead]

Now, now guys nobody twisted your arm.

[pierre smith]

Many years ago, I took up soaring and immediately fell in love with it. The most surprising aspect of flying a sailplane is the tremendous amount of rudder input they need. Those long sexy wings create a pile of adverse yaw and it's not unusual to use at least half the available rudder while rolling into a turn. Most of us RV drivers have lazy feet in comparison, with the beautiful Friese type ailerons and the differential ratio that Van designed into them. Could it be he knew that we'd have those lazy feet?

Regards,
Pierre