Summary of Papers presented at the XXX OSTIV Congress at the World Gliding Championships, Szeged, Hungary, 28 July – 4 August 2010

Abstract

The opening ceremony and reception of the XXX OSTIV Congress was conducted in the briefing hall for the competition at 8 pm on Wednesday, 28 July.  It was initiated by welcoming comments from Mr. András Gyongyösi, President of the Hungarian Gliding Association and Competition Director, Dr. Lásló Bozo, Director of the Hungarian Meteorological Service and Prof. Dr. Peter Ryder, President of the Jury WCG 2010. After a brief OSTIV Awards Ceremony, the President of OSTIV, Prof. Ir. L.M.M. Boermans of TU Delft, presented the keynote address, “Aerodynamic Developments for Sailplanes at Delft University of Technology.”

The presentation of papers began the following afternoon, Thursday 29 July, with the first lecture being presented by Matthieu Scherrer (Airbus, Industries, Toulouse, France) and entitled “Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in sailplane design, LS6 winglet design experience.”  The paper was co-authored by Stefan Melber-Wikending (German Aerospace Center, Braunschweig, Germany).  Next, Francios Ragot (Montifort, France), in “Total energy I,” gave an excellent and detailed discussion of energy exchanges between a glider and the atmosphere.  The second part of Francois’ presentation, “Total energy II,” dealt with the unreliability of existing total energy variometers in turbulent and vertically moving air.  

After the mid-afternoon break, Wolfram Gorisch (Akaflieg München e.V., Technical University Munich, Germany) gave his paper “Glider’s rate of climb exerted by atmospheric turbulence.”  The next paper, “Validation of CFD transition models for use in sailplane wing/fuselage design,” was presented by Johan Bosman (Jonkers Sailplanes, South Africa). 

The first paper of the second day of the Congress (Friday 30 July) entitled “Experimental study of lightness factors and loading abilities with sandwich structures” was presented by Miro Rodzewicz (Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland).  Next, Richard Millane (University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand) presented a paper entitled “Measuring 3-D wind-fields in mountain waves using sailplane flight data.” The paper was co-authored by N. Zhang, A. Hunter (both also from the University of Canterbury), E. Enevoldson, and J. Murray (both from the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, USA).  

Just after the mid-afternoon break, Gerhard Waibel (recently retired from Schleicher Sailplanes, Poppenhausen, Germany) presented his paper entitled “Load relief for light and small sailplanes.”  The next paper of the day entitled “The effect of water absorption on the performances of composite materials” was authored by Attie Jonker, but presented by Johan J. Bosman (both from Jonkers Sailplanes, South Africa).  To conclude the day’s presentations, Mark Maughmer (Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA) talked about “A new airfoil concept.” 

Saturday 31 July was a free day.  Sunday (1 August) was the day for the traditional OSTIV excursion. 

Presentations resumed on Monday, 2 August. The first two papers of this third lecture day were authored by Gottfried Sachs, Jakob Lenz, and Florian Holzapfel, and were both presented by Johannes Traugott (all with Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany).  The first paper was entitled “Wind effects on maximum-range saw-tooth flight.”  The second paper of Sachs, Lenz, and Holzapfel was entitled “Maximum range performance of electric motor glider with retractable engine.”  Johannes Traugott, also gave the third paper of the day, but this time on a different subject.  The paper was entitled “Flight recording of dynamic soaring in albatrosses using miniaturized GPS loggers” and was co-authored by Gottfried Sachs and Florian Holzapfel. 

After the mid-afternoon break, Lukáš Popelka (from Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic) presented the paper “Parametric study on flapped airfoil lift enhancement by vortex generators.” Co-authors of this paper were Natálie Součková, David Šimurda (also from Academy of Sciences), and Milan Matĕjka (Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic). Having the same authors as did the proceeding paper, Lukáš Popelka also gave the next presentation entitled “Sailplane aerodynamics syntheses of computational fluid dynamics, wind tunnel and in-flight testing.”  The last lecture of the day, “Non-mesocyclone tornadoes in Hungary,” was given by Zoltan Polyanszky (Hungarian Meteorological Service, Budapest) and co-authored by Gyula Bondor (Hungarian Association of Stormchasers and Storm Damage Surveyors, Budapest).  

The last day of papers, Tuesday 3 August, got underway with a presentation given by Roel Baardman entitled “Cumulus humilis: wireless mesh- networking for gliders” that was co-authored by Nirvana Meratnia (both from Twente University the Netherlands).  The next paper entitled “Applications of statistical models and artificial neural networks (ANN) to define onset and organization of thermals” was presented by Zafer Aslan (Istanbul Aydın University, Istanbul, Turkey) and co-authored by A. Tokgözlu (Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey).  Before the break, Atila Fövenyi (Hungarian Meteorological Service, Budapest) gave a presentation entitled “Making thermal activity forecast at the Hungarian Meteorological Service” [The paper appears on pages 103-109 of this issue].

After the break, Christoph Kensche (Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Stuttgart, Germany) talked about “Requirements for resin systems for gliders.”  The next presentation entitled “Indirect effect of Saharan dust aerosols on high level clouds not well represented cirrus shields which may ruin thermal activity” was given by Kornel Kolláth (the Hungarian Meteorological Service, Budapest).  The last paper of the Congress, authored by Jozsef Gedeon and Sandor Dora (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary), was the “State of the Natural Parameter Method (NAPM) for chaotic data analysis and modeling” [The paper appears on pages 94-102 of this issue].

The evening of 3 August, an OSTIV lecture, “Safety pays!” was presented in the WGC briefing hall by Helmut Fendt and Eric de Boer.

The OSTIV General Conference was held on the afternoon of 4 August.  At the closing dinner that evening, Roel Baardman was presented with a new award given for the best student paper presented at the Congress.  At the conclusion of the dinner, farewells were made to old friends and new, and so ended the XXX OSTIV Congress.