Oct - Rcsoaring.com

Uncle Sydney’s gossip columnMiles and Storks meanSmiles and TurkeySydney Lenssen, sydney.lenssen@virgin.netLucky enough to be in Istanbul twoweeks ago, Murat Esibatir and PhilipKolb kindly invited me to their local twometrecompetition.The club’s field is about an hour out ofthe city and almost under the flight pathof the city’s second airport on the Asianside of the Bosporus.No surprise, the field is also a fewminutes away from the new fineworxfactory where “Miles,” the new two-metrecompetition glider, is coming off theproduction line, first of a series of modelsplanned to be manufactured by thisdynamic duo.What a fantastic fun day was enjoyed byall, about 24 pilots, friends, girlfriends,children and helpers, in weather whichranged from 30 to 35 degree Centigrade,scarcely a cloud in the sky, thermalsaplenty and a vital need to drink as muchwater as possible.Philip Kolb with a characteristic overarm launch, this time from abungee with the new cool “Miles”, the all-wooden 2 metre competitionglider from fineworx, the new model manufacturer in Turkey.October 2008 49