Morgan Sandercock, pilot, project manager and contributor to the Perlan Project gave a presentation to the biennial OSTIV Congress in Benalla, Australia.
OSTIV is the technical and academic society for the scientific advancement of soaring. (It’s actually a French acronym.) Membership is open to any individual but only countries – representatives of each country’s gliding organization – are voting members. OSTIV holds a congress every two years, usually at the same place and time as an IGC World Championship. This year the “flapped classes” championship was in Benalla, Australia, so that is where the conference was held.
The conference was organized by local OSTIV members Murray Stimpson and Stuart Smith. They arranged the venue and sponsorships. The major sponsor this year was the Perlan Project itself. Perlan’s contribution made it possible to hire the large auditorium and conduct the evening lectures that were designed to attract a general audience, not just the academics. According to OSTIV president Rolf Radespiel, this was the best-organized congress that he had ever attended.
Morgan’s presentation was titled “The first year with the Perlan 2”. This was the first public presentation of the results of the first season in Argentina with the Perlan 2 glider. Attendance by the competition pilots and teams was limited, as that day was a very difficult one with many pilots reaching home base after Morgan’s presentation finished. All the OSTIV delegates attended, of course, plus other notables such as the current standard-class junior World Champion.
Networking was the watchword for the daytime sessions. We got in contact with other related projects including the Mountain Wave Project, which has been active in Argentina and the Himalayas for many years. Dan Johnson MD, from the United States, gave several presentations on human perception and hypoxia in gliders. Dan has been invited to come to the Minden Wave camp to meet the Perlan team and we expect that he will be able to contribute his expertise to the Perlan in the future.
This may be the start of a long and productive relationship between the Perlan Project and the great brains of OSTIV.
