WILL BLACKBURNE

I am Will Blackburn from Yorkshire, England. I’m 19 years old and have been flying since I was 14. I went solo at 14 and became a basic instructor at 16. Recently I have become a tug pilot at my club. I fly at the Wolds Gliding Club at Pocklington. I mostly fly my Standard Cirrus “WB”.

My biggest achievement so far is to train as a British Junior Gliding Team Squad member. I applied for the get sponsored scheme as I thought it would be a great opportunity to get to use the latest gliding technology which would help me to try and perform better. I wanted the LX9050 as I thought it has a great amount of information provided on it to help keep me ahead of the game while flying x country.

My goals for the season are to do my first 500km flight and to fly the club class nationals.

ADRIEN DUBREUIL

My name is Adrien Dubreuil and I am 17 years old. For me, gliding is more than a passion ! Since I was born, I drag on the airfields, and particularly in La Roche sur Yon, France.

I started to fly when I was 12 years old. Now, I fly different gliders. But my favorite one is the LS4 WL that I fly regularly. Of course I hope that one day I will fly a JS1 or big single seater like this. Now I participate to competitions. Last year, I became 2nd at the Inter-Regional Grand Ouest, and 6th at the French Junior Nationals in club class. This season, I will fly the same championships, but my objective is to win them!

This partnership with LXNAV is a good opportunity to test some good instruments. They lent me a Nano. This instrument is a good one to record my flights, and it’s an IGC recorder. It is a reliable logger that is very easy to use!

Thanks to LXNAV for this sponsorship!

SVIATOSLAV ROUBLEV

My name is Sviatoslav Roublev, I am 24 years old and I am from Denmark. This is my 7th season in gliding sports and have participating in competitions since 2015. Since I don´t have a glider myself, I am very interested in the portable flight recorders. Therefore, I have chosen the Nano3 as a #GETSPONSORED device.

It is easy to use, it has a lot of features and it has already proven its worth at the Danish Senior Nationals 2018, where I won my very first gold medal. I definitely recommend Nano3 and look forward to the World Gliding Championships in Ostrow, where it hopefully can help me getting to the podium.

Thank You LXNAV for helping young pilots and giving them the opportunity to try out the best equipment within the gliding sport.

LEONARDO GUNIA LENZ CESAR

I am Leonardo from Brazil, 23 years old. I am flying at the Bebedouro Airclub, located north of São Paulo state. Its a great place for training and competition. I’m the youngest glider competitor here in Brazil. In 2016 I got the second place in the Nacional Championship – Sudeste with my KW1 ( quero- quero ) glider, a national glider made by wood with a glide 1:27 at 76km/h.

Now I’m flying a dg400 with LX8000 and V8 that I got from the program “Get Sponsored”. Its a great equipment that is helping me a lot. I can manage better my flights and increase the task speed, improving less workload during the flights. I knew that, so because of this i choose the LX8000 equipment.

When I saw the LXNAV was making the “get sponsored” program I was very exciting to try it, so i send my CV, answered some e-mails and some questions. Then i just had to wait their answer. In 2 of February i received the e-mail response that i was selected for the program and I would get a LX8000 for 1 year with the sponsor.

For this year my goals is to get good placement in the nacional championships and get my first 500km FAI, and more kilimoters flying with better speed. Showing how great its the LXNAV equipment.

Thanks LXNAV!

AUDE UNTERSEE

I am Aude Untersee, 23 years old and I started gliding 7 years ago in Brittany (France) in the club Planeurs d’Ille-et-Vilaine.

I usually fly LS6, Discus, DuoDiscus and Hornet but my favorite glider so far is ASG29. I took part in many competitions since 2012, notably the French Nationals, the French Women’s championship that I won 2 times and Womens World twice in club class. I think my best achievement is to have flown last year the Womens World in Zbraslavice (CZ) under an incredibly good weather during 2 weeks since we flew 12 tasks, which was particularly exhausting but very insightful. As I want to fly more and more championships to improve, I applied this year for the get sponsored partnership so as to be fully equipped to get into this long season. As I fly 5 competitions with 3 different gliders, I needed a device easy to carry from a glider to another, therefore I wanted to have a Nano4 : its user-friendly interface enables to easily and promptly program tasks and I can use it to navigate which is really confortable given that it is my primary or secondary IGC logger. I appreciate a lot its long-lasting battery life. I have already used it for the French Nationals 15m and Ostrow Glide and I am going to use it during 2 other French Nationals championships and WGC in double-seater class.

I am very thankful to LXNAV for supporting me, I am sure that flying with the best materials that alleviate mental workload enables to devote more energy to flying faster !

Thank you LXNAV for your great devices !

THOMAS FOISSARD

I flew 5 flights with my new glider and my new S80. I start my 1st competition of the year. It is the international military championship at Romorantin (France).

The S80 is a wonderful instrument and perfectly adapted to my LS4 to compete in club class championships. My next competition will be in Issoudun in July for the national championship of France in club class.

Thank you so much to LXNAV to be my partner to make a very good season 2018.

NICOLAS ORTOLANO

My name is Nicolás Ortolano. I am from Santa Fé, a province of Argentina that is located in the centre-east of the country. I live in the countryside, close to a small town called Colonia Rosa, which is located about 70km from Ceres Gliding Club, where I fly since 2007.

Although I have flown many years a Cirrus L-265 (Open), I’ve recently started flying my own Discus-A, an outstanding glider with which I intend to improve my skills in the sport. I hope to get the chance of flying a Discus 2 someday; I find it a beautiful glider.

One of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve had was participating in the World’s Gliding Championship held in Leszno, Poland in 2014. Together with the rest of the Argentinean team, we learn, share knowledge and the most important of all, we flew with great pilots from all over the world. It was a unique experience worth living.

For the Get Sponsored initiative, I have chosen a LX9070 device because it is the is the best and most advanced computer for any kind of glider, and I am sure it will improve the quality of data acquired and therefore, the flight overview. I was extremely happy to know I was one of the winners of Get Sponsored, and I am ever more anxious now to fit it in my glider and fly with it!

Thank you very much LXNAV for the support your team give to all the gliding community, and for letting me and many other pilots be part of the Get Sponsored initiative!

KLARA TEICHMANNOVA

I am Klara Teichmannova and I am 25 years old. I from the Czech Republic from Aeroclub Hronov, which is picturesque airfield situated in the eastern part of Bohemia. I’ve been flying for 10 years and I have to say that gliding is my life. My grandfather was a pilot and my dad is a pilot as well! So I grew up at Hronov airfield with other pilots’ children. We spend there almost every weekend and every holiday. I have participated in many championships since 2011. The largest was the Women’s World Championships (2015 Arnborg – Denmark, 2017 Zbraslavice – Czech Republic) and the Junior World Championship 2017 in Pociunai – Lithuania.

I own Standard Cirrus „Lima Yankee“ with my dad so 90% I fly with my LY. And that is the reason why I chose LX 8080 because I had a space in my panel for a 80 mm device. Like a secondary logger I use my own Nano 3 and I think this is a perfect combination.

I am very happy with the LX 8080 because I had only LX 20 before. It helps me a lot during my flight! The first familiarization with new equipment was during first gliding competiton of this season at AZCUP in Zbraslavice. As I found out, the device is very user friendly! I love it. AZ Cup was successful for me, sixth place out of 40 pilots!

Another competition was Czech gliding championship in Tabor where we were with LX8080 big friends. Eleven flying days and no outlanding! The overall result was tenth out of 29 pilots and the first women in the club class.

Then I had an opportunity fly Std. Cirrus with LX9000 for a week at Tcup. It is a gliding competition at Toužim airfield. My friend flew my Cirrus “LY” and we made a good team together – both gliders equipped with LXNav devices! Final results after 5 flying days were very good for us! He won and I was second! And I must say, that LX9000 is the best. I hope I will see it one day in my glider…..

Another big challenge is the Flatland cup in Szeged, Hungary, where we are going with my best wingwoman Bara Moravcova!

JOKUBAS MOTUZA

I am Jokūbas Motūza from Lithuania and I am 18 years old.I started gliding career when I was just 6 years old. You may think how could you start gliding when you just started go to school. It is unbelievable, but in Lithuania we have gliding schools for kids, so that is how this journey started. I will be honest, this activity fascinated and after kids school I turned to reach more achievements in this sport. Right now I am training and  taking part in competitions with my Jantar Std. (competition number : JM) .

From my point of view I could say that this glider right now is one of the best options to choose fly in club class, so I am really satisfied about my glider.

Right now I have craving to finish Lithuanian National Gliding Championship in club class between TOP 5 pilots. To reach this goal I am training really hard, but without that this year I have been sponsored by LXNAV, so I received instrument that every glider pilot wish to have.

I asked LXNAV for the LX9070 and they fulfilled my wish, so now I could say that this instrument has really big number of features. Amazing! Big screen and so on!

It is dream to have that kind of instrument when you are young and you have tight budget. Keep following LXNAV social media accounts and maybe next year you would be between those lucky ones. Do not forget follow me on “Instagram” my nickname is : @jm.gliding . There you will be able to check how my season is going on!

MELANIE GADOULET

I’m Melanie, a French pilot, I’m 24 and gliding is for me more than a hobbie… It’s a big part of my life, I can’t imagine my life without flying now. I discovered gliding when I was 16. I choosed an aeronautical option at school and now I’m a pilot! Since 2012, I took part in many competitions notably Women’s Worlds for 2 times and one Junior’s Worlds. During these international championships, I had the chance to fly with beautiful equipments on gliders like LX9050 and I think it’s important to make a good task! Now, I fly different gliders but my favorite is the JS1. I had the opportunity to participate at 2017 Women’s Worlds with this beautiful glider!

For this year, my objectives are to win the French Juniors Nationals and The French Nationals! For that, I will fly in Discus 2a of the French team and in Pegase for Womens. And I will use a beautiful S100 for this championship! The « Get Sponsored » is for me a good opportunity to discover and use equipment we can’t buy when we are young and because club’s gliders doesn’t have this equipment! So, thank’s a lot to LXNAV for this good initiative and to help so much young pilots!

Last year, I discovered Nano 4 for the first year of partnership, and now it’s mine, maybe same for S100? Sure, I love it!

DAVIDE GIOVANELLI

My name is Davide Giovanelli, I am 23 years old, I am a swiss glider pilot. I have flown since 2010, I have 1350 flight hours and I flew over than 58000km.

I discovered the #getsponsored program on facebook and I decided to apply for it. After a month, at the beginning of February, I received an email from LXNAV: “welcome to our team” LXNAV is my first sponsor, I am very honored to represent this company. The LX9070 was a big surprise and a challenge, which I decided to accept, I couldn’t believe that they had chosen me for such an important device.

Changing the panel, mounting the device, and learning a new system required a lot of energy, however the efforts were worth the result. Its complete customization allowed me to bring what I really need into the cockpit. Normally you have to adapt to changes, I thought I should do some training flights to take full advantage of my new panel. The LX9070 wasn’t a change, its ease of use put me in the condition to perform immediately on the first flight. My first sensation was: “I have ever flown with this instrument”.

My expectations at the beginning of the season were too high, I couldn’t reach all the goals, but I could achieve some important results together with my device. I flow six flights of more than 600km, the biggest one was 893km. I won the Italian gliding championship on club class, and I reached the third place at the Swiss junior championship. LX9070 was the missing gear between me, the glider and the air. Have a reliable instrument is important in order to perform. I am fully in tune with the instrument, my feelings corresponds to the displayed information, therefore I thrust LX9070 if the situation become difficult.

I’m really proud to have tested this device during my performance flights and competitions 😉

PETRI SUCKSDORFF

I am Petri Sucksdorff, a 26-year-old engineering student from Helsinki, Finland. I have been competing since 2013. My home airfield is Räyskälä, where I mostly fly gliders from our club – The Räyskälä aero club. Sometimes I also borrow my father’s ASG29, when he is not flying it. Lately I have tried to focus on flying with our club’s LS8, because I will be competing with it in the WGC in Ostrow this year. My goal this summer is to fly as much as I can, and to test my level internationally. So far, the season has been great and I’m looking forward to flying in Poland.

For the “get sponsored” deal, I applied for the nano4 instrument, because I wanted a decent backup navigation device and a secondary logger. I have been very satisfied with the nano4. It is small enough to have in the cockpit yet big enough to use for navigation

AILSA McMILLAN

My name’s Ailsa McMillan, I’m 25, and I’ve been flying all over Australia for 10 years now. My first competition was in 2011, and since then I’ve had the chance to fly many more competitions in Australia and a few world championships. I love competition flying, because it’s a great way to learn a lot in a short space of time.

I tend to swap between different gliders a lot (my favourite glider is the one I’m flying!), so because of this the Nano 4 was the perfect choice. It’s been really good to use when coaching, and having it also means that I can loan friends my Nano 2 if they need it. Next week I’m driving up to Lake Keepit for the women’s pre-worlds, with a beautiful JS1 Revelation in tow. This already has an LX9000, so the Nano 4 with it’s jet engine ENL sensor makes the perfect backup logger and navigation system! My aim at this competition is to qualify for the women’s worlds that will be in Australia next summer.

Both the Nano 4 and 9000 have a very intuitive user interface, which means it’s really easy to pick up on and get the best out of quickly. It’s this great design that makes the LXNAV products some of the best on the market.

Thanks LXNAV for letting me join the team this year!