1941-2019

He and his family came to the US in February 1970 and joined the Tidewater Soaring Society in May the same year

Wolf had a distinguished career first with NASA and later with the US Army. His professional accolades are immortalized on the Internet and in technical publications.

Little is known about his contributions to soaring. He, in conjunction with Steve Sliva, wrote the first display scoring program for the 1982 Nationals in Elmira, NY. This program made it possible for the first time to see schematically the location of pilot’s land-out places. It was a great hit with crews and the pilots who had already returned to Harris Hill.

A year later, he wrote the program for the start ground clock that was used during the 1983 World Championships in Hobbs, NM. He also was one of the three scorers at these World Championships. He tinkered with home-calibrating variometers using the car manifold and home fridge. In the early eighties, he developed a thermal sniffing sensor that Helmut Reichmann in his plane and he and Frauke in their Ka8 test-flew. It worked but too slowly for practical use then. It was about 20 years ahead of its time.

He was an avid supporter of Women Soaring (no wonder, it was a woman, who got him into soaring) and attended about 20 WSPA seminars together with his wife Frauke. At the seminars he was known as mister-fix-it all, especially non-functional toilets. For his efforts in this field, he was awarded the “Golden Plunger Award” (not mentioned on Google).

He was a TSS member for 48 years and a shaker and mover in the club. Over the years he owned a Ka 8, a Libelle, and ASW 20 and was always willing to share the planes with others. For 10 years he flew in the Senior Championships at Seminole Lake Gliderport.

On January 12, 2019 he took off for his last flight

Good Finish, Whisky Echo

Frauke Elber