100 Maiden Flights – by AP Kotze
I started gliding in 2004 at Potchefstroom gliding club after attending a training day during the final year of High school. Being from a small town, approximately 50 km north of Potchefstroom, and being involved in farming activities during most of my time there my original plan was to become a veterinarian. One flight in a glider however convinced me that I might be better off pursuing a career in engineering. By chance I also...
The JS2 SL Project Update
While other manufacturers claim to have an uncompromised design, we in the JS design team believe in a perfectly compromised design, taking into account all of the aspects of what makes a glider a superior product and balancing this to achieve the best designed glider in the world. Jonker Sailplanes has shown that they are not afraid to try new innovative designs. The JS2 has been designed with conservative dependable designs where possible, new innovation...
New JS Agent Structure – Europe
JS made some changes to the marketing structure in the European region. To enable us to meet the needs of our growing customer base, we have appointed two more agents, Yves Gerster and Katrin Senne . Yves lives in Switzerland, has been involved with JS since 2014 when he did his engineering internship at our design office. Since then, Yves has been visiting some of his winters in the South African summer. In 2016, Yves (after losing a squash...
EASA approved – The JS3 Certification Journey
June 2017 marked an incredible milestone for the JS-MD Partnership when the JS1 variant, the JS-MD 1C, was awarded type certification from EASA. Now two years later on the 18th of July the next huge milestone was achieved with the EASA approval of the JS-MD 3. The amount of resources and effort that goes into achieving this approval is just enormous. As Uys commented on Facebook “Designing a sailplane with the ultimate performance requires you...
JS-3 18 meter, The Record Breaker – Anders Møller Andersen
Anders Andersen made this year, his year, by breaking not one but three Danish records! We are so proud of him and his uniquely purple painted JS3. We asked him to share a bit more about his adventures: Mid November offered excellent soaring conditions in the Bloemfontein area in South Africa. A whole week with thermals exceeding 5 m/s and cloud base of 18.000 ft. Unfortunately the days were relatively short with a late start and early finish,...
300 km FAI triangle Women´s World Record in the JS3 15 m – Katrin Senne
My parents, Klaus and Ursula Keim, and I were invited by some friends to a big party in Johannesburg during November this year. My ordered JS3 was just about to get out of the “resin barrel” by this time. The thought of being a witness to the birth of my glider inspired me to include a visit to Potchefstroom in our travel plans. Additionally, of course, there would always be details and changes which have...
