ASW 15 News
Welcome new members Nate Kemppainen and Son Cameron, Nate is a nephew of our member Cal Kemppainen. Nate and Son joined the club Sunday and got their first club glider flights with Matt Schultz. Week end flying was good practice with some breezy gusty wind conditions but mostly down RW29. My rule of thumb is that if my hat blows off, probably too windy to fly so I had to tighten the head band a little to simulate less wind both Saturday and Sunday. The B17 Yankee Lady flew in Saturday in preparation for tours and rides Sunday. A meeting with the B17 pilot on Sunday to describe our glider operation helped with visual and radio contact. The B17 was in and out hourly with rides of $450.00 each. I thought about adding Lady to my Pawnee 15 Yankee radio position reports, but decided that a Yankee Lady landing on RW29 might be confusing to the real Yankee Lady. It was a great 2 days of flying in breezy wind conditions during the weekend, 4 flights Saturday and 7 Sunday, thanks Matt for instructing Sunday. The glider canopies are so clean that it looks like they are missing, thanks much Yasuo! Tom’s new rule, a clean glider is a happy one and actually has better glide performance. We are in the final stage of owning an ASW15 purchased from Steve Rusinowski. Steve signed the Bill of Sale Saturday and we will be flying it as soon as I get the Bill of sale to Larry for insurance coverage. This glider is about the same performance as the Cirrus but with less PIO tendency on the take off. You still need to be proficient in the K21 and consistent in flying to your aim point and landing with precision to fly this glider. Like all high performance gliders, it likes to float in ground affect. I have sent the Flight Manual to some members and will send to other members with short emails at a time due to the size of the document. Lucky me, I will be the first to fly it, then the instructors next, the instructors and me will be available for checkouts in the glider. So fly the K21 and concentrate on your landing and takeoff skills.
