Soaring News - September 2018

Photo Credit; Jean-Marie Deschamps

The club did 124 flights this month compared to 90 last month but only 3 days canceled due to weather. With a total of 530 flights, looks like the club will have another good year and enough cash to pay bills. A season close day will be discussed in the October Board meeting, last year we closed Ops about Thanksgiving time.

We’ve had a few good soaring days this month but Saturday the 29th was exceptional for this time of the year with flights over 6000 ft. altitude and 1-3 hour flights. The Pawnee was climbing at 2000 ft. per minute in very strong thermals. Ops for Sunday 9-30 was confirmed mostly as a glider clean day but an overcast cleared about noon with warm sun so Matt and Jean-Marie did flights to 3000 ft. in the ASW15. There was an unusual line of East-West lift just North of the airport.

More clean days may be scheduled in the future on marginal weather days, it would be great to go into annuals with clean gliders and Pawnee.

We have 4 recent new club members, Richard Stetler, Anik Ganguly, Bob Kuehne and Woody Harrington. If you see faces you don’t recognize, make sure you say hello. Bob Kuehne soloed in the K13 (see picture) and Dan Walker completed a glider add on to his log book. Welcome new members and congratulations to Bob and Dan for their accomplishments.

We had a great picnic, which was held at the glider launch area, with really good hot dogs, brats and hamburgers furnished by the club. Members brought additional assortments. Food was available all afternoon between 16 glider flights. About half the total members attended under the old tent.

The club has maintained a very good safety record with no accidents over at least the last 10 years. Some key contributors are great work from our instructors and having good communications between our members when we see minor mistakes made. We need to continue this communication as a club culture. If an instructor is available, rated pilots should take a ride with an instructor, I learn something every time I take an instructor along for a ride.

Maintenance; During the Annual Inspections the Pawnee is planned to get new brake pads and brake disc, engine cowling hinge, magneto 500 hour kit and new landing gear bolts. Both K7 and K13 will get metal nose skid replacements. We have experienced 2 glider tire tube failures this year, check the tire pressure (on hard surface) at every pre-flight check, if tire looks low, add air pressure.

Tow pilot reminder; Don’t tow down wind, keep gliders about a mile from the airport, climb straight ahead on a rope break and allow the tow plane to drift down wind on takeoff to allow the glider more space to turn back if a rope should break.

Glider pilots; if you are landing ahead of the tow plane, land on the parallel runway. Runway 5-23 grass is also an option for tow plane landings.

Keep the nose down and speed up. Outside rudder is OK but inside rudder is a control position for spin training.

Tom Shipp