Soaring News - May 2019

Photo Credit; Jean-Marie Deschamps

With no good weather this month for operations, the club did 44 flights compared to 51 last month and canceled Ops 9 days. Our best soaring day was May 5th with 21 flights and 7K altitude. May 8th was another good day with strong thermals to 5K, Bob Kuehne, Susumu Morita, Don Parish, and Nate Kemppainen had great flights. June 18th was an interesting day with ENE wind on the ground and the opposite direction above 2K, Rick and Neal figured it out and made it back to the airport with speed control. Fingers crossed for better June weather.

The club has decided to install ADS-B in the Pawnee to support tow out or operation within the 30 mile veil of Detroit Class B airspace. ADS-B is an upgrade to our existing transponder from radar to satellite based technology for traffic reporting. After January 2020, we can’t operate within a 30 mile veil of class B airspace or Class C airspace without ADS-B. A Garmin GDL 82 will be installed.

If a glider and tow plane are landing about the same time, the glider pilot will do the tow pilot a favor by landing on the parallel runway. Also pay attention when landing and don’t turn off the runway if you see the tow plane hooked up to a glider waiting for your landing. A turn off the runway halts operations while waiting for the glider retrieve. With 2 recent incidents of spoilers open on take-off, we need to pay better attention to open spoilers. Listen for a radio call, rudder waggle or look for a decrease in climb rate, ease the spoilers in. If the tow plane can’t climb to clear trees, you most likely will be released from tow by the tow pilot if the glider delays release. On high density altitude days, the tow plane can’t clear the trees at the end of runway 29 with glider spoilers open, on cool days with some head wind the climb rate will be about 300 feet per minute without a thermal. Always complete your check list before take-off, especially for emergency and spoilers closed and locked. Reminder; the K21 spoiler lock position requires more force than the K7 or K13. For rear seat pilots, set your radio volume before getting in the glider by tuning to AWOS, the volume should be set to a level that you can hear from the back seat.

Check your email for Operations invite and respond to the invite, if Operations are confirmed, you should still respond so we know who will be flying. If you need a flight review or other special request, there is a provision on the invite to specify your intentions.

When turning from base to final keep your aim point on target, nose down and speed up. Outside rudder is OK but inside rudder is a control position for spin training.

Tom Shipp