Soaring News - September 2019

Photo Credit; Brandon Schultz

Our soaring season appears to be coming to a close early with just 62 flights this month compared to 113 in August and 7 operation days canceled due to weather. We have completed 468 flights this season which is past the break even for revenue. The Board has not determined a season close date but usually is near the end of November. Except for canceling the entire last weekend of operations this month, 3 Wednesday operation days were also canceled.

The one Wednesday that we flew was fantastic, 3 tow pilots Shipp, Bateman and Schultz who flew the tow plane and took glider flights with other members Don Smith and Dino DiNatale. The thermals were not very strong but the weather was great with country music provided by Bateman under the new club tent. The new tent is working great and easy to assemble.

Thanks to the Club Board for planning a great September picnic with Jim Thompson and Dave Huck as our master chefs. The picnic was held at the hangar so we stopped operations to join other members to enjoy a huge supply of burgers, hot dogs, brauts and selection of various deserts. About 14 members attended and 4 guests, 2 of the guests were Mother and Father of Ludwik Lembryk (student pilot) who each enjoyed a glider flight in the ASK21 and spent the day with us. Ludwik and his Father were flying at the same time, Ludwik in the club ASK13.

Besides other weather like rain or T Storms, wind affects about every phase of our flights; it will pick a wing up if a tire is not placed on a wing tip, it will damage a canopy if left open, reduces our take off roll going into the wind and increases it down wind and has the same effect on landing, creates turbulence when towing over trees or other obstacles, requires us to alter our landing pattern to compensate for tail and head winds, we overshoot the runway center line if we don’t compensate for tail winds, cross winds can cause us to ground loop when turning off the runway during landing, causes us to cancel operations over 15 miles per hour, reduces glider performance flying into the wind and improves it down wind.

May be too windy to fly if the wind blows your hat off. So, pay attention to the wind and include it into your flight planning and emergency check list.

Did you know that the Adrian Airport has a rule of no thermaling below 2300 msl within 1 mile of the airport boundary? Yep, it’s a safety issue with fairly heavy piston airplanes, glider and jet traffic departing and landing. Once you enter the pattern, you must pass through that great thermal and land, otherwise you may be in violation of the thermaling rule. Circling at low altitude also increases the risk of a stall spin, in addition to a collision with other traffic entering the pattern.

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.