From The President                        Paul Chase

Board Report.  Since we no longer conduct much business at general membership meetings, the board decided it was good business to send an email copy of every board meeting to all ASC Active Members with an Email address.  This will give 68% of Active Members access to our business affairs.  If you are not interested, delete them like spam or email me and request me to delete you from the list.       

We have been working toward improving our operations before spring soaring begins.  A good way to kick that off is with Billy Hill’s weekend soaring seminar on 14-16 Mar.  Get your airships ready and contact Billy for details.

It appears that some people are confused about ASC operating hours.  Some duty members are showing up late, and some are leaving early.  The default start times for operations are 9:30 AM in summer (Apr-Oct) and 10:30 AM in winter (Nov-Mar).  Be sure to get there earlier than that so you can complete your first scheduled duty--cleaning out the clubhouse.  A lot of dirt blows in during the week for the Sat crew to clean out, and a lot of dirt is tracked in on Sat for the Sun crew to clean out before operations start.

The Chief Instructor may adjust starting times based on instructor/student loads, and you should expect a phone call telling you of the adjusted times before Fri night.  If you don’t get this call, however, don’t just assume default start time!  Assume that the telephone reminder system broke down, as it is prone to do when unreported duty swaps are involved.  Be proactive and inquisitive.  Who do you call?  Invert the telephone reminder pyramid, i.e., call in this order (1) one of the other members scheduled for duty on your day, (2) the ASC Chief Ops [Tom Tichy], and (3) the ASC Chief Instructor [Billy Hill].  Also, members scheduled for duty on the other day of that weekend may have a clue about the schedule.

Oh, by the way, I hope you like the easier-to-read format of the club rosters.  PLEASE, PLEASE call Laurie Carlton (275-5945) and update your telephone numbers, if necessary.  We can’t locate some members because their telephone numbers are no longer current.

We are starting to have more complaints about the Ops crew leaving early.  The procedures manual specifies when Ops can shut down on a good day, i.e., when sailplanes are airborne.  It is less clear when Ops can shut down on a marginal day, i.e., when no pilots are in sight preparing for flight.  In this case, the board has established a default shut down time of 3:00 PM in winter and 4:30 PM in summer. 

This means two things: (1) If you are a sailplane pilot and plan to fly late on a questionable day, you should call Sundance (832-2222) and ask them to notify ASC Ops that you are coming, and you should check in with Ops when you arrive at the field. (2) If you are on Ops and you leave earlier than the default shut down time, you are eligible for the “Inverse Sundance Rebate Penalty,” which is:

Each member of the Ops Crew (Chief Ops of the Day, Assistant Ops of the Day, and Towpilot) that leaves prematurely pays $10 for each tow by each club member that subsequently claims a Sundance Rebate, not to exceed $75.    

This may appear that we are eager to extract penalties from members, but that is not the case.  What it does is place the financial burden for the rebate on the people who caused it rather than on the rest of the (innocent) club members.  We hope it gives the Ops crew something to think about rather than getting home early and watching the ball game.     

Let’s keep trying to make soaring more fun!

 

Full  Measure Of The Day                         Billy Hill

In a previous issue of the club news letter, I suggested we have a cross country encounter on the weekend of March 15.As you all know, that early in the season, the weather can be anybody’s guess.  From the lack of interest in flying on the above mentioned weekend perhaps most of you thought the weather would tank. 

The ides of March were less than ideal for Caesar, but worked out OK for those of us who choose to commit aviation that day.  For those of you who came out to fly, you may have thought it a less than ideal day. To paraphrase a former president, it depends on your definition of “ideal”.  For those of you who looked out the window and saw all the Cirrus moving into the state from the west and decided not to even come out to the airport, you missed an interesting day.

Ed Burnett stopped me at the staging area and asked, “is this a good Cross Country day?”  To which I replied of course it is!  Was it a it a homogeneous day, that is to say a sky full of Cu’s requiring little if any thought other than not to get low?  It was any thing but!

There was no question the Cirrus would thicken up and move into the task area, morf into stratus, dampen and then eventually choke off the thermal activity.  The questions were; how quickly would that occur and to what extent would it affect thermal strength and frequency.

Following a brief recap of some points on cross country at the club house with about a half dozen in attendance, we elected to rig and fly.

The plan was to venture out to Estancia as the first mandatory turn point, play it by ear, (audio vario), and fake the beat.  Brian Resor, (who was to my wing man in his Std Cirrus), launched a bit before noon as did Dave Sharpp, (Zuni) and Al Whitesell, (DG-400). Brian returned for a relight because of cycling conditions and ended up at the back of the que. In the mean time, I launched and latched onto a three knot get-away-from-the-airport thermal.

Since it appeared it would be awhile before Brian would launch, Dave, Al and I decided to head out to the north with a goal of reaching the Cu’s which had popped up over the southern end of the Sangre de Christos.  As a general rule, one set by Tom Brandis a number of years ago, one never ventures up the middle of the valley unless there are cu marking the way.  There were none, so we headed toward the south mountains.

Six thousand feet AGL was as good as it got and by the time we reached the mine at the north end of the north mountains, the lift had begun to cycle and grow weak.  I headed toward the ridges to the east of Galisteo as did Dave in the Zuni.  Al opted for a direct shot across the open area and in the general direction of the intersection of highway 285 and I-25, the famous Lamy turn point and of course he found the valley working just fine thank you very much! By then the lift had increased to four knots on the averager and I worked my way up from a low of about two thousand AGL.

 About two or three air miles southwest of Galisteo is an east/west dirt runway, which at least seven years ago when I retrieved Kim Harman from it, was quite landable.  Said airstrip was to be my landout point which would have gleaned me the honor of the cross country season’s first off airport, (read Moriarity), landing, but Mitch Hudson claimed   that destination by landing a mile short of Moriarity in his 1-26 on his way back from Estancia.  Way to go Mitch!  No guts, no air medals!

This brings up the issue of L/D, or lack thereof.  The standard lament and/or disclaimer by pilots of low performance gliders is that they are low performance and therefore don’t have the “legs” of the ships we glassholes fly.  That argument might hold more water if it weren’t for the fact that guys like Dave Sharpp have set national records in excess of three hundred miles flying hang gliders at about half the L/D of a 1-26.

The point I would like to make is that gliders with a lower the L/D, must make more gear changes and work more thermals in order to maximize their available performance and thus avoid an ignominious and otherwise untimely arrival back on terra firma.   In other words you gotta know when to fold ‘em.  Gotta know when to hold ‘em, and that is the essence of a well flow cross country.

In the mean time, Dave, Al and I managed to get up to almost thirteen thousand feet MSL,(which is about 4000 ft AGL), in the foothills north of the Lamy junction and we ran for the high country and the Santa Fe ski area.  Dave and Al ran the high ridge, and since I had gotten a bit behind, I elected to run the low ridge.  By the time I had reached a point abeam the ski area, I was low, fast running out of options and had to turn west and head for lower terrain.  I felt confident I would find lift over Santa Fe because of dust devils I had seen earlier.  By the time I did stumble into usable lift my only option was the newly redone city dump which looked very landable.  I parked in a two knot thermal until I had enough altitude to both make the SAF airport as well as look for stronger stuff.  I then headed for the most obvious source of hot air, the capital city’s round house.  Sure enough, there was a five knot thermal to about 5500 ft. AGL which was enough to get me back on course.  The rest of the flight back to Moriarity was somewhat straight forward.  I didn’t get in a rush, nor did I get too low as the lift did not justify pushing too hard.

The next major decision was; do I attempt to get to Mountain Air, which by then was under a complete overcast? 

Chip Gardner had just returned from there in the club Twin Aster with a new convert to cross country flying in the front seat and said that he had found some lift enroute. The problem was that I was still about an hour away from the same point in space he had just left.  I asked him what he thought and he said, “as long as you get high enough it should be doable.”

Al, Dave and I climbed in a nice five knotter just south of the Estancia airport right where Chip said it would be.  Al left for Mountain Air at about 7500 AGL.  I elected to work up to about 8000 AGL and then headed out at best L/D, (some more of that gear changing).  Al seemed to be flying a bit faster, but then he had an iron thermal six inches from the back of his head rest.  I arrived at Mountain Air at a bit over 5500ft. AGL, which was more than enough to get back to Moriarity. 

By virtue of the position of our home base on the canopy, it looked good.  I had one minor problem in that my GPS was on the fritz and so I was forced to use EBD (eye ball direct) for my final glide calculations.  There was no appreciable sink either going into or out of Mountain Air.  Even so I arrived back at Estancia at 2600ft. AGL. Guess I must have been cruising a bit over best L/D on the return leg from Mountain Air and therefore lost more altitude than I should have.

Even though it looked as though I had just enough to limp back into Moriarity, I elected to stop and work a two knotter in order to ensure I wouldn’t follow Mitch’s example.  Most likely I would have made it home without stopping but I might have ruined my pucker meter in the process.

So, there you have it!  A total distance flown of about 156 miles at a blistering pace of 39mph!  Some of you might be asking, why would anyone choose to fly cross country on a day such as that?  As I said earlier, it was anything but a homogeneous day and therefore required a lot of planning, gear changing, mistake fixing and having alternate game plans in mind.

The singular problem with only flying on the best of days is that sometimes those great days go in the tank when you least expect it and if you are not well practiced in things like gear changing you are likely to end up with a box full of neutrals. 

Even though it’s the start of the season, look for opportunities to challenge your self.  Remember, it’s not so much the mistakes you make, but what you do to correct them that count.  So, hone your X-C skills on the not-so-great days and those really wonderful New Mexico soaring days will take care of them selves.