From The President                        Paul Chase

Board Report.  I failed to report something the board decided last month.  We established a time limit on requesting Sundance Rebates.  It’s 60 days, which should give members plenty of time to send in the requisite paperwork.  After that time, forget it.  

One thing you should notice maybe even before this paper comes out is the board at the April meeting approved John Farris to purchase two hand-held ICOM IC-A5 COM VHF Portable Transceivers from Sporty’s.  They may be in operation by the weekend of 12 April.  Please take care of them and use them to increase operational safety.

The board went over the survey forms that Steve Schery designed and Mitch Hudson compiled (reported elsewhere in this issue).  It is clear that we need to schedule more social events.  So, 24 May will be the “Big May Day,” to include Leader/Follower XC Training, General Membership Meeting, and BBQ Beer Bust.  We will publish more details in the May issue and hope it gets published before the 24^th.  Notice from the calendar in the opposite column, we plan to do this again in August.  Should we do this more often?

The ASC Website is back in operation at a new address:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/acechase/       

Brian Resor did an outstanding job designing two sections, one for the general public and the other limited to members only.  When you click on the “Members” button, a password screen appears.  I passed out the password to all members with an email address.  If anyone else needs it, ask a member who has an email address in the roster.  Oh, by the way: the password is case sensitive and all characters must be lower case.  The first screen to appear under the Members section is the Ops Schedule, complete with changes.  From there you can go to Board Minutes, Officers, or Membership Roster.

The site is still evolving.  For instance, we do not have links to other soaring sites, such as SSA, but we are working on it.  I invite everyone to try out the website now and to send me suggestions on how to improve it.

 

ASC Significant Events Calendar
26-27 Apr	Leader/Follower XC Training
1 May	Board Meeting
24 May Big May Day	Local Leader/Follower XC Training, Gen Membr Meeting/BBQ Beer Bust
27 May-5 Jun	Open/18-Mtr Class Nats, Cordele, GA
5 Jun	Board Meeting
14-15 Jun	Leader/Follower XC Training
17-26 Jun	Sports/World Class Nats, Harris Hill, NY
19-22 Jun	Durango Excursion
23-27 Jun	Women Soaring Pilots Meeting, Moriarty
30 Jun-5 Jul	Region 9 Contest, Hobbs, NM
3 Jul	Board Meeting
15-24 Jul	15-Meter Nationals, Lubbock, TX
7 Aug	Board Meeting
16 Aug	Local Leader/Follower XC Training, Gen Membr Meeting/BBQ Beer Bust
30 Aug-1 Sep	Labor Day, ???
4 Sep	Board Meeting
2 Oct	Board Meeting
6 Nov	Board Meeting
26-30 Nov	Turkeyfest, Alamogordo, NM
4 Dec	Board Meeting
17 Dec	General Membership Meeting &           Election of Officers

The only firm dates on the calendar are national holidays and soaring meets.  All ASC events are open to change.  Please call or email me if you think a date should be changed or something should be added 

The Leader/Follower XC Training listed for 26-27 April in the calendar is informal. New guys try to pair up with old guys and follow them around the sky.  Old guys, please volunteer your services. The SW Museum is having a fly-in on the 26th.  Come on out and look around the museum before/after flying.

Let’s keep trying to make soaring more fun!

25^th Annual Women’s Soaring Seminar

Join us for this annual fun filled event!

The Albuquerque Soaring Club and the Southwest Soaring Museum will host the Women’s Soaring Seminar, at Moriarty, New Mexico. This Silver Jubilee event will be held June 23-27, 2003.

The Seminar will feature a XC (cross country) clinic with Chip Garner, art Hale, Billy Hill, and other local pilots providing tips on improving cross country skills. June usually provides the best of our high desert soaring and plenty of incentive to get off the ground and go places.  Each day we will wet short and longer tasks that you can fly on your own, dual with an experienced XC pilot, or follow a local pilot. Badge flights are encouraged.

Primary (no previous flying experience) Instruction  will be available, and Phyllis Wells will provide a Bronze Badge clinic for fledgling XC pilots.  Jason Stephens of Arizona Soaring inc. will provide aerobatic instruction.  We are currently seeking additional sailplanes for the event and anyone with a two-place glider willing to provide rides or rental is encouraged to contact Kathy Taylor.

Gentlemen are welcome to register for the Seminar.

Evening meals will be provided on the field.  The registration fee includes T-shirt, sectional chart, Thursday night banquet, and three evening meals at the airport.  Active ASC members receive a small discount, as they will not require temporary ASC membership.

Contact Kathy Taylor for additional information: (505)667-7097 (w)   672-0152 (h), ktaylor@lanl.gov

Important note to ALL ASC Members: Seminar participants will have priority for equipment use June 23-27.  Please do not compete with Seminar participants for use of the club aircraft during this week. (unless, of course, you are also registered for the Seminar!)

 

Wanted: High Performance sailplane to rent during June 23-25 seminar. Working CFI/CFI-G, seeks single place glider for XC flying. Several thousand hrs. power and glider time, part owner in twin Grob, flying Sierras out of Truckee.  Experience in PIK-20, LS-4, others.  Monique Weil (510) 547-0687 weilmonique@aol.com

 

Full Measure of the Day #2                          Billy Hill

In the last issue I talked of flying cross-country using, for the most part, thermals and a bit of ridge lift in the Santa Fe area.

On Sunday March 30, Jim Cumiford, Dave Sharp and I managed to get into a secondary wave, which I believe had its origins in the Sandias, and was enhanced by the South Mountains. 

Rotor enhanced thermals started as early as 9:30.  They were intense, small cored and difficult to center.  When I launched around noon I towed through ten knots plus at eight hundred feet and so I released.  That got me to ten thousand five hundred, which in turn allowed me to get a sense of what was happening in the local area.  At one point, when the lift cycled I found myself back down at pattern altitude, but was able to again climb to 10.5K and head north.  One Red X, (Jim Cumiford), found the transition point from rotor enhanced thermals to rotor to the laminar section of the wave.  It was south of the old Otto airstrip, and measured as much as nine knots on the vario and took us to just under 18K.  The wind was from 320 degrees and up to 45 kts. at the top of the climb.  The lift was broad and easily sustained by doing a tacking maneuver, which kept us over the same area. 

After topping out just below Class A airspace, I headed northwest toward the south mountain figuring there would be a primary.  There was one of sorts, but the lift was only half as strong as that found in the secondary which lends credence to my above observation that the south mountains had enhanced what had originated in the lee of the Sandias.

Both Red X and I decided to head back to the stronger secondary which by then had moved directly over the Moriarty airport.  We again climbed to just under 18K and then headed towards Mosca peak.  It was the last time I stopped to work lift for almost the next two hours.  I was northeast of Mosca peak and at about thirteen thousand, five hundred when I encountered the primary in the lee of the Monzanos. I then  turned south in order to track in the wave as well as to continue the cross country.  I turned north at a point just shy of Blue Springs pass and somewhere around Monzano peak, I joined up with Red X.  We continued north into a quartering headwind, but still within the confines of the wave.  Somewhere between Monzano and Mosca peaks we again topped out at just under 18K.  Jim went for the turn point at the crest and lost considerable altitude in doing so.  I turned two miles short of the TP and then headed for the gold mine at the north end of the South Mountains whereas Jim turned at Golden and headed for the barn.  From the mine TP I headed back to Moriarty.  My average ground speed from the time I left Moriarty en-route to the Monzanos until I arrived back at Moriarty was eighty-seven knots or 100mph.  I had discussed with Jim the prospect of flying back down to the south end of the Monzanos and then back to Moriarty, but I was not sure there would be enough daylight left to make it happen.

The following Saturday, I was working for Sundance and the first tow I made was a training flight with Rick and his student in the Grob.  I towed them into the wave, which was alive and well just west of Highway 41.  Because the diurnal process had not as yet settled in it was possible to work the wave using the tacking maneuver from a relatively low altitude, which is what Rick did.  Later that day I was giving Tim Feegler a rundown on the wave conditions and he said, I don’t do wave,” or words to that effect.  As the day progressed, lennies formed in the general area and ran north of Stanley.  In the vicinity of the south end of the Sangre de Christos Cu had begun to form.  Although I didn’t have a chance to fly my Discus, I would have guessed one might have been able to use the wave locally, climb to just below class A airspace. One could have headed north to the Cu, which looked as though they ran all the way to Taos and perhaps beyond.  The point being that one should never turn down a source of lift that will get them away from the local area and out on course into the cross country mode.

There is room this month, so we continue with part 3. –Ed.

One of the first and most important parts of determining the feasibility a cross country flight is an assessment of the atmospheric conditions.

Although the sky was almost completely overcast with cirrus clouds, the day looked promising if for no other reason than the presence of a short line of cumulus clouds which had built along a north/south line about five miles west of the airport.  Because the cirrus was, for the most part thin and transparent, there was no reason to believe thermals would not develop.  At worst, a transparent vale of cirrus will inhibit the thermal strength and development by a factor of about ten to fifteen percent.  If the day is forecast to be weak, then this could be come problematic.  If the predicted thermal strength is good, go fly!

I was towed to a point just west of highway 41 where it released in a three to four knots.  I worked it up to ten thousand five hundred and then headed towards what I suspected was the Monzano shear line.  There was lift all the way from highway 41 to the clouds that were about eleven miles west of the airport.  Because there was lift enroute to the clouds, I saw no reason not to continue on until I reached the Cu.  When I arrived, I was rewarded with an eight knot thermal which took me up to sixteen thousand five hundred feet.  At that point I was glad I had put water in the Discus!

I turned north in order to stay in line with the clouds that had developed in that direction.  This in turn took me over the Lamy turn point and from there eastward towards Las Vegas.  A few miles east of East Pecos, I climbed to just under eighteen thousand feet and then turned south. My next turn point was Encino which is about seventy miles away.  After the turn point I headed back north in the direction from which I had come and I was about twelve miles north of Encino before I stopped to circle in lift.  Up until that time I had merely slowed down and perhaps zig-zaged under the clouds I had been following.  Some thermals were as strong as twelve to thirteen knots and cloud base was well within class “A” airspace. 

As the day grew neigh, the cirrus increased in density from transparent, to translucent, to opaque.  As long as there were some patches of sunlight hitting the ground the lift was still strong.  Elsewhere the cu’s had started to dissipate and die, so after another trip from the south end of the Sangre de Christos to Encino, I headed back to Moriarty and landed at about four thirty.  Distance flown for the day was a little over 290 miles and I spent only fourteen percent of the time circling.  This netted me an average speed of about ninety mph.

Although the day had not looked that promising, an examination of the forecast conditions which included; the thermal index and strength and time of first thermals in conjunction with the forecast high was important.  By plugging in a temperature that was slightly above the forecast one it became apparent the day was going to be a good one.  The icing on the cake was the development of the Manzano sear line that helped get me out on course.

See you at the airport!

FOR SALE: Two Minolta freedom 101 Turn Point Cameras, O2 regulator (A-13 diluter demand),  Winter Barograph, Winter Airspeed Indicator (1-1/2 times around), Winter ASI for Schweizer ( needs a glass face), Security 150 parachute (some exterior smoke damage, cannot be used for flight due to age) Make an offer on any or all.                                -Billy Hill