General
Meeting…New Venue
“Spectators”
has informed the club that they will require a $150 deposit against a minimum
$500 tab if we want exclusive use of the room.
Therefore
the next General Membership Meeting will be at Skybox Sports Bar,
1530 Tramway Blvd. NE (Tramway & Indian School)
Wednesday December 17, 7PM.. Members are encouraged (but certainly not
required) to patronize the available food and beverage service as thanks for
otherwise free use of the facility.
Thanks
to Mitch Hudson for making these arraignments.
2004 Soaring Calendars
Jim Miller
I
have the 2004 SSA calendars. If
you would like to obtain one, call me (883-3066) or email me at (jmiller1059@comcast.net)
to reserve yours. For the paltry sum of only $9.00 each, you to can have one
(or more) of these great looking calendars for your home or office.
If I’m not home leave a message or tell my wife your name and Sharon
will make sure your name and quantity of the calendars is recorded.
ASC
X-C Awards
Pat McKnight
As
you probably read in the October issue of Towlines, I have taken over the
duties of the ASC awards committee from Renny Rozzoni.
Being a newcomer to the sport of soaring, I have a lot to learn, but I
received an excellent turnover briefing from Renny.
So, with everyone's help I should be able to muddle through.
Important:
If you are a 2002 recipient of an ASC perpetual trophy I will need the trophy
returned to me at the general membership meeting on 17 December so I can get
the new engraving done in time for the annual banquet in January. If you're
not going to make this meeting please give me a call at (619) 913-1277 and we
can make other arrangements.
ASC presents three cross-country awards at our annual banquet.
(tentatively scheduled for 16 January) The
awards are:
Aero-Tek Award-for
the longest flight over 300km originating in Moriarty.
This flight is not handicapped and can include multiple turnpoints.
Kim Harmon X-C Award-For
the two longest handicapped flights originating in Moriarty for a pilot with a
Gold Badge or higher. Up to 10 turnpoints are allowed.
The latest Carl Herold handicaps will be used for these flights.
ASC X-C Award-This
award is the same as the Kim Harmon except it is awarded to a pilot with less
than a Gold Badge.
In
order to determine the 2003 recipients of the ASC X-C awards, I need the
following information from any active ASC members who wish to have their X-C
flights considered for an award:
-Name
-Date
of flight
-Aircraft
make and model
-Water
Ballast (yes/no)
-Route
of flight including start, finish and all turn
points.
-Total flight distance
-Total
time of flight
Maximum
allowed release height is is 1000m AGL (3281ft). Turnpoint photos and barographs are not required.
Please send your flight
information via email (mcknight@nethere.net)
or Fax to 293-3106.
From
The Back Seat
Jim Miller
New
FAA Soaring Book: The FAA has
published a new book on soaring. Entitled
GLIDER FLYING HANDBOOK, in my
opinion, it is a great publication. Published
this year (2003), it is full of excellent pictures, drawings and explanations.
This is an excellent publication for the student as well as the CFI or
anyone wanting to learn more about soaring. The Club has a quantity of these
books now on hand, ($34.00)
What
Would I do If… It has been awhile
since I have written anything in regards to safety.
So, here goes:
Consider
the following scenario and then ask yourself, “What would I do if this
happened to me?”
You
are assigned to fly a popular 2 place glider, giving a ride to a paying
customer. The wind is blowing at
a steady 15 to 18 knots right out of the south.
No gusting winds, just a steady wind right across the runway.
The runway in use is runway 26. The
temperature is about 75º.
You
brief your passenger on the safety issues, such the seat belt operation, the
canopy latch operation and its related safety precautions. You give a brief
rundown on the instruments and their meanings, and etc.
You
hook up the tow rope, check to make sure the traffic pattern is clear and
check the wind one last time. Yep, it is still from the south at 15 to 18
knots.
You
climb in the rear cockpit, strap in, and tow pilot takes up the slack.
One last check of the controls, run through the pre take off check
list, and wiggle the rudders to signal the tow plane to begin the take off.
The tow pilot, a very experienced tow pilot, puts in the power and
begins the takeoff run. This is a
scene many of us have done many time before.
Both
the tow pilot and you are correcting for the strong cross wind.
The glider becomes airborne and you are still correcting for the
crosswind. All is well, so far.
Now the tow plane becomes airborne with both of you still correcting
for the crosswind. Just as the tow begins to gain altitude the tow pilot
states over the radio the tow plane is experiencing a major control problem
with the elevator control and he aborts the takeoff and lands straight ahead.
If
you are the glider pilot, what would you do, given the conditions described,
to bring a successful conclusion to the flight and not break the glider, the
passenger or yourself?
As
related to me this is what followed after the tow pilot aborted the takeoff.
After
releasing from the tow and given the strong cross wind, the glider drifted
down wind, to the right, (north) in an attempt to land on the adjacent taxiway
The
glider, still drifting to the right, upon touch down, ground looped coming to
a stop at the edge of the taxi way. Post
flight inspection of the glider showed no damage done.
So,
what caused the tow pilot to abort the takeoff?
The control cable that runs from the elevator trim lever in the cockpit
and back to the elevator trim control tab on the trailing edge of the elevator
came loose at the trim tab causing the elevator to flutter, which according to
the tow pilot, only got worse as the speed increased.
Therefore, the tow pilot correctly aborted the takeoff.
The
point of this story is we should
not become so complacent in the daily things we do in this sport, like a
crosswind takeoff, or a takeoff without a strong cross wind, for that matter,
that we forget the rule of safe flying. Always
be prepared for the unexpected.
At
the last club meeting, held at the club house, Carl Ekdahl gave an excellent
lecture on flying long (500k or longer) cross country flights.
The point of Carl’s talk was you have to prepare, plan and train to
make that type of a flight. Planning
and preparation are essential to the successful completion of any flight.
You cannot, without the proper preparation, go out to the airport, hop
in your glass wonder and expect to fly a 750k or 1000k flight.
It just ain’t gonna happen folks.
The same applies to the rest of the sport.
A
couple of years ago, a noted racing pilot was killed because he forgot to
properly hook up his horizontal stabilizer.
Upon takeoff, the stab came off and the pilot was killed.
Why did this happen? He
was interrupted in the assembly procedure and he did not do a proper control
check after assembly was completed.
The
person who taught me to fly was a Korean War fighter pilot.
He started out flying P-51’s and ended up flying F-86 fighters.
During the Vietnam War he flew as a Forward Air Controller and then
flew F-105s over what was called Thud Alley. A very dangerous job at best.
He tired to hammer it into my thick skull that the day we think we have
learned all there is to learn about flying is the day we should give up
flying.
I like to tell my students
the only constant in flying is the law of gravity. Everything else is subject to change at a moments notice and
when we lest expect it. Bernie Coogan, wherever you are, Thanks for being not
only a great pilot and instructor but good friend too.
Fly safe and be prepared
for the unexpected. It will pay dividends.