February 2004

2003 ASC Awards Pat McKnight
For those of you who weren’t able to make the annual club banquet on January 23 at Garduno’s at Balloon Fiesta Park, here is an account of the festivities. This banquet is an opportunity to publicly recognize the many outstanding ASC members that received awards at our dinner.

The banquet was well attended and we were fortunate to have several speakers including Ted Spitzmiller of Rio Rancho who gave a very interesting talk on the Wright Brothers, and Chip Garner told us about the World Championships in Poland.

The speakers were then followed by the presentation of the club awards by Pat McKnight. The following is a list all the club’s award winners.

CONGRATULATIONS to all!

Most Instruction in 2003 – Jimmy Wier – 73 Flights!

Most Tows in 2003 – Ryan Thomas – 151 Tows!

Aero-Tek Award – Longest Flight in 2003 over 300 km originating from Moriarty – For a flight of 423 statute miles on July 4, 2003 – Kathy Taylor

1-26er Award – For his excellent flights in 2003 including a flight of 209 miles from Moriarty to Hereford, TX – Mitch Hudson

ASC Safety Award – For identifying and publicizing the intersection of jet traffic near Moriarty – Ash Collins

ASC X-C Award – Classic Class – For pilots with less than a Gold Badge – 2 longest handicapped flights…
1^st Place – Mitch Hudson – 490.9 sm total
2^nd Place – Mark Mocho – 473 sm
3^rd Place – Brian Resor – 417.6 sm

Ain’t Soaring Fun Award - For the ASC member who had the most “fun” in 2003… Mitch Hudson earned this trophy by landing out twice in one day!

So there I was...Getting low at the sinkhole of Estancia again...For my little 1-26 going into the wind, Estancia is a huge battle. As I sighed and pulled my spoilers out, giving up the ghost and landing I made sure to call Ryan in 10Z to come get me. I finished pushing the plane back to the East end of the runway as Ryan came in to land. Hooking up the rope, and embarrassed at my poor performance, I kept it in the back of my mind that I would release at 2000 if I found lift and soar home. Well, that's exactly what I did when at 2000 I found a good bump and pulled the plug. That bump immediately turned into nothing as I turned North to find something better. Something better never came, so down I went again into a field this time. Talk about embarrassing!!

KIM HARMON X-C AWARD. (formerly the ASC X-C Award) Kim truly enjoyed X-C soaring and was the first winner of this award in 1996. It is awarded for the 2 longest handicapped flights out of Moriarty for a member having a Gold Badge or higher:
1^st Place – Billy Hill – 635.8 sm
2^nd Place - Kathy Taylor – 583.7 sm
3^rd Place – Howard Banks – 536.3 sm

Harland Ross Award – For Soaring Excellence – For his 5^th place finish in the Return-to-Kitty-Hawk Regatta
– Carl Ekdahl

Paul Scates – For Outstanding Service to the Club – Don Kawal for many years of taking care of our insurance needs.

Paul Callies – Advancement of Soaring – For organizing the 25^th Anniversary Women Soaring Pilots Association Seminar: Bob Alkov, Howard Banks Urio Bertelli, Connie Buenafe, Paul Chase, Chip Garner, Billy Hill, JD Huss, Pat McKnight, Jim Miller, Angel Pala, Al Santilli, Steve Schery, Kathy Taylor, Ryan Thomas, Steve Work, Jimmy Wier.

Kathy Taylor then recognized and thanked both the incoming and outgoing board members and also thanked all of the appointed club officers and many other volunteer club members who truly “make it happen!”

A big THANKS goes out to Sheri Nevins for planning and organizing this outstanding event, to Howard Banks for serving as Master of Ceremonies; and to Pat McKnight for Chairing the Awards Committee. “Best Supporting” thanks goes out to Peter and Mary Bilan for their support of the banquet!

From the President Kathy Taylor

Our next club meeting will be at the clubhouse on February 28 at 9 AM. We will be voting on a By-Laws change to better define the Family Membership (see the exact wording elsewhere in Towlines) and we need a quorum to approve this change. Dennis Wright, the new Executive Director of the SSA, will talk about the benefits of being an SSA Chapter. Then Dave Sharp will describe his diamond distance flight in a hang glider. After the meeting, we will reconvene at El Comedor for a no-host lunch.

We attended the SSA Convention in Atlanta Feb 5-7 and came away with some good ideas for the club. We will be exploring the possible conversion of the club to a 501 (c)(3) corporation that would allow us to accept donations with the donor receiving a tax deduction. But the real highlight of the convention was two presentations by Klaus Ohlmann describing his 2000 km straight out and 3000 km free distance world record flights. This was real inspiration.

By-Laws Change Proposal
The current by-laws do not specify the privileges and responsibilities of a Family member and need to be clarified. The following change to the By-Laws will be voted on at the general membership meeting on February 28. It is proposed to change Article II of the By-Laws to clarify paragraph 2.7, to read as follows:

A FAMILY MEMBER is a member who has been accepted by the Board as a family club member. FAMILY membership is limited to members of a REGULAR club member’s immediate family. Such members shall be entitled to use and fly all ASC aircraft which their individual licenses and club rules permit. The member shall have the privilege to vote on all general activities of the club. The member must pay all fees, dues, and assessments levied, maintain SSA membership, and perform regular member club duties.

Currency vs. Proficiency Billy Hill

The two most common words found in the regs. are; except and minimum. Except is the caveat put into the rules by the lawyers in an attempt to obfuscate the regulations an make them as un-readable as possible. Minimum describes the least amount of effort we must put into maintaining our currency. A shining example of this is the Flight Review, (CFR 61.56), formally known as the bi-annual flight review. Don’t know why the Feds changed it........it’s still required, as a minimum, once every twenty four months. The FAA in it’s infinite wisdom has chosen to make those of us who fly for a living get tested once every six months whereas those who fly recreationally are only required to do so once every two years. Doesn’t this seem bass ackwards? Flying ability comes from flying more. Are you seeing a trend here? Take a minute and mull this over. Currency is regulated, but proficiency is what you personally need to elevate your comfort level when you are about to commit aviation.

For example, taking someone for a glider ride. Before you are legal to do that you must have made three takeoffs and landings within ninety days, (CFR 61.57.) Now hold those two thoughts for just a moment and let’s visit a bit on the issue of currency vs proficiency.

We are still in the grip of winter and those of you who have been pulling ops/instructor/tow pilot duties for the past few months know it’s not always fun. That of course won’t last. The first weekend of relatively warm weather, say in a few months, will bring everyone out of the woodwork. Even though the weather is less than pleasant, now is an excellent time to polish or otherwise hone your skills, judgment, and flying abilities. It’s an excellent time to get together with one of the club CFI’s and get a flight review. It doesn’t matter that you did one last year. Remember, CFR 61.56 describes a minimum. There is no maximum. You can take a flight review as often as you like.

Do you really think three takeoffs and landings during the course of a ninety-day time frame is enough to make you proficient? Guess you need to ask your self. Are you feel’n lucky? How many takeoffs and landings do you need in order to get your comfort level up? Are you gonna just do the “three in ninety days” on a day when the wind is calm and the sky is clear and call it proficient? Unfortunately we are of a mindset that all training will terminate - great choice of words don’t you think? - when high noon rolls around. Well folks, there are no prohibitions against scheduling one of the club two place gliders along with a CFI and getting some confidence building dual during less than perfect conditions. Why not schedule some dual with a club CFI during the later part of the day when the winds are blowing a bit and there is a cross wind thrown in?

Your skill level increases with the hours flown. Judgment comes from mistakes made and lessons learned while flying those hours.

One more thought; if it doesn’t feel right or look right, it probably isn’t right. Go to plan “B.”

Final Glide

Walter Wolford, a long time club member, passed away on February 6. He was ASC club treasurer in 1994 and 1995 and remained a member until early 2000. He was very active and very supportive of the club during his years of membership. Walt and his son Michael also managed and directed the very successful 1-26 Nationals held at Moriarty in 1995. Walt will be missed by all who knew him.

Have you heard of the AeroKurier Online Contest that is being run on the Internet by the Germans? The idea is to provide an easy means by which glider pilots all over the world can share their flights so they can see what tasks others are flying. Of course, scores are calculated and recorded so that everyone can see how they stack up to their peers.

For me, it’s really neat to see what kind of tasks other pilots have flown. In our region of the country this year there were lots of huge flights posted from places like Parowan, Alamogordo, and the Black Forest Club.

Participation in this online contest has been growing fast since it was created. In 2002 there were 35 pilots representing 14 clubs or operations entering. The longest flight posted was 1006km and the maximum total number of kilometers claimed by a pilot was 7700km during 21 flights. The maximum number of kilometers posted by a club was 13,034km in 53 flights (an average of 245km/flight…this was by our friends in Alamogordo).

In 2003 there were 111 pilots representing 41 clubs or operations participating. The longest flight posted was 1200km and the maximum total number of kilometers claimed by a pilot was nearly 12,000km during 30 flights. The maximum number of kilometers posted by a club was 30,840km in 158 flights (an average of about 200km/flight….Alamogordo again…they tended to post a lot of shorter flights in 2003).

Already for this season (starting in October sometime) there are 28 pilots and 13 clubs or operations competing and the longest flight has been 805km (on the Appalacian ridges). My guess is that the usage of this system in 2004 will be heavy. I think the pilots that fly out of Moriarty could have some fun taking part in all of this.

Posting a flight to the web is very easy. Those of us that use GPS’s and take the .igc file home to look at on our personal computer have already done 90% of the work. All that’s left is to connect to the web and submit the flight with a press of a button. The most common flight analysis software packages (SeeYou or Strepla) now make it simple to submit flights as long as you are signed up as a pilot on the contest webpage (and it’s all free of charge).

Once the flight is submitted you and your friends can view it against a terrain map and in barograph form or easily download the igc file for closer examination.

I write this article because I believe there are a lot of good flight tracks that might be going to waste. I think that many of our club’s aspiring cross-country pilots (including myself) can benefit from seeing how others are able to get to where they go. It’s particularly valuable to be able to download an igc flight trace of someone else’s 1000km flight and analyze it to learn things like how fast and how long they cruise between thermals or how far they wander off course to get the good lift.

Here’s an example: over the last few years I’ve noticed that on long flights on a good day a competent pilot will cruise an average (over the whole flight) of 15-20 miles without even trying to circle in a thermal. In trying to get my average glide distance up from about 3 miles (just stopping to think about thermalling kills the average!) to closer to 15 miles my average speed has gone up to the point that I can average 65mph true cross country speed, that’s good for a rookie in a 30-year old Standard Cirrus. With the analysis packages available in our software these days there is a lot we can learn from looking at these traces.

The other obvious benefit to posting lots of good New Mexico soaring flights is that it provides free publicity for the amazing soaring conditions that we have here. When you look on the website for locations that produce long flights you see places like Parowan, Minden, Alamogordo, and Ridge Soaring. Moriarty could probably be near the top of that list. This could help bring in business for our airport. The worst that could happen to those of us who are already here is that we have ramps that are a little more hectic but we’ll have lots planes in the air to mark thermals!

I have talked to lots of club members who also believe it would be a great idea for us to start submitting cross country flight traces to this website. However, during the 2003 season it never became a habit. I submitted a few flights and Carl submitted a big one for a total of about 2000km. If it did become habit this might also be an easy way to monitor the competitors in our club’s informal cross-country contest.

Next time you are on the web, check out the AeroKurier Online Contest via the links in the left sidebar on the club webpage (www.abqsoaring.org) and see what you think. Right now, most of the links are pointing to the 2004 flights. Once you are in their site, you can easily go browse through flights that were submitted for 2003. Check it out and let’s try and use this more in 2004!