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From the Vice President

By Pete Vredenburg

Our President is away this month, so I’m reporting to you in her place.

As a reminder, we will be voting on a fee increase at the OCTOBER club meeting and we will need a quorum, so please attend.  We will have an open discussion on potential changes to our fleet, as a planning exercise.  The OCTOBER meeting will be held at the clubhouse at 9 AM on Saturday the 23rd.  We will serve refreshments at that meeting.

At this month’s Board meeting, we decided to start a progressive replacement of the old Terra radios with new ones.  The Terras obsolete, and are no longer easily serviceable.  We will probably start with RU this year, and then work up the list at time and successful installations progress.  We discussed the Grob’s radio, which has serious range problems, and agreed that it was likely an antenna issue, which Tom T will try to sort out.  We had a relatively small turnout at this meeting, so we decided to restrict out discussions to the radios and to routine business matters.

I encourage everyone who can attend to make it to the club meeting this month.  It should be fun to look at the pictures and specs for possible future fleet ships, and to discuss which one’s may best fit the needs of the membership. 

ASC Cross-Country Standings

 The scoring for the 2004 OLC season ended on October 11, the overall ranking of “Albuquerque Soaring” (which includes our friends who fly with Sundance) was 4^th in the WORLD.

Clubs in the top standings were based in Europe.  The #1 club was based in the foothills of the Alps.  Almost all clubs in the top standings had at least twice as many pilots as we did.  Congratulations to everyone who participated!

It’s already time to look forward to an even better year in 2005.  After the huge success of the OLC this year, there will be lots of active clubs and operations gunning for Albuquerque Soaring’s #1 ranking in the US.  If you are an experienced pilot, look forward to flying longer flights in 2005.  If you are an aspiring XC pilot, look forward to plenty of support from your Albuquerque teammates as you make your first trips from the nest.  We’ll need all the scores we can get!

As of October 11, 2004, following are the standings of the ASC club contest.  Position    Pilot    Glider    Score:

Gold Class

1 Bill Hill Discus 3332, 2 Mitch Hudson Discus 2722, 3 Howard Banks ASW-20 2551, Brian Resor Std Cirrus 2434, Jim Cumiford Ventus 2422, Kathy Taylor ASW-27 2079, Mark Mocho Pegasus 2006, Angel Pala DG 800 1767, Jim Wier ASW-20 1745, Bob Knight DG 600 1238, Lee Goettche Pik-20 1027

Silver Class

1 Steve Schery, Russia AC4b, 1909; 2 David Harmony, Ventus, 1209; 3 Ryan Thomas Std Libelle 1002; Fred Watson, Ventus, 427; Murat Okandan, Nimbus 2, 531; Renny Levy, SGS 1-26, 170

Wave weekend in Las Vegas?

                                            Mitch Hudson

Some members have been discussing the possibility of having a wave weekend in Las Vegas and we are trying to get a feel for who may be interested.  The possibilities of flying out of 'Vegas are that we could go cross country in the wave, perhaps all the way up the Sangres, and get an early head start on the OLC scoring.  The recent flights along the Andes in South America have piqued many people's interest in this new way of flying long cross country.  If you are interested, please E-Mail me at mhudson126@aol.com and I will try to get something put together.

The Glider Staging Area           Billy Hill

When our current runway was constructed a goodly number of years ago, taxiway Delta, the one from which we stage for glider towing was specifically designed for our club operations.  You may note that it is larger than either taxiway Alpha or Bravo and this was done to allow for the optimum number of gliders to stage there.  Ironically the aircraft hold line at taxiway Delta is in the same place as all the others.  The hold line is the point behind which aircraft, and this includes gliders are supposed to hold until the runway is clear and they are ready for takeoff, (AIM par. 2-3-5).

If we in fact followed this recommended procedure, our ability to operate would be diminished considerably.  What we have done is to attempt to adhere to the spirit of the law, or in this case recommended procedure as defined in the Aeronautical Information Manual.  However, it’s become clear that at times we push the limits of safety and good judgment.

On a good soaring day the tie down area is chocked full of sailplanes ready for the first indication of soarable conditions.  As soon as the first pilot of a single place ship stages for launch, the rest of us follow him/her to the staging area.  Quite often this will overlap with our training operations or those of Sundance Aviation with whom we share that intersection.  It is here that we see one of the first problems.  If we get too many gilders south of the hold line and within the confines of the taxiway, more often than not the operations grind to a halt as we attempt to sort out who is going to tow behind which tow plane and how soon that will happen.  In order to optimize the operation, we stack gliders starting at the extreme east end of the taxiway.  This works to some degree for those awaiting departure, but what about the student who is about to land on his first solo?

Fortunately our instructors have been good about teaching the students not to enter the taxiway when it contains other aircraft.  In a perfect world, the student or for that matter the pilot of any other sailplane should do the same, that is DO NOT enter the taxiway after landing unless you are assured you will stop well short of other aircraft or personnel without the use of brakes!  Another option, when the taxiway is getting congested is to land long enough to use the next taxiway west of taxiway Delta.  This will involve pulling the glider back to the staging area but is far safer than what we have seen recently. 

As Mark Mocho has been heard to state, “you should never aim your glider at something you can’t afford to buy.”  This has been happening on far too regular a basis.  That is we have seen pilots attempt to clear the runway onto our taxiway at far too high a rate of speed and trusting the brakes will allow them to get stopped before the hit someone or something.  This has often been done in the interests of “efficiency” and I’m guilty of doing it myself.  No one wants to tie up the runway because they have stopped short.  But is doing so not safer than charging into a taxiway full of gliders, people and towplanes?   After all, power traffic has the option of going around and other gliders have the option of landing short on the available runway east of our taxiway, landing long and hence over traffic on the runway, (assuming it’s stopped and not a powered aircraft), or of using the parallel taxiway traffic permitting.

When you are taking your turn running the operations, you should be pro-active about ensuring the taxiway does not become a hazardous area for other club members.  Be pro-active, look for ways to enhance safety.  Don’t let it become compromised.

Wave Window Information

Wave season is coming and it’s time to review the wave window agreement that the Moriarty glider pilots have with Albuquerque Center.  You can find the agreement along with other information like maps and a SeeYou airspace file on the club website in the “links” section:  www.abqsoaring.org/links.htm

Moriarty Airport Updates     Brian Resor

As of this past summer, I volunteered to be appointed to the Moriarty Airport Advisory Board.  The Board serves Moriarty by providing recommendations to the City Council regarding airport business.  We meet once a month to discuss the latest news.

Recently, a big topic has been the new crosswind runway.  Recently, $293,000 was allotted for acquisition of the required land.  Before construction can start, surveying must be finished.  Preliminary surveys found some “historic trash” and so the process was held up for a little while this summer.  Some of the sites have already been cataloged but more surveys have been ordered.  With some luck, we’ll see construction start sooner than we might guess.

Ken Jensen and myself have been assigned the task of evaluating the value of the airport for the city.  If anyone out there has used the (brief) AOPA guide to calculating the economic impact of his or her old home airport, then I would like to hear how it went.

A goal of the Board is to promote Moriarty airport as a sport aviation airport.  Gliders have been a respected presence at the airport for many years.  Hopefully with the recently demonstrated success of OLC-scoring glider pilots flying out of Moriarty this year (which in turn brings more pilots), along with the possibility of hosting soaring competitions (with a x-wind runway available), followed with proof in the form of numbers with $$-signs, the City of Moriarty will find it easy to embrace the airport as a valuable resource for its residents.