December 2004

The club meeting and elections were held on Saturday, December 11, at the club house – members asked for this early date at the November meeting. Election details on the web site and here next month.

The Board approved hiring a contractor to put down some base course in the parking area on the west end of the hangar. About 50 tons of gravel will be compacted in that area to make up for the soil that has blown away over the years, exposing the hangar’s footings. Thanks to Don Kawal for honchoing this effort.

Our Grob 103 is getting some much needed maintenance. A number of items were found wanting during the annual by Robert Mudd and that glider has been out of service for a month. At the same time, we have taken the wings to Applebay’s shop for refinishing. Thanks to Steve Schery and Howard Banks for helping to take that monster apart. And we have removed the remains of the old side pockets and my husband George is working on new ones. We will shortly have a much better looking Sierra India.

The club banquet will be held January 14 at the Pyramid Marriott (see note below).

Tom Tichy is working with an independent account to have our books audited by a professional. We expect that job to be completed this month.

Don’t forget that if there is a No-Show for Ops duty and you are there and care to fill in, you can have $75 credited to your club account. You must clearly write on the flight log for the day that you are filling in for No-Show (fill in the name). The No-Show will have $75 added to his bill.

This will be my last report to you as President of the Albuquerque Soaring Club. It has been a pleasure to serve you and I appreciate the tremendous support I’ve had from the membership. We’ve had a hard-working Board of Directors and I’d like to publicly thank Brian Resor, Tom Tichy, Mitch Hudson, Jimmy Wier, and Pete Vredenburg. Much of the work of keeping the club functioning gets done by the appointed officers: Bob Hudson, John Farris, Mike Kleinfeld, JD Huss, Jim Miller, and Billy Hill. The club would be in total disarray without their dedication. Also, thanks to Don Kawal for chairing our insurance committee and Howard Banks for taking on that all-important function of putting out an informative and interesting newsletter.

ASC Annual Awards Dinner

Jan 14^th at the Marriott Pyramid North Hotel in the Kokopelli Ballroom.

There will be a cash bar from 7pm to 8pm, to be followed by a plated dinner. Two main course items are being offered, a garlic and herb crusted prime rib and a maple lacquered salmon. A vegetarian alternative will also be available. Dinner will include a spinach salad and a sinful chocolate desert.

Cost: $30 per person.

Dinner will be followed by a speaker, to be arranged by President Kathy Taylor, after which will come the awards ceremony.

Please make reservations, with choice of meal, to a board member or to Howard Banks (tel: 505-821 2651; email: HBSoar@Comcast.net). The deadline for reservations is noon on the 11^th of January.

For those wishing to stay overnight, a special room price of $75 (no breakfast) is available. Please mention that you are attending the Soaring Club dinner.

The hotel is located alongside I-25 with access from both the service road and from Jefferson. There is lots of (free) car parking right outside the hotel entrance.

Look forward to seeing you all there.

How fast?

"It must be winter if we are writing thumb-suckers about theory," says Carl Ekdahl (IY). True, but when better to dive into something as basic – and as crucial – as how fast to fly between thermals? Fly too fast and hit the ground, but fly too slowly and the day will evaporate before you finish your task. It's like those shaving cream advertisements.

The subject arose from reading a piece in Sailplane and Gliding by Andy Davis, Brit winner of the standard class at last year's worlds in Poland. So who better to ask their opinion about speed to fly in our area than Carl and Chip Garner (CG), who flew against Davis?

Davis' main point is not to set the MacCready too high; IY and CG agree. Around Moriarty, on a nice day, the radio chat says that there are 8 knot thermals, but that is only when you are well centered and in the best part of the thermal. Actual achieved average climb over the whole thermal (the basis of the MacCready calculation – and if you want a study course on this ask Carl for some of his technical writings), is most often half the "radio rate" after you include the wasted turns getting centered and then hanging around too long when the lift rate tapers off.

Carl says he rarely sets his MacCready at more than 4 or 5 even on booming Moriarty days when the vario gets pegged. Chip points out that setting the MacCready to the exact setting for the best lift would require inter-thermal flying at redline. There are some surprising (well, to this editor) reasons to fly a bit slower most of the time. It comes down to what Davis calls search area. Davis says that flying a bit slower allows you to search a 20% or larger area and if, as a result, you hook one or two above-average boomers then your average speed will actually end up significantly higher than if you slavishly follow MacCready. Carl says that the improved probability of finding a better next thermal is even more important on blue days. This search area effect is worth noting the lower the performance of your glider, since the polar of older airfoils drops off more steeply at higher speeds than polars of newer designs.

Flying a bit more cautiously also helps avoid risking a low, time-consuming scrape or, worse, a landout. Both IY and CG agree that they are quick to wind the MacCready back if things even start to turn sour. Chip says when to slow down depends more on what's ahead than on altitude. If the clouds look great then keep flying fast lower. However, he cautions, while it may be okay to press on down to 1500 ft AGL in eastern states, it isn't round here; low is relative.

Another key point raised by both Carl and Chip is the ground speed benefit from the higher true airspeed achieved at the high altitudes we mostly enjoy. Carl notes that if dolphin flying is possible then that further boosts cross country average speed. Add TAS to dolphin on one of those super Moriarty days and those phenomenal mega-L/D cruises become possible. Much number crunching by Carl shows that when flying like a dolphin, a MacCready set at 70% of optimum produces the highest average speed.

So how do the experts manage their flight computers in practice? Hands up who said it all depends. When things are good, Chip tends to optimize on the fact that his (ballasted) Discus 2 is more efficient at 110 to 120 knots than going faster. So on a good day that is his typical maximum cruise, except when he is already high and thinks he can reach another good thermal. Carl says that around Moriarty he sticks to MacCready 4 or 5, but at Uvalde, where dolphin flying is often more effective, he cuts that to 3. But if there is a lot of sink between well-spaced monster thermals, he increases it to 5 or 6.

And what of Davis, who has now won two standard class worlds? He (and other good Euro pilots) typically flew faster than US pilots in moderate to good conditions, says Chip. Davis would push out ahead of the other competitors in good conditions and pick off a screamer well below 2,000ft AGL. He seemed to be better at finding lift lower and much further from the clouds.

And that results from practice more than anything to do with MacCready!