May 2005

From the President Bob Hudson

Here that sound? That is the sound of time ticking away as we get closer to all the activities that are rapidly approaching. I am getting excited and I hope you are too, as this is an opportunity to really put our best face forward. Our first activity is the visit by our Arizona friends, over Memorial Day Weekend, who want to come and test our airspace. As these “foreigners” descend on the home of the 2004 National Champion On-Line Contestants, they will be greeted by a banner that now adorns the entrance to the Club House that proclaims our champion status. Ain’t war ugly?

Immediately following Memorial Day, the Vintage Sailplane Association will host a “competition” that will culminate with the Opening of the Southwest Soaring Museum . On the night of June 10^th, the Museum will host a gala dinner and dance to commemorate the opening. As I have stated before, if you want to attend the dinner ($50 a ticket) you can have it charged to your Club bill. The speaker for the Gala is Astronaut Joe Edwards, who was the liason with the Russians over the joint Shuttle-Mir mission. Following the Speaker there will be dancing. Get your tickets before they are all gone. Contact J.D. Huss.

Following the Museum opening, we will have the 1-26 National Championships, another Youth Camp, a visitation by the Vontage Sailplane fliers, and in-between we will shoe horn in some of our own flying. When speaking about our own flying we are starting to see several 500 plus kilometer flights. Our on-line contestants are putting in some great flights. If you venture over to our Web Site, you will notice that Tim Feager already has four flights over 500k, in fact we had five pilots (Tim Feager, Danny Sorenson, Mitch Hudson, Bill Hill and Jim Cummiford) all exceed 500k on the 8^th of May. Additionally, every time Howard Banks and Kathy Taylor launch they fly over 300K. All the efforts of these dedicated aviators have helped to move our club up from fourth place to third place, in the on-line contest, in just one weekend. We’re making our move!

Congratulations to Austin Heerman upon completion of his recent “check ride” and his introduction into the world of pilot-in-command.

Mitch Hudson has finally gotten his class date for Officer Candidate School . He leaves in mid September, graduates in late December and then is off to Del Rio Texas for pilot training. We will miss Mitch, but until he is gone we will enjoy his friendship and the large amount of mileage he should get for our club this summer.

For those of you have been active lately, thanks for your support and for the rest of you, come out and enjoy your club. Keep climbing, Bob.

Garner is US F1 pilot

Gliding Formula One, that is. In France . This new-style contest, the first World Sailplane Grand Prix to be held WHERE 4-11 September, is designed to appeal to TV and the rest of the media.

To make it more exciting, there will be a horse-race start, meaning that a start time will be set and it is up to pilots to cross the line as near to it as possible, rather than the open start times in conventional contests. Tasks will be relatively short, of up to two-and-a half hours, and will be routed around the local mountain tops and the home airfield will also be used as a turnpoint.

This F1 racing will involve a regatta finish (Chip says he is not yet sure whether that means a finish to a landing rather than crossing a line – imagine a whole bunch of sailplanes at redline, or more, skating over the fence and trying to be first to land! But then it is all designed to appeal to TV.)

If the weather helps there could be two tasks a day.

The pilots will be tracked in real-time by gps, with the results projected on large screens for the crowds to watch. There will be live cameras in some of the gliders, again with the resulting pictures projected on big screens, and there may be helicopter camera ships tracking the event in real time.

One small gesture toward safety; the field will be limited to 20 contestants all flying 15M ships (Chip hopes to fly a Ventus 2).

Scoring will copy the motor racing F1 system, which gives 10 point to the winner of each race, 8 for second scaling down to 1 point for eighth place.

They are looking for bids for a practice Grand Prix for next year, 2006 and for the next full scale Grand Prix in 2007. Moriarty anyone, assuming that we get that second runway?

Oh what a relief!

Thanks to the efforts of Ryan Thomas and Brian Resor, the club’s Libelle is no longer quite so ugly when it comes to needing to get rid of all the water pilots drink. It now has a neat relief system.

Ryan spent a hot weekend Saturday installing a tube in the belly of the glider, through which the actual relief system is inserted. This is a rigid tube, long enough to stick sufficiently below the bottom of the glider so that there are no unpleasant yellow stains to wash off on landing (or to leave for the next user if club practice is followed in this regard).

To this rigid tube Brian has devised a connection system using “T” and “L” connectors and flexible tubing to attach to an external cather. To ensure a certain amount of hygiene, and allow personal preference in designing the system to match individual variations (no this is not turning into an advertisement for male enhancement), each pilot is being asked to create their own pee tube. Total cost of this is under $5.

A prototype sample of one of these tubes has been created by Brian and is in the club house. Ryan is now an expert and can explain the finer points of using the system. Experience with similar systems suggest that it is fail-safe and rarely leaks, though cautious pilots add a small hand towel or similar to their flying kit to mop up excessive enthusiasm, as it were.

On reading the day By Billy Hill

There are some circumstances when “playing it by ear and faking the beat” is not the best approach and planning for a cross country flight in a sailplane is one of them. A serious sojourn of any distance should start days in advance as you get a feel for how the weather is trending. This can be accomplished via any of the web sites and services provided over the internet. (See Brian Resor’s helpful article in last month’s Towlines – available on the club’s website if you have lost your hrd copy.)

It’s important that the days on which you plan to fly jibe with those days which Mother Nature has set aside for your soaring pleasure. In that regard we in New Mexico are quite fortunate as far more often than not Mother Nature is amenable to the idea of providing you with invisible means of support.

On the morning of the day on which you plan to sally forth, you should be checking the extrapolated sounding for Moriarty. This information, too, can be gleaned from either the club web site or that of Sundance Aviation.

If you plan on using the club’s Libelle for a badge or record attempt you should reserve it with whoever is running OPS. This will require getting out to the field early enough to get your mode of transportation ready well before the tie down area gets crowded with others of like mindset.

Because you have your trusty steed tethered and ready and it’s not even eleven o’clock we can assume that the weather is conducive to the task at hand or else you are the consummate optimist.

By now the training gliders have been up and about, so take a minute and talk with those who have already been flying. You may find that the day is actually already far better than it appears. On the other hand, you might want to postpone your launch a bit.

This brings up the conundrum of the “goat tow.” Who’s gonna be the first one up. By now you have noticed that once the first sailplane is pulled out to the line all others will follow. What makes this so humorous is that unless it is clear that stay-upable conditions exist, no one really knows if the goat will stick or not. Doesn’t matter though because everyone else has lined up behind him/her in order not to be left out of the fun and games.

One of the many things I admire about Carl Ekdahl is that he will stage and launch if he thinks he can stay up. He’s not going to wait to see if someone else will. This is why you will see him show up for a launch after all others are at the tie-down area waiting for that first brave soul. Clearly Carl has read the sky and deems it soarable. When he does this sort of thing he is prepared to take a high tow in order to ensure he can find what ever will allow him to remain aloft.

I always enjoy it when, after I’ve taken the first tow, and I am making circles in the sky, someone asks me if I’m climbing. I’m always tempted to do my Mark Mocho imitation and respond with something like, “hell no, I’m just screwing myself back into the ground.” But, being pure of heart and gentle of spirit, I resist.

If your plan is to fly a predetermined course as in a badge or record attempt and you depart during the earlier part of the soaring day, remember that the thermals are cycling at five to ten minute intervals. Along with this, remember that said updrafts may not all reach the same height as those clouds which may have formed. This gives the appearance of a blue hole. In reality there is usually lift to be found which is weaker than that that found under the clouds and which does not reach the convective condensation level, (cloud base.) On the other hand, it could be a true blue hole in which there is very little if any lift to be found. Under these circumstances climb as high as you can and tip toe out at best L/D until you know what lies ahead.

If the clouds are there and are working then fly fast and only stop for the good stuff. But before you do that, you need to know under which portion of the clouds the best lift can be found. This can be done by giving the Cu’s a good looking under. Once you feel confident of locating the sweet spot under the clouds then go for it!

As the day progresses the sky, and the conditions, will change. Could be a change for the better or perhaps Mother Nature is in a perfidious mood in which case you better be prepared to shift gears before you find yourself with a box full of neutrals!

So far this year I have flown on two occasions when the Estancia valley has over developed and it looked as though the prudent course of action was to make haste to 0E0. In reality in both cases even though the valley was dead, there were what appeared to be workable clouds over the Manzanos and the Sandias. Had I chosen to fly westbound until I came into contact with that lift, I could have logged a couple of more hours of flying to say nothing of more miles.

The lesson here is, and it’s an important one, sometimes it’s necessary to fly away from your destination in order to make it home. Put another way, be prepared to go to what ever source of lift is manifesting it’s self in order to remain aloft. If nothing else it provides you with an opportunity to climb to a higher altitude all the while contemplating your next course of action.

One of the biggest mistakes made by new cross country pilots is getting fixated on the idea of gliding home thru dead air without sufficient altitude to make it to their destination. Off they go. Fingers and toes crossed hoping something will magically appear and provide them with sufficient lift to get home. Remember what I just wrote about the box full of neutrals?

See you at the airport.