Towlines
The Newsletter of the
From the President By Bob Hudson
By
the time you get this newsletter the annual Online Contest will be close to its
finish for this year. Right now it looks like the Albuquerque Soaring
Club has won its second
Also, by the time you read this we should have the replacement Grob in the club inventory and ten-zulu back in the air. (We have instructed Pat McKnight to get his Navy Seal proficiency back and he is authorized to dispatch justice to the first person who mars our new toy. To hell with the insurance deductible, I’d be afraid of Pat.)
I want to thank the folks that showed up at the club house to say goodbye to Mitch Hudson. We had a great turn out and as usual Angel Pala supplied the meat. Angel stayed over after the cookout and then promptly landed out the next day with Jim Cumiford and Mitch.
Howard Banks was chosen, can you say railroaded, into planning the annual Gala, so watch this space for information. So far the only thing I can tell you is we are going back to the Pyramid, the beef will not be overcooked, and it will be in January.
On another note, the state has decreed that we can no longer operate the club mobile home as an OPs location. We are looking for a covered trailer that we can tow all our stuff down, unload, and then park over on the north side of the ramp. Also be advised that the city is moving forward with a proposal to charge glider owners for parking their trailers on the west ramp. The good news is that the Airport Board will determine the amount and process collection and we have several members on that Board who will be looking out for our interests.
I want to thank all the presenters who donated time and effort to make our Safety Down Day such a success. We filled up George Applebay’s hangar and there was a great exchange of information. Your Club Board has approved this event as an annual event and we will hold in early in March.
Lastly, it is time to look to the future. We need to start thinking about next year’s Officers (elected, appointed and volunteers). This is your chance to give something back, besides your dollars, to the sport we all love. Let me know what you are interested in doing. As always, fly safe and I will see you around the air patch.
The On-Line Contest
As
of mid-September, Albuquerque Soaring has scored 147,000 points (from over
165,000 kms (103,000 miles) and is more than 25,000 points ahead of
second. Since the 2005 contest year ends on October 10, and unless there
is some amazing turnaround, it seems certain that ASC will be in first place in
the
In the world league, we are safe in fourth, matching last year’s performance. But we are fewer than 3,000 points out of third place. As President Hudson has said, one really good weekend and the bragging rights would be ours.
There have been notable flights this past month from Carl Ekdahl, Billy Hill and from Tim Feager (now his plane is fixed) and Bob Leonard, both Sundance. In addition to several long flights, on September 11 Mitch Hudson, Jim Cumiford and Angel Pala logged over 400 km flights culminated with landing out near Leyba. Mark Mocho continues to be the local pilot with the highest total points scored.
ASC
pilots also on the score sheet include Bob Knight, Lee Goettsche, Renny
Rozzoni, Kathy Taylor, Brian Resor and Steve Schery. Chip Garner also
filed his flights from the F1 in
Fly often, log every flight!
Airport News By Brian Resor
The Moriarty Airport Advisory Committee has not called a meeting in a while now. It’s been a busy summer and there have been no news items for us to address. Following are some issues that will affect us soon, though:
Tie downs – The city is seeking a recommendation from the committee as to how they might collect tie-down fees for aircraft at the airport. The details of this issue right now are non-existent. If we want to be a part of forming those details, then we need feedback from the aircraft owners before the recommendation is made. Details include: how much to charge, who to charge (permanent, transients, or both; trailers, assembled aircraft, empty trailers), how to collect charges, how to use the proceeds. It’s all very undecided at this point.
New crosswind runway – No news in this area. The project is still in a seemingly never-ending holding pattern.
Runway resurfacing – The runway was found to have large cracks in its surface. Upon investigation of the cracks, it was determined that the surface needed to be resurfaced, not just mended. Since then, I’ve heard that we may not need total resurfacing, but they are still shooting for some sort of repair activity during this upcoming fall/winter.
The airport committee was created so that those who have an interest could make sensible recommendations to the City on issues regarding the airport. Members on the committee include CAF, ASC, Sundance, Applebay and museum, Sundance pilots, private power pilots, and a few representative members of the Moriarty Community. I was roped into volunteering for a 2 year term on this committee (ends May 2006).
At first, I saw my job description as a person who would deliver messages back and forth between the committee/city and the club. Now I see that this job can be much more. A key task is to get the City to understand the impact that our airport and our soaring have on Moriarty. This is a big job that I am not willing to take on alone. Examples of ideas to show our interest include a report of economic worth of the airport or simply getting together a group of us to attend City Council meetings. If there are others in the club that can assist me with issues related to the City, I would appreciate the help and guidance.
Situational Awareness By Billy Hill
In light of what has occurred recently perhaps this is a good time to re-visit the issue of situational awareness.
A subset of situational awareness is positional awareness. The prime operative word and theme through out this little screed is awareness.
Unlike those individuals who are capable of multi-tasking, I find it necessary to focus as much of my attention on the matter at hand which in this case would be flying.
Proper preparations start with ensuring you are in a proper frame of mind. You may recall that on our club safety day J.D. Huss asked the question do you really need to make this flight. Of course the correct answer to that question is no. What I would suggest you ask yourself is this; am I in a proper frame of mind to fly today. After all, there are but a few of us who are flying sailplanes professionally and who therefore may need set aside personal issues in order to safely commit aviation. For the rest of us we should go to the airport without any undue outside stresses to worry about. Mental preparation is a very important first step in taking flight.
As we drive to the airport, we have ample opportunity to observe atmospheric conditions and see if they seem to jibe with the actual forecast. It’s been my experience that one should not judge the day too hastily. What may at first appear to be a less than stellar soaring day can quite often morph into one that can lead to some excellent cross country opportunities. This of course requires carefully observing conditions as they change. On the other hand, optimism not withstanding, the day can cheerfully and quickly go to hell in a hand basket. Here is where awareness comes into play.
Case in point was an afternoon not too long ago when a storm system had developed to the north of the airport. Initially it had not shown much indication of movement. However as the upper portions of the storm reached the winds aloft at the higher altitudes, it started to drift southward toward Moriarty. It was preceded by a gust front which was clearly indicated by blowing dust. At that point I suggested to two of our club members that they had only a very few minutes before the winds would surge out from the storm and increase to dangerous velocities. Both of these individuals took my somewhat less than subtle hint and secured their charges before the weather struck.
A good deal of situational awareness comes from developing good flying habits. The use of check lists is an excellent example of what I’m talking about. Not just having check lists but using them and developing a flow ‑ that is to say, performing the check list the same way every time will help reinforce good habit patterns.
Yet another example of situational awareness is never allowing distractions from keeping you focused on your primary task that is to say, flying the aircraft. Should an emergency occur, it will only be compounded by allowing yourself to be come distracted.
There are very few circumstances that require immediate action. In almost every case you have more time than you think. Flying is a prime example of the old saw about haste making waste. Give yourself that extra few seconds to analyze the situation. There are some situations where a cockpit drill and a conditioned reflex are important. For example, a cable break at fifty feet during a ground launch. Not much choice here. You push the stick forward to maintain sufficient flying speed and land straight ahead.
The whole point behind this article is not to provide you with black and white choices about how you fly, but to suggest that there is certainly a good deal of grey between the black and white. There are however, some basic questions that you can ask yourself as regards decision making. If you have to ask yourself should I be doing a particular task, more often than not the answer is no. If you have to ask yourself are my actions in conflict with the FAR’s, again the answer is most likely no.
See you at the airport.