Towlines
The Newsletter of the
www.abqsoaring.org
From the President By Bob Hudson
For all of you who attended
the Safety Down Day, I think you learned some good stuff. All the presentations
were excellent and extremely pertinent to continuing our culture of safe
flying. I received several very positive comments on the quality of the
presentations.
Well winter is almost over and the “real”
flying should begin soon. We are
postured to start carving into the OLC and should start seeing some really
strong flights. I was counting on Clay Philips knocking off some big flights,
but it looks like the US Navy has other plans. Clay got notified that he will
leave real soon for a year in
Mitch Report:
A lot of you have been asking me if I have
heard from Mitch (Hudson), well I have and I will continue, after all he was my
sister before the operation, sorry Mitch, I meant to keep the secret. Well, Mitch, has moved to the flight line (at
Laughlin Air Force Base in
http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=124)
Mitch should solo next week. When I talked to
Mitch today he had this to pass on:
“So today I learned about the G- suit test
button. I knew it existed and had used it before, however this time it
didn't come in so handy. We usually stuff our helmet
bags down to the left side, right behind the circuit breaker panel. This is
also where the G-suit test button is. I stuffed mine down here prior to the
flight, as usual, went through all my checks and took off. We went out,
shot a few touch and go's at the Aux field and then proceeded to do the area
work. Of course, in the area work, you start off with a G-ex.
Rolled into 70 degrees of bank and pulled around for a nice, 4G turn.
Well, the G- suit kept tightening up, and tightening up, and when I relaxed, it
was STILL inflating! I finally said (With much effort as the suit was at
the max inflation) Sir, I have a problem, take the aircraft" The IP
took the A/C and I immediately figured out what was going on. I moved the
bag, and lo and behold the G-suit deflated… You should have heard me as I
tried to talk with a fully inflated G-suit though! Funny stuff! All is well at pilot training.” That’s my
sister, that’s our Mitch.
Until next month…Fly safe, fly
often. Huds
Laurie’s Last Month
This is the last month that Laurie Carlton, our club bookkeeper,
will be serving the club in that capacity.
Laurie decided that after 12 years on the job, she needed a break to
pursue some other important tasks in her life.
Next time you see her, let’s all thank Laurie for her services. Being bookkeeper for the club means wading
through all sorts of bills, invoices, mailings, ops sheets, and tax forms (and
let’s not forget the little audit that occurred a few years ago, which came out
okay). A replacement is being finalized
within the next billing cycle. Thanks
for the years of help, Laurie!
OLC Encounters Brian Resor
I
just returned from a very productive vacation at Seminole Gliderport in central
The
OLC is amazing to me, still. The evening
after our first flight, I noticed several people from the gliderport
disappearing into a bush at the end of the runway with their laptops. After a while they’d come back out. I decided to check it out. As I neared the bush I find Tom Kelley
(Albuquerque Soaring’s newest OLC pilot, by the way) uploading his flight trace
to the Internet. It blows my mind that
you can fly all day, download your trace, go to a bush and set your laptop on a
fencepost to “borrow” the neighbors wireless network connection for posting
your flight for the whole world to see!
There
were many eastern ridge-running pilots there that week getting ready for the
Senior Nationals and I got to chat with them a little bit. They are having a blast with the OLC contest
now. The serious ones are learning about
extending their day to earn more points rather than landing at 4 o’clock in the
afternoon. The ridge-runners seem to
think that they might be able to score more points than anyone in the country
in 2006.
So
far this year, they are doing much better than they have done in the past. Knauff and team are getting organized and
educated on task strategies this year and will likely score a lot if they get
decent weather. Aero Club Albatross is
having a blast flying the ridge whenever they can, even in the midst of winter
weather. I kindly reminded these guys of
our usual come-from-behind OLC assault that will hopefully start soon. Then I decided to shush-up so that they could
take this time to enjoy their lead while it lasts.
We
should see our first big thermal flights starting in April. Let’s be ready to pour it on heavy and earn an
OLC-USA three-peat victory!
Land Out By Bob Hudson
Once
your aircraft stops its landing rollout is not the time to wish you had planned
for a land out. Preparation for a land out starts long before you start the
trip to the airport. For instance,
proper clothing for the weather you expect to encounter does you no good if it
is home in the closet. You have heard me state this before…dress like you are
going to have to walk home.
Okay
let’s look at the land out. You are
committed, there ain’t no lift going to get you out of the fix you are in, this
airplane is going to land…and its going to land now. As you concentrate on the landing area you
have picked, take a look around and survey your options. Nearest major road, where does it lead to,
any houses? I say nearest major road
because you might have options like a close-in road, a couple hundred of yards
away that leads ten miles into town, or another road a quarter a mile away that
leads to two ranch houses. I am heading
to the ranch houses.
If
time permits and you have buddies airborne try to give them as exact a location
of your proposed landing site as you can, GPS coordinates are nice if you can
pass them. (Also tell them how the
landing ended up before turning your battery off.)
If
you are alone, and you have a cell phone, try and pass your info to someone
before losing the cell. This could mean
making that call airborne, because you might not have line of site to a cell
once you touch down. Of course always,
always, fly the plane first. I don’t
want to find you in a ball with the cell phone stuck to your ear. Rick, probably doesn’t know this, but I have
his cell phone number programmed in my cell phone.
Do
you have a survival kit? Each aviator
should consider what they would like to have with them in preparation for a
night out in the country. Now a lot of
you might think that the odds of having to stay out all night are slim and I
would agree, but once that sun goes down in the high desert, it isn’t uncommon
to see forty degree temp drops. For this
reason I have a thermal blanket that I take with me. This blanket, which you can buy at any
outdoor store, serves two purposes. One it helps to keep valuable body heat in
and, second, is a great 5 by 8 signaling device. In the chance that it should
snow or rain (yeah right, when was the last time it rained…an hour after you land
out), you can build a shelter with it.
Take this blanket and place it in a large baggy and duck tape it to the
back of the seat.
Now
think about other things you might add to your survival “baggy”. Add some waterproof matches, a little list of
phone numbers, a couple of aspirins and some advil, or the pain killer of your
choice. If this stuff is taped to your
plane then you don’t have to worry about prior to flight.
Lastly,
as you await the eventual rescue, take a few minutes to concoct a great story
to tell around the club house. Nobody
wants to hear that you bypassed great lift and flew into an area of no
hope. I use the
On Working the Wave By Billy Hill
We
all are aware that mountain wave is a series of atmospheric perturbations
generated by underlying terrain. This
condition can be enhanced by the presence of the troposphere which acts as the upper
portion of the constriction in the atmosphere which accelerates the flow of air
across the obstruction. Wave frequency
remains somewhat constant, but can vary as wind direction and velocity change. Influxes of unstable air under the overlying
wave can also come into play. When the
winds are strong enough to generate what we have come to know as a “typical”
standing wave, the frequency is often on the order of four to six miles between
each cycle. When stronger velocity winds
exist, the frequency can be more than double that, even to the point of
generating the first iteration of the wave where one would normally expect to
find the secondary. Mother Nature only
gives a hint of this possibility when there are no clouds to indicate that such
a condition exists. That hint will be
found in the winds aloft forecast. Best
sources of lift can be readily identified when clouds form in conjunction with
high velocity winds which indicate the location of the primary and each
subsequent cycle. For that matter, when
clouds form, i.e. rotor and lennies, the location of the best lift is quite
evident.
When
working thermal lift, it becomes almost a point of honor to see how low we can
release and still center up and climb.
This technique quite often will not work when attempting to contact the
wave.
When
a strong temperature inversion exists as it often does during the winter
months, thermal activity is all but non existent. So, you ask, what was that bump which spiked
my verio while on tow?
Rotor
turbulence can be found at almost any altitude from the surface up and can be
quite dramatic when encountered at any altitude. In all likelihood this is what led to the
crash of UAL 585 in
Some
rotor can be climbed in, but more often than not, it will just suck you into
releasing too soon because you think you have nailed a reliable source of
lift. If there is clearly a temperature
inversion and little if any probability of thermal lift, then you are better
off to tow into the laminar portion of the wave which exists above the rotor
zone.
As
the weather makes its metamorphosis from hard winter conditions into those
enhanced by convective conditions the rules change a bit.
Yesterday
was a shining example of just such conditions.
We had a clearly marked primary which was located just west of highway
41. Underneath were an assortment of
rotor cumulus clouds. This appeared to
be one of those days when releasing in what could be called rotor enhanced
thermal activity was possible. Under
these circumstances a climb into the smooth portion of the wave which exists
above the rotor zone should have been quite doable. At that point, one need only contact ATC,
(which should have been done prior to takeoff
to see if the wave window was available), and let them know you are
requesting a climb into class “A” airspace.
Happy
hunting