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| April, 2007 |
Volume 5, Issue 1
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| NEXT MEETING: 7:00p.m. May 17th, 2007 at MCL Cafeteria in Castleton | ||
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WELCOME DAVE! While George Saunders is in Chile doing special work, testing his soaring skills in unfamiliar territory, practicing his Spanish and pursuing his Chilean pilot license, Dave Newill will be our substitute editor. Judging from his first issue, we will be kept well on top of the news. Mario Lazaga |
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Time to Go Up again!
Substitute Editors Note: Having done the newsletter job many years ago - I had forgotten just how hard a job it is to put together this piece of CISS's communications! Next time you see George - let him know how great a job he did on last years many issues of Wingtips! |
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NEW MEMBERS Actually we do not have any "new" members to report - no unusual after the winter months, but I did see Keith Marshall, Brad Hays back at the safety meeting. So welcome back to the Alexandria skies guys! NEW MEMBERS No it is not a mis-type! The club is looking to grow! And to do so we are willing to offer a very special reduced membership and flight fee to those who are joining between NOW and June 30th. The package includes a one time new member fee of $250 and FREE GLIDER RENTAL for these new members in May and June and 10 instructional flights for $290 ,,, and pre-paid tow packages of $240 for 10 tows to 2000' and $290 for 10 tows to 3000'. These are GREAT DEALS! Now you just need to share them with all those friends of yours who have always said "One of those days.." Or "That looks like a great way to fly!" If they join - you get a FREE PASS on a crew day for attracting a signed up and paid member! For details on the special membership - contact Dan DeWitt for more information - or with an application for membership! |
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ANNUAL SAFETY MEETING For the 46 members who attended - Thanks! For those who prepared the presentations and set up the room and coffee and donuts - SPECIAL THANKS! Pete Detore, Nyal Williams, Mike Relaige all contributed more than their share to make us all aware of the issues to be concerned with as we take off into 2007. If you did NOT attend the meeting - then you cannot fly in club equipment until you have read the "Read File" and signed off on the list. Safety is critical to keeping you and the club equipment looking as good in November as you started in April. Let's all have an Attitude of Safety for 2007 at all times. See something you privately consider less than the best for safety practice - fill out a safety reporting form and the safety committee will always swing into action! |
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SEASON STARTS! MARCH 31st at I99 - Knott's Flying Field - Alexandria. Crews are to be ON THE FIELD at 0900 and get the first ship ready to go as soon as possible. First student to sign up and fly MAY have three flights in a row - depending on the number of waiting students, instructors desires and aircraft availability. The Crew Chief and Instructor make this decision on each weekend flying day. Also note: we now have aircraft frequency radios in the golf carts in addition to the walkie-talkies. Please use them only for direct contact to a pilot and for aviation communications only. Cart to cart and cart to base communications need to be on the walkie-talkie. With some crews now down to only three people - it is critical that everyone who shows up help the crew! The crew will be there at 0900 and with daylight savings time can expect some long days - but they will be doing the launching and retrieves and need your help to get the planes into and out of the hanger, and all the rest of the day to day events. MIKE RIELAGE to bid us farewell in June CISS has been most fortunate in having an FAA Designee in the club. [This is an FAA IP who can sign off your flight test] For those of us who got our tickets at places without this sort of support, and paid for it - we realize just how critical it is to be able to get your FAA flight exam out of the way at your airport, in your equipment with someone you know! After June 30th, Mike will no longer be flying with us and will not be acting in the FAA designee role. SO.. If you are close to your license - you need to get in the cockpit, get those flights out of the way and be ready for the flight exam in May or June! |
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Region 6 News This year there will be two official SSA contests in our area: The Buckeye Nationals - June 12 - 21 U.S. Sports Class Nationals Caesar Creek Gliderport. Contact is Dick Hotzwarth rhotzwarth@who.rr.com Ionia Michigan will host the 2007 Johann Kuhn Memorial Region 6 contest 15 - 21 July Contact is Tony Smit, benzeast@benzaviation.com |
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National News A brief report from the Memphis Convention - At least five of us from CISS made the journey to visit Memphis and the National Convention. With this being the 75th anniversary of the SSA, there were a couple of special exhibits and events. The event made a special effort to acknowledge the WWII Glider Pilots and one evening dinner included a preview showing of the new documentary - "Silent Wings". Both sides of the war were recognized in this event. A collection of historic / vintage Grande Dames of soaring were in place = nearly doubling the size of the exhibit hall. 
There were some excellent presentations. Due to the length and timing of the Board meetings as well as the sessions on Clubs and Chapters, I did not get to attend nearly as many as I would have like to. Shawn Knickerbocker's session on "Cloud flying" really opened my eyes. For those of us who are instrument rated - he showed how you can LEGALLY fly in the clouds in the USA (a very common practice in Europe). The key is a new instrument that provides all the artificial horizon and instrument data you need. This allows him to climb the full height of a thermal then - "canopy hop" from cloud top to cloud top - well above and much faster than the competitors flying 4 - 8,000 feet below. Shawn does this on the east coast -so it can be done in high IFR traffic areas. 
Cindy Brickner continued her series on landings and in-flight decision-making. Ask Nyal for details - but she really gets the points across with her excellent aerial photos of potential landing sites and how they look at different times of day ( shadows ) and from different angles around the prospective land-out area. I didn't get into Gordon Boettger's session on flying the Sierra wave until the very end - amazing flight of 2061 km (1326 NM) to a declared goal! His GPS trace had some phenomenal long straight - no circling - wave sections in it. Ah, to fly out west.. Frank Pascale's session on sailplane batteries shows just how lucky we all are that there are people dedicated to understanding the various components we take for granted. I took about two pages of notes from this highly detailed and very through presentation. One session that had a lot of BUZZ , but which I could not attend was the de-turbulator shown on a Sparrowhawk. The claim - and it is verified by a Dick Johnson test - is about an 18% increase in L/D performance with this "simple" devise. Go to www.sinhatech.com to read the reports and judge for yourself. If he is right, we may all be flying 40:1 ships with strips of space-blanket taped to them - Watch out Ron ( ZA) there might be an L-23 chasing you next time! HA! 
Sure wish I could have heard the session on preparing for your first contest - but SSA duty prevailed. Soaring Simulators - Paul Moggach - was a neat display of a simple computer based trainer with a stick and rudder control. The projector was mounted over the head of the student, and the screen - a large stretched sheet - was from ground to six feet tall. There is one confirmed report of a student - non-flyer - who had 20 simulator rides then took five approaches in a motor glider and was ready to solo after two rides in an ASK-21! I am really excited about the work being done on this subject - and can see training clubs having a simulator that they rent out for practice during the week - or do training on during the winter. It could also be used at the field for a student to practice his mission before going flying! Really neat stuff! As for the Display Hall - Antares sort of stole the show - with its electric self-launch system. Written descriptions will not do the job. See the pictures and talk to those who were there! Amazingly quiet and fast transition from power to sailplane. Sparrowhawk showed up with a power pod for self-launch - but does cut down the L/D. ASW-29 was out for all to admire. Lots of goodies to spend money on! I bought some really clever software for making local area soaring maps complete with distance to fly rings that interlink and overlapping current sectionals! - Will show off at some club meeting. 
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GERRY SIMPSON HAS A NEW PLANE Our fellow member Gerry Simpson just bought himself a Discus. He is planing to do lots of Cross Country with it. As soon as he's able he promises to put it on the runway and fly. He hopes to earn more than a few points in the club XC contest. Go for it Gerry! 
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New Membership Form Dan Dewitt has created a new and improved membership form. If you know of somebody who wants to join us to play with the clouds over the sky in Indiana, pass it on. CLICK HERE.  |
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Summary of Gerry Whitson's expenses No kidding! Gerry actually keeps track of his soaring expenses! Aren't you glad he's our treasurer? If you want to organize yourself, and want to compare your expenses with Gerry's expenses to get his Gold and Diamonds, read his great article. CLICK HERE  |
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JORGE SAUNDERS SAYS "HOLA" George Saunders is maintaining a very nice website while he is visiting South America. Check it out, and read the article he wrote about his adventures in the land of the Condor. CLICK HERE.  |
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I WANT YOU ...to write an article for this Newsletter. Please send them to me before April 15th. 
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