|
| July, 2005 |
Volume 3, Issue 4
|
|
| NEXT MEETING: 7:00p.m. August 18th, 2005 AT LEPPERT (click for directions) | ||
|
Hot and Humid, June and July
The heat, humidity, low cloud bases, and abundant sweat didn't stop the pilots from progressing, nor our club from growing. NEW MEMBERS Chris Hall – Chris, a Trekie, found us on our website and decided to join us. He found our sport "fascinating". He wants to boldly go where few have gone before. Live long and prosper! Robert Stevens – Bob has been an inactive member of the club for a few years. Now he's changing his status to active again. Welcome back Bob! Steve Thompson - Please welcome Steve Thompson of Muncie. Steve is a professional pilot and works for Muncie Aviation. He Holds ATP, Single, Multi., and Commercial Certificates and CFI, CFII, and MEI ratings. He has 4100 total hours. I met Steve Saturday and unfortunately due to his late arrival and early rain storm, he did not get a chance to fly. He has expressed a strong desire to instruct as soon as he can get CFIG added. Charlie Hunter – Please welcome Charlie Hunter to CISS. Charlie was guided to us by his cousin, Lynn Joyce. Charlie is interested in working on something that would help him get to know the membership and indicated that he would be interested in working on "Wing Tips." Charlie is a Sales Manager with Astra Zeneca Welcome to all! Jeff Melin ANOTHER 5 HOURS IN THE PW5! In his first attempt to fly the Silver Duration, Craig Bixby was able to sit the uninterrupted 5+ hours. That little PW5 climbs like a charm and is doing wonders for all of us. Click on the beautiful barogram!  |
|||||
|
FIRST CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT After blazing through his A,B,C and Bronze badges, Gerry Whitson accomplished his first cross country flight. And lucky for us, he has written an article to share his experience. Craig, Mike, Cheryl, Gerry, George, Dan...pay attention. Read his article about it HERE. 
|
|||||
|
MINDEN FLIGHT Craig Bixby doesn't have enough flying out of Indiana only. He went to Minden, NV. and tried his flying skills there. It looks like he had a good time. Read his article about it HERE. 
|
|||||
|
ANOTHER PRIVATE PILOT George Saunders earned his private pilot certificate on June 8th. High winds and rain had prevented him from taking his practical test, which he finally took and easily passed a few days later. Read his account of the practical test HERE. Congratulations George! 
 |
|||||
|
NEW PLANE On June 5th, Todd Rutledge drove into the Alexandria airport pulling the trailer of his newly-acquired plane. A beautiful, long-winged, clean, perfectly maintained LS4 is now part of the private fleet. Nice wings Todd!!.  |
|||||
|
GERRY SIMPSON IN CALIFORNIA Our fellow member Gerry Simpson just couldn't wait any longer to fly a SparrowHawk glider. He had heard, and read great things about the all-carbon-fiber wonder. He was really eager to see the plane himself. So it was...California or Bust! He came back describing the plane as being "like nothing I have ever flown". Light, responsive (TOO responsive, may be) and very expensive. He didn't buy it (yet) 
|
|||||
|
PAROWAN Ron Clarke took part in the 2005 Sport Class National Soaring Championship in Parowan, Utah. He was very nice and generous and invited me to crew for him, which I accepted in 2.03 nanoseconds (who wouldn't?). The drive there was a 2.5 days of beautiful American country. Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah. The 10 days of competition were (as they should be) tough and very contested. The people were very nice and interesting, the town small and charming and the food great. The drive back was another 2.5 days through different states: Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana. All the time trying to find a rethorical solution to the problems of the world. Answer: Everyone should learn to soar. Although we didn't win first place, the experience was unforgetable. 
|
|||||
|
SOLO (and checklist lesson A) Andru Ross flew solo for the first time on July 31st. His takeoff was flawless, his landing just as good. The flight was nice and safe BUT not uneventful: The yaw string on his plane detached early in his flight. (pre-flight checklist lesson A: yaw string securely attached?) With a little coaching from his instructor, Andru kept his cool and flew like a pro. Andru showed that his endorsing instructor was right when he let him go alone. Congratulations! 
|
|||||
|
GROB CANOPY (and checklist lesson B) During a routine instructional flight, the passenger window of the Grob 103 flew open while on tow. (pre-flight checklist lesson B: both canopies securely closed AND locked?) Fortunately, PIC Craig Bixby and passenger Nyal Williams returned safely to the ground. Unfortunately the Grob suffered some damage to the canopy hinges and had to be grounded. The fix was very quick and only one weekend was the Grob unavailable. Read the article that Craig and Nyal wrote about the incident HERE.  |
|||||
|
CISS ON TV On sunny July 5th, we were hosts to Joni Mitchel, aka "Indiana Joni". She wanted to experience what it is like flying in a glider. She also wanted to film her experience to present it later on TV. Ron Clarke flew Joni around the airport, Mike Nichols was the tow pilot, Don Taylor and I were the helping crew. Look at some of the pictures. 
 |
|||||
|
BRONZE BADGE July 30th was a nice day for me. I finished all of the requirements for the SSA Bronze Badge. I had had the 2 x 2+ hours for a long time, I had taken and passed the written test, I had the landings without altimeter, and all I needed was the spot landings. Now I am officialy allowed to do cross country in the club ships, so... let's get ready!  |
|||||
|
ANOTHER PW-5 ENDORSEMENT George Saunders flew our PW5 for the first time on July 30th. Congrats! He is another pilot now in hot pursuit of the Bronze Badge. |
|||||
|
I WANT YOU to write an article for this Newsletter. Please send them to me before August 15th. 
|
|||||
|
DETAILS, DETAILS! How many times have we done a positive control check to a glider? And how many times have we checked and double-checked that the horizontal stabilizer is securely attached and safety-pinned? Battery connected, tow rope looking ok. But hardly anybody ever looks at the yaw string, or double-checks locked canopies in hot weather, when closing the canopy is uncomfortable. There are no little details; any one of them can get you in big trouble. CU at the field! –Mario Lazaga |
|||||