THE DOWNWIND HASH...UH, DASH
by Ron Clarke

As many know the start to the soaring season has been difficult. With very wet ground and relatively low temperatures not a great deal of cross country flying has been flown this Spring. But a "Downwind " event had been scheduled for the Spring and there was some interest. But only some! To go "downwind " of course usually means more preparation than many are willing to make. The pilot ideally needs a crew, a set of charts with all the probable landing locations and good provisions for a day in the air, at a minimum.
Those club members who in varying degrees of preparedness sought the honor of making the longest downwind flight made their attempts the first weekend of May.

Terry Wools in his beautiful ASW 15 (TTT) was well prepared with the needed crew lined up, and if I am not mistaken had done his home work on the various possible destination airports he might make it to. The only truly confusing thing was Terry elected to make his flight upwind! and the going was tough (It usually is upwind rather than downwind ). Now perhaps Terry also had in mind beating Pete Detore who had gone downwind towards a goal in Ohio the day before in the PW5. The only problem was Terry was unsure how far he needed to go to beat Pete. Why you might ask? Well Pete had landed out down in Ohio the evening before, but wasn't sure just how far he had gone himself! A great flight in the PW 5, but, as most know, not as well prepared for as he will be next time.

To my knowledge the only other pilot who set off was me (ZA). I actually did go downwind towards Illinois with an easterly wind . Don Taylor and Kurt Ristow obviously did not fly that day as they both believe no good soaring is possible when the east winds blow.
So what was the result of this first CISS Downwind Dash?

As well as I can tell:

Pete will be able to write up a flight on the club contest board in the hangar well in excess of 100 miles in the PW 5 - That's when he measures the distance and tells us all!

Terry Wools flew to a turnpoint at Shirley, IN (apparently this town goes by the same name as one of his junior school teachers I learned over the radio that day), and returned to Terry (the airport that is).

Yours truly chickened out downwind at Crawfordsville, IN. It seemed like it would take much longer than I originally thought to fly into Illinois. Besides which as I didn't have a crew (all volunteers welcome next time) I figured I should only go to a place I could get back from. So ZA flew back to meet up with Terry Wools somewhere near Shirley, and we both made a downwind dash back to Terry from the east.

Was the event a success ? I certainly enjoyed my flying that day. But to claim it a success. Not quite. To be honest it seemed this our first "Downwind " event was as much a Hash as a Dash!
Have Fun , Fly Safely .

As you all know the Yaw String is the most valuable instrument we use while flying gliders for coordinating turns and determining yaw. But what about determining angle of attack?

Nyal Williams (CFIG) is experimenting with just that concept. He has placed strings on each side of the canopy near the front on N303BA to use as ‘Angle of Attack’ indicators. As you approach a stall, the strings curl up dramatically.

Be sure to give it a try next time you fly it and give Nyal your assessment. Great idea Nyal!

Mark your calendar Saturday June 15th for a pitch in! The club will supply the grill , meat and pop. Please bring a side dish such as salads or casseroles. Volunteers are also needed. The festivities begin at 5pm and last until we decide.

Please email your RSVP to Terry Dickey at Tsoars@prodigy.net.

Hope to see you all there!

Isn't it amazing how a little sunshine on your face can make your day. Recently I finally rolled my ASW20 out of the box to tinker and make a to do list .

After creating my list , assembling and disassembling my horizontal stabilizer 20 times I settled into the cockpit. The proper adjustments were made and the canopy closed. After a complete run down on my checklist my thumb was up and ready to roll. 87Z ---Tango Lima Delta 2,000 please. Winds out of the SW we begin to roll. The tug quickly circles to two thousand . As always right under a fat juicy CU. Release-clear-- right--look out for the tug and center the thermal.
We gain 2,300 in nearly ten turns and off in the distance we see beautiful rows of clouds one after another as far as the eye can see! They should only be 2 maybe 3 miles out. Nose down--flaps negative and run with your hair on fire !!!

HONEY!! HONEY!! I hear behind me. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

CLOUD STREETS SWEETHEART --- CLOUD STREETS.