Convector
Newsletter of the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association

Well, it's official. The 2002 soaring season has begun. I must admit I hope it turns around a bit. So far it has been a wet one. Thanks to all who attended the annual meeting. A video of the safety portion is available in each clubhouse. ODs need to check the member list on each clipboard to ensure no one flies without having either attended the meeting or made up the safety meeting via the video. After viewing the tape, have a board member or officer sign you off on the list.

After the meeting a number of folks approached me about helping with some of the tasks I listed. In most instances, I asked them to drop me an e-mail since I was bouncing from conversation to conversation. I know I have not heard from everyone so please if you are still interested in helping out drop me that reminder.

This promises to be another good year. Planning for the annual Region IV contest are moving into the final stages and doubt Preston Burch will turn down any offered help. Hope Howard and Gary Baker are busy organizing activities for the summer 10-day weekend. If the weather holds out we should have some great flying opportunities this year. The new Pawnee should be providing tows soon. All we need now is the transponder installation and we are close to executing that. The 260 HP Pawnee seems to have thrown us its last curve ball. Tom Judkins and John Vaughn are actually starting to talk about the process of reassembling the beast so it can be returned to service.

My request to each M-ASA member as we begin this new season is to plan safety into your flights. Make sure you are prepared both physically and mentally before you fly. If you are like me, you may not have flown much the past few months. Remember M-ASA rules require that you must have flown a glider within the preceding 90 days in order to fly club gliders. If you aren't current, get one of our instructors to tag along and help renew some of the luster to your flying brilliance. Even if you are jumping into your own ship this is a good practice. Although club rules do not require you to have flown recent flights, you may be putting club-towing equipment at increased risk. At least take the time to "chair fly" the flight and discuss some of the options and possibilities with your peers and or a club instructor prior to hooking up the rope. We all get rusty and it never hurts to spend some time thinking about the possibilities, which thankfully rarely occur. Have a safe and enjoyable year. See you at the airport.

I started my journey in fine weather: a fog of self-congratulation. At 6:00 pm on a Thursday evening I was heading south on Interstate 81. I had arranged to meet with some of my colleagues in Winchester, Virginia, putting me a full 2 hours closer to Uvalde than I would have been but for a week's worth of thinly veiled scheduling machinations. Curiosity had my coworkers sending me off with cheers of "Kick ass!" and "Don't kill yourself!" Now, 12 full days before the start of the 15-meter Nationals I was... sitting in traffic somewhere near the intersection of Interstates 81 & 66.

In the back seat was my library of unabridged books on tape. It took 2 chapters of A Brief History of Time to get through the traffic jam, one of those blockages unrequited by any indication of cause. Not even telltale shards of broken glass. I felt cheated.

Six hours later I exited the highway south of Bristol, Tennessee, hoping to find a quiet parking space where I could spend the night. I found one immediately: an abandoned gas station, three RVs already squatting. I chose a far corner, put down the back seat of the Suburban, and slept comfortably for the next 5 hours.

The Suburban is new. Though I've been gliding for 24 years, I've never owned a proper tow vehicle. All my cars were too small, too slow, or not mine ("Laura, can I borrow your minivan to take the glider to Colorado, New Mexico, Texas..."). Now, for the first time, I own a behemoth that outweighs the trailer by better than triple. Or as Sue McMasters observed, I'd finally bought a "grown-up" car. Well, I had indeed. The Suburban has all the space needed to carry two weeks provisions for the well-appointed glider pilot and crew, with enough space left to seat 4 in luxury and sleep 1 in relative comfort. So when I awoke at 6:00 am on Friday morning, I was surprisingly chipper.

Ready to get back on the road.

But first I needed to fill the tank. The suburban will swallow 40 gallons of regular unleaded. In late July, 2001 a fill-up required a second reset of the gas pump: most will only allow you to purchase $50 with a single swipe of a credit card. Pit stops were costing closer to $60. And taking upwards of 15 minutes. But I was thankful for the breaks. A full tank of gasoline yields 8 hours of uninterrupted driving. I would stop for gas only two more times before arriving in Uvalde with over half-a-tank of fuel still left.

For the next 19 hours I drove across Tennessee, Arkansas, and nearly the breadth of Texas, passing through Dallas, Waco, Austin, and San Antonio. The drive was almost entirely on interstate highways and largely unremarkable. The only observation worth noting was the complete absence of road-kill armadillos in Texas. Again I felt cheated, not seeing the once common scattering of flattened fauna. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure I've ever seen a living armadillo.

I completed Hawking's book while still in Tennessee. Then listened to Huckleberry Finn through Arkansas and northern Texas. I even tried a few Conrad short stories south of Dallas, but I cannot in good conscience recommend them.

By Texas standards, Uvalde is no more than a downwind spit from San Antonio - a mere 90 miles and as many minutes west. At 1:00 am I pulled into the parking lot of the Holiday Inn, got my room key, and spent the next hour purging the adrenaline I mustered to complete the last two hours of the trip. I woke up the next morning at 8:00 AM, refreshed and eager to fly.

But fly I wouldn't. Bill Bartell had already worn out the visiting cross-country campers with 6 straight days of tasks. This was to be their day of rest. With the nearest tow plane 70 miles away, and no one else willing to defray the minimum cost of getting it to Uvalde, I concerned myself instead with picking a tie-down spot and chatting with the locals.

As the afternoon heat approached hellfire, I headed up into the hill country to have a first-hand look at some the nastiest terrain in the area. This wasn't a particularly wise thing to do. From the air it looks unlandable. Close up, it's downright life-threatening. Short scrub trees, steep slopes, cactus, and the occasional open field. Not many, just enough to convince yourself that if you keep your wits and fly patiently down the shallow canyons, you'll find a place to land. Or not.

As the afternoon waned into evening, Uvalde's cloud streets came alive. Atop one of the higher hills I traced an unbroken street from the northern horizon to the southern. No less than half-a-mile wide at its narrowest, it stretched for at least 150 miles and who knows how far beyond. Ground speeds of 120 miles per hour are common under such streets. A decade ago I strayed almost 100 miles into Mexico, having missed the Rio Grande while flying near redline under just such a cloud street. The thought of running it was almost as satisfying as the act itself. I love this place!

Sunday I puttered around the airport, helping others rig, launch, de-rig until it was time to leave for San Antonio. I had dismissed the day as one of Uvalde's occasional klunkers. The clouds were ill-defined, and there was a haze that limited visibility to only 20 miles. But as I drove east to catch my 4:00 PM flight, the air began to clear, the cloud edges to sharpen, and the serpentine lines to form. Charlie Spratt calls the several thousand square miles between Uvalde, Laredo, and following the Rio Grande up to Eagle Pass "self-healing." It is not unusual to find yourself in danger of landing out at 1:30 pm, then cruising down a cloud street at 110 knots and 8,000 feet by 3:00 pm. Here, patience is amply rewarded. Here, you can complete diamond distance between 2:30 and 6:00 PM, be in the pool by 6:30, and at dinner by 7:30. But I had a plane to catch.

"Here" would have to be "there" for another week.

National contests are scheduled to start on Tuesdays and end 10 days later on the following Thursday. The mid-week start and conclusion allows enough time for contestants to congregate from around the country, compete, and return home over three consecutive weekends. For those starting their cross-country odyssey on a Saturday morning though, it generally means a single practice day, or none at all, and only after shaking off the fatigue of several days driving. This year, Laura and I decided that it would be better if I drove the glider down the week before, came back for a normal week of work, and then return to Uvalde without the effort of the drive affecting the first few days of flying.

Laura and I caught an evening flight from BWI to San Antonio. We picked up the Suburban in the airport parking lot and drove to Uvalde. We were moved in to our hotel room by midnight. I say "moved in" without hyperbole. Though the Suburban had room for 4 seated and 1 reclined, it also had all the gear required by two people, spare parts for the sailplane, radios, batteries, chargers, water systems, tools, folding chairs, umbrellas... It took the two of us 5 round trips to empty the Suburban and another half hour to get everything appropriately stored, placed, or plugged into the room.

The Holiday Inn boasts nothing more special than a courtyard with a pool protected from the street by its four two-story wings. Living Oaks provide shade, and our room opened directly, or nearly so, onto the courtyard. It would be our oasis from the afternoon and evening heat. The room itself was passably habitable. The only distraction was the whir of its inboard/outboard air conditioner. Though the evenings were relatively mild, the AC was an ever-droning necessity - at least for the heat-sensitive constitutions of the eastern pilots and crews.

Saturday, the unofficial practice day, would set our schedule for the rest of the contest. Rise at 7:00. To the airport by 7:30 to assemble, water, and stage the glider. Then back to the hotel for a quick swim (while Laura put together my daily survival pack of ice water and peanut butter and jam sandwiches). At 10:00 we would drive to the pilots meeting, and by 11:00 we were back at the hotel for half an hour's rest before heading over to the airport to grid for the 12:15 launch.

Flights lasted between 4.5 and 6.5 hours, depending on grid position and the length of the task. Most contest days I would fly 15 to 20 miles away from the airport, then loiter for 60 to 90 minutes to avoid prestart traffic. Laura would stay at the airport until she heard me start, then run daily errands or head back to the hotel to swim. At 5:30 she would come back to the airport. Finishes would begin about then and continue until 6:30 PM.

After the flight, we would clean and derig the glider in 115-degree heat. By 6:00 PM each day the apron where we were tied down would superheat. Temperatures several inches above the pavement were closer to 130 degrees.

Then back to the hotel pool to swim and talk about the day's flying. This would go on until after 8:00, at which point we'd debate dinner.

Uvalde has several nice restaurants. None are ever likely to appear in Bon Appetite, but the fare is good and the ambiance, well, comfortably rustic. But after a long, hot day of flying or crewing, any solid food accompanied by a cold beer looks pretty appetizing. We settled on a few favorites, but even so, getting the extended MASA family to agree on a restaurant was provocative. (Ten percent of the contest was represented by current and ex-MASA members.) As anyone who has frequented Fairfield knows, hangar packing and dining decisions are our après-vol blood sport. At Uvalde, only those initiates with the heartiest constitutions dined with the MASA crowd!

And to bed by 11:00.

Such were our days from Saturday the 4th of August until Friday the 17th. We had one scheduled rest day on the 12th. It hardly ever rains at Uvalde in August, so contest organizers plan their day off well in advance. We decided not to visit Mexico with the other pilots. Instead, Baud and Christianne, Mike and Charky and their youngest daughter Carly, and Laura and I drove to San Antonio for the day. We had a pleasant lunch at a Mexican restaurant on the River Walk, enjoying Sangria and Margaritas and playing with the resident feral kittens (at once cute, clumsy, and ferocious).

Every time I pass through San Antonio I marvel at the city's marketing genius. The city has two tourist attractions: The Alamo and the River Walk. One is a 19th-century mission surrounded by a wall not quite high enough to thwart a determined child. And, truth be told, the River Walk is a tree-and-building-lined sidewalk following the meanders of the city's semi-open sewer (excuse me, river) through the heart of downtown. The two sites are adjoining and are the most visited tourist destinations in Texas. Go figure. Of course, I'm not much affected by the ghosts of Gettysburg either. But I never fail to "Remember the Alamo," though for the life of me, I don't know why. Something to do with Davy Crockett, "King of the Wild Frontier."

The rest day ended on a sad note. An outdoor dinner was planned along the Frio River in the hill country about 25 miles north of town, but we arrived to the news of Pete Burdulis's death, the result of a stall-spin in the pattern at the end of a 300km badge flight. My relationship with Pete was one of casual acquaintance. He stopped by my glider before the launch on the 2nd practice day to say hello, having met me several times at Harris Hill and Fairfield. As a result, my feelings about his death were mixed. He was not a faceless name that I could dismiss. I had to empathize with his final moment of recognition of his mistake and its consequences. But he wasn't so close that I couldn't afford myself the rationalization that he should have known better... to recognize how critical the end of a long flight is and to have exercised greater care and attention. I'll miss him, but at the same time I am annoyed with his lapse of judgment. It is an odd place to be. Not so close to simply remember him in my heart. Not so distant that I can dismiss the loss intellectually as a cost of living.

Fortunately, there were children with us throughout the evening. Their more immediate dramas won our attention as Laura and I became engulfed in imagined intrigues, plots, and plans for short-lived battles between little girls and boys.

On Monday it was back to the routine of competition. And on Thursday evening we closed the trailer for the last time for the trip home. Now, those days blend together into similitude, events from one day attaching themselves to another. It is difficult, without the aid of a diary or flight log, to separate individual events into their immediate context. Instead, they are now numerous points of punctuation in a long sentence of experience.

I envied Laura her flight home on Friday morning. I had 2 full days of driving ahead of me. The trip down was fueled by anticipation. Fully sated, the return seemed longer, more arduous, more tiring. I was, however, rewarded with a glimpse of a single prostrate armadillo on the shoulder of a Mississippi interstate. His misfortune was my affirmation. My world was still familiar, predictable.

After every adventure there's a comeuppance. What cost, experience? Four hundred dollars per day for each day of the contest is roughly accurate. Some memories come dear. Some cheap. And for each of us, a different measure of value.

Editor's Note:

To remind readers, Chris made an outstanding showing at the 15-Meter Nationals, scoring 15th place overall and winning one day outright with a blistering speed of 91.46 mph over a 267-mile course. He returned from Uvalde a Category 1 pilot, joining a select group of top pilots who score consistently well in SSA-sanctioned contests.

Send articles, news, soaring achievements, ratings or badge legs earned, other significant flights, classifieds, other info the membership will find interesting.

Deadline: 20th of each month

Submissions to:

Ed Fry

convector@m-asa.org

Feedback and suggestions welcome.

In early March I came home from Estrella Sailport, AZ with a fresh Flight Instructor-Glider certificate. My Private Glider check ride seems like yesterday, although it was over 20 years ago. After obtaining a Commercial certificate a few years later, I had often thought about getting a CFIG (or FIG, as FAA calls it in some publications). The main barrier was the lack of time I would have to instruct - some years I barely kept myself current because of demands of the day job and responsibilities of the family. At a M-ASA monthly meeting last fall, Glenn Collins talked about the need for more club instructors and asked if I had ever considered it. I appreciated Glenn's encouragement, and decided to try.

There are a number of requirements in addition to having a Commercial certificate and the skill to fly to commercial standard. Two of them are the written tests: one covering Fundamentals of Instruction, and the other covering aeronautical knowledge. The ASA Test Prep publications, which weren't around when I had last taken a written test, make preparation easier. But you still have to have all the right books, Advisory Circulars and other FAA publications, and know them thoroughly. I studied intently in the late fall through January, and took the tests at Frederick Flight Center several weeks apart. Like most others, my knowledge peaked at test time and may never be that high again. I scored well and my confidence was also high.

I made arrangements to visit Estrella Sailport in Maricopa, south of Phoenix, at the end of February to prepare for and take the practical (flight) test. I had flown at Estrella before and liked it. I discussed the process with Glenn before I went, and at his suggestion I packed up most of my flying library to take with me. It was good advice - I did a lot of studying in the evenings.

At Estrella, I worked with Jason Stephens, son of owner Bruce Stephens. Estrella is a busy place, with a cadre of experienced instructors, all managed by Betty Horvath. Among other things, I learned this: you may know aeronautical knowledge cold, but being able to explain how to fly in clear, simple language to a new student while flying a glider at the same time takes practice. It's not all that easy even while not flying. We spent more time in ground instruction than in flight, partly because of high wind one day but mostly because it was productive.

Back in the unheated bunkhouse one evening (the Arizona desert in winter can get cold at night!) I caught the tail end of a TV news item, reporting that a man on a bicycle was hurt badly when hit by a glider landing at Turf Soaring. Turf is another commercial operation north of Phoenix. I later learned that the man was experienced at Turf - a stark reminder that careless errors around the airport can bite hard.

Then came test day. Although most initial FIG flight tests are conducted by FAA, some FSDOs allow Designated Examiners to do them. At Estrella, it was done by DE Tom Allen, an experienced instructor who has taught gliders and now teaches ATPs at a nearby Lufthansa training facility. To say the test was intense does not do it justice. If my confidence was high after my written tests, it suffered greatly in the practical. It was four hours of a very penetrating oral examination, with a couple of flights. One of the flights was very short - the rope broke in a sharp bump at 200 ft.! It was my first real broken rope, and it happened at a most inopportune time. Another stark reminder - be ready for anything, anytime. We made a return to the field and flew again.

The oral covered Fundamentals of Instruction in some depth and Part 61 in great detail, among many other things. I had all my books with me, but the DE expected me to know the important stuff, not pause and look it up. A couple of the questions: "Can a new glider instructor provide training to a power instructor who is adding a glider rating to his instructor's certificate?" "I heard something about 'polars' - what can you tell me about them?" Tom asked me in advance to prepare a lesson plan on off-airport landings, and that was the subject of the flying portion. I passed, and was issued a temporary certificate. The full-term certificate will come along after FAA processes the paper.

I'd be happy to discuss details of my experience with anyone thinking about becoming a "FIG".

On February 23th M-ASA held its annual banquet at the Ceresville mansion just north of Frederick. Originally scheduled for January but delayed by a snowstorm, this year's theme was The Celebration of M-ASA's 50th Anniversary. Founding member Jack Perine was in attendence as a special guest. The evening featured a mix of good food, good company, annual and special awards as well as three featured speakers. John Hearn discussed the history of competition flying over the years at M-ASA. Gene Wilburn described the acquisition and evolution of the club owned fleet, and supplemented his talk with many slide photos Gene has taken over the years. The special guest speaker was Dr. David Leckrone, Hubble Space Telescope Project Scientist. Dr. Lackrone reviewed many of the Hubble's findings, including the startling one made in 1997 that contrary to prior best theory, the universe is expanding at an ever accelerating rate.

Some awards highlights were:

• Hope Howard, Special Lifetime Service Award
• Mike Higgins, 2001 Competition Day Winner
• Baude Litt, 2001 Task day champion
• Dee Torgerson, 2001 Towpilot of the year
• Gene Wilburn, 2001 Instructor of the year
• Bill Whelan, 2001 Campbell Award, with special recognition to Judy Whelan for services rendered

Recognition was also made of M-ASA members who have been active for 30 or more years:

• Bob Ball
• Val Brain
• Vern Chapin
• Jonathan Gere
• John Hearn
• Michael Hearn
• Hope Howard
• Peter Kern
• Bernie Paiewonsky
• Mario Piccagli
• Wilmar Sick
• Steve Silverman
• George Simms
• John Vaughan
• Mike Vore
• Gene Wilburn

Many thanks to Phil Burgess who helped coordinate the banquet, to President Glenn Collins who was master of ceremonies, to guest speakers, award recipients and attendees. Special thanks to Charley Thurber -and helpers- who volunteered major blocks of time and effort crafting the unique awards.

Click the link to see this article and snapshots from the banquet.

• Andrew (Andy) Dessler
• Robert N. (Bob) Dutilly
• Peter English
• Janet Frank

• John Thornhill

The following people are completing their provisional years in May and should send in a photo & note requesting permanent membership:

Overdue:

• Andrew McCarter - only need photo
• James Vanderzyl - only need note

May:

• Bobby Telatovich - note only
• Sarah Macpherson - note & photo

Requests may be sent by e-mail to Hyhope@AOL.com. Photos should be sent to her by U.S. mail or handed at the field.

Groundschool classes for Biennial Flight Reviews have now been scheduled for April 13, May 11, and June 8. All classes are on Saturdays and will begin at 9:30 a.m. and run for just over an hour each. Cathy Williams and Val Brain will lead the discussion.

Cross-Country Seminars

Val Brain will present a series of Cross-Country Seminars in the Club Room at Fairfield on three consecutive Saturdays, April 20 and 27 and May 4. Lecture-discussions begin at 9:30 a.m. and run until 11:30 a.m.

Inaugurated in 1986, this program is designed to prepare solo pilots to fly cross-country safely with a view to gaining FAI badges and entering competitions. The syllabus includes:

• April 20 - Flight preparation and off-field landings
• April 27 - Climbing and cruising
• May 4 - Task strategy and barogram/GPS analysis

Thermal, ridge, and wave soaring will be included. The charge is $10.00 for each two-hour session. Those who attend all three sessions will receive the course manual, An Introduction to Cross-Country Soaring. This manual is also available separately at $10.00.

This is the same series presented last year at the Silver Creek Gliding Club Cross Country Camp. It now includes sections on GPS navigation and badge and contest rules.

Effective with this issue of the Convector all members are eligible for duty. Those that desire to tow and have submitted their preferences are being scheduled as tow pilots. Members that have submitted requests for exemption and have been approved will be exempted from OD duty. All other members will be scheduled. Members that have NOT submitted a preference form will be schedule as required by M-ASA Operations. Any modifications to preferences will be accepted but must be far enough in advance before the issuing of the schedule. Please note that we will schedule three months in advance starting next month.

	Frederick			Fairfield
Day	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Assistant OD	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Assistant OD
06	Jim Karcher	Ray Scarpulla	Harry Bates	Jim Lewis	Pete Welles
07	Steve Silverman	Jan Steenblik	David Churchill	Bob Krzystan	Don Robb	Jon de le Harpe
13	Tonas Kalil	Craig Moen	George Constantin	Mike Vore	Max Ullmann	Dick Berstein
14	Bob Whitehead	Dee Torgerson	Robert Critchlow	Sarah Macpherson	Rich Horigan	Bob Luskin
20	Jack Goering	Poul Hansen	Sandy Petrasek	Elliott Blitz	Jim Chick	Karanja Patterson
21	Urs Thierstein	Tom Judkins	Roger Thompson	Jack Beavers	Buddy Denham	Robert Wallis
27	Holland Ford	Bob Jackson	Mehrdad Bayat	Rhett Linke	George Green	David Schober
28	Dimitrios Stamatelos	Ray Scarpulla		Frank Benson	Mike Grinder

	Frederick			Fairfield
Day	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Assistant OD	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Assistant OD
04	Bill Donahoe	Hans Jorgensen	Bobby Telatovich	John Thornhill	Mike Smith	Jeffrey Fink
05	Roger Andes	Scott Petrasek		Chris Scarlett	Keith Newins	Harry Bates
11	Garv Garvin	Bob Ball		Jonathan Gere	Chuck Forrester	Dan Brown
12	Dan Meyer	Craig Moen		George Burns	Jim Chick	Roger Thompson
18	John Allingham	Dee Torgerson		Darrel Shiles	David Schober	Andrew Dressler
19	Dick Mott	Gene Wilburn		Bob Schott	Bill Savory	Robert Critchlow
25	Mario Piccagli	Hans Jorgensen	Karanja Patterson	Peter Blacklin
26	Dave Weber	Jan Steenblik	Richard Wallis	Guy Pfeffermann
27	Mike Vance	Scott Petrasek	Dick Bernstein	Jay Dickhoff

M-ASA Duty Notes: Members assigned to operations duty must be on site in enough time to start operations by 10:00AM and stay at the field until operations are concluded. Each person listed on the duty roster is responsible for that day's assignment. In the case of "no-shows," the person acting as OD should indicate this fact on the flight sheet. "No-shows" will be fined $100.00. M-ASA's training process requires all new members to serve as Apprentice OD (AOD) at both M-ASA operating locations. This is to familiarize new members with the operating practices at each field. Any member who joined the previous year and who was not scheduled for AOD duty at each field, will be scheduled for AOD duty at each field in the current year. Note that AOD scheduling is done independently of duty preference information submitted on the member's duty preference form. After the AOD cycles have been completed every effort will be made to accommodate the new member's stated duty preference whenever possible. M-ASA