Convector
Newsletter of the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association

Writing on recent events within SSA and keeping it short is a near-impossible task. Only highlights will be covered here, but I encourage any SSA member wanting more details to see www.ssa.org, contact me, or contact any other appropriate source. Let me say I don't read or use the rec.aviation.soaring newsgroup as a source nor do I feel it is useful due to uninformed and often-inflammatory postings.

Actions by the SSA Board stem from the fact that SSA President Sanderson had been slow in completing expense reports for uses of the SSA credit card, and that various personal expenses paid with the card required both prompt reporting and repayment. By actions of the Administration Committee and Finance Subcommittee all such personal expenses were repaid before year-end 2002, and there is no issue of any money being missing.

Clearly a credit card cannot be used in secret: signatures are required, and a monthly statement comes from the card company. SSA accounting knew that personal uses had been made, and correctly recorded these amounts in an "Employee Receivable Account". Strictly speaking there seems not to have been a prior prohibition on making personal charges to the SSA credit card, but a duty still existed to make timely expense reports and reimbursements where due. There is now, by Board action, a completely new set of rules concerning use and control of credit cards in the SSA office. The website gives further details.

Much has been made of the fact that the Administration and Finance committees took corrective actions within committee - that is, a widespread announcement of the problem was not made at the time of starting repayments. It is my view that this was a completely correct action, following management principles to correct problems at the lowest possible level in an organization, and preserve both office staff morale and confidential communications. I reject the notion that any thought or motivation of a cover-up existed then or now.

The Board in Dayton approved positions of Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, and of Director of Member Relations and Services (see the SSA webpage for more information). In this context of two well-defined positions plus a President (or Executive Director) a vote was taken on continuing the employment of Larry Sanderson. The vote was strongly in favor of retaining Larry. I voted with the majority for these reasons: on balance, Larry has made great contributions to the success of SSA and of soaring in the U. S. especially in areas of advocacy to government agencies; we are at a critical point concerning new and onerous flight restrictions for "security"; continuity of office with smooth transition when warranted is better than an uncertain period of vacancy; succession had not yet been adequately addressed; and my conviction on the delayed expense report submissions is that it is solely a delay or failure to cover that part of the total workload, and in no way an evidence of any maliciousness or intent to deceive on Larry's part. Others see the same facts and reach differing conclusions, but again, a strong preponderance of the Directors voted to continue the employment of Mr. Sanderson.

Since that vote a letter of resignation has been received from Larry Sanderson by the Executive Committee of the Board, terms negotiated and approved, and the resignation accepted. Again, there are further details on the SSA website. A specific plan for management of the SSA headquarters office has been put in place by the Executive Committee while a Director search is conducted. With regards to all in Region 4,

Bob Ball.

Looking outside I have to wonder if spring will ever come. The recent heavy snowfall and subsequent rains have given all of us reason to long for a renewed soaring season and better weather. Rest assured, no matter how bleak it looks, the weather will improve and we will return to the skies.

I spoke to our newfound friends at the Secret Service and FAA again this past week. The work shutdown due to the snowstorm has slowed some of our progress. I still believe we will have a waiver in place by the annual meeting. Again, I caution this will not be the cure-all many desire but it will be an important first step in returning M-ASA to some level of normal operations after the attacks of September 2001. I will discuss this in detail at the March meeting.

The 2-33 is slightly behind schedule but will still fly early this spring. It appears the new paint scheme will be blue and gold with an overall white base. Thanks to all that took time to put together sample paint schemes.

We are currently working plans to add power and a telephone connection to the gazebo at Fairfield. We have also purchased new radios for some of the gliders. These will be installed over the next few weeks and should improve our overall capability to communicate and add somewhat to the operation's safety through increased situational awareness.

The annual meeting will once again be at the Frederick Community College hangar. We have a lot of changes to discuss involving the P-40 TFR and the recent rewrite of the Operation's Manual. I believe the new manual will please everyone since it adds considerable detail to some of the tasks we currently perform. Additionally, changes to the guidelines make cross-country soaring in club gliders more feasible and increases the availability of the single seat gliders for members to reserve.

The tow planes are coming together. The Super Cub has been operational for the last few months. The Pawnees have had a few setbacks. 58L has passed its annual without any major problems. It is currently stranded at York while we wait for the snow to clear. 99Z has six new cylinders and is now finished. It is also at York and needs some time on the engine before we begin towing with it. 09P is still down waiting for some additional engine work and the completion of its annual. The cold weather has prevented work but we hope to return it to service shortly after the weather breaks. Thanks to the hard work of Jim Chick, Jim Trygg, Tom Judkins and John Vaughn M-ASA will have a fleet of tow planes ready to support operations in the spring.

I want to thank everyone for their help this past year. Despite a number of obstacles we still managed to have a good year. A special note of thanks goes to Jim Trygg, the most recent Campbell Award recipient.

Glenn

Rhön Adler (Rhoen-Eagle)

The full story of the Alexander Schleicher Company, its sailplanes and their designers during its 75 year history. A comprehensive biography of each designer and a detailed description of each sailplane type including accurate 3-view drawings made from original factory blueprints. Also several accounts of the winners and record setters who flew them. Over 500 illustrations, 92 in full color. In German language. If you ever owned or flew a Schleicher sailplane, you would enjoy this book.

Size 27cm (10.5") wide by 23.5cm (9.25") high. Hardcover.
ISBN 3-8301-0437-5
Price: $45 each plus $4 S&H.
Check or MO, or it may be picked up here in person.

Jan Scott
12582 Lutheran Church Rd.
Lovettsville VA 20180
flycow@flycow.com

The cold of a long snowy winter season was broken by the warmth of M-ASA's Annual Banquet held Sunday, February 2. We had an excellent turnout, perhaps the largest ever, with approximately 120 people present at the Ceresville Mansion. The was due in no small part to a desire to hear from our two guest speakers, representing Project Perlan, whose ambitious goal is to soar a glider to 100,000 feet or higher using mountain wave and polar vortex lift. Einar Enevoldson and Dr. Elizabeth J. Carter, project pilot/accomplished NASA test pilot and project meteorologist respectively, made a fascinating, informative one hour interactive presentation on the project goals and status so far. This project is partially funded by Steve Fossett, first man to successfully circumnavigate the Earth solo in a balloon. Steve is the other Project Perlan pilot. For those unable to attend and not familiar with Project Perlan, the first phase goal is to reach an altitude of ~60K feet in a DG 505 two place sailplane. This phase will validate many of the ground-based LIDAR and microwave radar lift observations, indicating the existence of the necessary conditions. Higher altitudes will require a specially designed sailplane capable of operating, generating lift, and maintaining control in the realm of the tropopause; this will be the project's second phase. After the formal presentation, there was a lively Q&A session from the audience lasting another half-hour or so. Project Perlan's first season's campaign has ended with a number of flights into wave in New Zealand. These flights have allowed the team to develop the logistics and coordination to get the Perlan glider to the right place at the right time to take advantage of the necessary conditions.

To allow adequate time for the guest speakers, the traditional Banquet awards portion was limited to awarding the Campbell Trophy, M-ASA's meritorious service award. Our winner this year was Jim Trygg who has worked diligently over the years as a member of the Board, a tow pilot, tow plane godfather, legal counselor, Fairfield projects coordinator, and all around high-energy, "if it needs to get done, let's get it done" facilitator. Congratulations Jim, your generous efforts over time have made things better for all M-ASA members! Other awards will be given at the annual March meeting.

Finally kudos and special thanks to Bernie Paiewonsky, whose personal connections and coordinating efforts, successfully "landed" our Perlan guest speakers. Lastly we need to acknowledge the wonderful work of Jim Furlong, this year's Banquet coordinator, who along with his "phone boiler-room staff of volunteers" (Gary Baker and Tom Jones) helped make this a wonderfully successful event.

New Members

• Robert N. Compton
• Jean Compton

Notes/Photos Due

The following are completing their provisional years with M-ASA and should send the membership chairman a photo and a note requesting permanent membership:

• Mark Carlisle
• Andy Dessler
• Bob Dutilly (note only)
• Peter English
• Zack Thornhill

To Go Inactive

Anyone not planning to pay 2003 dues would be well-advised to send a note/e-mail to say they want to go inactive. This will provide the right to come back to M-ASA in the future without paying initiation again. Inactive status is not available to Provisional Members. For more information about inactive status, contact Hope at hyhope@aol.com

SSA held its annual convention this past January 23 - 25. The convention was hosted by members of the Cesar Creek Soaring Club and was an outstanding success. I drove out with a vanload of M-ASA members and was pleased to find a number of others also in attendance. I'm sure if I tried to name all the M-ASA folks at the convention I would miss a few. But the count was around 20. As is generally the case, the convention floor was home to a number of new sailplanes. The two most notable for me covered the two extremes. On the small or lightweight side was the Sparrow Hawk. This ultra light sailplane stood out with its day glow orange paint scheme. The other end of the spectrum was the DG 1000. This is the first sailplane I ever saw which needed a step-ladder to get into. This aircraft is gigantic. It is only a 20-meter wingspan but it sits extremely high on a very rugged gear. The shear mass caught my attention enough I think I will attempt to fly it this spring while in Florida with my family during the kids' spring break.

Besides the convention floor, the presentations and workshops were well done and very informative. Discussions among the different clubs and operations nationwide highlight many of the same issues. Over the course of this coming year I intend to attend a glider operation seminar and invite the Soaring Safety Foundation (SSF) to review our operation and recommend any safety enhancements.

Some of the social highlights of this year's convention revolved around the Wright brothers and the 100th anniversary of controlled flight. Dr. Jack Glendening organized a visit to a local museum dedicated to the Wright Brothers. The museum was closed for the winter but opened especially for us. It featured a reconstructed bicycle shop and a number of original tools and family pictures. The centerpiece was the 1905 Wright Flyer, which was restored by Orville Wright. On Friday night we also attended a reception at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. This evening allowed us to roam among some of the greatest machines of the aviation era. If you have not had the opportunity to visit this museum you need to add it to your to-do list. Even a private setting like that given us did not provide the full amount of time required to take in all the specific displays available.

Overall the convention was a great success. The Caesar Creek Soaring Club should be commended for a great performance. I was really happy to see the outstanding attendance by M-ASA and am looking forward to next year's convention in Atlanta.

Pilots, who have had a Garmin GPS unit for many years, may start to experience a poor display. If it is hard to read, or has white lines across the screen, the LCD display could be failing. Garmin has a flat repair charge of about $150 for an overhaul, software update, updated receiver and a current Jeppesen aviation data base, if you have one installed. Turn around time is seven to ten days. I sent in a Garmin 90 and got back a Garmin 92 with a much bigger and better display, improved software, better functionality and a faster receiver. It is also possible to get an updated Jeppesen database of airspace as a download to your PC and then load it into the Garmin. The last time I did the update, it cost $35. When the P40 restrictions are finalized and the database is current, I plan on getting the latest update added to my Garmin.

Bill Whelan forwarded the news of the death of Wally Scott. I regret I never had the opportunity to meet him but I certainly know about many of his soaring exploits. He had a 1-26 that he would load up with a heavy oxygen system and anything else heavy that he could find so it would penetrate better on his diamond distance attempts. In 1963 he flew it 443 miles. His wife Boots would often give him an auto tow launch with a ratty old towline that would break almost as many times as it didn't, but he would usually climb away from a very low altitude.

He was quite a good writer and wrote some stories full of gentle humor about his record flights in his ASW-12. "Showdown at Gila Bend" was one of them in which he set a goal record with a passenger on board; a green fly. In 1970 he and Ben Greene, also in an ASW-12, launched in Odessa, Texas on a long goal record attempt and raced a storm as it pinched off their path ahead forcing them to abandon their goal and go for distance instead. After a flight of 716 miles, they touched down at Columbia, Nebraska simultaneously, so they could share the world record, just as the storm closed in on them.

Wally also mentored young pilots, giving them help and advice. One of those young pilots, an 18 year old, flew an HP-14 500 miles after refurbishing it himself with Wally's help and guidance. In 1976 Wally won the Smirnoff Derby flying a 1-35 against much hotter ships. More recently, he took part in a "Group Grope" along the Andes in an area in which no one had ever flown a glider before and an out landing could mean losing the (borrowed) glider or worse.

Ah, well, he will never need another tow, the lift is continuous.

Planning and preparations for the 2003 Region 4 North Soaring Contest are well under way. This year's contest will be held Sunday, May 25 through Saturday, May 31. Practice Day will be Saturday, May 24. There will be three classes of competition: Standard, 15 Meter, and Sports. All classes will use GPS and flight recorders for flight documentation (i.e., no photo documentation). The FAA and Secret Service have recently agreed to a waiver for the Camp David TFR for M-ASA, and this has enabled us to go forward with confidence in contest planning and preparations. Invitation letters for the contest were mailed in early February. If you didn't get one, it probably means that you and your contest ID are not in the SSA'a database which provides me with contest mailing labels. You can register for the Region 4 North via the SSA web site, the M-ASA web site (click under Special Events), by sending me an e-mail (pburch@hst.nasa.gov), or calling me at (410) 489-7063.

We are planning to have three cookouts: Saturday, May 24; Sunday, May 25; and Tuesday, May 27. The contest banquet will be held on Thursday, May 29 at the Hickory Bridge Farm. Everyone in M-ASA, regardless of whether you are a contestant, crew member, contest staffer, sailplane racing groupie, or just plain hungry, are invited to all of these events. It's a great way to meet new soaring friends and enjoy the company of the ones you have!

I'm happy to report that some folks have already made commitments to many of our key contest staff positions. Sarah Macpherson has agreed to be the Scorekeeper, Dr. Ward Hindman will be our meteorologist, Jim Chick will be our Chief Tow Pilot, and Rolly Williams will be our Cookout Coordinator (no, Rolly hasn't joined M-ASA yet, but Cathy and I are working on him!). Right now I'm focusing on lining up a Competition Director and an Operations Director. In addition, we will need tow pilots, sniffers, line personnel, facilities manager(s), office manager(s), and flight activity recorders. If you are interested in supporting the contest in any capacity, please contact me directly. Any help that you can provide, whether its one day, a few days, or the whole contest, is of enormous value in helping to achieve a successful and safe contest. Your help will be most appreciated by the contest pilots (who always impress me with their frequent and sincere thanks to everyone who helps out) and their crew, our club, and especially me! The Region 4 North is renowned as an event that mixes good soaring, great people, and lots of fun in good proportions. I hope you will join us at the 2003 R4N!

One of Skyline Soaring Club's genius webmeisters, Piet Barber, has established a cool channel on the AvantGo network that, once subscribed to, will automatically download the glider-related portions of 14CFR Parts 61 and 91 directly to your Palm or WinCE PDA. He has indicated his willingness to make this service available to anyone.

From then on, every time you hotsync your PDA while the computer is online, it will check for a current version and download it to your PDA. The downloaded version is indexed by part number, and is easy to use.

[Webmaster's note: Avantgo is a free "web clipping" service that allows you to download news and other articles of many types from many different Avantgo affilliated sources. To use it you must sign up with Avantgo and then download and install software on your PC and on your PDA. Then each time you are online and "sync" your handheld, the software contacts Avantgo and downloads the latest clippings from the "channels" you have selected. - Alan]

Blue Ridge Soaring Society, New Castle, VA, will again host a meet for those that want to gain some cross-country and contest experience. This meet is held annually on the weekend before Mother's Day, and is a Sports Class type contest. Scores will be handicapped, based on performance of the glider flown. Entrants need not have contest or extensive cross-country experience. The contest area will be over friendly terrain. Clubs are encouraged to fly in teams over the assigned courses. The primary goal is to provide cross-country experience with safety and FUN. We will have experienced cross-country and contest pilots available as advisors. All novice pilots can be matched with an experienced pilot as a personal advisor/mentor. The use of GPS systems is expected, but exceptions can be accommodated, if necessary. The cost of the meet is $150 per entry. The entry fee will include one tow each contest day (three tows total), and three dinners for two. Additional tows will cost $25 each. Please register as soon as practicable; the number of entrants is limited.

The required $50 deposit is refundable until April 15. Dinners are planned for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and hopefully the Towplane Tavern will be open for breakfast and lunch. On-field campsites and RV parking, a bathhouse, pavilion, grills, and parking space are available for the asking. A couple of Bed and Breakfasts are relatively nearby, and there are lots of hotels and motels on I-81, in Salem and Roanoke.

Team flying will be separate entrants flying the same aircraft as other members of their group or club. The assigned courses will be short enough to allow two complete times around; with the pilots/teams switching off each day (You can draw straws, etc. to determine who goes first or second, or alternate on each day). Further information about our club and facilities is at www.brss.net. If you have any questions, please write, call or email me: (276) 920-2729 (h) or glnab@naxs.com. I hope to see you in May, Gary L. Naber, 196 Queens Knob, Wytheville, VA. 24382

	Frederick			Fairfield
Day	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Assistant OD	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Assistant OD
15	Jack Goehring III	John Lovell	Teresa Day	Chris O'Callaghan	Chuck Forrester
16	Urs Thierstein	William Judge		Elliott Blitz	Jim Trygg
22	Maurice Deland	John Hearn		Guy Pfeffermann	David Pixton
23	Ralph Wentzel	Tom Judkins		Tom Jones	Mike Grinder
29	Clark Carlisle	Scott Petrasek		Jim Homer	Don Robb
30	David A Churchill	Jane Robens		Robert Critchlow	Dee Torgerson

	Frederick			Fairfield
Day	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Assistant OD	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Assistant OD
05	Jack Goehring III	Ray Scarpulla	Jean Compton	Chris O'Callaghan	Phil Burgess
06	John Allingham	Bob Jackson		Sarah Macpherson	Max Ullmann
12	Dick Mott	Hans Jorgensen		David MacVeigh	Rich Horigan
13	Frank Benson	Robert Robins		Claude Blanchi	Mike Grinder
19	Marly van de Ven	Sam Harry		Roger Thompson	Pete Welles	Gerald McFadden
20	Bob Kryzstan	Poul Hansen		George Constantin	George Green
26	Jim Homer	David Schober		Elliott Blitz	Chuck Forrester
27	Richard Wallis	Ray Scarpulla		Guy Pfeffermann	Phil Burgess

M-ASA Duty Notes: Members assigned to operations duty must be on site in enough time to start operations by 10:00 AM 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 Scheduler: Ray Watson (410) 484-0333.