[Close calls are great learning experiences. We all have them, but it takes courage to talk openly about them as Rich does here. If you have a story about a soaring close call, we will gladly publish it anonymously at your request. -Editor]
"This is Charley Whiskey (CW). I Have A Problem!"
It was Friday, May 30. The first good day without rain in seven weeks! The day was sunny with scattered cu's. Take off was uneventful, but the tow was downwind. I thought this was a little odd, but we were headed towards some cu's.
I released at 2,000 feet and joined Papa-6 in a thermal. We climbed together in several thermals for the next thirty minutes. I headed north towards Gettysburg and then it happened. "THWANG!" There was a loud noise sounding like a spring breaking. Immediately I started to check the elevator, which seemed to be okay. Next I checked the ailerons and the rudder. Everything checked out okay. So I thought it must be the landing gear helper spring, used for retracting the gear. Well, it WAS such a nice flying day, that I continued to soar for another twenty minutes. I just figured that I would deal with the landing gear when it came time to land.
I started to head towards Biglerville, at eighty knots. There was more air noise than normal. Then I saw it! There was daylight between the canopy and the glider.
I slowed to fifty knots and realized that the canopy emergency release had in fact released! I called Fairfield, "this is Charlie Whiskey and I have a problem!"
I was at 5,000 feet and I turned towards the field. I started to set up for a landing. I lowered the gear and cracked open the dive brakes. The lift was very good, so I was not coming down as fast as I would have liked. I opened the dive brakes to full.
The glider started to shudder. Thinking to myself, "Well dummy, with full dive brakes, landing gear down, open canopy, and going forty-five to fifty knots, the glider is near stall." I pushed the speed up to fifty-five knots. The glider liked this, but the canopy did not.
Watching the speed and the canopy, while regulating the dive brakes, I finally got down to pattern altitude.
"Charlie Whiskey, turning downwind for 33 right. I'm going to land in the grass, even though it is wet. Just in case something goes wrong."
The landing was one of my better ones. (Thank Goodness!) The glider came to a stop with the canopy still in place. "Charlie Whiskey, down and safe."
Post flight inspection showed that the emergency release had indeed released. I am going to install a spring to hold the release closed, so this does not happen again.
This is a potential problem for those of you that have a swing-up canopy with only two rear locking pins. The only thing holding down the front of the canopy is the downward pressure of the release mechanism.
I suggest that the canopy release be added to your preflight checklist. Just so you don't have to go topless the next time you go flying!
Well, it has finally happened. Since the last Convector, summer seems to have arrived. With all the rain and general lousy weather we were having I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to fly this year. Our operations numbers have taken a severe hit as you would imagine. July however has picked up the pace and with some good fortune we can manage to preserve our weekends for the remainder of the year.
The graphics display the various operations we have had so far this year. The TFR has not played a major role in our operations since May. We have been very fortunate on that.
We have also seen a significant improvement in the utilization of the single seat gliders. Our failure to return N7782S to the flight line and the loss of the ASK-13 have played an undetermined role so far.
The mix of our operations seems to be holding. Fifty percent of our activity is through the towing of private ships while the other half is attributed to the use of club gliders.
I mentioned our good fortune that the TFR has not had the adverse effect we feared so far this season. Nevertheless this has been an extremely frustrating issue. The potential for this to backfire continues to exist however we really truly are close to signing an agreement. As you know, the USAF has agreed to procedures we set forth in late June. The Secret Service had stated they would support our request provided the USAF was happy. A waiver was submitted through the Secret Service to the FAA. The waiver sat at the FAA for some time but is now moving again thanks to a terse letter from SSA to the FAA Administrator. Honey hell, the baseball bat seems to be much more effective with these people. The bottom line is it may be days or weeks until we close this but it is moving. Right now it appears “W” will be spending time at his ranch so we are expecting another month without a TFR shutting us down. Unfortunately our friends at the Texas Soaring Association are not as lucky.
I think many of you have been able to figure out from some of my e-mails, I am very concerned about the trends we are seeing regarding our operation. OD duty is not optional. It is a very small commitment we make to the club in return for many hours of enjoyment. Some seem to miss every opportunity given them to perform any role in the club. Similarly, we have also seen a significant rise in damage through carelessness and neglect. Most troubling is some of the damage is noticed but left unreported. This year we managed to have a flight instructor damage a 2-33 by mishandling it and the 260hp Pawnee recently had its elevator bent when it was pushed into a hangar column. Neither of these was reported. Such behavior cannot be tolerated. Unfortunately we have also had our share of reported incidents and close calls. All of these will be addressed at the upcoming Mid-Season Operations Meeting.
M-ASA will hold a mandatory Operations meeting on Friday, August 8, 2003. The Frederick Community College is being secured for this just like the tradition has been for the annual March meeting. We will provide food and beverage starting at 6:30 pm. The meeting will begin at 7:30 and will be complete at 9:30.
This meeting will give us a chance to build upon the good and curb the not-so-good trends before they get out of hand.
No one will be permitted to fly unless they have either attended the meeting or been thoroughly briefed by a club officer. If you know you will be unable to attend, let me know as early as possible and we can attempt to schedule a group make up session to facilitate returning all M-ASA members to active flying status as soon as possible.
Previously: The Region 4 North Contest was cancelled and the M-ASA Mini Meet held in its place. The Ka-13 won the first day, and a guy without a GPS ended the second day unofficially tied for first. What happens next? Find out as we continue A Hunter's Tale: The Contest that Never Was.
Tuesday, May 26, word got out that the Ka-13 had won the first day. Preston had gone to a Vintage Sailplane Show the weekend before in Kutztown, and, to our amazement, on Tuesday, we were invaded by vintage sailplanes! They must have launched at dawn and found some excellent soaring conditions along the way (judging by the L/D of some of them) to have made it to Fairfield before a task was called.
After a fair amount of twisting Preston's arm, the vintage sailplane owners were able to convince him to fly his Ka-4 in the task that day. Preston was a little leery, but Cathy said she'd go with him, so he agreed. We decided to be fair to the vintage sailplanes and only make the task a two hour MAT, no mandatory first turnpoint, and launch them first.
The weather wasn’t as great as the day before. It was kind of weak and scratchy – perfect for the lighter vintage sailplanes – especially the ones made out of wood and fabric. They floated up while the heavier fiberglass sailplanes sank out. We had a number of relights, but they were all the fiberglass airplanes.
"Is our class open yet?" It was Preston in the Ka-4. Before I could respond, other people began getting on the radio.
"Ew, what is that thermalling with me?"
"Is that thing really flying, or is it just repulsing the earth?"
"Did they make that thing before or after man knew how to fly?"
I looked at the competition director. "Maybe we should open the class."
The competition director thought for the briefest of seconds. "Yeah, get them out on course."
I had to hide a smile after I announced the class was open. The absence of nasty comments about the vintage sailplanes indicated that all the vintage gliders were getting away from their fiberglass counterparts. The ground crew settled down to wait until the first finisher called in.
Two and a half hours flew as the gate crew chatted about the recent turn of events, the Ka-13's win and discussed who they thought was going to win the task of the day. Pretty soon the radio came to life.
"Ka-4, four miles out."
"Ka-4," Someone acknowledged on the radio. We all spilled out of the gate, but had to wait several minutes while the Ka-4 covered the last four miles. I had to laugh as I watched the thing lumber through the sky toward the finish gate. Some of the pilot’s comments were right, I thought. It did kind of look like it didn't belong in the sky.
"Mark, Ka-4, good finish," someone announced when the thing finally crossed the finish line.
The Ka-4 pulled up as best it knew how and entered pattern. I guess that qualified as a high speed finish. To me, it looked like a fat ballerina trying some new dance moves. Fat ballerina or not, it had a large handicap to boot and easily won the day. Also noteworthy this day was that all the vintage sailplanes made it around and easily took the first ten slots of the day. The fiberglass gliders filled in the rest - the ones who made it.
There were still a couple hours left in the day, and the lift didn't seem to be going anywhere. We were thinking about asking the vintage sailplane owners if they'd like to spend the night and then fly back in the morning, but the airfield was too crowded with the amount of people already here. The vintage sailplane owners thanked us for a great day and said they would've helped with the retrieves if they knew they could get it done and be home by sundown. We got the towplane back out, found a sober towpilot, launched them into the sunset and organized everyone else to try and arrange to get landouts.
Wednesday, May 28 was probably the first rest day the Region 4 North has ever had to take. The weather seemed to agree, and poured down a cool light misty rain. It was refreshing if not nice. I had lots of help working on my LS1. To my surprise, by the end of the day, all the work required on it was finished.
There was talk of me racing it the next day, but I needed Scott Wood to take a look at it and verify that I had done everything correctly. Next thing I knew, his truck came trundling down the taxiway. He explained that he’d been in town and decided to stop in. I showed him my glider, and he signed off on it.
So the next day, when the cus started popping at dawn, I joined the crowd of riggers lining the sides of the runway. Preston, computer genius that he was, said he’d take over scoring for the day. I rigged and launched into one of the most perfect skies I’d ever seen.
I discovered what I'd only been hearing on the radio all week: getting up was easy. Staying under the 5,000 feet was not. Finding an area of sink was difficult, so I joined a group of gliders that was oscillating from 5,000 to 2,000 feet and back up again like a bunch of balloons in an enclosed room with a fan.
They called my task open time, so I climbed to 5,000 feet and charged out the point of the gate closest to the line to the next turnpoint. I was first surprised, then began second guessing myself when no one else joined me. Had I charged off too early?
"80, started 1236."
I could get used to this, I thought as I cruised out over the valley. I thought getting away from the airport would be difficult, but this was a piece of cake. I bagged the two turnpoints, still not having seen anyone and charged for the finish.
"80, four miles out."
"80." I nearly jumped as the radio responded. Guess after all that time by myself, I wasn’t used to having a disembodied voice in the cockpit with me.
I'd never finished before, much less finish fast, so I played it conservative and flew through the gate at a moderate speed. No fancy pull ups or anything - I'd heard stories about inexperienced pilots getting killed doing that. No, not me. Not on my first flight.
"Mark, 80 good finish."
Man, that felt good!
I won't tell you who won that day. That would be too much like bragging. But be sure to ask Preston – he got the score right, and actually didn't have too much trouble scoring. In fact, he said if he ever gave up directing the contest, he'd like to try scoring it.
The next day, Friday, May 30, another LS won, but it wasn't mine. A couple meets ago, Richard Horigan had jokingly asked me to improve his score. I'd answered that if he wanted to improve his score, he'd have to fly faster. During the year, that guy had bought an LS-3 (a step in the right direction) and worked on his flying quite a bit. He'd been close on my tail the day before when I crossed the finish gate, and the ground crew told me it looked really good to see two LSs fly in formation through the gate.
Well, today was his day. We launched the fleet into the wild blue, and, like pretty much every other day in this crazy meet, they stayed up. The ground crew speculated on who was going to be the first through the gate and who was going to finish first. None of us guessed right.
"Hotel Hotel started 1247."
Hotel Hotel? Richard Horigan?
"34, started 1250."
Ah, sailplane racing at its finest. Jonathan apparently thought he was up to something and wanted to start with him so he could keep an eye on him.
Conversation started in the gate as to whether HH would finish first or not. That conversation lasted pretty much from the time the last glider went through the start gate to the time the first glider finished. And that was:
"Hotel Hotel, four miles out."
Well, he'd started first and he'd finished first. This was a good sign. After I crunched the numbers early that evening, he ended up at the top of the scoresheet. If there was ever a meet to fly faster, this was the one. Way to go, Richard!
The last day of the meet, Saturday, May 31 it rained. Most times, it rains the whole meet, and the pilots get pretty fed up at the drops of water, but this time, the rain was welcome. I think most of the pilots were thankful they couldn't fly - if they were as tired as I was. I watched the shiny, wet trailers leave and figured the pilots, like me, would probably remember this strange meet for years to come.
June 1, a bunch of pilots stood around in the north trailer hangar at Fairfield dressed in coats and sweatshirts. What was wrong with the picture? Thankfully, winter finally let go, and mid-June greeted the task day pilots with sunny skies and great, though often deceiving, lift conditions. They rose to the challenge, getting two task days in June and one in July.
Head to head, Baude Litt (LBL) and Jonathan Gere (34) battle for first place. Baude wins both June task days to come out ahead this month with 5000 points. Jonathan follows right on his tail with 4816 points. Ever faithful Michael Higgins (X6) fills out the top three with 3824 points. Also flying this month are Val Brain (13), Christophe Blanchi (A2) and George Burns (T8). Two more weeks in July (and a good looking one this weekend) should give the pilots some more chances to compete. Stay tuned!
| LBL | 34 | X6 | 13 | P6 | A2 | T8 | CL | T1 | |
| Mar-23 | 1000 | 0 | 850 | 344 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr-12 | 1000 | 968 | 0 | 238 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr-13 | 1000 | 0 | 900 | 0 | 0 | 589 | 212 | 47 | 0 |
| Apr-27 | 0 | 1000 | 0 | 752 | 789 | 0 | 497 | 719 | 727 |
| May-3 | 566 | 0 | 444 | 1000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May-4 | 1000 | 913 | 0 | 0 | 909 | 775 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun-28 | 1000 | 935 | 637 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun-29 | 1000 | 315 | 994 | 335 | 0 | 233 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul-13 | 0 | 1000 | 0 | 924 | 0 | 0 | 635 | 0 | 0 |
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SOARING ASSOCIATION Board of Directors:
Officers:
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New: FOR SALE: Schweizer 1-35c. Kilo Whiskey for sale. 2200 TT. Current annual, good overall condition, open trailer and easy to assemble light wings. Cambridge audio netto, new Borgelt B-40 w/audio, G-meter. 10 amp hour battery, O2, new tire and brakes. $15,500. This is an excellent first x-country glider, it has taken me from hanging about the field to a Gold badge in just a few short years and could do the same for you! Paul Rehm 703-430-7625 or darthbaitr@aol.com FOR SALE: One third share in an ASW-15. Based at Fairfield in a trailer hangar. $5000. Rich Adkins at 717-765-8695 or clayplay@innernet.net FOR SALE: ASW-19b, X6, good condition, new Microair, M-Nav, M&H winglets, new belts, new canopy, with Komet trailer, available in Sept. $21,500. Call Mike Higgins at 301-865-7239. FOR SALE: Pegasus. Contact Steve Hanes from Blue Ridge Soaring Society at New Castle, VA. stevenhanes@cox.net FOR SALE: Libelle 201-B Standard (# 489) for sale. Terra radio, Westerboer WV 910/20 computer, 1,210 H, excellent condition, hangared at Fairfield, low price. Please call (301) 657-4065. Repeat: FOR SALE: Schleicher ASW-20. 1056 TT. NDH. Komet trailer, new National parachute, tow out gear, water bags, flight computer, fresh annual. Move forces sale - best offer. For detailed info, creyes123@yahoo.com or 301-564-4340 FOR SALE: Rolladen-Schneider LS3-17. 519 TT, fly as 15m or 17m; Winter instruments; Sage mechanical vario; Blumenauer speed to fly; Terra Tx 760D transceiver; Aerox/Scott oxygen; Komet trailer; annual 08/02; John Allingham, 301-986-0498 |
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The weather gods relented a bit for our annual July Ten-Day Weekend and allowed us at least a few flights on nine of the ten days. The first Friday was a slow start with only four flights, but the B4 arrived and was much used for the remainder of the event. July 3 was the rain day. Both weekends and the Fourth were the busy days with many catching up after our spring rainy season put a damper on our activities.
The four seminars brought new knowledge to many, thanks to Dave Schober, Lance Nuckolls, and to Bill Whelan who presented two classes.
We ate well, thanks to Caroline Baker's annual flight-line cookout from lunch thru suppertime on the first Sunday, and to Elizabeth Judkins' July Fourth cookout, held in the workshop to escape the afternoon rainstorm which ended flights for that day. Miriam Watson brought cole slaw for that feast, and Judy Whelan provided brownies and cherry yum-yums to accompany the ice-cream sundaes.
Several members who had flown at Fairfield drove down and joined in for the cookout.
Thanks also to Arlie Long who surprised us with free hot dogs and hamburgers behind the tent on July 5. Arlie also signed up to be OD for a day. John Thornhill stepped in as OD on July first.
Major thanks to the tow pilots who signed up ahead of time. No one would have flown without them. They were Hans Jorgensen, Ray Scarpulla, Lance Nuckolls, and Dee Torgerson who volunteered for two days.
If at first we Do succeed - try, try again. And we will - Labor-Day week.
Mark the dates - Friday August 29 - Sunday September 7 - for our second Ten-Day weekend of the year. This is a simple, all-flying occasion. No classes, and no cookouts - at least none pre-planned. Who knows if a feast or two may pop-up (the grill is available).
If you didn't get a ten-day shirt in July, a few still are for sale.
There will be sign-up sheets for volunteer tow pilots, and for ODs. If no OD is signed up for a day we will follow club rules for non-scheduled operations - those flying are to choose an OD from the members present.
Come as many days as you can make it and have a lot of flying fun.
New members
Provisional Notes Due
The following are completing their provisional year with M-ASA and should send the membership chairman a note/e-mail requesting permanent membership:
News flash!
On Monday July 28 Jeffrey Fink and Gary Goldberg successfully completed the oral and flight tests for their Private Pilot - Glider licenses. Gene Wilburn supervised and towed. On July 29 Mehrdad Bayat similarly completed his requirements for his PP-G license.
Congratulations to all!
| Frederick | Fairfield | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day | Operations Director |
Tow Pilot | Assistant OD |
Operations Director |
Tow Pilot | Assistant OD |
| 02 | Jim Furlong | Bob Jackson | Aurel Trandafir | Harry LaBrie | Mike Smith | |
| 03 | Ralph Wentzel | Bob Andrew | John Lovell * | Laura Hession | Jim Chick | |
| 09 | Maurice Deland | Craig Moen | Jonathan Gere | John Hearn | Jeffrey Fink | |
| 10 | David A Churchill | Lance Nuckolls | John Mitchell | Chuck Forrester | ||
| 16 | Kai Rasmussen Jim Lewis |
Phil Burgess Buddy Denham |
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| 17 | Richard Latoff Bob Schott |
Mike Smith Bob Jackson |
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| 23 | Mark Carlisle | Dee Torgerson | Darrel Shiles | Jim Chick | John Lovell | |
| 24 | John Allingham | Ray Scarpulla | Jack Beavers | Poul Hansen | ||
| 30 | Jim Furlong | Craig Moen | Harry LaBrie | John Hearn | ||
| 31 | Dick Mott | William Judge | Mike Vore | Jim Trygg | ||
| Frederick | Fairfield | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day | Operations Director |
Tow Pilot | Assistant OD |
Operations Director |
Tow Pilot | Assistant OD |
| 01 | Mansoor Ahmed Steven Silverman |
Gene Wilburn Tom Judkins |
Tom Davidson | Jay Dickhoff | Mike Smith | |
| 06 | Chris Scarlett * | Bob Jackson | Rick Fuller | Max Ullmann | ||
| 07 | Rob Myhre | Dee Torgerson | Frank Benson | Jim Chick | ||
| 13 | Bob Whitehead | Scott Petrasek | Christophe Blanchi | Pete Welles | ||
| 14 | Dan Meyer | Jane Robens | Bob Kryzstan | Mike Grinder | ||
| 20 | Dave Weber | Hans Jorgensen | Mark Segall | Don Robb | Aurel Trandafir move | |
| 21 | Nathan Butler | Robert Robins | Tom Jones | David Pixton | ||
| 27 | Jim Karcher | Sam Harry | Claude Blanchi | Rich Horigan | ||
| 28 | Bill Donahoe | Jan Steenblik | Gary Miller | Bill Savory | ||
| Frederick | Fairfield | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day | Operations Director |
Tow Pilot | Assistant OD |
Operations Director |
Tow Pilot | Assistant OD |
| 04 | Holland Ford | George Green | Mark Mercer | Luis Fernandez | Mike Smith | |
| 05 | Mitch Lambros | Bob Andrew | Peter Kern | Max Ullmann | ||
| 11 | Tonas Kalil | Lance Nuckolls | George Simms Jr Wilmar Sick |
Jim Chick David Schober |
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| 12 | Arlie Long Jr | Bob Ball | Pete Zawadzki Gyorgy Fekete |
Chuck Forrester Buddy Denham |
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| 13 | Mehrdad Bayat | Ray Scarpulla | Baude Litt | Phil Burgess | ||
| 18 | Mario Piccagli | Craig Moen | Michael Hearn | John Hearn | Tom Davidson | |
| 19 | Mansoor Ahmed | George Green | Chris Scarlett | Bob Jackson | ||
| 25 | Richard Wallis | Dee Torgerson | George Constantin | Poul Hansen | ||
| 26 | John Thornhill | William Judge | Robert Critchlow | Jim Trygg | ||
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.