Interesting day on Wednesday. First CU's showed up around 10:30 - 11:00 over Fitchburg. One cloud we were watching over Fitchburg kept growing and growing. It didn't look really threatening, just impressive development.
Got off in the 1-26 around 12:00 with lots of lift everywhere. No sign of an inversion so the lift just got stronger the closer you got to cloud base. About a half hour into my flight I noticed that the cloud we had been watching from the ground had started to leak. I was about 5 mile north and east of the field where I could watch the progress of the rain quite well. . The wind was nearly calm to 18000 ft so the rain, although moving in the general direction of Sterling was extremely slow. So we just kept a sharp eye on it and moved a little south and west of the field.
After awhile the rain dried up, just after it had passed over the Fitchburg airport. There weren't really cloud streets (no wind) but you could nearly drive anywhere you wanted with no need to circle at all. Bolstered by such good lift, I decided to follow Mike Pitoniak to Gardner. Then I noticed that the rain cloud that had dried up over Fitchburg, had redeveloped and started to rain again. Not wanting to get caught behind the cloud, we turned back to the airport.
We had started on or way to Gardner at 5k and by the time we turned around and came back we were down to 3000. The rain cloud was starting to spread out some (not rain but the upper clumulo - stratus like sun blocking stuff) and was putting a damper on the lift. Mike an I worked some 0 sink for 10 minutes or so when I started to slowly lose altitude, I headed west to the last remaining sunlit field. Mike headed east and ran into rain and 1000 ft down. No need for flaps!.
I found some really light lift that finally picked up and got back to about 5500. But that was the last lift I saw. I continued west but nothing, and came back to the field and found nothing. It looked like it was still working about 10 miles away, but I wasn't 10 miles away.
Total time 2.5 hrs. It was a very interesting lesson, to go from such good conditions to nothing, so quickly. Perhaps in a glider with longer legs I could have skirted the local over development, but in a way, I was glad to experience it.
Rick Roelke
I hung around down in Worcester (above Clark and WPI, my stomping grounds 25 years ago ;-) for quite a while until I got hooked up with Arnd, both of us up around 6500' at cloud base. We ran up to Minuteman together, then I got back to 6500' again while he was thermaling about 1000' lower, so I took off up 495 toward Lowell along a cloud street. He later got up to cloud base and headed directly for Pepperell. He got there around the time I got to Lowell, waited around for 10 minutes or so, then headed into the blue towards Sterling. As I arrived at Pepperell he was down to 3500' over Groton and scrounging. He advised me to stay north, so I went to Brookline, where there was good lift to bases at 7000, and clouds lined up towards Gardner. Headed south, and along the way, thermalled in some rain to do it but got to 7100 under its cloud, which was a building T-cell. I came screaming out heading south at Vmmax (85 mph) still climbing at 5 knots, pulled up, and saw a line of thin cloud forming up at about 9000', parallel to the building cloud, about a quarter-mile farther south. I climbed for a while under it at 1 knot, using the building cloud behind me as a ridge (learned that at Franconia :-). It was unbelievably pretty, 400 feet above the bases. I don't know what was causing the lift, since the wind was negligible; probably some sort of cold-front effect from the downflow behind me.
There were a half-dozen showers around by then, including one between where I was (just north of Rt 2, between Fitchburg and Gardner) and Sterling. I called Sterling's Cessna trainer as they were about to take off, and they told me it wasn't raining there, vis was OK, so I headed just west of Wachusett to skirt the rain, then to Sterling. Arrived at about 4500'.
Arnd, meanwhile, had slowly climbed back up to 6000 or so near Moore, and came back down Rt 190 around the other side of the rain. While watching for him, I saw lightening hit the big TV tower out on 290; that was quite a sight. I mentioned it on the radio but Arnd didn't hear me. Then we both fiddled our remaining altitude away, landing around 4:10 pm. I mentioned the lightening again on the ground and Arnd said if he'd heard what I said, he'd have landed instantly. I guess he doesn't like lightening ;-).
Arnd and I figured out we covered over 100 miles in total.
It was definitely not a day to hang around in any one spot; the trick was to head for the nearest airport that had been in the sun for a while.
Cheers, Gary
On Wednesday, I had a great flight in a 2-33. A bunch of us took off at 11:30 and I stayed up for over 2 hours. Lots of buildups everywhere. 6-8 knots climb rates all day. It would have been a great day for a x-country.
Great day of flying, a new personal best 4.5 hours! First time over Wachusset.
It didn't look at all like the day to try my 300 km out and return again and I didn't launch until 1:15. However I released in a good thermal and climbed at an average 4.5 knots from 2500 to 6500 feet. Well maybe. . .
I had declared the task on the ground and had nothing to lose by starting. At 1:30 I dove out of the sector at the stone church. I was 1000 feet higher and an hour and a half later than last week.
The sky still did not look good and I got low between Fitchburg and Jaffrey. Having had enough of that game last week I went downwind and turned Fitchburg and then headed out to Birch Hill Dam in Royalston North of Rt 2 between Gardner and Orange. After turning Birch Dam I tried to meet up with Mark Tutle in his Grob at Gardner. We could not seem to connect due to radio problems.
Finally I headed for Tanner-Hiller but things went soft and I turned 4 miles short. The clouds seemed to indicate thermals near but not under them. Often flying under the clouds returned only heavy sink.
Back near Sterling I found a cloud forming above me as I climed and stayed with this one to 7000 feet. From there I made one glide back to the church, then Fitchburg, Mt Wachusset and back to Sterling.
I was curious about the field on the North side of Mt. Wachusset. I know at least one pilot has landed there years ago. From about 3000 feet (maybe 2000 agl) it looked very rough with brush growing in it. I don't think it has been planted or mowed and I would not consider it a landing option.
Mark Koepper PW-5 3K
First of all, SORRY TOM! Tom Matthews said he didn't want to see any %^%#@#%*^%#$^%*_* stuff about what a good flight I had, but I just couldn't resist.
When I took off about 13:00 on Saturday, there were some cumulus clouds north of the field, but they were dissolving before they reached us. John B. towed me Northwest of the field, and immediately started circling, so I figured we either were in lift, or he was trying to shake me off tow. I stubbornly hung on anyway, and decided we must be in lift. It's actually hard to tell in the 1-26 sometimes, because the darned thing is so light you can see the vario read anywhere from 500 to 800 up even with no lift.
Anyway, being my usual wimpy self, I hung on till 4K, because I had already signed up for it, and we were going up fast enough so it wouldn't take much longer anyway. That 1-26 doesn't forgive you if you mess up, and usually punishes you if you miss finding lift right away -- it just chews up altitude while you're hunting for that next boost. (Now I know why Ted Haurie's 1-26 had big teeth on it.)
When I released, I circled right back around to where I thought we had been in lift. Hmmm... almost none. Then I heard John on the radio -- something like "How's that lift I left you in...?" I said there wasn't much, and he responded that he couldn't believe it! About that time, I found it, and told him I was back in it. I quickly climbed up to 6500 feet before it started to poop out.
I set out a little more Northwest to try and head to where those nice clouds were before I took off, but, of course, there weren't any around anymore! The 1-26 was CHEWING happily away at altitude.
Ok, back to that nice thermal I just went up in... Nothing!
Ok, keep looking. The 1-26 was CHEWING faster than ever now... must have been especially hungry. I was down to around 2600 ft now.
Hmmm, I wonder if there's lift over the "Tar Pit"? (I call the asphalt plant next to Sterling center the tar pit, because of the darker gray color.) Down to about 2300 by the time I reached it... sure enough, there was lift there! I found that I could climb to around 5200 or so, all the time drifting over Sterling and a little past.
I made a couple of sweeps around, finding a little bit here and there, but kept finding myself back at the Tar Pit. Anyway, after a while, I decided to hook up my stereo, tuned in my favorite FM radio station, and kept riding the elevator up -- flying around, then riding up again. Gave me a chance to do some relaxing and looking around instead of constantly worrying about finding lift. Too bad it was so hazy! So, that's why I call it Saturday afternoon at the Tar Pit.
Well, wouldn't you know it -- THIS time, the cycle was stronger -- I was up to about 5800 feet and still climbing at a pretty good rate... Then I hear "1-26 from GBSC ground... " AGH! Imagine the nerve of some of those other club members! Calling me down after only 2 hours! (Nobody was signed up after me when I went up, and I checked to see if I could stay up... honest!)
Oh well, a good chance to practice my full-spoiler slipping turns and spirals. I'm anxious to hear the report from Rick, who is the ^%@$*%*$%$#^ guy that called me down!
Bill Maxwell
I had a terrible time on Saturday.... a terrible time getting back down to the field from 6.5k at the end of my allotted hour. I gave myself 10 minutes to return to the field. I expected to have a minute or two to fly around and enjoy the low view. I pushed the nose over to 75 mph and started a big circle which would put me near the IP at about the right altitude. But, as luck would have it, I had to keep pulling the spoilers out so that I could keep the vario below 0. It just wanted to pop up to that pesky 200 ft/min up position. I was looking for sink to circle in and sucker in some poor ol' sot, but that just never happened. Oh well, where is Tom Mathews and sink when you need them???!!
ted
Saturday's weather was marked by a strong inversion, at or just below the condensation level. Because of this, what few clouds were visible, were quite flat and extremely short lived. Only the strongest thermals managed to push up through the inversion to produce clouds. Very different from the "spontaneous convection" of Wednesday.
Lift, when you found it, was quite good with steady climb rates up to 6 kts. Twice when fling relatively low I would find a thermal, climb, and find a cloud form above me, just as I neared the top of the inversion (~6500 feet). Unless there was a strong continuing flow the cloud would evaporate instantly. Several times I would head off on a short trip to the next cloud, (~3mi) only to watch it disappear as I approached. Luckily there was always lift still there, although probably not as strong as it had been.
I was the last person to want the 1-26, so I flew out the last of the day. I hung around the last cloud in the sterling area (over the heat battery known as the quarry) and then headed up toward the field. I actually found another week thermal around 5:45 and stretched the flight in the nice smooth evening air. I watched gliders landing and figured I was going the be the last man down. I floated down in some buoyant air 1 - 0.5 kts down on the vario, and landed at 6:15. Just as I landed I was surprised to here Gary Helmstetter call on his final glide. He was coming in from NE of Fitchburg, where he had found one last thermal to take the "squeak" out of his return to Sterling.
Total time 3:00 hrs, with a delightfully smooth, and peaceful end of the day.
Rick Roelke
I took off about 2 pm Saturday. There were several interesting aspects to the flight. I noticed from the TI (and heard pilot reports when I arrived at the field) that there was a viscious wind sheer between 1000 and 2000 MSL, and resolved to stay above 2k to avoid having to climb through it. Naturally, as we got ready to leave the ground, Ritts in the Pawnee noticed he was a bit low on fuel, so let me know that he wanted to stay close to the field to minimize the time spent flying back. Forgetting for the moment about my resolution, I told him I'd change the 3k tow to a 2k tow if he'd find me some lift at 2k. He did fly through weak lift around that altitude, so I released but found quickly that I was right below the sheer layer, and the lift was very difficult to center (basically, it was moving horizontally a lot more than it was vertically!).
I gave up on the weak lift I'd released in, and, seeing gliders and a cloud well above it, went to the quarry just across route 190 from the airport. It took me a few hundred feet of altitude to get there, and I was down around 1000 AGL before I found the lift coming off the quarry. Then - even though the lift was at least 5 knots when I could find it - it took a good 15 minutes to climb through the sheer level to a relatively stable thermal.
The other interesting aspect of the flight came 4 hours later, when I was returning from around the area of Moore ex-AAFB. There is a bigger quarry near there which is always a reliable source late in the day. There was no cloud over it, but it got me to 5000 AGL, plenty enough altitude for a final glide to Sterling. But a mile or two on course, I stumbled into some 5 knot lift, and decided to remove any question about the final glide by climbing a bit more. I was surprised as, again with no cloud above it, the thermal carried through an extremely dense inversion layer to well above the inversion, over 6000 AGL. I had reached 7300 an hour or two earlier in the flight, so I was not that surprised by the thermal height, but penetrating the inversion was pretty surprising. It was a bit nerve-wracking, too, since while I was climbing through it the visibility to the horizon was reduced nearly to VFR minimum. But at a 5 knot climb rate, I was through it in under 20 seconds. Once above it, the visibility was excellent to the horizon, but I still couldn't see Sterling. I squeezed the last few hundred feet out of the thermal, then used the compass to start a final glide toward Sterling at 100 mph, to penetrate the poor visibility as quickly as possible. At that speed, my glider sinks at about 6 knots, so there was another 20 seconds or so of anxious horizon-watching, but at that speed, the glider's handling is extremely quick, so my main concern in dodging anyone who appeared in the pea soup was not to over-stress the glider.
Since even at a 6 knot sink rate I still had far more altitude than I needed to get to Sterling, I continued at 100 mph all the way back, then still had to use up over 2500 feet. It was 6:05, and, knowing I had a 7 pm dinner date, I threw that away with a 15 knot spiral descent. A minute or two after landing, I found I just couldn't get acclimated to the ground; 10 minutes before I had been more than a mile above Littleton!
I went up to Sugarbush Saturday for the last day of the Region 1 Championships. Possibly a record for a region 1 contest, the weather was excellent for the entire contest with very good soaring on 7 of the 8 days, including 2 practice days. There were 18 gliders this year, maybe down a bit due to conflicts with the Sports Class Nationals in NY and the Standard Class Nationals in NV.
In sports class, GBSC members Juan Mandelbaum and Charlie Ryan were neck and neck all week with only 7 points separating them going into the last day. Charlie's 47 mph over 125 miles was enough to win his second day and the contest. Juan finished second for the contest.
Congratulations to each of them.
Sunday was hot. Lots of small thermals with a high cirrus layer. I had my first flight in a 1-26. The ship is as much fun as everyone says. When are we getting another one?
Joe Schena
Congratulations Joe! Fun times a coming. rlr
Soaring can be such a chastening experience. I came to the gliderport on Saturday before noon with a French colleague. I'd spoken to him of "Soaring" and "Gliding" and he didn't seem to comprehend, but once I hit upon the term "Vol a Voile" he immediately knew what I was talking about and wanted to give it a go. After watching the gliders go up and stay up, we had hoped to get a good flight in and got started sometime after 2 in what looked like good conditions. But after releasing from tow and performing the obligatory stalls and turns and letting him try to point the glider in a general direction I found that lift sources were rather scarce and the 1/2 knot thermal that I finally did locate didn't net us more than 1000' feet before petering out. But we did get a 40 minute flight and he thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.
Sunday was a different matter, I was fortunate in that I arrived relatively
early and decided that since N716PS seemed to be unpopular I should take
that ship up and hope that the other B4 would remain hotly contested and
that they would forget my existence. Somewhat disheartened by seeing Gerry
Bell and Juan Mandelbaum land the Blanik after a relatively short flight, I
realized that I couldn't get out of my position as second in line without
losing face. So I strapped myself in and hedged my bets by telling the tow
pilot that I would take a 4K tow unless I felt something sooner. The high
clouds were cutting off a lot of thermal energy, yet the tow itself was
quite turbulent and let me hope that perhaps I could at least stretch out my
flight. At 3K my greed overweighed my caution and I released in what I had
thought was lift but turned out to be 2 knots of sink, which I expertly
cored immediately. Since this wouldn't be conducive to a long flight I
headed off to Mount Wachusett and stumbled into a +4/-1 thermal over a
farmhouse surrounded by lots of rocky fields. This thermal remained in the
same place all day long, and saved me a couple of times in the course of the
day. I made it to 5K and, made optimistic by this unexpectedly strong
thermal, struck off for Worcester. By the time I made it over the Norton
factory my altitude had dwindled away and just as I was initiating a turn
for the final glide back to Sterling I hit some strong sink and decided to
continue on a little bit on the general theory that where the air goes down
it ought to go back up somewhere else and since I hadn't hit the lift it
must still be ahead of me. It was; and I got back up over 5000 feet. I
continued on to downtown Worcester without finding any lift and returned to
my initial thermal in order to tank up on some altitude. Struck off to the
I495/Rt. 9 intersection, stealing a nice thermal from the PW-5 (outclimbed
him a little, too
" What I did on My Summer Vacation "
Let me start this off by saying that this is not about weekend flying at
Sterling, but about what some of the pilots at Sterling did for the past
week. Charlie Ryan, Juan Mandelbaum, Steve Sovis, Bill Brine and Errol Drew
all flew in the Region One Contest at Sugarbush last week. But the title of
this little tale starts off as What I Did, so they can all relate their
flying tales, while I, from my somewhat lower rung on the soaring ladder,
will report on my crewing.
To begin with I was conned into crewing for this contest by an old fiend, I
mean friend, this winter. I do not mean that the friendship is old, just
that the friend is. Well he convinced me that next to his wife, I was the
most experienced crew he ever had, what came out later was his daughters
refused to assist him any more, the lovely Miz Lillian would only go to
three contests this year, I looked gullible enough to be suckered into the
job and nobody else ever came back a second time. Now Miz Lillian, being of
the Southern Persuasion, decided that she would crew for contests in
Georgia, Virginia, with one excursion just North of the Mason Dixon Line to
Pennsylvania. While she says, "she LLLoves Vermont, but she was just not up
to that many contest's". What she really meant was, there was no dairy farms
within 200 miles of any of the other contest sites, ergo, no chance of a
landout in a field of fresh cow patties. No slouch, that woman.
Ray Galloway is the pilots name, fly's a nice new LS-8, with the call sign
of "POPPA-ONE", and as fine a North Carolinain gentleman as I have ever met.
Actually, in truth, he is the only North Carolinian I have ever met. He is
also the holder, for the next year at least, of the Shapiro Trophy, which
was awarded to the pilot with the highest score in the regional's. I also
assisted Charlie Ryan, somewhat, in rigging and derigging, again to be
totally honest, his wings overlapped P1's, and Ray would not feed me until
the plane was stowed, so I assisted Charlie for my own selfish interests.
But Charlie won Sports Class, so if you are ever looking for crew with a
100% winning record, the price can be worked out.
As I said earlier you will have to ask the pilots about all that exciting
aviating stuff, as Acting Crew Chief, ( I guess I can promote myself seeing
Lillian was not on site ), I missed all the interesting stuff. Even missed
my own pilot lay a new white line down the middle of the runway. I watched
Ray finish, do a pull-up, turn, and then drop his gear. At that point I went
to my truck so I could tow him back to the trailer. I parked behind a 1-26
near his usual turnoff point, but he never showed. After a short wait, I
pulled out a little to see him still in the middle of the runway. First
thought, why did he stop out there, second thought, hadn't noticed the
screwed up painting of the white line on the runway before, third thought,
he seems to be sitting a little lower than normal, fourth thought Aww S--t !
Got a wheel under my wounded darling and towed her back to her trailer,
silently cursing the ham handed pilot who had wounded her. Silently because
he still owed me a supper and two more days of meals, I may be dumb, but I
ain't stupid. She's a tough old bird though, collapsed her gear, and only
wound up with a little gel coat missing. Had John Murray check it out to be
sure. He had slowed enough before the collapse that the white line wasn't
all that long. In case this ever happens to you, be advised that the pilot
reports that the wheel brake is completely ineffective when it's in the
well, and no matter how hard you apply it, there is just not enough rudder
authority to steer over to the grass.
Because, my main man, made it home every night I did not have to go find
him. But I have one retrieve story to relate. Gilly Smith, aka Peter Rabbit,
landed out somewhere above Barrie. Now Edith, his wife, has crewed for
years, and was quite proficient at finding covered bridges that were lower
than the air conditioner on her old motor home. Gilly solved these minor
repair problems, by going out and buying the tallest and widest dam motor
home you have ever seen. Named it the "White House" for good reason, there
just ain't no doubt about it, when the cross beams of the bridge are at eye
level you know it's not going to make it through. Even semi's give way to
this beast. My man had made it back when we got the word that "PR" was down,
I noticed that while we were hooking the trailer up to the white house, that
Edith had used the bathroom four times. She then confessed that she had a
total of two hours driving time in this beast, all of it on interstate
highways. Told her I had drove truck and would drive if she wanted,
neglected to tell her that it had been 35 years since I had driven anything
near this size, but what the hell, that's what insurance is for. Thirty feet
of glider trailer, behind God only knows how many feet of Motor Home, felt
like I was driving one of those Australian road trains. Did not ask how long
the package was, lest I blurt out the correct answer to the first trooper
who stopped me, and wind up spending the rest of the contest waiting for the
judge to finish laying up his hay. Now Gilly, also a gracious Southern
gentleman, Atlanta this time, had the decency to land in what had to be the
prettiest field in all of Vermont. It sits high above the local landscape
with views of the higher mountains for a full 360 degrees, some of them up
to forty miles away. Filled with buttercups, and with towering cu off in all
four quadrants, one expected to see Julie Andrews dancing in the field
singing the theme from the Sound of Music. 52 acres, and it's for sale along
with a large barn for a mere 200K. For a slight finders fee, or an invite up
once a summer, I can let you know it's location.
Also got to meet "PF" our latest Soaring/Tow pilot, club member. Sorry Peter
but after a week with Ray I got old timers too, and forgot your last name.
To those of you who have not yet met him Peter is another fine Southern
Gentleman, of German origin, who comes to us by way of Newcastle Va. So if
you see a Discus, with the compatition letters of "PF" or hear an Achtung
with a Southern drawl, introduce yourself.
Well now you know how I spent the first week of my summer vacation, sorry to
have gotten so verbose that you had to spend the first week of yours reading
about it, but that's the way it is for us retired folks with way to much
time on our hands. To Juan, Steve, Errol and Bill, sorry guys but I have
already managed to loose the last days standings and cant remember the
finishing order. Not to take anything away from Charlie, but to those
private owners in the club who have not tried it before, the Sports class
looked like it can be done without excessive pucker factor. Ask those who
have done it.
A thank you to the Boss, Ray Galloway, who paid the freight, and to all the
fine folks at Sugarbush, who hosted a great contest, kept it safe, and
provided a lot of fun.
John Farrington
I have nothing to report on any succes or adventure with my own flying. I
had a not such good day Saturday doing a couple of pattern tows. Although
before launch as we buckled in, Dave Zlotek says that he is tired and
doesn't want to be disturbed in the back as a way to encourage me to do my
own flying, I can attest to it that he is awake and did extricate us from a
couple of situations that warranted his immediate action. The week before
I thought I might solo soon because I never felt him touch the stick and I
would hear only an occasional comment. Now I'm not so sure. I understand
it happens that there is not always progress.
I did have a soaring related experience which I will pass along and you
can decide whether to include it in the Weekend report.
Recently I was in a 737 to Boston and with my current increasing awareness
of flying related things took notice of the high aspect ratio wings and
wondered what the glide ratio is. As I was seated in the next to last row
I was the last person off and decided to ask the copilot who was standing
at the cockpit cabin doorway. To introduce myself I told him that I was a
member of GBSC. He didn't know the ratio but said it was interesting; we
entered the cabin and he dug out what appeared to be a flight manual at
least a hundred pages thick in appearance. A table for various
configurations showed that for a mind boggling (my words) 100,000lb gross
weight the stall speed is 100 knots and from an altitude of 37,000 feet the
range is 280 miles. After thanking him and saying goodbye I invited him to
join. I'm not sure whether the miles were nautical or statute but either
way it doesn't seem possible to me that it could be about a 40:1 glide
ratio. Yet, considering the aspect ratio it could be a noteworthy figure.
I recall, maybe not accurately because it was quite some years ago, from
reading a book review in Scientific American, while coincidentally on a 727
flight from Alberquerque, NM, that that plane has a glide ratio of about
10-12. The review was of a book by an airline pilot writing about his
experiences in a 727. He also noted that the stall was so smooth in a
727, that the initial warnings to alert the pilot would be first sound and
visual alarms then next the control column would be jiggled and if the
pilot still didn't respond, a mechanism would actually push it forward.
Just in case they are out to lunch I guess.
To pursue it further I did an on-line search for "boeing glide ratio" and
came up with the BESC, Boeing Employees Soaring Club, web site, and sent an
inquiry by e-mail to Eric Troili, the VP of the club asking about the glide
ratios for both the 737 and 747. What better group than a bunch of boeing
glider pilots would have an answer?
His reply follows. Go to the link in his letter for some nice aerial
photography of Washington State Soaring sites (much of it taken by him) and
a notable Web site; sound and all. When I click on it from my mail program
(Eudora) the web page is loaded into Netscape automatically. If clicking on
it doesn't work then copy and paste the link to your browser.
Herb Weiss
Herb,
While I'm not sure that I'd like to be involved with a practical
demonstration of the effective power-off performance of either ship, your
questions are most interesting.
One of the first 767's that was delivered to Air Canada (?) did in fact
demonstrate an ability to perform under power-off conditions. The story
goes that the ground service personnel misread the fuel quantity
indicators; something about a conversion from US gallons to Imperial
gallons. This particular 767 was being piloted by an experienced sailplane
pilot. When the commercial flight ran out of fuel the pilot found an
abandoned military airstrip and landed the 767 without incident. The only
casualty was the interruption of a drag race that had to be hurriedly
cleared from the runway by the Canadian Mounted Police who had been
notified of the aircraft's intention to make an emergency landing. My
recollection of the event is foggy at best so I'm not confident that all of
the details that I've described are entirely accurate.
I forwarded your questions to a BESC club member that works in an
engineering group that may be able to shed some light on the subject. We'll
get back to you. Hopefully soon, but our club is currently in the midst of
an XC encampment in Eastern Washington (Ephrata). Most of the pilots may be
on vacation to attend that function as well as attending the Region 8
contest at the same site next week.
Happy Soaring,
Eric Troili (BESC VP)
PS. I've got a
web site
with a ton of pictures of the flying that I've been
doing this season.. I mostly fly hang glider but I fly sailplane just
enough to keep my interest in the sport. Check it out if you have some free
time, there are a ton of pictures of the soaring sites in this area.
Other than this weekend
John Farrington - Crew Chief - Retired AND on Vacation!
Herb Weiss - Glide ratio on a 737
hweiss1@sprynet.com
From: "Troili, Eric" Eric.Troili@PSS.Boeing.com
To: "'herbert weiss'" hweiss1@sprynet.com
Subject: RE: 737 glide ratio?
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 06:19:12 -0700
Eric Troili
T-4280 Test Equipment Coordinator
E-mail eric.troili@boeing.com
End of the Soaring Report