Paul Rasted Jay Brian Anderson Melvin Saunders Peter Pfoertner
... I picked up the 1-26 canopy Sunday afternoon, after a 45 minute ride, a little lift, even with a 4:30 TOW, lost and regained 1K, and was alone on the field except for good ole Bob Boyd who helped me put away. Also, I measured the Pilatus for a new radio mounting box, to make FAA happy. I will form, trim and cement the repairs this week and get the canopy on Saturday morning, with signed log.
Mac
Hi All,
The 1-26 will not be available this week. Mac Winsor has the canopy off = for repairs.
The ship should be back on the field and ready to go this Saturday.
Bill.
Who planned this one? Never again will I tow in this weather. Seriously, it was much worse in the Blanik (see, I really can fly gliders). The stick grip was almost too hot to touch, and the stick itself was too hot. 120 degrees =pain and it was hotter than that. How anyone can stay in a glider in this heat is beyond me. The Pawnee was almost cool, so there. The fatigue got to me tho, so my apologies to my last two towees. Sorry guys.
"Souping" would be a better word. I found it easy to climb to about 4400 feet MSL, but visibility in some areas was below 5 SM at that altitude, making additional altitude (and in fact, VFR flight) in the busy airspace north of Sterling a debatable idea. Since I was also sweating like a plow horse, I decided that 90 minutes of this was enough valuable experience in case I ever _had_ to fly through heavy haze, so I fiddled around down lower for a while, then landed.
- Gary
The soaring forecast looked surprisingly good with cloudbase predicted at 7200 feet. Trigger temp to reach that high was predicted to be 99 F. It was so hazy that Driving to the field on I could not see Mt. Wachussett from 140. It might not have been 99 but it was certainly hot. Rigging and pushing to the linemade me want to lie down in the shadefor a nap.
After releasing at 2000 feet AGL I was on the ground in minutes. Soaked with sweat I climbed in again not feeling at all confident and towed to 3000 feet. Shawn found a thermal and circled the Pawnee. Somehow I got high and inside his turn and released with slack in the line (bad bad). I paid very close attention to where the Pawnee and rope were after releasing beforetrying to center the lift which was no longer where I was.
The gps log gives a very objective record of how I had managed to fly straight out of the lift again. After losing 1500 feet I stumbled into that same thermal again. More sweaty scratching from 2000 ft MSL while drifting away from the field.
My airspeed control seemed sloppy and therefore my climbing suffered. It finally occurred to me. Of course it's more difficult to fly proper attitude (and tow position) when there is no visible horizon!
The rest of the flight I stayed as high as I could and under any cloud I could find in the shade and dreaded the sweaty de-rig in the heat on the ground.
Mark Koepper
PW-5 3K
Sunday...Hazy hot and humid with the staff all praying for a thunderstorm to
cool everthing off and clear the air. Charlie Ryan stayed up for about 2
hours in the afternoon in a B-4. My thanks to Karel and Tom for taking up
some of the slack with instructor duties early in the day while the field
officer and I did an errand to Tanner Hiller in the Bird Dog. That trip was
in hazy conditions with 3.1 miles visibility. Just as a point of
information,
if you follow the power lines off the north end of our runway for about 15
miles to the west, you come to Tanner Hiller airport. IFPL* flight rules.
<g>
Jeff Orchard
* I Fly Power Lines
In addtion to doing an outstanding and time consuming job of maintaining our Web site, Gary Helmstetter has also evolved as our official "engineer of tow rope construction, maintenance, and inventory control". Members like Gary and others, quietly in the background, are vital to the clubs existence. Thanks Gary, we appreciate it!
You need to know which tow rope to use and its specific function. Don't forget to use the weak link on heavier ropes and lighter planes.
Listed is the current inventory and its use. Please visit our Web site for an extensive report on tow rope applications, construction and selection. Gary spent many hours on this project, take the time to take a look:
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