Badges for last Week: Frank DiMeo "A" Badge, Todd Hyten Bronze Badge, and Richard Roelke Bronze Badge.
I soloed Bill Hall on Sunday and gave him the "A" Badge. Dezi conducted the Honors and we all had a great time. [ Laurence had agreed that, since Bill was wearing her shirt, he would have to give up his pants instead. I hope Dezi executed that agreement. -Ed] Matt Hyatt has left the club and moved to Arizona. The weekend was great and even I managed to stay up an extra 10 minutes. We are all packed and ready for the trip to N.H. See you all in Franconia next week.
- Tom Matthews
With Ryan Retelle piloting the Pawnee and Mike Estrada in the 1-26 and me (Peter Stauble) in the L-13 we departed 3B3 around 10:15 and landed at Franconia shortly after 12:30. We flew in smooth clear skies at 7500 feet until north of CON. The blown fuse in the 1-26 that Mike replaced before he left blew again so Mike had a quiet flight and followed the noisy plane ahead of him. Clouds began appearing fast and low up north so we began descending, which is always sporting on a dual tow. By the time we flew over Plymouth we were down to 4500 and decided that it looked safer to go via Dean Memorial. Shortly before Dean we were down to 3000 in the bumpy stuff and were able to maintain that to Franconia. It was raining by the time we left Franconia. Much thanks to Dick Ruel for the speedy return in his 172! A reminder to the 1-26 ship captain; we need some spare fuses and maybe even an investigation to determine why they blow.
- Peter Stauble
My wife Renee and I went to England to celebrate our anniversary, and stayed a bit with Geza Szurovy and his wife Anne. Geza's doing well and says hi - some of you may remember Frank Spital and Geza had a Concept 70 together some 20 years ago. Geza's become quite famous with his aviation writing, flying and writing about homebuilts, antiques, bizjets, and of course his book on aerobatics with Mike Goulian. We visited Lasham and saw the 15-meter nationals finishers, then on to old Sarum where Geza keeps his Europa. This Europa is short (not motor-glider) wing, 912 powered, and absolutely stunning - show-quality. We both had nice scenic rides in the Europa, viewed assorted castles and ruins and the Salisbury Cathedral from the air - fantastic! The thermals were cooking, and I couldn't help thinking "too bad we didn't have the Duo" for the tour, it wouldn't have required circling.
Anyway, Geza's doing great and says hi to everyone !
See you all in Franconia,
Dave Nadler
PS: Look for Geza's new book on the early airlines and airliners in a few months, published by MBI.
In an effort to make me give up my Camels, my Doctor has put me on Wellbutron and the patch. Wellbutron aint so bad, mellows everything out a little, one major side effect however, something called grand mal seizures, which severely limits your flying. That damn patch is worse than ever though, nightmares that you would not believe.
About a month or so ago Bill Nockles asked to borrow my Cambridge GPS for the Dansville region three contest. When I told him that mine was the Palm-Nav and not the normal version that he had used before, he asked me to come along as crew and teach him how to use it. Politely told him that there was no way I was going to spend a week bunking in his van with him, Bill thought this over for a while and offered to rent a room for us. I held out for double beds, thinking that this would be the deal breaker, but he came through after an hour or so, of more deep thought. A couple of days before I departed on the seven hour drive west, it dawned on me that maybe a drive of that length would be safer without the risk of seizures, so I gave up on the pills. Also figured that since this was Bills vacation, it would be thoughtful of me to leave the patch at home and take up smoking for the week. I was sure that he would not want an ugly bear, who woke up screaming and fighting at least four times a night, for a roomie. So what he got was an even dispositioned ole John, who snored all night, and got up at five every morning for a little walk and a smoke.
Now, Bill has threatened to make up nasty stories about me if I were to tell about his computer illeritacy, but he does not even have e-mail, and won't be reading any of this, so I figure I am safe, unless some loudmouth blabs. The first day's task, was a MAT, with Avoka and Harris Hill as mandatory turn points and then pick up as many turn points as you can on the way home. I wired the GPS into the aircraft, programmed the Palm-Nav for the start line, the two mandatory points, and showed him how to pick out the others. Still not too sure of this computer stuff, Bill has his old photo book with him, and a sectional marked with all the turnpoints. Now Mr. Bill flew brilliantly, came back within seconds of the three and a half hour time limit with over 160 miles to his credit. Looked like he had aced the day. Sent him off to the scorer while I washed the aircraft, easy to crew for the ace of the base. The only thing to worry about was an L-13 flown by the Penn State team, with their handicap, if they complete the task before sundown they win, but second is also a great place to be in, especially since the boys had to start school on Tuesday and could not complete the contest. That little computer showed Bill just where the start gate was, after he flew through that, the thing automatically switched to Avoka, and pointed the way. When he reached this turnpoint, the scale blew it up and beeped when he made the point and then switched to Harris Hill. This is where things started to go wrong for Mr. Bill. As he approached perhaps the most famous soaring site in the country, you know the one that sits atop a very prominent ridge, has a 2-32 wing mounted vertically as a sculpture in front of a large museum, Bill knows it too as he has competed there plenty of times, in fact he has a picture of it in the cockpit with him. Well he gets to within six miles of the place and the computer starts beeping like hell, he looks down and just knows that he has not reached the turnpoint yet, so he flies on for another four miles before he gets tired of the beeping and figures he has it made. Now that most famous of turnpoints is still visible just two miles in front of him and he turns off for his next point, computer keeps beeping however, Bill finally decides to look at it and finds that it is warning him about an SUA violation. Bill had flown right over the Chummung County airport and the computer was telling him about the Special Use Airspace violation. He figured out how to turn off the alert ( touch the big SUA alert OFF icon) and flew off without realizing that he had missed the turnpoint by two miles. The result is that they show him as landing out at the first turnpoint twenty eight miles out of Dansville, so instead of placing twenty points behind the Blanik with 980 points, the man bags 69 points for the day. So instead of first or second for the day we have a dead lock on last.
The only good thing about last place is there is no way to go but up. Mr. Bill flew well for the rest of the week, but the only way to make up such a large loss of points was to have everybody else land out on the first leg, on different days. He moved from eighth to seventh on Tuesday, after the Penn. State team went home, and moved up another place when a PIC 20 pilot got called back to work. Was within striking distance of fifth on the last day, when the fifth place pilot landed out, but Bill was stymied when a cloud layer moved in over the airport and he was not able to get enough altitude to get through the gate and clear the high country towards the first turnpoint.
Bill had a little excitement, one day, when the ground crew gave a takeoff signal instead of a take up the slack signal. As his tow hook is right in front of the wheel, he normally holds the brake until the slack is taken up so that he will not overrun the rope. He took his hand off the brake and had just got it on the release when he was slung forward and the rope broke. The rope wound up on the wheel and the aircraft could not be moved until somebody got a knife out and cut it away. Pushed him off to the side and then launched him as soon as we could. Should have taken a good look at the craft however, as the rope had broken his brake cable. Luckily he landed back at the airport that day, so his longer than normal rollout was not a problem. A long tedious, quick fix, had him flying the next day.
Peter Pforetner turned in a very respectful fourth place in the standard class, damn good for his first flights of the year. Eric Nelson, a new MITSA member took tenth place in a Cirrus.
John Farrington