MUSINGS

When crocodiles are snapping,And your shorts are in shreds,You begin to wonder what life would be likeIf the coin had turned up heads!

A nonsense verse to begin a writing that has sombre elements. Humour sometimes offsets hysteria. Let meemphasize a few words on insurance:

• The abrupt change was unplanned. Al Schreiter, Jim Leach and I learned from Ron Wyatt on March 28 thatthere was no insurance because the insurer had, effectively then, pulled out. There still is no clear reason. Wehad three days to find an alternative.

• We did what we felt was best. Fortunately, Al’s contact with Johnson-Higgins et al responded to inquiry andhere we are.

• Because of our recent accident history we were faced with a $2000 deductible regardless. The big changewas the rates. From the point of view of the insurer, in part, the cost of labour and materials tends towards aconstant value that is obviously a higher proportion of an inexpensive sailplane than it is of an expensive one. Ialso suspect they recognize that low time pilots tend not to buy state of the art, expensive aircraft. I’m not tryingto build a case tor the insurer but I can see how, from their perspective, adjustment of rates had justification.Having said that, let me also say that your comments and criticism are not ignored but there are limits to whatcan be done when a contract is set. Nevertheless, keep them coming. Tony Wooler, your representative atJohnson-Higgins, Toronto, is anxious to develop a good relationship with us as clubs and individuals. I shouldmention too that because SAC is first and foremost an association of clubs, our priorities sort in that order. Sofar as I know all clubs saved money on the change in liability premiums.

• There are some real plusses. We all have 1 million dollar third person liability for SAC aircraft only. For the firsttime, so do our instructors. There is opportunity for low-cost ground liability coverage for clubs. A rebate formulais in place for good years. We also have clear rules of coverage for non-resident non-SAC foreign soaringassociation visitors.

Other details are covered in the information packages and policies that are in the process of being sent as thisissue of free flight is being prepared. Read the policies, read the information packages, and if your questionsare still not answered, please write or call your director or the National Office. They’ll listen and do their best torespond.

I regret to note that business pressures caused Jim Carpenter to withdraw from our team at Hobbs. Followingprevious practice and the pilot’s peers ranking, John Firth was asked to go. His work commitments did notpermit the time. Peter Lamla was next and accepted the opportunity. Good luck and good fortune, Peter.

The most heart-rending event of these last two months was Jim Leach’s resignation as our Executive Directoron 15 June 1983. One of Jim’s personal goals has always been to become the Executive Director of a residentsport (preferably an Olympic sport) within the Sport Canada environment. Consequently, when the position wasoffered for Executive Director of a resident Olympic Sport, the Canadian Fencing Association, Jim accepted.Rejection, for the third time, of our application to become a resident sport, the risks inherent in supporting ateam at Hobbs and, I regret to say, the continuing hostility of some clubs and members to the role and expenseof an effective National Office were contributory factors. Those of us who have come to know Jim over thesethree years have developed great respect for his enthusiasm, dedication and ability. We deeply regret hisleaving. We wish him success in his new task. Bon chance, Jim.

Consistent with our belief in the value of a strong National Office, your board is proceeding to find a replace-ment for Jim. As well, we will be rethinking our criteria for the role of the National Office as a unit and our staff.Our goal is to sustain the standards of service and activity that have developed over the past three years.Linda is dedicated to fulfil her role to the maximum and Jim will help, as needed, in the transition period.

In the last issue Karl Doetsch raised the ancient Roman challenge “Quo vadis”. I’m not ducking the challenge,and will say more in the next issue, as I think Ursula has her scissors snapping about now. So I’ll muse morefully next issue.

Suffice to say I think of our goals as safety, better instruction standards and training, safety, better and broadercompetition, safety, more records and badges, safety, fun, safety, “nuff said”?

Fly well, safely, and often.

“We have seen others swallowed by crocodiles, and we have learned from theirmistakes.”

... the late King Sobhuza II of Swaziland

The Journal of the Soaring Association of CanadaLe Journal de l’Association Canadienne de Vol à Voile

4/83 Jul-Aug

•free flight vol libre

2 ’83 significant flights / trophy claims

3 Opinions

4 1000Brian Milner

7 Hobbs previewWilf Krueger

8 Accidents & safety don’t go togetherIan Oldaker

10 Oh no, not another spin articleGeorge Eckschmiedt

11 The morning after...Joe Somfay

12 Rules for homebuildersTony Burton

13 Soaring is for the birdsBob Nancarrow

13 A.D. notes

14 Club News

16 Hangar Flying

18 Provincial Association news

19 FAI badges and records

20 Coming Events

21 Trading Post

1

A mushrooming cu nim provokes a derigging race at Cowley

George Dunbar

25 Deadlines for contributions

5th day of each even month

President R.I. CarlsonVice President H. TilgnerCorporate Treasurer D. DunnSAC National Office Executive Director & Corporate Secretary vacant Secretary Linda Essex485 Bank Street, 2nd FloorOttawa, ON K2P 1Z2(613) 232-1243

TheSOARING ASSOCIATION OFCANADA

is a non-profit organization of enthusiasts whoseek to foster and promote all phases of glid-ing and soaring on a national and internationalbasis. The ASSOCIATION is a member of theRoyal Canadian Flying Clubs Association(RCFCA), the Canadian national aero clubwhich represents Canada in the FédérationAéronautique Internationale (FAI, the worldsport aviation governing body composed ofnational aero clubs). The RCFCA has dele-gated to SAC the supervision of FAI-relatedsoaring activities such as record attempts, com-petition sanctions, issuance of FAI badges,and the selection of a Canadian team for thebiennial World soaring championships.

free flight is the Association’s official journal.

Material published in free flight is contributedby individuals or clubs for the enjoyment ofCanadian soaring enthusiasts. The accuracyof the material is the responsibility of the con-tributor. No payment is offered for submittedmaterial. All individuals and clubs are invitedto contribute articles, opinion, reports, club ac-tivities, and photos of soaring interest. Prints(B & W) are preferred, colour prints and slidesare acceptable. Negatives can be used ifaccompanied by a print.

free flight also serves as a forum for opinionon soaring matters and will publish letters-to-the-editor as space permits. Publication ofideas and opinion in free flight does not im-ply endorsement by SAC. Correspondents whowish formal action on their concerns shouldcontact their SAC Zone Director. Directors’names and addresses are given elsewhere inthe magazine.

All contributions to the magazine will be ac-knowledged on receipt. We will endeavour tosay when it will be used. All material is subjectto editing to the space requirements and thequality standards of the magazine.

The contents of free flight may be reprinted;however, SAC requests that both free flightand the author be given acknowledgement onany such reprints.

For change of address and subscriptions tonon-SAC members ($18.00 per year) pleasecontact the National Office.

HOW ABOUT YOURS?SAC

’83 SIGNIFICANT FLIGHTS

PETER MASAK (ASW-20) early April450 km distance from Ridge Soaring, PA to 3 miles north of Roanoke, WestVirginia (on his way to the Region 5 Contest in Chester, South Carolina)

DON HILL (Astir CS) 22 May308 km triangle Invermere - Canal Flats - Golden (BC)

URSULA WIESE (Ka6CR) 11 June309 km triangle Black Diamond - Claresholm - Crowfoot (Alberta)

RAINER ZIMM (Std. Cirrus) 11/12 June349 km Black Diamond to Chipman (Alberta) to collect the Alberta SoaringCouncil “Boomerang” trophy349 km Chipman to Black Diamond (return flight next day)

TROPHY CLAIMSGeorge Dunbar, SAC Trophy Chairman

SAC Trophy applications received to 5 June 1983:

MIKE APPS (ASW-20FP) and DAVE MARSDEN (DG-202/17)308.3 km triangle, April 17; Claresholm - Taber - Woolford300.7 km triangle, April 23; Claresholm - Arrowwood - Vauxhall304.5 km flown, May 7; Claresholm - Magrath - Alderside (triangle notcompleted)

TONY BURTON (RS-15)300.7 km triangle, April 23; Claresholm - Arrowwood - Vauxhall

Please submit your claims early to me at 1419 Chardie Place SW, Calgary,Alberta T2V 2T7

Limite pour publicationle 5 chaque deux mois 5

free flight PERSONNEL

EDITORUrsula Burton (403) 625-4563Box 1916Claresholm, Alberta T0L 0T0

COMMERCIAL ADVERTISINGNational Office (613) 232-1243

LAYOUT & GRAPHICSTony Burton

ASSISTANT LANGUE FRANÇAISEPierre Lemaire

3

L’ASSOCIATION CANADIENNEDE VOL À VOILE

est une organisation à but non lucratif forméede personnes enthousiastes cherchant à pro-téger et à promouvoir le vol à voile sous toutesses formes sur une base nationale et inter-nationale.

L’ASSOCIATION est membre de “L’Associa-tion Royale Canadienne des Aéro Clubs”(RCFCA – Aéro Club National Canadien), rep-résentant le Canada au sein de la FédérationAéronautique Internationale (FAI, administra-tion formée des aéro clubs nationaux re-sponsables des sports aériens à l’échelle mon-diale). Selon les normes de la FAI, le RCFCAa délégué à l’Association Canadienne de Volà Voile la supervision des activités de vol àvoile telles que: tentatives de records, sanc-tions des compétitions, délivrance des bre-vets de la FAI, etc. ainsi que la sélection d’uneéquipe nationale pour les championnatsmondiaux biennaux de vol à voile.

vol libre est le journal officiel de l’ASSOCIA-TION.

Les articles publiés dans vol libre sont descontributions dues à la gracieuseté d’indi-vidus ou de groupes enthousiastes du vol àvoile.

Chacun est invité à participer à la réalisationde la revue, soit par reportages, échangesd’opinions, activités dans le club, etc. Un“courrier des lecteurs” sera publié selon l’es-pace disponible. Les épreuves de photos ennoir et blanc sont préférables à celles encouleur ou diapositives. Les négatifs nepeuvent être utilisés.

L’exactitude des articles publiés est la re-sponsabilité des auteurs et ne saurait, enaucun cas, engager celle de la revue vol libre,ni celle de l’ACVV, ni refléter leurs idées.

Toute correspondance faisant l’objet d’unsujet personnel devra être adressée au direc-teur régional dont le nom apparait dans cetterevue.

Pour chaque article reçu, nous retour-nerons un accusé de réception et don-nerons la date probable de sa publication.Les textes et les photos seront soumis à larédaction et, dépendant de leur intérêt,seront insérés dans la revue.

Les articles de vol libre peuvent être repro-duits librement, mais la mention du nom de larevue et de l’auteur serait grandement ap-préciée.

Pour changements d’adresse et abonnementsaux non membres de l’ACVV ($18.00 par an)veuillez contacter le bureau national.

OPINIONS

WASTE OR NECESSITY

The outgoing president’s (Russ Flint) mes-sage in the March/April issue of free flightneeds clarification. Whether the SAC Boardhas spent a disproportionate amount ofits time and effort on contest flying is amatter of opinion. But Russ includes an ill-conceived statement which could easilylead the membership to believe that theteam wasted team funds (donated money)to travel on a foreign airline when they couldhave travelled free on an Armed Forcesflight. These are the facts:

1. The SAC, through Sport Canada, tried toget an allocation on an Armed Forcesflight. However, we were unable to getguaranteed departure or return dates.We could not even get a guarantee ofdeparture or return for a given week.

2. The SAC, through Sport Canada, re-ceived a travel grant for the Team tocover return air fares to Germany. Thiswas a restricted grant and could not beused for any other SAC or Team pur-pose.

3. In view of this grant and the uncertaintyof the Armed Forces flights, I decidedthat the Team should travel charter classon commercial airlines. Some went onAir Canada, some on Lufthansa.

4. Transporting the Canadian Team to theWorld Championship in Paderborn in-volved neither SAC funds nor donationsto the Contest Fund.

I hope that the unfortunate implication inRuss Flint’s message will not deter SACmembers from donating to the current TeamFund. I assure you that money is badlyneeded and that it will not be wasted onluxuries.

A. O. SchreiterTeam Manager

CAN FREE FLIGHT BE IMPROVED?

Generally speaking, I like to read aboutany and all aspects of the Sport of Kings,and I guess that is why I have tended to in-dicate mostly “more of the same please” [inthe questionnaire]. I realize this is notmuch help for you in rationing the limitedspace that you have available in free flight,but maybe it’s an indication of how I wouldlike to see “our” magazine expand. Withmore pages, more items across thespectrum could appear, if only the hardcopy and articles came your way! [editor’semphasis].

The situation as I see it is that most of thekeener gliding types in Canada, the oneswho might have interesting flights to writeabout, or those with special technicalknowledge, management expertise, etc. topass on, are already heavily involved inclub or SAC affairs and simply do not getaround to writing (and polishing) suitablefree flight articles. Of those who do there arenot many left after the non-writers are dis-counted.

Maybe I could discuss the “competition”(SOARING, SAILPLANE & GLIDING) for amoment to explain what I see as the strengthsof each. I subscribe to both and franklymuch prefer the British publication.

SOARING: “from the workshop” column (theguy who talks about how to fix radios, makeantennas, wire a sailplane, etc), the John-son flight test reports, and the coverage ofthe US National and World Gliding com-petitions...S & G tends to have really excel-lent “how to improve one’s technique” arti-cles. For instance, I carried George Lee’stwo-part competition article around with mefor some months, it had such good practi-cal advice in. They seem to have a goodnumber of excellent pilots who can explain“how they do it” with just the right style andapproach. We have pilots, I suspect, whocan fly but aren’t as good about talkingabout it. The club news is about right and iswhat I would like to see in free flight; all youneed is the correspondents, right? Theirtechnical articles (about speed-to-fly theory,etc), are also good in that they hit about theright balance of mathematical theory, prac-tical application and readability.

A few likes and dislikes I have found withthe past few issues of free flight: I liked “The1-26 and I”, “My Diamond Adventure”, “TheBluenose Astir”. I really didn’t care for the“historical” pieces, also much of the tech-nical notes (on Kevlar for example) werea little too brief to be of much use. Piggott’stwo part article on “Sub-Gravity Sensa-tions” was excellent and I note that it is areprint from his booklet on the same. Thearticle “The Other End of the Rope” wasquite useful and hit most of the right spotsfor its purpose. Generally I have found thePresident’s page and most of the commit-tee chairmen’s report to be well-writtenand informative ... Well, enough for themoment. All the best.

Jim OkeWinnipeg

4

Kawartha’s CFI will get Canada’s 1st 1000 km Diploma...

Brian Milner

The Allegheny Mountains were formedmillions of years ago by the collision oftwo “continental plates” wrinkling theearth’s surface. These mountains were origi-nally over 40,000 feet high, but have beeneroded greatly in the passage of time. Themountains are about 2000 feet msl at thenorth and south ends and about 4500 mslin the central region. Along the east side ofthe Allegheny Plateau, a series of almostcontinuous ridges and mountains run inan S shape from the northeast to the south-west, starting at Williamsport, Pennsylva-nia, as “Bald Eagle Mountain”, and finishnortheast of Knoxville, Tennessee, as“Clinch Mountain”.

At Williamsport, the ridge runs east/west.In the centre section, the direction is about030 and in the southern section, the direc-tion is close to 070, with one 30 mile sec-tion running east/west. Practically, the bestcompromise wind direction for the wholeridge is between 290 and 310 true. Whilethis direction is good for most of the ridge,it does not guarantee ridge lift all the wayas there are numerous areas where theridges bend and generate no lift, or indeed,severe sink. There are also some largeand small gaps in the ridge system, whichhave to be crossed in thermals, or wave.

The Allegheny Plateau is, under the rightconditions, a superb wave generator. Flightsof 500 km and more have been made com-pletely in wave and heights of 29,000 feethave been reached. However, the bad sideto the wave system is that sometimes thedown side of the wave is aligned over theridge. The result is no ridge lift and severesink in some areas.

Ridge Soaring Gliderport is at Julian, PA,on Route 220, south of Interstate 80. Thegliderport is operated by Tom Knauff andDoris Grove, both world record holders ofvarious distance and speed records. Tomand Doris are the two most enthusiasticglider pilots I have ever met They fly everyday, training pupils, etc, and they will stillget up at 4:30 am to tow someone likemyself off, early in the morning.

Long flights at Ridge Soaring are definedas in excess of 500 km. They usually startat dawn to take advantage of the maxi-mum daylight hours. Long flights here reallyare long! Ten hours is typical. Turbulenceis usually severe and water is carriedwhenever possible to reduce its effects.

The weather requirements for a good ridgeday are a NW wind of 15 to 25 knots. Thisusually occurs after the passage of a coldfront. A low pressure area will typicallypass north of Lake Ontario. As it movesinto Quebec, the cold front associated withit will pass through Pennsylvania. For thesouth end of the ridge to work well, either thefront must be very extensive, or a highpressure system should be located off tothe SW, so that the air flow around thehigh assists the flow around the low to giveincreased wind speeds on the lower endof the ridge.

On Sunday, April 24, I was travelling toWindsor, Ontario, to prepare for an earlyMonday morning appointment. The windsin southern Ontario were due north andhad been increasing in strength all day. Abig low had moved up the Atlantic coast, ahigh was developing to the west and ingeneral, the weather was starting to lookreally promising for Monday (when I couldn’tfly). In the evening I phoned PhilipsbergFSS for the forecast winds for Monday. Theygave me due north winds at 25 knots allday, with winds for Tuesday light and vari-able. With this information I calmed downand went to bed.

Monday morning the winds were howlingout of the NW at 20 knots. Boy, was I mad!Anyhow, I finished my scheduled appoint-ments, then visited the weather office atWindsor airport in the afternoon. The 24hour prog chart showed the low still overthe east coast, but a ridge of high pressurewas moving in from the west. As this movedin, the winds were supposed to becomelight and northerly. The big question was“how fast will it move?” My hope was thatthe high would follow the same pattern asmost recent systems had lately and notmove as fast as predicted. If this hap-pened, the winds should stay out of theNW for most of the next day (Tuesday).

I decided to gamble and called my officeto say I would not be in for a couple ofdays. I phoned Ridge Soaring to let themknow I was coming and would phoneTom at 0500 in the morning for a tow ifthe winds were right. St. Catharines wasreached at 9:00 pm and I phoned Torontoweather for the latest “prog” reports. TheTuesday 1200Z forecast was in and showedthe winds to be staying NW, the high hadslowed down, as I hoped. Things werestarting to look good.

I was at Ridge Soaring by 0130 and settingmy alarm for 0500, climbed into my sleep-ing bag. At 0500 (boy, it came quick!) Iphoned flight service for winds down theridge. They were 300 to 310 degrees all theway. Now, I started to get excited. Prior tothis I had been building myself up for an-other disappointment. I phoned Tom Knauff.He had already arranged for Doris Groveto come to the field as my observer. Shearrived shortly and I started to organizemyself.

5continued on next page

First, fill the wings with water, find a hose,hook it up, then stand there for 20 minuteswhile it filled. The Jantar was assembledand tied down at the end of the flight line. Ipulled the wing covers off, but the wingsstarted to frost up so badly that I quicklyput them back on. The temperature wasabout -5C, with no visible cloud. The bat-tery went in and I checked the radio,okay! The ship is ready, how about thepilot? I took the barograph and camera tothe office, to prepare them and make outmy declaration.

I had a can of orange juice and a granolabar for breakfast, went to the bathroom andfinally the pilot was ready!

I untied the Jantar, pulled the wing coversoff and did the preflight. The wings werestill frosting badly, so I put the wing coverson again and decided to wait for the sun tocome over the ridge and warm things upa little. I had heard so many stories aboutfrost on wings that I decided to be patient.

By 0730 the sun was over the mountainand things were starting to warm up. Ipulled the covers off and was ready to go,an hour and a half late, but better safe thansorry. Take off was at 07:38 and I releasedat 3600 msl or 2800 feet above the field, at07:42 EDT. I notched the barograph andimmediately flew into weak wave.

The lift band was narrow and only giving2 knots up, but it was working, so I headedsouth towards Altoona at 70 knots, climbingslowly.

I reached Altoona about 35 minutes laterand received my first shock of the day –the wave quit. There were severe turbu-lence, then severe sink (8 knots down). Itried heading into wind towards the pla-teau but the sink wouldn’t quit so I did, andflew downwind at 100 knots toward theridge. I made the ridge at a low point, atabout 2800 msl, or about 300 feet abovethe ridge. The ridge was working quite well,but the usual thermal activity was not dev-eloping. Normally, by one hour after sun-rise, the thermals are pushing up to 4500 at2 to 4 knots, but not today. There was astrong inversion at 3300 and that was ashigh as I could get.

The turbulence above the ridge indicated tome that the rotor from the wave had posi-tioned itself right overhead. I decided totake a chance and head out across theAltoona gap at 3300 rather than the usual

adapted from strip maps of ridge

by George Vakkur, SOARING, Mar ’82

6

4000. I didn’t head straight for the down-wind ridge, because I felt that the downside of the rotor was just in front of it. Soinstead I headed out parallel to the plateauand found, as I hoped, that I was alignedwith the up side of the rotor and went 4miles into the valley, at 3000, then turnedand dived for the ridge. I went through thesink area quickly and made the ridge easily.

Normally, the run from Altoona to Bedford,about 20 miles, can be run at rough airspeed of 110 knots. Not today! The ridgereally wasn’t working that well. At 60 knotsI was only 100 feet above the ridge andwas getting extremely nervous. There werelots of fields to land in, but I was moreworried about the forecast being wrong.Anyhow, I made the end at Bedford with nosevere problems. I could see across thegap of 10 miles with no problem, but thebrown haze of the inversion was still vis-ible and the thermals weren’t going higherthan 3300 again. The thermals were verysmall and very turbulent. I decided to dumpmy water and try to get higher when thetanks were empty. It helped, I got up to4000 feet.

I tried the same trick as at Altoona andheaded out into the middle of the gap par-allel to the plateau. As I hit lift I sloweddown, but didn’t circle, as one mistake wasmore than I could afford. Three quarters ofthe way across, I didn’t think I was going tomake it and started to seriously pick fields.I saw a good ploughed field right at thebase of the ridge and decided to try and flythe ridge half way down (which was thehighest I could reach). The point here isthat normally, once you drop below theridge crest, the lift becomes very weak.Luck was with me, the ridge was workingwell at that height and I climbed to thepeak with no problems. The run to Hyndmanwas good, the ridge was working reallywell on the south side of the gap. I think, inretrospect, that the down rotor was sup-pressing the ridge lift on the north side.

I reached the quarry at Cumberland andtried thermalling for altitude. The sun wasshining directly on the quarry and it shouldhave been producing “boomers”, but itwasn’t. I could get to 3500 and no more. Itried penetrating into wind, towards theplateau, but couldn’t contact wave. Eachtime I had to dive back to the ridge. Itbecame obvious that I wasn’t going to gethigh in thermals, so to save time I decidedto fly downwind to the next ridge byCumberland airport, and ridge soar thatdown to the Keyser Knobblies. I reachedthe ridge okay and headed for Keyser. Thesection of ridge through Keyser is a 20 mile“nightmare”. The ridge disintegrates intoa series of bumps with triangular facesabout 300 to 500 feet high. Ridge soaringthese is definitely not recommended.

The back ridge by Cumberland wasworking well and I was maintaining 3500. Istarted to penetrate upwind to the KeyserRidge and half way there ran into severeturbulence; it felt like rotor! I turned andflew parallel to the plateau and (thank you,Sir) ran into wave again. Weak, to be sure,but at 70 and 2 knots climb I started to relax.The wave took me safely over the horribleKnobblies and the low section of ridge at

Scherr at 5000 feet to Seneca Rock (250km from Ridge Soaring). This was at 10:50EDT for an elapsed time of 3:08 hours and aground speed of 79.8 km/h, not good, butnot bad, either.

Just past Seneca, the wave broke upagain, so I headed downwind for the ridge.The ridge here is high and the thermalswere starting, finally! I was able to main-tain 110 knots to Mountain Grove and holdclose to 5000 feet. The thermals, however,

were starting to generate extreme turbu-lence and I was beginning to regret dump-ing my water back at Bedford. MountainGrove was reached at 11:30 EDT at 4300msl and I stopped and started to thermalhunt. Distance 350 km, time 3:48 hours,average speed 92.1 km/h, getting better!

After Mountain Grove comes Bolar Moun-tain with a huge lake at its base and no-where to land. It is very low and sometimesthe ridge here doesn’t work well. I stayedback at Mountain Grove and looked acrossCovington Gap, 30 miles to the southside(see sketch). I could just see the high part ofPeters Mountain. Finally, I hit a boomingthermal, 10 knots to 6000 feet and decidedto head straight across the gap, lake andall! Good thermals took me across with nopanic (for a change).

The ridge between Peters Mt. to Narrows,Virginia averages 3500 in elevation andcan usually be flown at a high airspeed. Theproblem now was that thermal strengths1000 feet above the ridge were 15 knots, sothe turbulence was extremely severe. Somuch so, that I started involuntarily easingback on the stick and slowing down. Thegap at Narrows is spectacular, also un-mistakable, and from there you can seeBluefield – whoopee!

Beyond Narrows the ridge takes a sharpkink into wind at Jesses Knob, a renownedsink hole. Just before the knob I hit a“boomer” that took me to 5000 feet withoutturning. I turned out from the ridge andflew to the upwind side of Jesses Knobwith no trouble. From there, I reached theFincastle Country Club turnpoint at 12:54EDT, took two pictures and relaxed for acouple of minutes.

Distance 500.4 km, time 5:12 hours, speed96.2 km/h.

To tell you I was feeling good at this pointwould be an understatement. I had startedout on this flight five times prior to this lastfall and winter. Every single flight had beenabandoned because of snow storms. Sofar I hadn’t seen anything but blue skies andcu. As I turned and headed north, the enor-mity of this flight struck me – I hadbeen in the air for over 5 hours, flown 500 kmand now had to fly all the way back againstthe wind!

I had taken two cans of orange juice withme, some granola bars and a bag of hum-bugs. I celebrated by drinking one of thecans of orange juice and eating a granolabar. Humbugs were my staple diet andeaten continuously. The trip back was intoa significant headwind component. Theturbulence was again extreme. Twice myhead hit the canopy hard enough to dazeme slightly. This was no fun! However, toget back before sunset I couldn’t afford tolose time at any of the gaps and had to flyas fast as I could stand on the ridge sec-tions. Boy, was I sorry I had dumped mywater now!

The south end of the Covington Gap wasreached at 13:50 EDT and by thermalling, Icross the gap directly. This sounds easy,but in fact is definitely not the way to crossthis gap. The right way and the safe one

GETTING READY

Preparedness: World record flight dis-tances are so great that a pilot musthave enough daylight hours to com-plete his task. For this reason, recordseason in the eastern United States islimited to early fall and late spring.Flights begin during the twilight hours,and sailplane preparation begins inthe predawn darkness. Typical takeofftimes will be around 5 am, so that pilotand crew will begin their tasks wellbefore that.

A serious pilot will develop a disci-plined regimen of very early to bed,very early to rise, exercise, and dietduring the weeks before and duringrecord season. Friends and relativesare understanding when it looks like apossible record day and pilots andcrew go to bed at 8:30 and socialengagements are broken the day be-fore a cold front comes through.

In order to reduce the amount of timepreparing the sailplane the morningof a record flight, the sailplane is keptassembled, antifreeze for the waterballast is measured, batteries arecharged, warm clothing, maps, flightdeclarations, and any other advanceflight preparations that can be madeare done.

Weather: We watch morning and eve-ning weather programs and keep aclose watch on favourable weather pat-terns as they approach the easternUnited States. If an especially goodsystem develops, we go to the univer-sity meteorology department to lookat the maps and data. The head of thedepartment has even issued us ourown key to the building so we can getin during hours they are normallyclosed.

The morning of a record flight beginsat 3 am by listening to a weather alertradio. If this sounds promising, wethen phone the flight service station toget the weather reports along our in-tended flight path.

All of the above is how it is supposedto work.

Tom KnauffRidge Soaring, PA

7

HOBBS PREVIEWis to drop back one ridge, fly up to behindMountain Grove, then penetrate into windto get back on the main ridge. Bolar Moun-tain, as I mentioned, has absolutely no-where to land, except the lake itself. Half-way across the lake I hit terrific sink, 20knots down, and nearly had a heart attack.Fortunately, I was able to get into the asso-ciated lift and get a save. I still have night-mares about nearly landing in that lake. Ireached Mountain Grove at 14:10, whichwas pretty good time for crossing the gap.

The ridge to Snowy Mountain worked well.Snowy is a well known generator of tremen-dous sink on occasion. I thermalled to6000 msl just before Snowy, then went likehell through the sink zone to the ridge onthe far side.

I was running into very strong sink as I rannorth. It took me a while to realize that thesink was well organized into wide streets,while the lift was in broken narrow patches.Once it penetrated my thick skull, however,I made better time by going straight intowind as I left each thermal, then going fastat right angles to the sink streets. I guessthat fatigue and lack of sleep was finallycatching up with me and slowing down mythinking processes.

This technique got me to Keyser, whereI ran into a sink hole I almost didn’t make itout of. As a last resort I headed for one ofthe knobblies, with the intention of tryingto ridge soar my way back to Cumber-land. Just as I reached the front face of the“lump”, and about 400 feet above it, I hit apiece of a thermal. This was the “saver” –the beauty took me to 8000 feet, the highestpoint of the flight, at 10 knots up! From thetop of this one I could guarantee to makeCumberland. It seemed that now I couldn’tdo anything wrong. I kept running intostrong lift and ran “dolphin” style toHyndman, a distance of 30 miles. Again inretrospect, I realized what had been hap-pening. I had been struggling along, linedup with the down side of the rotor. As soonas I penetrated far enough into wind, I wasin the upside of the rotor and, although thewave was definitely not working, the rotorwas organizing the thermals and eitherboosting, or suppressing them, dependingupon your location.

At Hyndman, I was down to ridge levelagain and ran to the south end of the Bed-ford Gap at 110 knots in severe turbulence.I reached Bedford at 1655 for an elapsedtime of 9:13 hours, distance 785 km, and anaverage speed of 85.2 km/h. The speeddrop was due directly to the problems I hadgetting through the Keyser area.

At Bedford, I tried half a dozen thermalsbefore finding one strong enough to getme up high. From the top, I headed directlyinto wind and found that the thermalswere definitely organized into streets. I pen-etrated about 5 miles directly into wind,before turning and heading for the northend of the Gap. I dolphined across the Gapwithout circling at all, which was quite achange.

The ridge to Altoona was working verywell now, unlike this morning. At this point inthe flight, I was beginning to worry about

getting back before dark, so was pushingmy speed up on the ridge sections. I knewthat all I needed was to run out of thermalsat Altoona and I wouldn’t be able to finishthe flight. At this point that was just aboutunthinkable! I reached the south side ofthe Altoona Gap at about 3000 and usedthe same technique as at Bedford, that is,I waited until a good strong thermal camealong that would take me above 4000,then headed straight into wind. Again, thestreets were still working, although therewere not many visible cu left in the sky. Ipenetrated straight into the Gap for about3 miles before turning right and heading forthe end of the ridge. I had had too manyexperiences of “sucker lift” at Altoona torisk turning in sink at this point.

Once I made the north end of the Gap, Irelaxed somewhat, but was probably moreconscious than at any other time of thepotential pitfalls between Altoona andRidge Soaring than on any other flight. I wasso close to home, yet could still blow itvery easily by being too confident. I de-cided to fly in the most conservative waypossible. I flew at about 50 knots until Iwas past the bad spot at Tyrone, thenspeeded things up at about Port Matilda.Just south of Karl Striedieck’s field, an irra-tional impulse hit me. I must confess, itdid me good to beat his strip up at 6 feetand then slide back on to the ridge at 110knots.

I switched the radio back on (it had beenoff for most of the flight to conserve thebattery) and called to Ridge Soaring thatGolf Juliet was 5 miles out and was re-warded with the most enthusiastic “allright!” from Doris Grove. It really felt good tohear the radio say that. Needless to say, Ibeat up Ridge Soaring before landing. Yes,I did my SWAFTS check and did put thewheel down – it’s amazing what trainingand repetition do for you, isn’t it?

After the landing, I did the first thing every-one does and checked the barograph. Yes,it had worked, but what were all thosesharp “spikes” on the trace? They were therecordings of the turbulence I had flownthrough. The barograph was tied down tightand I had not heard it banging around inthe back. It looked like someone hadbeen throwing it on the floor for 10 hours! I,nor anyone else present, had even seensuch a trace. I know that the turbulence Iflew through was severe. I guess all thebarograph did was record what actuallyhappened. All I know is that I’m glad I flya Jantar, it really is a strong sailplane.

My flight concluded two of the best daysof weather that Ridge Soaring had had fora long time. The previous day had seen a1000 km flight by David Noyes, an Ameri-can; a 1100 km attempt by Alan Sandsfrom Ireland, which he aborted after950 km because of “snow”; and a NEWWORLD RECORD OF 1645 KM by TomKnauff. That sure put my 1000.8 km flightto shame, but I didn’t care, because

I FINALLY DID IT !!!

Distance 1000.8 kmAir time 10 hrs 34 minSpeed 94.7 km/h

Wilf KruegerMember of 1983 Canadian Team

Recently I had the opportunity to visitHobbs, the site of the next World SoaringChampionship. 106 pilots from 25 coun-tries will compete in Hobbs between June21 to July 11,1983. The weather duringmy visit was in the 20°C range (end ofMarch), and I was greeted on the first dayby a sandstorm with winds gusting to ap-proximately 50 km/h. The sandstorm influ-enced the visibility so greatly in someareas that I had to slow down driving on ahighway. The sand was blown off from thedesert or semi-desert surrounding Hobbs,a city of 35,000 people, 400 miles fromDallas, Texas and 90 miles from Odessa,Texas. Hobbs is located in the southeastof New Mexico.

The contest site is an abandoned WorldWar II bomber pilot training base with four9000 feet runways, five old hangars plusa 600 feet wide ramp, some 8800 feetlong. The National Soaring Foundation, anon-profit organization, has a 25-year leaseon the facility.

Because of the sandstorm on the first dayof my two-day visit, the weather was notflyable. The next day however was a goodsoaring day. Since I was busy with hotelreservations, etc. for our Canadian team Ihad no chance to fly at Hobbs, but wasable to collect the following informationabout the soaring conditions from localpilots:

Weather: good soaring from Mayto August

Thermals: average 800 fpm, lots of1000 fpm and more.

Cloudbase: 8000 - 12,000 feet aboveground

Visibility: generally speaking good

Navigation: seems to be no problem

Off field good large fields are loc-landings: ated to the NNE of Hobbs.

Rough countryside in thesouthwest and west. Offfield landings should beno problem.

Hobbs has been the site of many U.S. na-tional and regional contests. During U.S.national contests, tasks between 200 and300 miles have been flown. Speeds varybetween 60 and 85 mph.

One day, in the U.S. Open Class Nationals,a 290.5 mile triangle was flown with a topspeed of 93 mph. The pilot who flew 75 mphcame in 10th.

In summary, I believe Hobbs is one of themost promising soaring sites in the worldand I look forward to flying there for thefirst time this summer.

8

ACCIDENTS & SAFETYDON’T GOTOGETHER

SAFETY

Ian OldakerChairman, Flight Trainingand Safety committee

illustrations by Les Waller

Have you thought much of what the likeli-hood is of having something go wrong?What if your car brakes failed, for example?Well, if you have a modern car maybe it hasa dual system, so that a failure of both atthe same time is much less likely, and thenyou have the emergency brake too. But itscorrect use depends on the driver reactingin time and deciding to use it. Where is itanyway? What about on your friend’s carthat you borrowed recently; did you look forthe emergency brake before you droveoff? Of course you didn’t, and it probablynever entered your mind! Yet it could bethe difference between running out of con-trol down a slope and not making the nextcorner and coming to a controlled stop.

It is true that, given enough time and all thenecessary information, we can and domake the correct decisions. Yet, when con-fronted with extra pressure and the need tomake a quick decision, we often becomeflustered and pull the wrong lever or turnthe wrong way! Imagine, you have beendriving for say 5 hours and it is getting dark.You don’t know the road, yet you feel yourdestination is close. You have been driv-ing pretty hard so you are tiring and per-haps also hungry. You have a desire topress on, the gentle curves have lulled youinto thinking that it is all easy. The cruisecontrol has allowed you to cross your feetfor comfort and to forget about speed,when without warning, as the road des-cends over a small brow, you see a warn-ing sign ahead. You are going too fast forthe curve, you go for the brakes but hitthe accelerator....

Translate this into the cockpit environmentand we have a potential, for example, forgrabbing the flap lever instead of the spoil-ers or dive brakes. Pulling the flap handleinstead of the dive brake handle is much

more common than we realize. Add to thisthe fact that we may be flying this sail-plane for the first time, or flying it on acrosscountry into a field we have neverseen before. Stress? You bet! We behavein strange ways when under extra stress.

What can we do, then, to reduce thechances of having an accident? Fly moresafely? Yes, but safety starts at home, notin the cockpit. Alas, many of us don’tdevelop a safety pattern in our early fly-ing. Yet it is on the very first few flightswhen we must instill safety habits – call itairmanship – into our new student pilots.As members of a club, as pilots and asinstructors, many of us have the chance toinfluence a new pilot’s approach and atti-tudes to flying. The first things learnt arethe most indelibly retained. Unsafe prac-tices such as the “oh we don’t need to doa pre-take-off check for just a passenger”will spill over into a similar unsafe attitudein the observing student. After all, “if theinstructor doesn’t do it why should I?” Thewalk-around inspection of a 2-33 I used tofly revealed the safety pin missing on theelevator push rod (the club no longer uses

clevis pins and safety pins here and else-where, but bolts, castle nuts and splitpins). The driver who gets into a new carusually carefully reviews where all theknobs are, though standardization helps toeliminate the fumbling for the right one. Notso in higher performance sailplanes thatare equipped with extra levers and knobsfor retractable wheels, flaps, perhaps alsoa chute and/or water ballast. Pretty com-plicated compared to a 1-26. What doesall this mean?

It means that a very thorough knowledgeof the new ship’s flying manual is neededbefore we take-off in it, in addition to be-coming very familiar with the cockpit layoutand even the more reclining seating posi-tion, reach, and “feel” of the stick beforeeven attempting a take-off. In Denmark, thepilot converting to a new ship, has to fill in aquestionnaire using the manual. What useis that you may ask? I can tell you that itis partly responsible for their low and de-clining accident rate, but it is also acceptedas a good safety approach to getting intoa different glider – the attitude is one ofunhurried safety.

I would like to think that we are all deliberateand are developing a pattern toward safeflying. Where does it start? In soaring wecan think things through at home, and enroute to the field. Get into a flying frame ofmind before arriving at the club.

...an attitude of unhurried safety.

9

Many coaches are now teaching the mental“thinking through” of a shot such as a pen-alty throw; the athlete is taught to think ofhis shot actually going in – then to take adeep breath and do it. The deep breathrelaxes the muscles, the mind has alreadyimagined the successful shot, and now theaction more likely than not, succeeds.

Remember that flight last week with theawkward circuit? Think it through, and inyour mind get it right. It is amazing what thisdoes to one’s peace of mind. I think it isdirectly applicable to the off-field landing.Imagine your circuit and landing even be-fore you start into the downwind. Maybeyou can detect the wind direction andspeed by seeing the wheat bending inwaves in the next field; now think throughthe upcoming approach, then imagine suc-cessfully flying over them and making agood held-off landing. Chances are thatyour actual approach and landing will beas good as you imagined.

This technique can’t be used on your firstoff-field landing, it has to be practised. Safetystarts at home, as I have said earlier. In factthe development of good airmanship whichtranslates into a safe and safety-consciouspilot starts when we first start to fly.

Although the Instructors committee and theSafety committee can write, berate, andcajole for all they are worth, it won’t helpunless there is an emphasis within allclubs. To assist in this we might be able toproduce some safety “packages” of film,slides and notes that could be used byclubs for workshops or ground school typeevents. At the recent meeting of NationalCoaches in Reno there was a good deal ofdiscussion of safety programs, and we sawone or two slide presentations developedspecially for clubs. These are going to becirculated around the different countriesand I am hopeful that we can develop some

for Canada. Until these become availablewhat can we do?

When we become involved with new stu-dent pilots (and we don’t only have to beinstructors!), we should take the opportu-nity to show our new member how to be safeon the airfield, how to safely handle thegliders, tow ropes, winch cables, the haz-ards of the towplane propeller, and thenecessity for an unhurried, deliberate ap-proach to flying. This includes daily inspec-tions, walk-arounds, positive control checks,pre-take-off checks and the need for apositive constructive atmosphere amongthe people who fly. I can think of no oneattitude more conducive to poor airman-ship than a critical desire to find thingswrong. Let’s be positive. On the way up tofirst solo we should emphasize the bene-fits of further training after solo. At first soloor even at licence, many pilots might feelthat they “know it all”. Not so, we continue tobenefit from a working relationship, not adependence, on our instructors. The earlysolo pilot develops much of his or her soar-ing airmanship when solo (by a series offrights!). At this stage these pilots canbenefit from an analysis of how othersmanaged, how others handle situations. Anopen approach to discussion of incidentsteaches everyone a lot here.

Cross-country skills cannot all be self-taught. Much advice can and should begiven by senior instructors, by those expe-rienced at cross-country, particularly withrespect to off-field landings, eg. field sel-ection, heights for decision making, etc.

One hazard that instructors are unawareof, or oblivious to, is related to failure to takecontrol in time. This is an essential part ofeducating pilots to be instructors, as manyof us are unaware of the problem until ithappens to us. Accidents in gliding sel-dom happen due to technical or structuralfailure but more often than not due to humanfactors.

Dealing with us is what should exercise ourminds if we want to improve flight safety andreduce our insurance premiums.

Remember that flight last weekwith the awkward circuit?...

One hazard...is failure to takecontrol in time.

10

OH NO, NOTANOTHERSPINARTICLE

Inadvertent stalls most frequently occurwhen the pilot is distracted from hisprimary rote of controlling the glider.

Barry Schiff

The truest characters of ignorance arevanity, and pride, and arrogance.

Samuel Butler

George EckschmiedtCFI Vancouver Soaring Association

Many articles have been written about thespin. We have all read them, done themaneuver, yet the accident statisticsclearly show that not all things were coveredin the articles. All of them emphasize theimportance of early recognition (did youknow the meaning of the word “incipient”before it became associated with spin?),and the “opposite rudder – pause – stickforward” routine. A short list of the mostimportant or available literature is given atthe end of this article. What is missing fromthem is the importance of quickness and/or the efficiency of recovery from a spin. Itmay be mentioned but is certainly not em-phasized enough.

Most everybody I have flown with, experi-enced pilots or not, expressed a degree ofdispleasure of and reluctance to spinning.Spinning is not a pleasurable experiencefor everybody, it can be downright uncom-fortable. But is it dangerous? Not the spin.The spin is a neutrally stable maneuver. Butthe very reluctance to go into a spin veryoften results in the pilot not fully stallingthe ship, and forcing it into a spiral dive –and that is a dangerous maneuver. It usu-ally results in recovery with very high speed,lots of altitude loss and excessive G forceson pull out. Verrry uncomfortable.

The student/pilot is no less scared and isfurther disenchanted. We all know that theobject of all this is the simulation of theevent of the spin sneaking up on us. Thesneaky maneuver is usually the true spinand that is what causes us trouble.

Saying that we must teach the recognitionof incipient spins because then we willnever be in a full spin, is like saying, “let’s doaway with the pill – we all know when tostop.” The available evidence disprovesthat theory! I agree that prevention is very

important, but we must learn the course ofaction when we have failed in the preven-tion.

So the spin sneaked up on us. Again, thereis plenty of literature to explain why andhow it happened, and to explain the tech-nique of basic spin recovery. The principleshave been hammered into us time and timeagain. But are the various personal interpre-tations correct? I quote, word for word, avery experienced pilot:

“Every time I take it out of a spin, I have fullstick forward, almost break it off, almostbreak that stick and bend it almost if it’smetal and take it out within 1/8 of a turnand my speed is maybe a few miles abovestall when I come out.” Note the emphasison the stick motion. But at 1/8 of a turn thewing is just starting to drop (an incipientspin), and the correct action is recognized.But is such drastic action really necessary?

Another quote (see Bibliography Stall/SpinAwareness): “Once a cross-controlled gliderstalls and begins to yaw into a spin, a pilotthen must be prepared to avert the maneu-ver by lowering the nose and aggressivelyapplying rudder to prevent the yaw associ-ated with the spin.” Please note that theprevious paragraph in the article was refer-ring to incipient spins, but in this one theauthor says, “into a spin”. Then he proceedsto recommend the motions exactly oppos-ite to the classical ones of opposite rudder– pause – stick forward for recovery! Healso faces the dilemma of referring to con-trol motion vs aircraft attitude. In a spin thenose is already down; no matter how fardown, it is still stick forward motion that isrequired! This seems to be one flight con-dition where reference to control motionswould cause less confusion than to aircraftattitude.

Never mind the over half a century of knowl-edge available on the subject, we still havecontroversy about it. We have to face somefacts: an incipient or a full spin can sneakup on anyone. You in the gaggle, me on theslope. We all want to recover from it with theminimum loss of height.

The minimum loss of height concept is in-cluded in most literature, but its importanceis always overshadowed by the descriptionof the basic technique of recovery. Mostpeople I flew with know the basic spin re-covery. But oh, how they execute it! With90 to 100 knots indicated speed in theBlanik being quite common, and after onlyhalf a turn. Why? Because of the “stick-bending” method of recovery. I will not re-peat what countless numbers of authorswrote on spin recovery. Please review themyourself. I would only like to mention thesecond most important point after “oppos-ite rudder-pause-push stick toward” whichis, “push stick steadily forward until spin-ning stops”.

If the spin has stopped, why have the stickfull forward, why keep on diving? It onlyresults in excess speed, excess G’s, andexcess loss of height. Never mind thatthe height can be regained during pull out.Not, if you just lost all you had or did notmiss the glider below you.

Do some pilots think that they must comeout of a spin with high speed because if theydon’t they may fall into a secondary spin?The object of spin recovery is to come outof the spin and resume flying with a mini-mum loss of height, and not to go intoanother spin!

There is only one way that spin-relatedevents (call them what you wish) will bemastered. Practice. Try it high up in thetrainer, then in your own glider. If you con-sider it below your hot-shot dignity to flywith the instructor available at the time, flywith someone else whose opinion you canaccept. Surely someone must be around.But do practise efficient recovery. If youdo everything else right but for the exces-sive loss of altitude in recovery, I suggestyou never, never fly slower than your bestL/D speed. Not only for your own sake, butalso for the sake of those below you.

If you want to master anything, first youhave to tame it. The spin is no exception.Think about it.

This article is written in memory of thosewho could not come out of a full spin effi-ciently and survive.

Bibliography

SAC Soaring Instructional Manual,pp 35-39 and 61-63

Flying Training in Gliders, Ann and Lorne WelchBGA, pp45-49

Aviation Safety Letter, Transport Canada 1/83Stall/Spin Awareness, SOARING magazine

Feb 1983, pp 33-34 by Barry SchiffOut for a Spin, SOARING magazine March 1983

pp 43-44 by Gren SeibelsSub-Gravity Sensations and Gliding Accidents,

FREE FLIGHT 1/83 and 2/83

MSC POST-SOLOTRAINING WORKS

The recognition of the seriousness of thehigh accident rate the last couple of yearsreceived a lot of emphasis at the 1983 SACAGM, and also by the Safety and Instructorcommittees. The disturbing result of theseaccidents is the fact that finding a carrier toback the SAC insurance plan is most diffi-cult and will no doubt fail next year if thisaccident rate continues.

It is interesting to note the low accident rateof the Montreal Soaring Council, which to alarge extent is attributable to our trainingprogram and in particular the after-solo train-ing. If one harks back to the first years ofthe LS-1 in our club, there were numerous“incidents” and less use of the aircraft.Now with the introduction of the Astirs pro-viding an easier step up in performanceand a structured after-solo training pro-gram, the number of flights per memberhas gone up by 50% and the number of“incidents” has fallen. It is essential we don’tbecome laurel-sitters and slack off on thevarious stages of our training and safetyprogram.

Gordon Bruce, from Downwind

11

THE MORNING AFTER...If you are a student or a new pilot,this story is definitely for you.

from Soar Tales

Joe Somfay

The anxious solo student pressing the in-structors for that first lonely flight may beinterested in this experience.

5 Sept 82, a breezy day with little significantlift was the scene for my six flights between10:00 and 16:00. I have been showing signsof improvement in my flying, felt comfort-able in the 2-33 finally, planned circuitsreasonably, and did a couple of embarrass-ing cross-wind landings. I had the confi-dence of my instructors and felt elated andconfident myself.

It was suggested to me that a “full spincheck in a 2-32” might now be in order if Ifelt ready for it and was briefly warnedabout the higher stall speed, sensitive con-trols of the new ship. I had never been in a2-32 before. I had spun a 2-33 several timesand recovered, in fact I began to like thesense of emergency control.

The plane was ready, Blain said ‘go’ andJohn Kollar was in for ‘another one’. The tugwas on its way for us, I got in hurriedly, hadto adjust the rudder pedals, (fiddle, sweat,fiddle, hell I’m in a hurry, fiddle) hurriedthrough the cockpit check and only barelynoticed the new position of the instruments(and, of course doing the familiar tap, taproutine). The tow rope was on (I released itnot knowing John had already hooked on,and embarrassed I went through the routineagain).

Okay to go, we rolled off, John took us about20 feet and had me flying the tow.

Uneventful as the tow was, the ship washeaven to control, a sports car vs a sedan.I noticed how small the movements were(one almost thinks them and voilà) differentcockpit visibility and attitude to thehorizon.

John was briefing me on spins and I nerv-ously answered with what seemed a dozenerrors. I was embarrassed as hell, why? Idid this before (cool down, relax, I yelled atmy head, my aching muscles and my heart)why so nervous? John was also aware ofmy tight condition and did his best to putme at ease, 3000 feet arrived only too soon,we bid adieu to the tug and immediately Iturned off too slow trying to gain a few extrafeet by climbing out. No stall, but I swear Ifelt a ripple in the lower wing. Off we went toour position in the sky.

John verbally demonstrated and then actu-ally went through a full spin. Looks easy,

feels faster than a 2-33, a bit more nerveracking, but why shouldn’t I do it now?Okay John, we’re here, I think I’m ready(maybe).

So down into the spin we go. Exciting,terrifying, now let’s see, what did John say?How did he do it? How did I do it before?Where’s the altimeter and the ASI anyway?

I remember John saying, “Look at the ASIto the left, it’s only at 40 mph,” it took meanother precious eternity to find thedamned instrument, and boy we’re slow.

I remember kicking the rudder full oppositeand centre (or was it John), I rememberfeeling the rush of speed while facing var-ious crops and farm implements, straightdown. Holy moley, this is not a 2-33, it’sgoing down FAST! Something about thesteps for correction flashed into myadrenalin-soaked brain (full opposite rud-der, stick central, stick back, assuming youstill had the stick in your lap).

I wasn’t spinning any more, just going forMother Earth. I didn’t notice my elevatorswere already central. So in my fright, nothaving achieved the desired results andnot thinking to pull back the stick naturallyand for whatever other hidden ancestralbio-engineering reasons, I threw my headback (maybe to check the horizon for onelast time) and pushed the stick forward asfar as my hands could reach. I recollect ina somewhat hazy manner that my periph-eral vision shut off so much that only asmall cone of vision in front of my eyesseemed important. I distinctly rememberthe feeling that an upside down recoverywas going to follow (if I didn’t die of frightor premature impact with the ground first).

John’s yell and probable assistance re-sulted in a rapid stick back action and aview of the sky again. After a couple ofnegative ‘g’ ups and downs and a coupleof John’s smooth wing-overs, we came into land and off to the blackboard for aview of the sad events.

My intellect understood the mechanismsinvolved in bringing on the spin, its correc-tion and recovery, but my body and reac-tions did not accept the actuality of theoccurrence. I really felt crushed for havingerred so seriously, but I felt thankful thatwe had done the exercise at a generousaltitude. Slowly the object lesson and thepotential seriousness of the event settledinto my gut and brain.

As John pointed out, the most likely timefor a spin will be in the turn from the base legto final, before landing. Too low, too slow.

If I had been alone in the 2-32 and foundmyself too low, I probably would have to

fly too slowly and – who knows – probablyspun it in.

My ego is still bruised, I have a week torecollect this event before (weather per-mitting) I try to fly again, but let’s go overthe situations that culminated in my errorsand a potential tragic accident. John and Iwent over these on the ground after theevents, and I clearly understand them tobe:

• I had six flights that day, and was activeon the field for at least six hours andI was over-tired.

• I hurriedly hopped into an unfamiliar air-craft without adequate knowledge orexperience of its critical flying char-acteristics and limitations.

• I was overly nervous, both because of theanticipation of a “test”, fear of “failure”,unfamiliar cockpit surroundings and anew instructor. (I do not fear John, norshould any student; I respect him andneed I say appreciated his presence).

• I was surprised about the sensitivity ofthe aircraft but not physically ready forits need for higher flying speed. I did not,in other words, adjust my actions tomatch the needs of the machine.

• I did not listen closely enough to John’sinstructions (perhaps my nervous dis-orientation) while flying a new set of con-trols.

• I remembered textbook instructionswithout applying the context. That is, full“opposite rudder”, “stick centred” whenready for “stick back”. I was out of step,etc.

• The maneuver, despite my previouslysuccessful efforts, was not yet natural tome. I certainly would not have anticipatedthe moves well in an emergency.

• Earlier in the day I had trouble at speedcontrol.

The above situation and history was preg-nant with the makings of a tragic accident.At 2300 feet altitude turning onto final for thefirst time in a new type of aircraft, and givenmy other conditions, the situation might easilyresult in a serious accident or death.

I am still here because of the safety precau-tions taught and practised at YSA and be-cause of the vigilance and care practisedby the instructors. I am now appreciative ofthe need for safety, both on the ground andin the air. I will be happy to solo when I amtold I’m ready, but if my guts aren’t ready,the extra couple of flights with the instructorwill be worth the time.

RULES FOR HOMEBUILDERS

compiled by Tony Burtonillustrated by Gil Parcell

...and bad luck has nothing to do with it, there is a natural order to the act of construction, inpart delineated below.

You always find a tool in the last place you look. Boob’s Law

If you take something apart and put it back together Rap’s Inanimateenough times, you will eventually have two of them. Reproduction Law

A carelessly planned homebuilding project takes three Golub’s 2nd Lawtimes longer to complete than expected; a carefully of Homebuildingplanned project takes only twice as long.

Experience varies directly with material ruined. Horner’s FiveThumb Postulate

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Baruch’s Observation

When the need arises, any tool or object closest to you Bromberg’s Lawbecomes a hammer. of Tool Use

The one who says it can’t be done should never interrupt The Roman Rulethe one who is doing it.

The first 90% of a project takes 10% of the time, and the The “90-90” Rulelast 10% takes the other 90%.

The easier it is to do, the harder it is to change. Eng’s Principle

If you fiddle with a thing long enough, it will break. Schmidt’s Law

The nut won’t go on until you utter the magic word. Bungey’s 1st Law

When you’re about to use the magic word, children will Bungey’s 2nd Lawbe present.

The first place to look for a dropped washer is the last Law of the Searchplace you expect to find it.

Any horizontal surface is soon piled up. Ringwald’s Law ofWorkbench Geometry

You can make it foolproof, but you can’t make it damn Naeser’s Lawfoolproof.

Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups. Wethern’s Law ofSuspendedJudgement

If you drop something, it will never reach the ground. Femo’s Law ofHomebuilding

When you do not know what you are doing, do it neatly. Prissy’s Rule

There are two kinds of tape: the one that won’t stay on, Teleco’s 2nd Lawand the one that won’t come off.

There are some things that are impossible to do, but it is Jaffe’s Preceptimpossible to know what they are.

No two identical parts are alike. Beach’s Law

Save all the parts. First Rule ofIntelligent Tinkering

Femo’s Law

Boob’s Law

Ringwald’s Law

13

SOARING IS FOR THE BIRDS

Bob Nancarrow

Wait a minute. Don’t think I’m putting downour favourite sport; the only point I want tomake is that birds really do it better. Oh,maybe we can go higher and faster; butwatching birds soar is an enjoyment gliderpilots probably appreciate more than theaverage bird watcher.

One warm August day last summer I wasbecalmed while sailing near the southeast-ern shore of Georgian Bay. It was quiet andcomfortable lying in the sun waiting for thewind to freshen. When I glanced up at themasthead fly to see what the breeze wasdoing, a flash of wings in the sun caught myeye. Overhead, so high I could barely seethem, were about a dozen gulls wheeling ingraceful circles. They seldom flapped theirwings and as I watched they seemed torise even higher until they were mere dotsagainst the bright blue cloudless sky. I rea-soned that they were picking up thermalsrising from the bare rocks on the nearbyislands and as I lazed in the sun, I dreamedof soaring an amphibious glider towed offby a motor boat. The wind sprang up andthe boat started to move again and I wasbusy for a few minutes. When I next lookedup, the gulls were gone.

I remember another day seeing gulls atover 3000 feet near the York Soaring gliderfield. As I recall it was a blustery sort of day

with some cumulus but the lift seemed rag-ged and ill-defined. You would just nicelyfind a thermal and start to climb, then sud-denly fall out the edge and lose severalhundred feet before finding it again – ifindeed it was the same one. At York it isnot unusual to see six or eight gliders soar-ing near the field but this day there weren’tany others close by at my height. SuddenlyI saw a flash of white. It startled me for aninstant until I realized it was a herring gullquite close and when I looked around, therewere several others within a few hundredfeet. I moved closer and at once the variomoved upward increasing my climb rateby a couple of hundred feet a minute. Afterthat I promised not to use the expression“bird brain” again, at least not in a deroga-tory sense!

The very first time I saw a soaring birdwhile flying was from the front seat of a 2-33near Tottenham, Ontario. My instructor sawit first and flew toward it. It was a red tailedhawk and I still remember the rather angrylook it gave us as we intruded in his air-space. I also recollect the frustrations thatsummer trying to stay up for at least a halfhour. The best I could manage was twenty-six minutes until one day I spotted threehawks getting lift from a quarry to the north-east of the field. I moved toward them andstarted to circle under them and of coursethat’s where the lift was. I can still see

them in my memory, the wing feathersstretched out and the reddish brown tailfeather fanned in the sun. We circled to-gether for quite a while and reached 4000feet which was the highest I had ever beenalone. My fifty-seventh flight shows an hourand a half duration and I often wonderedhow long I would have lasted without thehawks to mark the lift that afternoon.

When we think of soaring birds, gulls andhawks come to mind. And there are thecondors of California and South Americaand the albatross with its dynamic soaringability over the oceans. But pigeons? It wasearly November and cool, but bright sun-shine gave the feeling that winter was reallystill a long way off. There was a fairly stiffsouthwest wind blowing and it was shortlyafter noon. Several blocks away from myhome I noticed some pigeons flying off theroof of a four storey apartment building.Now pigeons are not a particularly attrac-tive bird to me. I know there are pigeonfanciers who seem to derive great plea-sure out of driving away from home half theday and racing their pets back to the roost.Most city dwellers however only see thebad side of pigeons, that noisy mob ofbirds that make dandruff for the statues inthe city squares all over the world.

Well, the particular pigeons I saw that daywere not behaving in usual pigeon fashionat all. One would strut to the edge of theroof facing south and spread its wingslaunching itself into the rising air. It wouldhover without flapping its wings, penetrat-ing slowly as it rose above the roof top. Afterabout ten or fifteen feet the lift appeared tobe lost and the bird turned downwind intothe circuit and was quickly back on the roof.Then the next one had a turn. I think therewere five in all although it was difficult to tellbecause most pigeons look alike. I neversaw two go at once and as far as I couldtell they took turns in the same sequence forthe few minutes I watched them. It was anextraordinary thing to see; I have neverseen anything like it before or since.

None of these observations or bird be-haviour seemed to be related to the searchfor food, the urge to migrate or the bird’smating ritual. The only reason I could see fortheir activity was the pure enjoyment ofsoaring. What better reason to soar? Nospeed task, no goal, no record flight – justsoaring for the fun of it. Maybe that’s why Inoticed these birds; we have something incommon.

A.D. NOTES

Foreign Airworthiness Directives andMandatory Modifications

BE-005/36/81 Cobra 15 SZD36AExtension of the overhaul life.

BK-015-81 Jantar glidersSecuring the instrument panel cover.

LTA-82-221 Schleicher ASW-15 and 15BInspection for possible fatigue failureof the elevator actuator bell crank.

LTA-82-220 Messerschmitt-B-BPhoebus A1, B1 and C

Inspection procedure for increase ofservice life to 6000 hours.

Club Astir IIISerial number to 5569

Club Astir IIIbSerial number to 5568-Cb

Standard Astir IIISerial number to 5564-S

Subject: Pedal unit

Reason: The slides (No. 103-4208.10) ofthe pedal unit might break when over-loaded.

Action: Action to be accomplished in ac-cord with Grob Technical Information TM306-22 and Repair Instructions No. 306-22to TM 306-22 of April 6, 1983, which be-comes herewith part of this AD and maybe obtained from Messrs. B. Grob Flug-zeugbau, D-8939 Mattsies, West Germany.

Action to be accomplished by a skilledperson and to be checked and entered inthe sailplane’s log by a licensed inspector.

Wayn

e R

ob

ert

s

14

CLUB NEWS

IDEAL AIRPORT BOSS RETIRES

At the end of April 1983, Vancouver Soar-ing celebrated an event of considerablesignificance at Hope airport. After 13 yearsof service to VSA, Eric Newman retired asAirport Manager at Hope airport.

In 1970, when there was danger of theHope airport being shut down, VSA enteredinto a management contract for the airportwith Transport Canada. Since that time,VSA has operated Hope airport under theterms of the contract. Eric Newman, whowas hired on as Airport Manager by VSA in1971, has been the key figure in the up-keep of the airport. His high standards havebrought national recognition to it as one ofthe two finest grass strips in Canada.

We were very fortunate that Eric and hiswife Mary were visiting Hope in 1971, afterEric’s retirement from the Armed Forces,and that he noticed a small advertisementfor an Airport Manager in the “Hope Stand-ard”. He was selected as the ideal candi-date and proved to be exactly that.

Apart from maintaining the airport to thehighest standards, he also allowed freeuse of his tools and equipment (many ofthem personal property) by the club mem-bers, when they needed them.

On 16 April, VSA recognized Eric’s yearsof service at a retirement banquet in Hope.His presence around the airport will bemissed.

Lloyd Bungey

PINKY – AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

as told by Len Douglas & Al Smith

I was born on that wild assembly line inOshawa, back in the days when we stillhad Sam McLaughlin, Studebaker, and Four-Cent Postage; and the only differencebetween a Chevy and a Pontiac was thename on the hub caps.

Many moons and ninety thousand mileslater, after the kids had learned to drive onme, and the salt had rotted my beautifulhardtop body into a leprous scab, I foundmyself being trundled ignominiously to theWreckers’ Yard... this must be the end oflife!

But, no! Some smiling gentlemen draggedmy still-good 283 cubic inch heart, lungs,and rear axle from the pile of rust, built anew concoction of angles and channelsaround me, and I heard myself being re-ferred to as a Winch. After a period oftraining, I found myself enjoying the sunnyweekends parked at the end of a largefield. With occasional calls to pull hard, Iwould see a large bird climbing into thesky towards me...Wonderful me!

The rest periods were ecstatic at this time;I lived in a large shed in warm luxury withsome of the birds that I had been helpingto fly.

But, alas! This life of bliss could not last;seven thousand launches later, I foundmyself struggling harder to make the birdsfly, my pulse became laboured, my breathturned into a funny blue haze. Once again,I started to hear the dread words “clappedout”. Finally, it was my transmission thatfailed, I was unable to make the birds flyany more. Lots of conferences about myfuture, and some different smiling gentle-men began talking about a School Bus...???

Now all is happy again; my transmissionhad a multiple by-pass operation, I wasgiven a rebuilt 327 cubic inch heart froman old school bus. I’m back to helping thebig birds to fly again, with rests in the bigshed.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you... the gentle-men mixed up all their odds and ends ofpaint; now I wear a lovely new pink dress... come up and see me sometime at44°16N, 79°55W.

KIWI NATS INVITATION

We have received news from New Zealandthat their Nationals in 1984 are to be heldfrom January 15-28 in Alexandra. The N.Z.Gliding Association is inviting interestedcross-country pilots from overseas toparticipate. So far they have representa-tives from Switzerland, Australia, Ger-many and the U.K. and possibly the USA.We are told that “pilots should be preparedto fly in front, waves, thermals, ridge andone or two unnamed phenomena.” Topheight recorded in Alexandra is 36,500feet. Anyone interested should contact theContest Director as soon as possible sothat a glider can be found for him/her.

Alexandra is in the heart of the fruit grow-ing region of the South Island of N.Z. TheCentral Otago Flying Club there have newclubrooms with a control tower on top, bigBBQ and a swimming pool (a big assetin January which is mid-summer “down-under”). So if you would like to tie in avacation in beautiful New Zealand withsome interesting competition flying, con-tact the Contest Director: Don Lament, 40AStation Street, Alexandra, New Zealand.

Anne PickardBulkley Valley Soaring Club

This is our recently completed Pioneer IIhomebuilt (C-GFJW). My son Roland and Ispent 2600 hours and 6 years building it.The picture was taken over London Soar-ing Society’s field at Embro, Ontario, Sept19, 1982. The pilot is CFI Kurt Hertwig onJuliet Whiskey’s second test flight.

The performance equals or exceeds ourexpectations to date although we have onlyflown eight flights for a total of five and-a-half hours. Flying conditions the past twoyears have been awful.

Paul Chevalier

15

2-33 CANOPY CAUSES FIRE

Recently, we had an incident which couldhave resulted in a disastrous fire. In cor-roboration with local fire officials, it wasfound that a couch was set on fire by sun-light refracted through the canopy of a2-33 temporary stored on top of it.

Fortunately, the smoke was spotted early,resulting in only minor heat damage to theedge of the canopy and the loss of a couch.

We hope that by sharing this incident, amore serious fire may be prevented else-where. Always keep the canopy covered, oraway from direct sunlight. An ounce of pre-vention is still worth a pound of cure.

Alberni Valley Soaring Association

TOUGHER CHECKOUTSAT BLUENOSE

As a result of the loss of our Astir, we haveinstituted a cross-country course with sixground school classes during the winter.Evidence of skill at short landings will berequired, a map showing local landablefields, and some cross-country soaring inour K7, so that we can assess whether thestudent knows his location, what he canreach from what height, and whether hecan recognize landable fields from the air.Navigation and circuit procedures overunknown fields are conducted in ChrisPurcell’s Cub.

We’ve had some good soaring already, andmost members are checked out and cur-rent. This is another area we’ve tightenedup. Three flights in the last three weeks orback to dual. Also for non-XC pilots, theangle of view back to the airfield must bemore than 20°. We have a forbidden zoneof unlandable “Alligator” territory – a $20fine to fly over it – $500 if you crash beyondthe line!!

Dick VineBluenose Soaring

NEW SPIRIT AT KAWARTHA

Kawartha Soaring Club in Omemee openedits 1983 flying season with 15 paid-up mem-bers, and a highly motivated membershipdrive that was made successful through theenthusiasm and team work of the newelected directors, executive and their mem-bers.

On March 28 to April 2 Kawartha SoaringClub held a display at Oshawa ShoppingCentre which was a terrific show stopper.About 5000 pamphlets were distributed atthe Oshawa Centre and to numerous busi-nesses like the Library, municipality build-ings, police stations, dentists, doctors, cardealers and retailers.

Our ground school opened at Oshawa air-port on February 6 with five students. Sixnew students were recruited from theOshawa display making a total of eleven.

In spite of the fact that it rained non-stop onour ‘Open House’ weekend, prospectivemembers still turned up and joined our club.Our goal is to enrol 35 members for ’83.

Our enthusiastic members have redeco-rated and refurnished both our clubhouseand our bunkhouse, which was previouslybuilt by members and contains eight bunkbeds and a washroom. The clubhouse isequipped with stove, fridge, tables andchairs, a washroom and a shower. This wasbuilt to encourage members who comefrom as far as Toronto to stay and fly onSaturday and Sunday, from May throughOctober. Camping facilities are available.There is also a pool which we all appreci-ate after a busy flying day.

For our flying pleasure we now have twoBlaniks and a rented Grunau Baby. Ourtowplane is a Wilga. Two Jantars and twoCobras are privately owned. There is apossibility of the new two-seater Puchaczbeing available for demonstration flights atour gliderport this summer. We recentlypurchased a worn-out lawn tractor whichone of our members rebuilt completely andis being used as a tow vehicle.

As a climax to our flying season, each Au-gust we celebrate at our gliderport with “pigon a spit” (see advertisement in ComingEvents this issue). Our goal for our pig roastthis year is to sell 100 plus tickets. Last yearit was a success with live music, deliciousfoods, and a joyful day with visitors fromother clubs. The music and bonfire contin-ued until the early hours of the morning.

Omemee is situated between Lindsay andPeterborough. Omemee has some finehandcraft gift shops, and Lindsay is quite abusy little town, so a day spent in Omemeeto go flying is well worth it. In fact a weekendwould be better.

We are proud of our CFI Brian Milner whobecame the first Canadian to fly 1000 km.We wish him every success in his futureendeavours!

A successful and a safe flying season toeveryone!

Hardy MatczynskiEditor “News Release”

GEORGE BLUNDEN

“We are sorry to report the recent death ofGeorge Blunden. George was an activemember of the Cu Nim Gliding Club for anumber of years, holding the position ofChief Flying Instructor and President atvarious times, and participated in a numberof National Soaring Meets. Although notactive with the club in recent years, hemaintained his interest in flying. Our sympa-thy is extended to his wife and membersof his family.”

George Dunbar

Vern Keats

It is with deep sorrow that we must adviseof the passing of Vern Keats on March25, 1983. He leaves many friends fromcoast to coast.

Flying had been one of the constantfactors in Vern’s life since his early dayswhen he owned a Piper J-3. He joinedthe Winnipeg Gliding Club in 1965 andquickly became an enthusiastic mem-ber. His record of service to the clubsince then is exemplary as he was eithera member of the executive or on a com-mittee almost continually until he resignedas a Director some eight weeks ago. Hewas also instrumental in organizing part-nerships to bring the Bergfalke, C-FUVOand the RHJ-8, C-FAJS into the club andalways enjoyed honing his skills on thesegliders. His cross-country flying alwaysseemed to be a low priority, as the wellbeing of the club would take precedenceand inevitably you would find him in theback seat of one of the trainers instead,where he sat for many hundreds of hours,passing on his knowledge and love offlight to countless students.

He had deep insight into people andproblems and was an able mediator,keeping the “gung-ho” group containedwithout dulling their enthusiasm whilestill managing to get the “project-of-the-moment” completed successfully.There weren’t many major decisions overthe years when Vern wasn’t involved. Inmy mind, the biggest is probably thepurchase of a home for the WGC in 1967.Vern ‘found’ Pigeon Lake, negotiated theprice and mortgage conditions and whenthat was completed, he got on the tractorand proceeded to prepare and seed therunway. This last operation was done inthe middle of an unseasonal snowfall. Hewasn’t a one-man show, he was justalways available.

His unassuming manner, his extremelycongenial personality fronted by hisbroad grin, his thoughtfulness and con-sideration, his skills and experience, hismodesty, the friendship and the firm hand-shake, all are now memories – verycherished memories. He won’t be forgot-ten though. As they say, the true test of aman’s life is to be found not in his wealthand material possessions but by the ex-tent that his mere presence has enrichedall who have known him. May I say simplythat he passed the test.

Fly free, my friend.

Dave Tustin

16

HANGAR FLYING

NEW O & R WORLD RECORD

Tom Knauff, operator of Ridge SoaringGliderport in Pennsylvania, is claiming theworld out and return distance record fromKarl Striedieck. On Monday, 25 April, heflew from a remote start point at Williams-port, PA to Little Flat Creek Church (justnorth of Knoxville, Tennessee) and returnfor a total distance of 1645 kilometres. Theflight time was 10 hours and 36 minutesfor an average speed of 155.3 km/h(96.55 mph). The flight was conducted inridge and wave lift and at times wasthreatened to be cut short by heavy snowshowers on the return leg. Tom reportedthat he flew at “a cautious 100 knots” on thesouth end of the course. He said, “it wasan extraordinary day, perhaps the best Ihave seen in the 18 years I have been fly-ing the ridge.”

BORDER CROSSINGSBY SAILPLANES

US Customs officials have continuing in-structions for the handling of border cross-ings by gliders when making distance orrecord flight attempts.

Gliders which are carried [flown] into theUnited States of America, when makingdistance attempts in Canada, are coveredby the regulations for emergency landingsin section 6.2(h) of the Customs Regula-tions requiring that the pilot contact thenearest port of entry [usually through thelocal State Police] and report the circum-stance. Arrangements should be made tohave the gliders checked out of the UnitedStates.

Flights to the south which are in effect des-tined to the United States, may also behandled under the emergency landingprocedures. Such flight attempts are un-predictable so that prior notice and pre-arrangement of Customs clearance wouldnot be feasible.

These instructions cover Customs require-ments for gliders or sailplanes only, anddo not cover Immigration requirements.

Official Memo from theUnited States GovernmentDept of TreasuryUnited States Customs Service

SAFETY & INSTRUCTION JOINED

At the SAC Instructors committee meet-ing in November 1982, we brought togetherrepresentatives from coast to coast whohad collected accident statistics from theirareas. We discussed these and came toa number of conclusions – mostly of con-cern to the Instructors committee becauseof actions that we can take, and instructingtechniques and situations that we need toconsider, that will I hope lead to fewer acci-dents in the long run.

SAC has had a separate Safety commit-tee whose membership has not been large,and whose terms of reference have notbeen too well known. I have proposed, andall members of the Instructors committeehave agreed, that the two committees beamalgamated and be called the “FlightTraining and Safety Committee”. The Boardhas accepted the proposal, and planningis underway to accommodate the broadermandate of the new committee.

lan Oldaker

16.6 m VENTUS

The Ventus b will now be available withwingtip extensions for a 16.6 metre span.The sailplane can be delivered with all nec-essary connections for the wingtips, or modi-fications can easily be made afterwardsbecause of the built-in provisions.

Mounting of wingtips: automatic connec-tion through spring-loaded safety bolts,automatic connection to ailerons.

According to flight tests, best L/D is justbelow 47.

DG-300 MAIDEN FLIGHT

On 27 April 1983 the DG-300 took to the airon its maiden flight. The first flights provedto be a hit. Controllability and flight charac-teristics were superb – well coordinatedand easy to fly. This ship seems to be evennicer to fly than the DG-100.

Exact performance data are not availableat the moment, but a comparison flightwith a flapped 15 metre class ship showedthe excellent performance of the DG-300.

Series production has started and fourDG-300 will compete in the World champi-onships at Hobbs.

MANPOWERED SAILPLANE FLIES

A group of West Germans, Wolfgang Huetter,73 (who also designed the H301 Libelle),Franz Villinger, 75, and Wilhelm Schuele,74 have designed and built a new man-powered aircraft to compete for the thirdKremer Prize of £10,000. The flight mustbe witnessed by the Royal AeronauticalSociety in England and the same regula-tions apply as for the first Kremer Prize (afigure-8 course of one mile length), exceptthat it is only open to non-USA pilots and air-craft. The first prize was won by Dr. PaulMacCready with his Gossamer Albatross,and the second by the Gossamer Condor’sflight across the English Channel.

The HVS has the appearance of a modernsailplane and makes extensive use ofcarbon fibre in its construction. The Vee tailis constructed of balsa wood, and its con-trol rods are thin carbon fibre tubes. Poweris transmitted from a pedal drive in the noseto the pylon mounted propeller by a steelcable.

The wing span of 16.16 m can be enlargedto 18.4 m and consists of four parts. AWortmann profile FX 63-137 was used.

The wing loading is 7.7 kg/sq.m. (1.6 Ibs/sq. ft) and the L/D is 36:1 at 34 km/h. The“relatively” high wing loading allows theHVS to be flown in non-calm conditions.

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17

CROCODILE CORNER

ZILCHNOUGHT

keep itthat way!

BREAKING THE SHACKLESOF THE SLOPES

It was 65 years ago during the 1928 Rhöncontest that thermal lift was discovered.One of the first pilots using thermals con-sciously for height gain and long distanceflight was Edgar Dittmar. He celebratedhis 75th birthday on 6 Feb 1983, when hereminisced on this first world altitude recordestablished on 8 Aug 1928; he gained775 metre height over the Wasserkuppeand flew to Bad Kissingen. This flight markedthe era of cross-country flying.

In 1926, Max Kegel was the first to fly 55km distance, using a thunderstorm forheight gain. Unfortunately, absolute heightwas not registered. The glider pilots onthe ground witnessed this exciting startand realized that the pilot was quicklygrabbed by huge forces, lifted, then finallysucked into the thundercloud. There werehours of fear, until finally a landing notifica-tion arrived.

The next goal was to find the way fromslope soaring to thermals. On 6 Aug, RobertKronfeld flew around a mountain, theHimmeldankberg, about 6 to 8 km from theWasserkuppe, and landed again at hisstarting point. A barogram showed that heprobably “regained height” away from theslope lift.

On 8 Aug 1928, Edgar Dittmar flew his gli-der “Albert” along the slope as usual. Somecus were scattered about the blue sky. Theslope lift on the west side gave him onlysome 200 m height gain, however, he real-ized that there was also “something elsebeside the slope lift”. Soon a huge cu ap-proached the west side of the hill, andDittmar decided to fly toward this cloudaway from the slope and risking an out-landing. His altimeter indicated no loss ofheight, but rather a continuous climb. Look-ing back to the hills he saw the other aircraftfar below. “The closer I got to the cloud, themore I felt the climb with the seat of mypants, and the needle of my altimeter movedfaster.

Searching and circling he drifted with thecloud back to the hill. After about 15 to 20minutes he had reached its base andpenetrated somewhat into the cloud. Thisadventure gave him tremendous joy. Thecloud dissipated above the peak and heflew southward to another cloud on theHimmeldankberg. He arrived there after400 m (1312 feet) loss of height. However,he knew already what to do and soonreached cloud base again. Meanwhile hehad decided to fly over to Bad Kissingen.Crossing over the Kreuzberg he made along glide to his goal where he arrived about

600 to 700 m agl and enough time to attractsufficient attention to this big and quietgliding bird above the park. After more than3 hours in the air he landed on the new racetrack in Bad Kissingen.

The exact height calculation was done bya special crew of the competition directorusing a theodolite. Thus this flight gave thefirst internationally recognized height gainrecord of 775 metre.

INSTANT FLYING

by W.W. (Bill) Tayloras told to Lloyd Bungey

Bill Taylor joined the Victoria and IslandGliding and Soaring Club in early July 1945,two weeks before his 16th birthday. He hadwatched the club’s activities for a coupleof years, as they flew two primary glidersat Lansdowne Field in Victoria. He hadeven watched the gliders crack up a coupleof times, but even this had not deterred him.He wanted to fly.

From 1942, when the first move which ledto the formation of the club had takenplace, the principal driving force behindthe club had been Jack Taylor (no relationto Bill). When Bill joined the club, Jack wasthe President, club manager and ChiefInstructor, as well as being the most expe-rienced pilot. It was the coincidence ofsurnames which was to lead Bill to experi-ence “instant flying”.

Here is the tale in Bill’s own words: “Theother fellows, including Jack, had been outin the morning. They were not getting sat-isfactory launches on the winch and Jackwas pretty annoyed about this. He wasconvinced that Ken, the winch operator,was not giving them full power and thatthis was why they were not getting up. Thisattitude did not please Ken, who was a bitof a hothead in those days.”

“In the afternoon, they would often bringthe beginners in and give them one try inthe Dagling (a single seat primary glider). Itwas two weeks before my 16th birthday,and on that afternoon, they told me, “That’sclose enough [to 16]. You’ve been hang-ing around for quite a time. It’s about timeyou had a go.”

So I sat down in the glider and they fas-tened the seat belts around me and gaveme some brief instructions: “You move thestick to the left and that puts the left wingdown. You move it to the right and thatputs the right wing down.” As with all firsttries, the intention was that they would towme along the ground at 15–20 mph andI would try to keep the wings level. Thewhole exercise was to learn the use of theailerons.”

Well, down at the winch, Ken looked atthe list and saw that “Taylor” was to get thenext launch. It never even occurred to himit was “Bill Taylor” not “Jack Taylor”. If itwas Jack Taylor that he was launching,then Ken was going to give him full powerright from the word “go”. He had had enoughof a chewing out at the lunch break.”

“They rocked the wings of the glider tosignal all was ready, and Ken gave it allthere was. Boy, I can tell you how it is on awinch launch when you get full power rightfrom the start. Even though there werespoilers on top of the wings, my 100 Ibswas not enough to keep that plane down. Ihad no previous flying experience, althoughI had flown models as a lead-up to glidersas I knew a little about it. I had not evenbeen a passenger in a power plane though,so I didn’t know the sensations.”

The glider shot forward, much faster than itwas supposed to be going. “I managed tokeep the stick forward, which kept it on theground, but bouncing like crazy on theskid for a couple of hundred feet; then itmust have hit a hump. ‘Swoosh... all of asudden I was airborne. Now I had prob-lems. How the heck was I to keep the thinglevel. How was I to... Well, you know, in asituation like that, you really smarten up inone heck of a hurry. I learned a lot aboutflying really fast.”

“I suppose I was only about 10 feet up inthe air, but it seemed a lot higher. I waswondering how I was going to get the thingdown. My eyes were streaming with water.I don’t know what the speed was but itmust have been over fifty, because Kenwas wondering what the heck was thematter because he was giving it every-thing he could and the glider wasn’t goingup. He was sure he was going to get un-holy hell from Jack if he didn’t get thatglider up. Finally, he realized that some-thing was not right and cut the power, whichresolved the situation.”

“That was my first time ever in an aircraft. Itwas two weeks before my 16th birthdayand there I was, all alone and flying. Itwas the start of a lifetime of involvementin flying.”

[Bill Taylor is currently a civil servant inVictoria, BC , and an active power pilot. Hewas a founding member of the VictoriaGliding Club in 1957, which became theVan-Isle Gliding Club in 1963.]

LS-4

PROVINCIALASSOC.NEWS

18

You could be flyingthe best Standard classsailplane in the world:the Rolladen Schneider

Your dealer in Canada:Jim Carpenter20 Scollard StreetToronto, Ontario M5R 1E9(416) 923-7150

ALBERTA SOARING COUNCIL

To paraphrase the opening line of a famousnovel: it was a dark and stormy day. Thisyear’s annual May Meet of ASC, held atInnisfail, Alberta from May 20–23 andhosted by the Edmonton Soaring Club, washampered at the start by the inclementweather. Due to the high winds, the lowcloud base, the squall systems and otheracts of nature too numerous to mention,there were no competitions on Friday, thefirst day. Only those pilots experiencedenough to contend with the conditions, andthose being air-towed in, were up flyingthat day.

Saturday dawned clear and sunny. Withthe prospect of good soaring weather oc-curing as some very good cumulus builtup, a wide variety of ships from glass towood were rigged and at the pilots’ meet-ing contest director Dave Marsden pre-sented the tasks for the day. Open class:196 km triangle to Olds, Rimbey and return.Sports class: 135 km O&R to Rimbey.

Sunday also started off as a good day. Thetasks for the second day: Open class:315 km triangle Rosedale, Stettler and re-turn. Sports class 156 km triangle Trochu,Delburne, return. Due to a large area over-cast moving in on the third legs, therewere a fair number of outlandings in bothclasses, even among experienced pilots.

As the lift was late to develop on Monday,tasks for both classes were shortened fromthose that had been originally proposed.Open class 158 km triangle to Caroline,Didsbury and return; Sports class 97 outand return to Caroline.

Results for each of the three days of com-petition were mixed, depending a bit onwhen a pilot got off, but more importantlyon how a pilot was able to adapt and adjustto the ever-changing conditions aloft.

Special thanks to George Dunbar and hiscomputer for compiling and tabulatingcontest information and results.

This year, in addition to the traditionalstarting gate arrangement, a ground clock,using light, was tried, but was unsuccess-ful.

Congratulations go out to Mike Apps(ASW-20FP) who was overall winner inthe Open class with a total of 2733 pointsand the Poldaas/Jonkers team (B 4), win-ners in the Sports class with 1903 points.

About 15 pilots flew in the Open class (Open,15 Metre, Standard) and 5 pilots in theSports class (Std. Austria, B 4, Ka6/8).

For those who didn’t get a chance to cometo the meet, CBFXT in Edmonton is pro-ducing a video tape story of the meet. Staytuned for when it will be shown on 2 Sept’83, 13:30 hours (French channel) to seewhat you missed. It includes a wave flightwith Tony Burton in his RS-15 on the even-ing of the last contest day, and editorUrsula had been talked into some Frenchcomments.

Paul RavelleEdmonton Soaring

BC SOARING SOCIETY

Representatives from the Alberni ValleySoaring Club, ASTRA, VSA, and the Bulk-ley Valley Soaring Club gathered togetherin Smithers on 23/24 April for the AGM of theBC Soaring Society. The choice of Smithersas the site enabled members of the mostnortherly BC club to meet with members ofthe longer established southern clubs. Also,the delegates from these clubs were able toenjoy and assess the soaring conditions inthe Bulkley Valley, thanks to the generosityof the host club which made its Blanik andPilatus available to them.

Bruce Nicmans of VSA had trailered hisIS29 Lark to Smithers early and was tosample Hudson Bay Mountain soaring con-ditions at its finest on four days.

Doug Carson of Bulkley Valley SoaringClub was re-elected President of BCSSand Christine Timm of ASTRA re-electedsecretary.

The first major flying event of BCSS for 1983was the two week Invermere camp held14-27 May. During the first week the flyingwas somewhat disappointing, but late inthe second week some spectacular flyingwas possible. Ten sailplanes and 19 pilotsattended. The majority was there for localsoaring only, or for short tasks, so few reallong flights were flown. In spite of the liftnot starting until late (2-3 pm), flights ofover 300 km were made on 22, 23, 26, 27May and it was generally believed thatthe last two days were good enough for500 km.

The Rocky Mountain Trench from Goldensouth to EIko offers very spectacular flyingwith long stretches of dolphin soaringpossible. At last year’s camp, the first 300km ever flown in BC was achieved. Thisyear four more were made and the wholeof the 500 km route from EIko to Goldenwas explored. Hopefully, next year some-one will manage to string it all together and,finally, get BC cross-country soaring prop-erly underway.

Lloyd Bungey

19

FAI RECORDS

Campbell

Printer ad,

Ottawa

The following badges and badge legs were recorded in the CanadianSoaring Register during the period January 26 and April 30, 1983.

Boris Karpoff24-1/2 Deloraine AvenueToronto, Ont. M5M 2A7 (416) 481-0010

FAI BADGES

GOLD BADGES194 Peter Schwirtlich

SILVER BADGES645 George Graham Bluenose

DIAMOND ALTITUDEBernard Palfreeman Ariadne 5364 m PIK-20 North Conway, NHPaul Chalifour Bulkley 6126 m Pilatus Smithers, BCStephen Weinhold Cu Nim 6550 m Kestrel Cowley, AltaFritz Bortenlänger Cu Nim 5601 m Jantar Std. Cowley, Alta

GOLD ALTITUDEPeter Allen Erin 4253 m Pilatus North Conway, NH

SILVER ALTITUDEMonty Gray Cu Nim 1690 m 2-33 Cowley, AltaHozi Patel Erin 2573 m Blanik North Conway, NH

SILVER DURATIONGeorge Graham Bluenose 5:30 Austria Stanley, NSKerry Kirby Air Sailing 5:02 Ka6 Belwood, OntFritz Bortenlänger Cu Nim 5:04 Jantar Std. Cowley, Alta

C BADGESMonty Gray Cu Nim 1:15 Cowley, AltaKerry Kirby Air Sailing 5:02 Ka6 Belwood, OntMadeleine Marier Rideau 1:25 2-33 Kars, OntJames McCollum Rideau 1:08 2-33 Kars, OntFritz Bortenlänger Cu Nim 5:04 Jantar Std. Cowley, Alta

Russ Flint

1983 RECORD CLAIMS PENDING APPROVAL

Speed 1000 km Goal and Return (Citizen) 93.5 km/h, 26 Apr 83,BRIAN MILNER, Kawartha Soaring, Jantar Std 2, flown from RidgeSoaring, PA to Fincastle Country Club, W. VA, return.

Speed 500 km Goal and Return (joint record) 90 km/h, 27 May 1983MIKE APPS, Edmonton Soaring, ASW-20FPDAVID MARSDEN, Edmonton Soaring, DG 202/17Chipman, Alberta, North Battleford, Sask, return

Speed 300 km Goal and Return (Citizen) 171.3 km/h, 10 May 1983PETER MASAK, ASW-20Kettle Reservoir, PA to an island turnpoint on the Susquehanna R,return

1983 NATIONALS

15 METRE/OPEN CLASSHosted by Cu Nim Gliding Club under the auspices of the AlbertaSoaring Council to be held in Claresholm, Alberta, 120 km south ofCalgary, on Hwy 2. For further information, contact:

Practice days Hans König, Contest ManagerSaturday to Monday 33 - 2323 Oakmoor Drive SW9 - 11 July Calgary, Alberta T2V 4T2

Contest days (403) 244-9727 (B)Tuesday to Thursday (403) 281-7048 (H)12 - 21 July

STANDARD CLASSHosted by Montreal Soaring Council at Hawkesbury, Ontario, be-tween Montreal and Ottawa, near Hwy 17. Contact

Gerry Nye, Contest Director67 Portland PlaceBeaconsfield, Quebec H9W 3P3

Practice days (514) 695-8378Saturday to Monday16 - 18 July George Couser, Contest Admin.

Contest days 735 Rivière-aux-PinsTuesday to Thursday Boucherville, Quebec J4B 3A819 - 28 July (514) 655-1801

3/83 issue showed contest dates interchanged. I apologize for anyinconvenience from this printing error. Ursula

20

NEW (?) FACES

PRESIDENT &DIRECTOR-AT-LARGEBob Carlson57 Anglesey BoulevardIslington, ON M9A 3B6(416) 239-4735 (H)(416) 365-3558 (B)

VICE-PRESIDENT &PACIFIC ZONEHarald Tilgner90 Warrick StreetCoquitlam, BC V3K 5L4(604) 521-4321 (H)(604) 263-3630 (VSA)

ALBERTA ZONETony BurtonBox 1916Claresholm, AB T0L 0T0(403) 625-4563 (H)(B)

PRAIRIE ZONEDave Hennigar404 Moray StreetWinnipeg, MB R3J 3A5(204) 837-1585 (H)

TREASURERDon Dunn28 Glenmanor DriveNepean, ON K2G 3G1(613) 224-1110 (H)(613) 996-9033 (B)

ONTARIO ZONEAl Schreiter3298 Lone Feather Cres.Mississaugua, ON L4Y3G5(416) 625-0400 (H)(416) 926-1225 (B)

QUEBEC ZONEAlexandre W. Krieger1450 Oak AvenueQuebec, PQ G1T 1Z9(418) 681-3638 (H)(418) 656-2207 (B)

MARITIME ZONEGeorge GrahamR.R. 1Westville, NS B0K 2A0(902) 396-5961 (H)(902) 752-1331 (B)

DIRECTOR-AT-LARGEGordon Bruce154 Shannon ParkBeaconsfield, PQ H9W 2B8(514) 697-1442 (H)

PAST-PRESIDENTRuss Flint96 Harvard AvenueWinnipeg, MB R3M 0K4(204) 284-5941 (H)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR& SECRETARYvacant

SAC DIRECTORS& OFFICERS

COMMITTEES

AIRSPACEDave Tustin581 Lodge AvenueWinnipeg, MB R3J 0S7

FLIGHT TRAINING& SAFETYIan Oldaker135 Mountainview Road NGeorgetown, ON L7G 3P8Mbrs: Tom Bell

G. EckschmiedtJohn FirthBob GageAlex KriegerChris PurcellManfred RadiusAl SunleyEd Sliwinski

FREE FLIGHTUrsula BurtonBox 1916Claresholm, AB T0L 0T0

FINANCIALGordon BruceBob Carlson

HISTORICALChristine Firth542 Coronation AvenueOttawa, ON K1G 0M4

INSURANCEAl Schreiter3298 Lone Feather Cres.Mississauga, ON L4Y 3G5Mbr: Bryce Stout

Bill Mather

MEDICALDr. Wolf Leers4-4889 Dundas Street WIslington, ON M9A 1B2

METEOROLOGYSepp Froeschl1845 Brookdale AvenueDorval, PQ H9P 1X5

PUBLICITYvacant

RADIOFrank VaughanBox 113, RR 1Kanata, ON K2K 1X7

SPORTINGDave Marsden3920 Aspen Drive WestEdmonton, AB T6J 2B3Mbrs: Jim Carpenter

Karl Doetsch

• FAI AWARDS Boris Karpoff 24-1/2 Deloraine Avenue Toronto, ON M5M 2A7

• FAI RECORDS Russell & Hazel Flint 96 Harvard Avenue Winnipeg, MB R3M 0K4

TECHNICALGeorge Adams12 Hiawatha ParkwayMississauga, ON L5G 3R8

TROPHIES & CLAIMSGeorge Dunbar1419 Chardie Place SWCalgary, AB T2V 2T7

WORLD CONTESTvacant

COMINGEVENTS

Jul 12-21, 1983 15m/Open Class Nationals ,Claresholm, Alberta. Host Alberta Soaring Coun-cil/Cu Nim.

Jul 16-Aug 14, 1983 Kawartha Flying Weeks atOmemee airport.

Jul 19-28, 1983 Std. Class Nationals , Hawkes-bury, Ontario. Host Montreal Soaring Council.

Jul 24- Aug 1 Cowley Summer camp, Cowleyairfield, Alberta. Host Alberta Soaring Council.Contact Ken Palmer, 23 Baker Cres. NW, Calgary,Alberta T2L 1R3 (403) 284-1396 (H).

Jul 30-Aug 7, 1983, Flying Week, Pigeon Lake G/P

XU Aviationad

Trading Post and back page omitted

Aug 13-20, 1983 Western Basic InstructorsSchool . Host Winnipeg Gliding Club.

Aug 30, 1983 Kawartha Pig Roast, grande finale tothe Flying Weeks. Contact John Alty (416) 668-7562 H or (416) 292-1481 B, or write 7 Muir Cres.Whitby, Ontario L1P 1B5.

Sep 11 - 16, 1983 Eastern Basic Instructors School.Host SOSA, Rockton, Ont. (the course in Junehad to be postpned).

Oct 1-2, 1983 SAC Directors Meeting, Moncton, NB.Host New Brunswick Soaring Association.

Oct 8-10, 1983 Cowley Wave camp, Cowley airfield,Alberta. Host Alberta Soaring Council.

Gordon W. BruceDirector-At-Large

Born in Calgary long ago. He learned to flyin a Gypsy Moth In Lethbridge, Albertaduring his last year in high school. He thenwent to the University of New Brunswick

and served in the Canadian Army through-out World War II and up to 1974. He joinedthe Montreal Soaring Council in 1971, wastheir Aircraft Maintenance Director for acouple of years and has been the Presi-dent since 1976, SAC Instructor of theYear in 1974 and Contest Director for the1977 Nationals.

Gordon has encouraged MSC to continueits strong financial support to Canada’sWorld Contest Team. He loves everythingthat flies – especially birds, beautiful sail-planes and intriguing devises like theLazair. He has great admiration for thevarious SAC committee chairmen whohave advanced our sport so well in thepast years. He cringes from governmentoverregulation, but believes we must de-velop and insist on thorough after-solotraining as part of the awesome trainingresponsibility assumed by SAC on behalfof Transport Canada.

He believes in a strong SAC, able to neg-otiate from strength to counter any unnec-essary federal moves to restrict our sport.