This Soaring Diary begins in August 1999
and is current through November 1999
To see
a previous volume, click here to see a selection of dates
(they go
back in time at least two years).
(This link will also tell you what this diary is all about)
Editor and publisher - Peter Kelly
Reports are provided by soaring enthusiasts from
all over the world
(In chronological reverse order)
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16 Nov 99
The size of this volume is getting to near 60k, so it's time to start
a new one.
Two things - First the weather, and then a debrief on the PASCO Banquet.
Today is a good example of reading the jet stream charts. Popcorn cu
behind the approaching weather, the U-shaped Jet stream is still off the
coast, but if you look at the 24 and 48 hr jets, you will see the jet will
sort of maintian its shape, and slide overhead our location during the
next 24 hrs. The wind will be south westerly this morning, so prefrontal
wave will be sporadic, tomorrow, Wednesday, will probably start early with
unstable air and cu clouds, wind will become westerly, and by evening it
will be northwesterly, with some prefrontal wave developing, maybe. All
of this is just a guess from looking at the 500 mb winds, and the 24, and
48 hr jet charts - as accessed from my weather page. I haven't even read
what the real weather forecasters are saying about it on the NWS (National
Weather Service) pages - I am just trying to illustrate that by reading
the charts, you can do your own forecasting - at least to the extent that
it is used for soaring. Now we will wait for tommorrow to see how much
egg I have on my face.
The PASCO Banquet. We are most fortunate that Sumner has provided us
with a debrief of what occurred on Sat 6 November. The saferty seminars
were held during the day, and the Banquet was in the evening. Here is Sumner's
report.
------------------------------------------------------
The annual banquet and seminar on Saturday, Nov. 6, in the Monarch Hotel
in Dublin, started off with a good show at 9:30, with coffee and lots of talk
among people there. The show started with an introduction by Charlie
Hayes, the organizer.
Carl Herold led off with a discussion of microclimates and forecasting in
the Great Basin, almost as a continuation of his seminar earlier in the
year. The point is that forecasts are helpful, but you can't really tell
until you get there. He is convinced that much of the lift is generated in
convergence of air masses, rather than by thermals. Because of the many
nooks and crannies in the Sierra and other mountain ranges, lift is where
you find it, and it can be almost anywhere.
Marc Ramsey talked about the development of cockpit technology and
compared the capabilities of specific GPS units. The developments are
coming so fast that you'll need to give him a ring about what's best now.
George Thelen had an accident review, with some comments by JJ Sinclair
and CDH. A contributing cause to many accidents is the failure to act
quickly enough. We can prepare only so much, but most of us don't
prepare at all. A delay of a fraction of a second often makes a difference in
the outcome of an event. Give him a ring to get the latest.
Bob Wander made a pitch for safety, primarily related to gambling and
risks. One great way to reduce the risk of an accident is to do a control
check right before take off, even if the ship has been flying continuously,
or has been idle since the last check and flight. Who knows what has
happened in between, when you weren't looking.
The talk by Steve Smith on the Mars Flyer was out of this world into the
solar system. Two groups in NASA collaborated in designing an airplane to
fly along a great mountain range on Mars while taking data on everything
imaginable including the atmospheric and geographic features of the planet.
The design parameters and fiscal limits made for a marvelously ingenious
design. In short, it is a folded-on-two-axes aircraft shipped in a box, to
be let out of the box, unfold its wings and fuselage, and take its one and
only death flight while transmitting data, all at a fraction of the cost of
the ill-fated recent lander that crashed and burned because metric and
English units weren't articulated. It is unclear whether the Mars Flyer
will ever be built. Then it will be even cheaper than the previous craft,
for the same amount of data retrieved.
The final talk was about real soaring flight, given by Sergio Colacevich on
his triple diamond flight below flight level 180. He didn't walk but
literally flew "through the valley of the shadow of death" and "feared no
evil" for the thermals were with him.
An "Ask Your SSA Governors/PASCO Directors" session was scheduled
(time permitting), but to the relief of all, time did not permit. You can ask
them anytime and find out more than you ever want to know. Their
addresses and telephone numbers are listed on the first page of every
WestWind. Please DO give a call; a response is guaranteed.
Now the Banquet, that was good food and entertainment! The congenial
social occasion especially honored the people who run Region 11 Soaring
sites. All those people who were there had their dinner tabs picked up by
PASCO. The after-dinner talk by Bob Wander was lively and entertaining,
although it was serious at the start. He spoke about the state of soaring
organizations nationwide, and congratulated PASCO on its stellar role in
supporting soaring, as an umbrella organization encompassing many FBO's
and flight operations. He noted especially how each of the soaring sites is
special and unique, and each is supportive of the activities of all the
others. We put soaring first, and are not engaged in one-up-manship to see
who's on top. We're all in it together and consequently have a strength
that does not exist elsewhere in the soaring community. LET'S KEEP IT
THAT WAY. Then . . . the fun began. With a big SEG on his face, Bob
roasted one-by-one the prominent soaring figures present at the banquet, all
in good fun of course. The audience roared with laughter, as did the
recipients of the barbs. Bob is a good stand-up comic who left us all with
the feeling that Soaring is THE SPORT of the millenium.
A raffle followed the talk. This year the prizes were more evenly
distributed, possibly because the usual largest ticket-buyer - Gary Kemp -
was absent on vacation in Arizona.
The final event of the evening was the annual PASCO meeting, at which
time the Awards were announced by Cindy Donovan. Most notable was the
Les Arnold Award to Bob Semans for his many record flights, his services
to the SSA as Director and Committee Chair, his activities in developing
contest and FAI badge rules, and his contributions to FAI technical studies.
Also noteworthy were Outstanding Service awards to Carl Herold for his
unprecedented seminar on Soaring the Great Basin, and to Peter Kelly for
his long time and continuing services to PASCO events including weather
forecasts and maintenance of Web sites with all we ever want to know about
soaring. You wouldn't be reading this without him.
The Directors for the coming year are Fran Allender, Sergio Colacevich,
Sumner Davis, Tony Gaetscher, Charlie Hayes, Rosemary Hayes, Dick Horn,
Bruce Roberts, and Mike Schuster.
-----------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
14 Nov 99
The size of this volume is getting to over 50k, so it's time to start
a new one. I haven't received a debrief about the PASCO banquet
and seminars yet, but I'll open the next vloume with that- unless I receeive
something else prior. I have the time these last few days as I wait
to be called out to go to work. I need to share a neat flying experience
that I had yesterday. The company called friday nite and said they
needed me to fly one of the jets from SFO to SJC, because it was needed
in SJC. I showed up at 6:15 AM, the First Officer, did a preflight, I filed
a flight plan, they fueled it up, closed the door, and away we went.
It's really cool to fly one of those big passenger jets empty. We
had twice as much fuel as we needed (about 16,000 pounds - about 2500 gallons),
but the ship was still light as a feather. I knew it would be like
a rocket ship. Takeoff roll was like in my motorglider - accelerate
fast, and off the ground before mid field. I purposely throttled
way back at 1,500 feet after the gear and flaps were up, just to maintain
climb gates below 4,000 ft per minute. After taking off on runway 01 with
a left turn, they asked us to report San Jose in sight as we approached
Los Gatos. We did, and they said call the tower at San Jose, we called
a left base leg, and parked it at the gate, just like we were supposed
to do - I can't believe they actually pay me to do that sort of thing.
Can you imagine? By the way, there was no lift, and I had the engines
at idle, so I was gliding all the way from the hills northwest of Los Gatos
at 5,000 ft to 700 ft on final - following procedures prescribed in the
book! (I figure the glide ratio is about 20:1 clean, but we need time to
put down all of the flaps and gear - besides we are slowing from 250 kts
at 5,000 down to 114 kts for the landing, so we needed all of that drag
as soon as we started the extended base leg). I have to admit, its
similar to a great landing after a really nice soaring flight. You just
feel good.
---------------------------------------------------------------
12 Nov 99
We received another debrief. This one was in response to the antics
of the three camel drivers- as reported in the last diary entry. Gary
Kemp now tells a story of three other diehards, but in this case all three
of them are retired, so they can pick the days they want to fly. Still,
the story is similar. Gary's point is --- that we hate to let go of this
soaring season. Here's Gary's report:
Pete: I guess the "three Wisemen"
just proves that we hate to give up the season. Another story of "3 Wisemen",
all retired, therefore more flexibility. Monday the 8th had seen
the passage of a pretty good cold front. Satellite on Sunday had
showed popcorn cu in the Pacific behind the front. Ray Gimmey and
Paul Kellas came out, rigged and took off flying down to the Berryessa
towers, gold mine, etc. Ray got low at the towers but got back up.
They had flights of nearly 3 hours.I (Gary Kemp) liked the looks of the
day and when I got to Williams (Late) I figured if I rigged the Nimbus
I would lose an hour. Since I needed a biennial anyway, I took Kenny
up in the K21 and flew for an hour and a half. We flew about 70 miles
eventually going from just near Arbuckle to the Gold mines and back on
a good street. What really capped a very nice fall soaring day was
that we flew with 4 golden eagles and one Bald Eagle, what a great day
and a biennial that I will long remember. Gary
I (Peter) would like to add an editorial about weather forecasting.
I revised the quick list weather page - it just lists a set of links -
little if any instructions on that page. It is at http://www.community.net/~soaring/wxndx.html
Anyway, the point is (not meaning to be critical - but I always am)
but when you look at the sat photo you can see what's on the other side
of a front. That popcorn cu is exactly what we are looking for, expecially
this time of year. Although Gary didn't mention it, I'm sure he knew there
was little chance that it would actually be overhead here in the Sacto
Vly, because he looked at the jet stream (300 mb chart) and saw that for
the next few days the jet was going to continue to track northwest of our
position, thus it was not going to allow that air on the back side of the
front to pass overhead. That's an example of why it is so important to
couple one weather product with another. I had a question from the Alabama
- Georgia area just two days ago, asking why we need to watch the jet stream,
and this illustrates it perfectly.
I had one feedback about the new web page called "Truths..." . the only
comment was that "it was interesting". But he referred to it as the ideas
page, so I guess I'll add that to the title. "Truths, Philosophies, Kernels,
Nuggets and Ideas about Soaring". The title is gettting longer, but more
descriptive. I printed it out to do some additional editing, and see it
prints out to be 18 pages long. I may need to break it into various sections,
and thus separate files. I hate files that are too long. See it at www.community.net/~soaring/truths.html
and add you ideas via email to me (Peter).
---------------------------------------------------------------
11 Nov 99
I haven't received any reports about the PASCO banquet and seminars,
but I hear it was all a huge success.
I did receive a report from Key about his flight with Jim D. and Sumner
on the last weekend of October at Williams. It wasn't directly quotable,
and I needed to sanitize the report, for public viewing, so here is my
version of what happened---
Key, Sumner, and Jim were at Williams to fly, but it didn't look good.
Rather than scrub the day, the three diehards (meaning - stubborn old men
stuck in their ways, refusing to accept the conditions) rigged, and then
requested long tows to the mountains, rather than just a short tow in the
valley, being somewhat unsure of the lift conditions. (meaning - they were
too lazy and stupid to bother to check the upper air sounding on the computer
from the national weather service, after all, between the three of them,
what did they have to work with, what type of experience do you have -
a couple of guys with doctorate degrees - both in physics, and a Naval
Aviator who flew jet fighters in combat in Vietnam, all three of them use
computers for tools in their respective trades, and if you add up their
time in gliders, it totals only about 40 or 50 years, so what do they know)
It's no wonder they launched.
It seems they all went out to Walker Ridge, and then dawdled around
until they got too low to make it back home. One ventured too far north
looking for the non-existent lift and eventually made a safe landing at
a dirt strip and had an aero tow home. The other two managed to sneak over
the three sisters (or around them), and went from one low column of smoke
from the burning rice fields to another until they were back over Williams
where they were barely able to join up for a low pass in formation, and
a subsequent safe landing. But I think they all had a good time.
It just goes to show you, WITH THE HOLIDAYS APPROACHING, THESE THREE
WISE MEN SHOULD STICK TO PILOTING CAMELS AND LOOKING FOR A STAR IN THE
EAST.
Maybe it goes to show something else..... but I'm not sure what.
Maybe you folks can help me out here - I love poking fun at these guys.
If you have an idea of what this report proves, please share it with us.
Its good that we all learn from these reports. Some of us have more to
learn than others.
Please keep those reports coming in. I'll sanitize those that need some
cleaning up --(I'm always here to help), and those that don't need that
kind of help, we can just print as is. I think others would enjoy reading
about what you would consider your best flight this past season. How 'bout
putting it in writing?
Yesterday I put a new web page up. Please check it out. It is called
something like - "Truths, Philosophies, Kernels, and Nuggets of Info about
Soaring". You can see the link to it from the index of home pages. Go to
www.community.net/~pjkelly/ to see the link.
I'm hoping that some of you will share some of your thoughts. One liners
are good! a Paragraph is better, a whole page on a single subject is ok
also, as long as you don't mind if I do the editing. Take a look, and make
a contribution, but remember it has to hold up as a fact in the eyes of
your peers.
Print out the file, and read it over. After you edit it, you can mail
me the pencil edited version via snail mail if you want me to do the typing.
I need to redo some of the section headers/ chapter titles, but I think
it will be a good repository of info for all to use. I'll probably set
it up more with buttons on each of those section titles, so you can jump
right to the sectionyou want to read. That philosophy stuff is a one time
read only. but the L/D stuff is worth more reviewing, and often.
----------------------------------------------------------------
5 Nov 99
I can't get to the PASCO seminars or banquet due to work. I sent out
a msg to all on the email list reminding each of you that it is tomorrow.
I hope someone will write me a msg and tell me (us) what happened. give
me the dirt. Who got sloshed and said stupid things, who acted like a pompous
ass, who was so boring that you nearly went out of your mind, who was so
brilliant that you were in awe, who said memorable things that you think
you will remember the rest of your life - or nearly so, who looked stunning,
who looked like they were way older then they really are, etc. You know
- give me the dirt - and of course i will only put it here on the diary
page for all to read, you know the drill.
I received an Email from Chris/ ruf (thanks for sharing it with us),
and it is worth repeating here. It certainly captures the thrill of ridge
soaring, and the dilemma that, non-flyers can not appreciate the such flights.
Here it is:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Chris"
To: "P J Kelly" ,
Subject: Wednesday Worked/Non-Fiction
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 21:10:41 -0500
Put the flaps in -12 position, stick forward to 95 knots zoom North
along the ridge. As you come upon an outcropping slow down and
pull
up slightly to check for oncoming traffic, none ahead, put the stick
back forward and dive down to follow the
contour.... Bank hard
left away from the ridge, turn back south - terrain following at 105
knots, up, down, follow the curve of the bowl, just above tree top
level. Give a firm aileron roll as you pass an
outcropping to be
sure the tip clears the orange, yellow and brown canopy of
trees.
In the bowl at the southern tip of high part of the ridge, you know
there will be great lift, convert the speed to height by pulling up
in lift. Gain 800' in 45 seconds. Go back do it again, the lift
doesn't fail you.
Take a break from the fast paced action, follow the ridge down to the
Ocoee Dam for 5 miles and don't lose any altitude. Take a peaceful
thermal a mile up to relax, take in the vista with the great
visibility in the mountains. Hover for half an hour in the same area
just because the lake is so pretty below. Inhale, exhale, not a
worry in the world.
Land 4 hours 15 minutes later and remind yourself to not hesitate
taking another day off from work for a day like this. Put the
machine in the box, drive home and try to find someway to share this
experience with someone else, because no matter how you try, those
mere mortals at the office will never really understand.
ruf
--------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
30 Oct 99
Went to the WSC gliderport to derig on Friday morning. So much for forecast
weather charts. The intellacast surface pressure chart for Friday clearly
showed a pressure pattern with a northwest wind flow. Of course they revised
it on Friday morning and it represented what really existed - just like
Kenny had predicted, we had a North Wind. It wasn't strong, but it wasn't
from the west or north west, so the lower air was too warm, besides the
upper air was not cool.
The sounding for today (Saturday) says that if it gets to 87 degrees
F we can get to 5,000 ft, and if 81, we can get to 3,000, and if 68 or
70 (most likely) than we can get to 2,000. Watch for the next approaching
front for the last of the 1999 soaring flights.
I've removed references to VSA in the title to this page since I am
no longer an officer in the VSA, but I plan to keep these pages going,
and will post soaring reports that are received.
----------------------------------------------------------------
28 Oct 99
Same old thing. You should have been here. You all know that the first
storm of the season passed through yesterday, right? If you looked at the
pressure charts, you would have seen that the wind was generally from the
west, with little strength. Kellas and Gimmey launched first, followed
by me and Rex. The four of us each flew north, turning Orland Haig, but
the thermals were cycling fast. We came south along the Sacramento river,
turned Colusa, and then three sisters, and back to Williams. It was a good
day. Tomorrow promises to be more of the same. Sat looks good also. No
North wind like we often have in the spring.
There were some good flights in the pre-frontal wave yesterday. Kenny
had a good solo flight in the Pegasus a few days ago (on Tuesday), here
is his report--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Kenny Price"
To:
Subject: Re: flight on tues. Oct. 26
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 09:28:47 -0700
Hi Peter,
I had an interesting flight yesterday. It was obvious by the wind and clouds
that the wave was working so I convinced Rex to give me a tow to the west.
At first, it wasn't looking very promising with no indication of any rotor
or lift of any kind. I released at 5000 ft. in smooth air at about charters.
I flew west towards 3 sisters with heavy sink encountered over and beyond
the first range. Finally contacted rotor type wave at about 3500 ft. and
continued the climb to 7000. I made a couple of attempts to go south and
southwest but was unsuccessful, although the clouds looked as if they should
work. I ended up over Walker ridge low but contacted wave just to the west
of the summit. At this point, conditions were changing quite rapidly as the
front was quickly moving through the area. The lake indicated a westerly
flow and smoke in the valley showed a southerly flow. It was obvious that
the wave was diminishing and the instability was increasing because the cu
were forming in all quadrants although bases were fairly low. I took
advantage of the markers and headed west over the lake to do some
exploring
in the higher country all the while knowing I had the reliable lift back on
Walker right? Well, not exactly! The clouds were not working like they
looked and after a couple of attempts of running back to the ridge, I
finally abandoned the idea of going west. I did fly down toward the mines
with little luck there also. On my last attempt on flying west, I arrived
fairly low back at Walker and had to ridge soar back up to get home. A
dumb
mistake on my part, very poor planning. 31/2 hrs. and about 75 miles
or so.
Fun!
Regards, Kenny
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
10 Oct 99
The OctoberFest was held at Williams yesterday. It was a huge success.
Pilot brief at 11 AM, first launch was a dual tow at 1:30, followed quickly
by about 12 single tows (there were four tow planes operating). Every one
had a good flight and enjoyed themselves. In the Sports Class there were
3 pilots competing, where the task was the pilots option to select the
turnpoints - George Thelen took first place in Sports. The open class was
an assigned speed task of 142 kilometers (88 sm). Of the ten or so ships
competing in Open Class, there were only three ships completed the entire
course. Key Dismukes won at a raw speed of 46 mph, with Mark Ramsey (and
copilot) second place at 44 mph, and Sergio third at 43 mph. Watching the
replay on the cambridge, you can see it was a close race. Even though the
day was challenging, as evidenced by the total number who completed the
course, everyone reported that they had an enjoyable flight. Dinner was
excellent as usual, in the fine Mayes tradition, with lots of help from
lots of family and friends. Greg Cook completed the meeting with some excellent
slides he has taken of gliders in flight.
A VSA meeting was held just after dinner. The membership approved of
the boards recommendation to spend $500 on a BBQ Grill for the Williams
Gliderport, so that more impromptu as well as planned BBQ's may be held
in the coming years. The membership also approved the boards recommendation
to allocate up to $600 for the design and construction of a perpetual Soaring
Trophy in memory of George "Doc" Mayes. The membership also voted into
office a new slate of officers.
Congratulations to the following officers for the year 2000:
President - Bob Ireland
Vice President - Rick Ogden
Secretary - Diana Bishey
Treasurer - Cindy Donovan
Scholarship - Noelle Mayes
FBO Operator - Rex Mayes
Next event on my calendar is the PASCO Safety seminars, and Banquet
to be held on Sat November 6, less than a month away, in Monarch Hotel,
Dublin, Ca.. Guest speaker has been arranged. Awards for the year are being
engraved, interesting seminar presentations are being prepared. For more
info contact --
Rosemary and Charlie Hayes at crhayes@soar-palomino.com
Everyone is invited to attend, you can become a member when you attend
if you elect to do so (annual dues $25, and you get a magazine every two
months).
----------------------------------------------------
7 Oct 99
Yesterday was like a spring soaring day. Lift was good, both in the
Sacto vly and in the hills, but cloud base was a problem. From WSC I went
to Goat, Pope Vly, Bessa Twrs, Bessa Dam, back to WSC. Max height was 6,500.
Most average climb rates exceeded 4 kts. Flew 3.4 hrs, and didn't launch
until nearly 2 PM - too much socializing.
Speaking of Socializing - there are over 40 people signed up for dinner
at OKTOBERFEST at WSC for this Saturday nite. I expect there will be a
good crowd for both the flying and the dinner. There will be a short VSA
mtg, presentation of awards for the days flying, and a slide show on gliders.
If you are going to attend, phone WSC at 530-473-5600 so there will be
enough food. Cost is 10 per person.
I'm excited about the Future of the VSA!! There are several capable
candidates for each of the soon-to-be-vacated officer positions. I think
you are going to see lots more activity at the Gliderport in the next year.
A bit of a North wind fcst for today. Soaring could be good on Sat -
I don't know. The high is fcst to strengthen, but with a westerly flow,
the Mendicinos should be working OK on Sat.- at least good enough for 150
mile flights.
5 Oct 99
Today marks the first of the changing weather patterns. No more dismal
same-same weather in the bay area and valleys. A fast moving cold front
will come through today, followed by NW wind flow. I'm going to Williams
to fly as soon as I finish this diary entry. Besides I need to coordinate
with Noelle and Rex about the Octoberfest - that's coming up this next
weekend, Saturday, 9 October. Weather should be good on Saturday - we should
have a westerly flow aloft- and sun angle is still high enough to give
us good heating, I think we may have a good flying session on Saturday
- Pilot meeting at 10 AM!
Message from Lee about his new job at Hollister, and what's happening
to the airframes -
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 19:08:46 -0600
From: Lee Edling
Reply-To: ledling@earthlink.net
Subject: Schweizer 2-32s and Pawnees!
Hi,
Drew (the boss), at Hollister Gliding Club, has acquired the four 2-32s
and two Pawnees that were at Calistoga. Check out the FLYING
STORIES at
http://home.earthlink.net/~ledling/ about our ferry flight today.
We've leased our old (SN 14) 2-32 to the people at Crystal (southern
Mojave). We'll keep three of the Calistoga 2-32s and one of the
Pawnees here (that give us three Pawnees) at Hollister.
We've got one 2-32 and one Pawnee to lease or sell if anybody is
interested.
Lee
---------------------------------------------------------
Other news - The Annual Air Sailing Banquet was held this past weekend
at Sparks, NV. Didn't receive a report - I guess you have to attend one
of those to know what goes on.
Also - The PASCO Banquest is coming up in about 30 days. The soaring
safety seminars are always worthwhile, as is the banquet. Lots of fun to
see who did what last year, etc..
----------------------------------------------------
23 Sep 99
We have a couple of new msgs to share. One about badges, the other a
flight report.
Bob Seamans provides us with info about the latest revision to the rules
for badge flying. First is an Errata message - because it provides further
info about how to get the unzip program. Following that is the msg from
Bob about the new rules.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Bob Semans"
Subject: Errata: Fw: New 1999 edition of Section 3 of the FAI
Sporting
Code
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 15:05:34 -0700
Errata: A reader couldn't find the link to WinZip on the
linked FAI page.
For those of you who may have the same difficulty, go directly to
www.winzip.com for the evaluation copy of WinZip.
.......
Bob Semans
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Semans
Subject: Fw: New 1999 edition of Section 3 of the FAI Sporting Code
>The FAI has released the new edition of the Gliding Sporting Code which
is
>effective on October 1, 1999. This is a MAJOR rewrite ... by
Ross
McIntyre
>and his team ... a two year effort. It is intended to be a
significant
>simplification and not a quantum change in the how the rules work.
The new
>Section 3 is much shorter.
>
>Yet to come is a guide to their usage ("Annex C") where a lot of
the trivia
>and mechanics that have been removed from the body of the code will be
>assembled in, hopefully, again a more understandable format.
>
>The downloaded file must be unzipped with WinZip. An evaluation
copy of
>WinZip can be used for this purpose and it may downloaded from the site
>indicated in the text of the below referenced FAI web page.
>
>Bob Semans
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following is a flight report from Gary K.. Another 330 mile flight by Gary.
You should note that since he is landing at Williams, which is at Sea Level,
that 13,400 ft height compares to over 19,000 feet at Truckee where the
field elevation is near 6,000, and compares to nearly 18,000 ft at Minden
(elevation 4,700). Relative height above the landing airport is important
in getting back home each flight. (Gary thanks for the report, Peter.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 20:41:27 -0700
From: gkemp
To: pjkelly@community.net
Subject: Williams Soaring
Peter: Today was an interesting day in the Mendocinos, very smoky
from
the 50,000 acre fire in the Trinity Wilderness Area. I took a high tow
(cheaper than driving to Siskiyou or Minden) and found lift at 4000 feet
on the ridge just above the Ostrich Farm, to Goat Mt., Gravelly,
Hayfork, back to Gravelly, then Indian Valley Reservoir, West of Elk
Creek and return for about 330 miles. Top Altitude was 13,400 and
landed at 6:05. Still one of the best places to fly.
Gary
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
17 Sep 99
Here are a couple of msgs - both flight reports.
Here is a short report from Hud about his good flight on 17 Sep - You
have to appreciate that Bridgeport is a long distance back to Minden. (Hud,
Thanks for the report, Peter.)
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From: PSMF66A@prodigy.com (MR HUDSON R STAFFIELD)
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 13:57:27, -0500
To: pjkelly@community.net
Subject: Update 16 Sep 99
Dear Pete;
Hada flight last week to Mammoth lakes and back to Minden. It was
a beautiful day with lots of clouds. Final glide from Bridgeport.
Hud
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Many of you remember Tim Taylor from the Lagoon Valley days. He was living
in Missouri for the past several years, and has now moved to Utah. Here
is a report from Tim about flying in Utah - I think he's in the Logan area.
(Tim, thanks for the report. You'll have to keep us updated on the soaring
in your area. Maybe some people will organize a dafari out to your location
next year. We could do it in two overnite hops. You could let us know where
to get oxygen, do tie-downs, etc. I hear Tom Stowers may not have a Safari
next year, so this might be an interesting alternative. Peter.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Taylor, Timothy A."
To: "'Peter Kelly '"
Subject: RE: Update 16 Sep 99
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 12:26:30 -0500
Pete,
Thanks for including me on the list. Please update my e-mail from
taylorta@missouri.edu to ttaylor@cc.usu.edu.
Flew almost 13 hours over the last two weekends here in Utah. It is
great to be back in the West. Cu are popping on the ridge out my window
at 11:30 a.m. today. Hope the weather holds for tomarrow.
Tim
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----------------------------------------------------------------
Thurs, 16 Sep 99
Minden is having an end of year BBQ. Sat 9/25. Sam Whiteside provides
us with the details in the following email, thanks Sam.
----------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Sam Whiteside"
To: "Peter Kelly"
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 07:54:27 -0700
Hi Peter, Could
you please forward this message to the pilots on your newsgroup?Minden
Soaring Club has planned an end of season "Fleigvergnugen" Fun Fly and
BBQ on Sat 9/25 with a rain day on Sun. We will have a short, entertaining
flying task as conditions permit and the BBQ afterwards at Larry Mansberger's
hangar. All soaring pilots are invited. I'm sure some of your readers will
be here that weekend.Thanks,Sam Whiteside. MSC Secretary.
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Wed, 15 Sep 99
Cindy is gathering the trophies in prep for the PASCO Awards Banquet.
The banquet is scheduled for 6 Nov. Mark your calendars!
Speaking of events, the Octoberfest will be the weekend of 9, 10 October
at Williams. That is about the last flying event of the season. Another
activity that you don't want to miss. There will be some announcements
and changes to the VSA structure, so be at the Octoberfest to hear about
that.
Good flying going on at Siskiyou County. Here is an email I received,
thanks Gary.
-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 07:09:08 -0700
From: gkemp
To: pjkelly@community.net
Subject: Montague
Peter, just to let you know soaring is alive and well in Siskiyou
County. There were 17 gliders there on Labor Day weekend, though
I wasn't flying maybe someone else will report. I was there this past
weekend. I took off from at 12:30 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday
and though each day was very slow developing, got in about 200 miles.
Friday there was cu and when finally contacted it was 7 kt avg. to
13,000 feet and I flew 160 miles in 2 hours. Saturday and Sunday I
flew with Mallory Lynch in his ASW 22, doing some comparison glides with the
Nimbus 3, Rich George, Dick Pfieffner were flying as well. On
Sunday as we were coming back from 3 sheds and in the canyon between Wilson
Creek Peak and Gooses Nest we hit one and went to 12,500, then to Mt. Shasta
and 15000 + from there I flew to Lake Siskiyou and Callahan and
home, 67 miles in 38 minutes. We landed about 6:00.
Gary Kemp
-------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
Thurs nite, 9 Sep 99
We received a report about Labor day flying at Truckee from Marc Ramsey.
Here is the email I received, thanks Marc.
----------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Marc Ramsey"
To:
Subject: Flight report, 9/5/99
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 01:51:56 -0700
Hi Peter,
Since you haven't been getting a lot of reports this
season, I decided to write one up. It's a bit long,
but here it is:
Labor Day weekend started my first week of dedicated
use of 5H, a brand new Duo Discus owned by myself and
4 other partners. On Sunday, I took off at 10 am
with a non-pilot friend for a short ride, and was able
to climb to 10K in 4 knot lift, despite having to make
wide passenger-friendly turns. On landing, we were
greeted by Sergio Colavich (C2) who decided to make an
immediate takeoff, and disappeared for parts unknown.
Karol Hines was my co-pilot for the rest of the day.
We launched just before noon and worked up Mt. Rose.
In all directions the sky was a murky brownish-blue
from the fires in the area. There were a few rather
flat looking cu's visible south of Freel Peak, which
were nonetheless rather enticing. Karol and I made
a pact to head off to the Pinenuts if we could get
above 13K, and, if needed, split the cost of a
retrieve. Try as we might, we couldn't get above
12.5K, so pushed out towards Spooner summit to see if
we could sneak down that way. It was absolutely flat,
so we ended up going back towards Rose and climbed up
again. This time we just headed off towards the
Pinenuts, encountering nothing but small bumps until
we were in the hills due east of Minden at 10K. We
could see a glider climbing a few miles to the south,
and C2 called that he was at Mt. Segal at 15K, heading
south. We worked our way up and over Segal, finally
hitting the first real climb and wispy cu over the
pass into Topaz Valley. From there a cloud street
went south along the Sierras for an indeterminate
distance.
We climbed up to 15K and bumped along underneath the
street, stopping every once in a while to put a bit
of distance between us and the peaks. C2 called in
from Tioga Pass, about 20 miles south of us, and
indicated that he was heading back north. Despite
the haze, the views were rather spectacular. It was
nice to have the opportunity to sight-see with Karol
at the controls. A short time later, C2 called to
say that he had passed 500 feet below us, we never
did see him. We found the strongest thermal of the
day at Tioga Pass, with several circles averaging
10+ knots, topping out at 17K. From there the street
turned westward towards Yosemite for another 20 miles
or so. Karol remarked that it would be nice to get
a turnpoint and head back, so we marked the thermal,
glided out into the blue 10 miles to Lee Vining, and
went back to try to find the thermal. We didn't find
it, but found others that got us back to comfortable
altitude for the return trip. We could now dolphin
fly for considerable distances, at times cruising at
90 knots to maintain cloud clearance.
Back abeam Topaz Lake, the street split with one
branch heading towards Segal, the other towards Freel.
C2 had called to let us know that he had final glide
from Freel at 16K, so we headed that way. At Freel
we found some wispy clouds that would only take us to
14.5K. The computer said we needed another 500 feet
or so, we turned the MacCready setting down from
5 to 1, which made us feel a lot better. We then
glided out across Lake Tahoe at 65 knots, closed
all the vents, and flew along in eerie silence, talking
about life, and watching the altimeter slowly unwind.
We crossed Brockway summit at 10K, and I dropped the
gear and popped the spoilers, heading for what I thought
would be an easy landing. As I was about to make the
turn onto base, a Husky pulled out onto 19 and began
back taxiing to the parking area. A rather urgent
radio call got him to slowly turn around and pull off
at the first turn out. I tried slipping off the excess
altitude I was saving in case I needed to go over him,
but still landed hot, and we were treated to a vivid
demonstration of why it is not a good idea to lean on
the brakes in a Duo. No damage, except to my nerves.
220 miles in just over 4 hours, not quite my longest
flight in what has been, for me anyway, a season marked
by only fair conditions, but certainly the most enjoyable.
My thanks to Karol for sharing some of her secrets!
_____________________________
Marc Ramsey, marc@ranlog.com
http://www.ranlog.com/ramsey/
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
Thurs. 9 Sep 99, 10 AM
It's been a great week. Went up to Truckee on Sunday. Flew on Sun, Monday
(Labor Day), Tue, and Wed.! Sunday's flight was terrible. It seemed to
start out OK, as I followed Key in his 20, heading North. We were following
Bob Korves who decided to go North - two big mistakes (going North and
following Bob). A couple of people went south - that was the way to go
- there was only spotty lift to the north. I almost landed out. The other
mistake was to follow Key, who was chasing after Bob. They are both current
and proficient, where as I hadn't flown for several weeks. It always takes
me a flight or two to get the feel of the air again. When I started getting
low, I had a terrible time finding thermals. Two days later (on Tuesday)
I practiced basic thermal searches there in the Truckee basin and felt
much more confident there after. I'd purposely head away from the last
thermal, and head out looking for another thermal to enter, not really
taking them all the way to the top. I was just practicing finding and entering
thermals. After 30 minutes of that, I felt better. Any way, back to Sundays
flight - John Bell, Tony G, Bill Ludlow, Ken Pruchnick, Nevin N., and a
couple of others all went up to Frenchmens lake and return. The two Pauls
landed the Grob 7S at Sierraville - Paul Kellas and Paul Sasse - I'll bet
that would have been a good one to watch. the last 10 minutes of that flight
were probably interesting. They got towed home, and all was well.
On the other hand, Sergio had a typically good flight - went all the
way to Tioga Pass and return. Mark Ramsey and Karol Hines flew the Duo
to the same place. That too would have been a good one to be in on. It's
just as well that we went south, because the next three days I went south
each day.
On Monday there were fewer people, but we all went south. This time
Roger Archey accompanied Bob Korves in the Duo. they made it down to N.
Mono Lake turnpoint, and did a final glide from over 17,000 at Mt Patterson.
I turned Lee Vining, N Mono lake and Patterson on the way home, but ended
landing out at Carson City Airport - I was number five to land. Bill Ludlow
was first, followed by Ken P, then Karol H, then Nevin N, and finally me.
I ran up my engine and it worked ok, so I took off on my own, but the tow
planes were there real quick to tow the others over the hill. Dean Aldinger
had gone south also - to boundry peak and points south, and made it home
ok - he knows the secret route over the hill, through spooner summit pass
over to sergio's elevator, dead glide to daydreams, and then up and over
the hill. I need to learn that route.
The social scene and eating was something else. Sunday nite there was
"trailer hopping" that was a progressive supper, with the appetizers, salads,
entrees, and desserts, each being at a different trailer. I was honored
to be invited to participate, since I didn't have a trailer/ motor home
there at Truckee - I guess they were looking for some one to write about
it. It was quite a success. Just the week before I was up there and there
was the big BBQ after the PASCO League flying on Saturday nite. someone
should have written about that! It was the typical beans steak and salad,
brews, drinks, homemade ice cream and brownies, etc, etc, etc.. The typical
outstanding BBQ that Dean and Midge and Doug Lent and all the other put
together.
Back to this weekend, on Monday nite there were about 12 of us that
all went over to Round Table and had another great meal. All of us crowded
around the one table made it cozy and nice. Of course there was too much
food and beer left over. Everyone was in good spirits.
On Tuesday, I applied the knowledge about tuning the Cambridge that
I had learned from our resident computer guru - Jim Darke, and finally
I have a good read out in the cockpit!!! It only took a year to get that
figured out!#%*! And I discussed my engine operation with Klaus, read the
book some more made an adjustment to my mixture, and now my engine works
better than ever. I launched, practiced those thermal entries I was talking
about earlier. And was on top of Mt Rose at 13,000 when I heard Pete Williams
reporting that he had just launched out of Minden. I immediately dove to
the south, and anticipated flying with Pete. I went to Mt Patterson, and
came back by way of Hawkins Peak - the hill just SW of Markleville. I actually
saw Pete twice, but never really shared a thermal with him.
That night Jon and I went to dinner in Kings Beach at his favorite Mexican
place Las Panchitas - that was good grub. We drafted a plan for a new trailer
tiedown area at Truckee. It was a productive dinner.
On Wed, I decided to fly in the 15 meter configuration. What a difference.
I love it. It rolls like a fighter plane. It seems every bit as fast of
a roll rate as on the 20. Much more responsive - of course, now I can't
feel the thermals as well without the long wings, but I sure can center
in them better. I loaded some new TP's into the computer, and set up a
630 Km task. I was in free flight 2,000 ft above the airport, and a cloud
street went straight from downtown Truckee to Sierraville, So i cruised
at 15,000 from Truckee to there to Mt Rose. Lift was better than each of
the previous days, but when I got down to Patterson there were no markers
on the Whites, and the Owens valley was full of smoke. As you will recall,
Wed was the night we had all of the lightning in the bay area - the most
since 1978. The low pressure off the coast was bringing unstable air in
with a south wind. from Patterson, I went to Tioga Pass, and from there
I nearly went over Yosemite National Park - I wasn't quite looking down
into the valley- but pretty close to the eastern end of it. The chart tells
me to stay 2,000 ft AGL, so I was watching it closely, besides I needed
that altitude to be safe. After heading back north again. I don't thing
I made more that a few turns all the way from Tioga Pass direct to Hawkins
Peak, direct to Squaw valley, direct to Truckee.
When I was home I made a lot of revision to the Truckee Turnpoint Data
Base. I plan to post them to the TP Web page tonight.
You can visit the site by going directly to--
http://www.community.net/~soaring/tptrk.html
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Here is a msg received from Armand - A good deal on a used glider!!
From: "Armand A. Medieros"
Subject: FS: Centrair 101A Pegasus
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 16:01:44 -0700
Okay Folks, the college expenses are getting to be to
much for this man. Sorry as I am to have to do it, I must sell my sailplane
by October. Sooo, here is the deal, it's a standard
class Centrair 101A 40:1 and flies great. The gel on the wings isn't so
hot but who cares? It flies real good. The trailer
is almost done on a refurb job. It has great instruments
including GPS/NAV-20, Sage CV, Winter, PAI, Becker 3200, RICO audio etc.Here
is the price structure: This week:
&n bsp; $20,000 Week of Sept 6:
$18,500
Week of Sept 13: $17,000
Week of Sept 20: $15,500
Week of Sept 27: $14,000
Week of Oct 4:
$12,500 First $2500 CASH (or certified bank check)
HOLDS it just coming out of annual with the brake arm mod completed and
trailer almost finished for 1 week; but I reserve the right to sell it
for FULL CASH PRICE if received before payment of the balance from someone
holding it in which case the full $2500 is refunded immediately.Remember,
first FULL CASH PAYMENT takes it immediately.I need the money before Oct
13 in TOTAL. A picture of the trailer work and airplane
are here: http://www.concent
ric.net/~zarmand/ glider1e1.gif http://www.concentri
c.net/~zarmand/M 003.JPG The trailer is
resealed, bonded, riveted etc. and the rigging is being made much better.
Take over the work if you get it early, otherwise, it will probably be
done before October. Motivated seller her. Reply to
iflyhi@hotmail.com
or to this address.This is a FIRM offer. The sailplane WILL be sold.Armand
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Here is a flight report, as received from Peter Deane:
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 20:57:08 -0700
From: Peter Deane
To: pjkelly@community.net
Subject: Truckee Flight Report 8/21-22/99
Hi Peter;
A quick note on a good weekends flying on 21/22 August; I
went up to
Truckee at short notice without planning anything in particular and had
a great weekend. Here's a quick summary;
Bases 12-13k north, 15k far south. 4kn typical, 6kn
occasional (av.)
Task for the day was Truckee-North Mono Lake-AirSailing-Return for
~440km.
About 6 pilots, Jim Darke, Key Dismukes, Dean
Aldinger, Bob Korves
and myself, flew the task and Bruce Roberts (HB) flew Trk-North Mono-
Return for his diamond goal flight. It was a fine day, weaker to the
north for a little extra challenge, and everyone made it home.
Jim produced a copy of the new 'Strepla' software
that does the GPS
maggot race thing superimposed on a digitized topo map. Very cool. Jim
reports that this software is not for the feint of heart but is quite
workable. Its great to have the extra terrain information so you can see
where people went.
There was a high pressure centered over the 4 corners
area which
brought good but moist conditions; lowish and variable bases; peaking at
16k at peak heat over Mt Patterson. Some over development but nothing
tragic.
Here's the flight trace of Bob & Dean
(5H;'Cinquo Hombres' and 'DD'
respectively, both Duo Discii) and myself (2T) and Key (PS),
both in
ASW20's (the more desirable A models, in each case). It is always really
interesting comparing flights after the event; the office at Truckee was
full of all us pilots doing the maggot race thing on Jims new software.
Nothing like some good natured competition!. The worst offender is Dean;
he always says he doesnt try to race, but we know otherwise........
Sunday Aug 22nd was a great forecast but a late start
due to high
cirrus blowing over and delaying full heating. Bases were 16k tops in
the deep south, occasional 8kn average, typically 5-6kn. Very moist.
Several people went north and 2 pilots, Sergio
Colacevich (C2) and
myself declared long flights and headed south. Sergio declared his
'eternal 1000km triangle' and I declared a 780 km triangle,
Truckee-Cerro Gordo-Mina-Return. Sergios triangle was Westgard Pass (nr
Bishop), a ranch north of Battle Mountain and back. Very hairy chested.
Cerro Gordo is a mine at the south end of the Inyo mountains by Owens
Dry Lake. Moderately hairy chested.
Dean Aldinger took Steve McRobert (the talkative
ex-partner in GJ
(GrapeJuice), sadly not flying PIC due to health issues) for a trip up
to Lassen Peak in 5H. The smile on his face when they returned late
Sunday evening said it all.
All of these flights turned into real adventures. At
about 5pm the
sky exploded. Torrential rain and T-storm directly over Truckee forced
most north- bound pilots to the ground at Sierraville or in fields near
Truckee. No damage and all returned safely eventually. Lots of wet
pilots and crew.
Sergio and I dribbled over Mt Rose and down the
Pine Nuts as soon as
possible and got onto the Whites; The were working well but bases were
15-15.5k (only 1000-1500 ft over the top of the range)so worked the
western edge of the range.
Crossing the gap from Sweetwater to Boundary Peak was a little
deep,
but things picked up when we got to the Whites. Not classic no-turn
stuff but pretty good going. Sergio reached Westgard Pass and headed
north into the great basin, which was clearly lower and weaker than the
eastern edge of the Sierras and the Whites. I kept going all the way
down to Cerro Gordo, just the same as the last time I was there 4 years
ago. Turned the mine and headed north. Got down to 8500 ft before
connecting with something good near Tinemaha Dam and rode up to cloud
base and peaked altitude at Boundary Peak for the glide north to Lucky
Boy Pass. I'd decided not to go home via Mina due to the late hour and
the urgency of getting as close to home as possible before the day
expired. My problem was a dumping sky in all forward quadrants and not
very crew friendly places to land.
Moreover, my long term good looking cloud and
source of lift while
figuring out what to do, started dumping on me just as I reached it.
Amazingly, it cycled really quickly and in the decaying tendrils of the
old cloud a new healthy 5kn climb kind of cloud formed and took me up to
base again. Northward the sky was opaque. Westward the sky was opaque.
Upward the sky was opaque. East was not where I wanted to go, and I'd
just come from the South. Through the gloom I spotted some wispies that
looked promising near Sweetwater so headed there, and lo and behold,
another 5kn to cloudbase! That was enough to get me back over the Pine
Nuts, looking for one last climb home, but the day was done, no sun,
with sinking air and rain, and I landed to meet Sergio back on the
ground at Minden, for a total of 694 km and 7 hrs in the cockpit. Not
even Carson Valley was a good landing option due to torrential rain.
I'd like to see Sergio's trace for the day, but havent
yet, maybe
he'll post it too. . We both took an aero retrieve home and de-rigged at
dusk/sunset. There, we met with all the other reports of adventure,
excited faces and tall tales. A great end to a great days flying.
Here's the plan view of the flight. Not much idea of
scale, but
check out Cerro Gordo on a map; just east of the eastern tip of Owens
Lake, in the mountains. Would love to read a report from Dean and
Sergio.
Best regards
Peter Deane (2T)
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----------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a msg received from Kenny at Williams.
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Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 22:29:09 -0700
To: pjkelly@community.net
Subject: Soaring at Williams.
Hi Peter,
Just wanted to say a couple things to you about whats been going on at
Williams.
August 21, was a fantastic day with at least 12,000 ft. bases. I took
one of my students on a short, (100 mi.) flight which started at Walker
ridge and included Diamond M and Gravelly Valley.The sad part was, we
were the only pilots out there, on the best soaring day of the year in
the Mendocino's!
I've been staying very busy with students, seven of them being under the
age of 17 years old! Youth and soaring are thriving at Williams!
Well, I was thinking about you out in the mountains yesterday and I
thought I would write you a hello.Hope things are well in the work force
as well as family and "PK".
Kenny Price
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wed., 11 August 1999
This was the date of the last entry in the preceding volume
of the Diary.
To visit previous editions, go to the Soaring Diary Info
file at sdinfo.html
For further info or to input commentary, send email
to: Peter Kelly.
