Online Contest For XC Pilots

CISS members, please register for the Aerokurier Online Contest here.

Select "aerokurier Online-Contest Segelflug/Soaring" (left side, near the top), then "US" (right side), then "Contest Registration" and press the button for "Add New Competitor." For "scoring club" select "Central Indiana Soaring Society" and for BHC-region select "Eastern USA/Canada."

Then submit your IGC files (or GPS traces). It might be a good idea to read the rules! Flight logs must be submitted by 2400 UTC on the Tuesday after the flight.

May 30th. Oh Boy! Oh Boy!

More strong soaring conditions yesterday, according to Dave Newill (and according to the view out my kitchen door).
Mario Lazaga reports:

This month of May came in like a lion, turned into a lamb, then lion, lamb, and went out like a lion. Meh-rcy!
Dave Newill, Pete Detore and I went the only gliding pilots at the field Monday, May 30th.
Mike Nichols was exceedingly nice, drove to the airport, towed 2 planes and drove back home.
Dave took off at about 1:30 and Pete and I took off at about 1:45.
Two hours and 30 minutes later, Dave landed, and about 10 minutes after Dave, we landed.
The day was "as good as it gets" with beautiful CU's everywhere, nice, strong thermals under each one of them, and a cloudbase of exactly 8000ft MSL (exxssakktleee!).
A few minutes before landing, with Dave already on the ground, we observed a visiting (mysterious?) sailplane circling over our airport at about 5000 ft but we couldn't read its tail markings and he didn't answer our radio calls. He was probably tunned to a different frequency.

Mario's knees at 7000 feet.

Fun While It Lasted

Today was a great half-of-a soaring day. Before the gloomy overcast rolled in from the north around 3pm, Terry Wools, Gerry Whitson and Chris Carpenter made it to Boone County Airport, Kokomo and back. Mike Nichols and I made the round trip to Boone County (45 miles from Alexandria), but chickened out on Kokomo (it looked pretty dark up there!). Cloudbase was well above 8000 feet.


Mike Nichols sent the picture of Boone County airport and these thoughts:

"1. CUs were slow to form and mainly to the north.
2. Winds were light.
3. Higher cloud deck was moving in from the north.
4. Rte. planned Alex, Boone Co, Kokomo, Alex. Thinking was we could turn back to Alex after Boone Co. if deck from North moved in. In fact this is what two of us did because by the time we headed from Boone Co. to Kokomo the high deck had moved down.
5. Gerry went into blue sky early with the rest of us following. Things went slowly for me without the CU markers. I guess I just haven't learned to BELIEVE.
6.I think if I had went the opposite direction, maybe even adding Marion, I could have went farther and faster."

Terry Wools reports:

"Quick highlights,, I was counting parked planes at TYQ before I pulled out a save. Then I topped out a good thermal to 10000msl on my ALT. That was one big cloud! Don't think I actually made 10k but it was pretty surreal. I learned some things from this flight."

May 3, 1999

A television station in Oklahoma City recently found a copy of a misplaced stormchaser video tape of the F5 tornado of May 3, 1999. Winds reached 318 miles an hour, the fastest ever recorded on Earth.

The Best Time To Plant A Tree Was 20 Years Ago

The second best time is now.
The final draft of Central Indiana Soaring Society's application for 501(c)(3) status is in Don Taylor's hands right now (unless he's mailed it already). It needs a signature or two, and then into the mail it goes.

Derby Day 2005

L to R: Darren, Ron, Scot. Check the last two posts to see more photos.
Here are the preliminary numbers on the Kentucky state records CISS members plan to claim after our field trip on May 7 and 8:

Ron Clarke:
Open class 100 km Triangle speed 46 mph
Sports class 100 km Triangle speed 39.9 mph
Open class Distance around a triangle 81.5 mi
Sports class Distance around a triangle 70.5 mi

Scot Ortman:
Open class Absolute altitude 6568 feet
15 Meter Free Straight distance 63.7 mi
Open class Free O/R Distance 115.8 mi
Standard class Free Distance using up to 3 turnpoints 123.4 mi
[Hey Scot - what about a claim in the sports class? - ed.]

Darren Bedwell:
Open class + Sports class, 100 km Triangle speed 31.88 mph (Ron's later flight will supercede these records - I departed earlier and finished sooner and slower)
15 M class + Standard class, 100 km Triangle speed 31.88 mph
Open class + Sports class, Free Distance around a triangle 64.89 mi
15 M class + Standard class, Distance around a triangle 64.89 mi

At the end of the day we'll hold 14 (or 15 - Scot! The sports class!) current records plus two superceded records.

Update and bump: We got mentioned on Aero-News.net!

Quiz for all you Sporting Code experts:
If Ron and I both claimed sports class triangle distance (not 'free triangle distance'), and assuming both claims were valid, would Ron's 70.5 mile sports class triangle distance claim be enough to break my 64.89 mile sports class triangle distance record, even though it exceeded my (earlier) performance by less than 10 kilometers, and if so, why? I'll post the answer in the comments!

Lee Bottom Photos

Looking north, there is a large empty field right off the end of the runway. We like that!


The main terminal building. That hill in the background is in Kentucky.


No landouts today!


All kinds of wildlife are found on the field


Darren, Larry, Todd, Scot, Ginger, Kurt, Charlie, Ron, Peter, Mario. Front row: Ace

More Lee Bottom Images

Scot's flight to Paoli, Madison, and back


Meatball conducts a thorough preflight inspection


To get to Lee Bottom, turn left at the Convenience Store on New Bethel Road

Fundamentals

You can practice all the FAA exams for free at this website. That includes Fundamentals of Instruction and Flight Instructor - Glider [hint, hint]. If you don't want to create a password, just 'login' as a guest user.

Fast, Faster, Fastest

I've approved Ron Clarke's open class 300km out and return speed record from May 5. Official speed: 74.57 mph. A weather pattern like that doesn't come through Indiana every day.

Hazardous Duty Pay

Nyal says:

Bob Gillan is laid up for a while with a bad back and has asked me to fill in on his instructor's duties. He is under a doctor's care in Indianapolis. I think he would appreciate a phone call from members.

Meanwhile, Don Reid continues to nurse a broken hip he sustained on an outing over Easter weekend. Don was the designated examiner who added the glider rating to my license and Bob was the instructor who signed me off for that checkride. Both Don and Bob have made immeasurable contributions to the club for many years, and we look forward to having them back with us at the airport as soon as possible.

No Flying Saturday 5/14

Kurt Ristow has prudently cancelled flying today due to the weather:

Sorry folks, but my long string of active flying days on my crew day has come to an end. There is just way too much ugliness marching its way toward Alexandria this morning. Don't come out to the field. Don't burn that expensive gas! Maybe if we all stay home today the price will come down. Hopefully, tomorrow will be flyable!

Indiana State Records Approved

As State Record Keeper for Indiana, I have approved Ron Clarke's Distance Using Up To Three Turnpoints record claims from April 16. The records are:

Open singleplace class & 15 Meter class: 103.50 statute miles
Sports class: 91.60 statute miles

The Central Indiana Soaring Society has a long tradition of members pursuing state soaring records. Over a dozen current and former CISS members currently hold Indiana state records. In the aftermath of the recent Lee Bottom expedition, three of us plan to claim Kentucky state records. Even after decades of record chasing, there are still plenty of records within relatively easy reach on any good soaring day. Some category and class combinations have never been claimed at all. Straight distance to a goal in the PW-5, anyone?

Take That, John Hunt Morgan

In July, 1863, two thousand Confederate cavalrymen - known as "Morgan's Raiders" - crossed the Ohio River from Brandenburg, Kentucky into Indiana, where they burned, pillaged and looted for several days before crossing into Ohio.
On May 7 and 8, 2005, the Central Indiana Soaring Society decided it was payback time.
Striking from a secret base deep in a secluded river bottom, five engineless aircraft flew ten separate sorties over the Ohio River, where they pillaged and looted ...

Okay, not really. We just

• set some Kentucky state soaring records
  
• saw some beautiful scenery
• ate great food
  
• watched the thunderstorms roll in after dark
  
• camped out next to the runway, thunderstorms or no
  
• after flying was done, tossed back a few cold ones
• saw a lot of nice taildraggers on Sunday
• had too many milkshakes
  
• and had a lot of fun

We had a great turnout and a great time. Ron Clarke, Scot Ortman, Todd Rutledge, Peter Detore, Larry Pennington, Kurt Ristow and I all flew on Saturday. Scot's flight, a heroic out and return to Paoli, Indiana in tricky conditions, apparently broke the Kentucky absolute altitude record. Ron Clarke and I each declared and flew 100km triangular speed courses. Mario Lazaga (CISS's newest graduate of the five-hour silver badge leg) did not fly but served as official observer and crew chief. Charlie Epperson ferried the tow plane down on Saturday morning and back on Sunday afternoon, and Mike Hutchison drove down from Columbus, Indiana to share towing duties with Charlie.
This will not be the last post on this subject!

Blanik Radio

Don Taylor has ordered a new Microaire M760 radio for the Blanik (809S). It should arrive and be installed in a few weeks. Please use your handhelds until then. The current Terra radio receives just fine and does put out a weak signal, so if you don't have a handheld, go ahead and use it.

Yes, I Saw The Cumulus Out Of My Office Window, Why Do You Ask?

ZA tortures the 9 to 5 crowd with this information:

Today was maybe the best I've ever known in Indiana. So I'll be claiming one of the ones I've been waiting for a long time - the OPEN 300km o/r speed record (74.6 mph). FYI Mario [Lazaga] did his 5 hours and many of us topped 9000msl. Lift was an easy 5 knot average with the best in the 10 range.
Ron.

The previous Indiana open class 300km out and return speed record was 67 mph. Actually, the fastest speed of any existing Indiana record before this was 68.65 mph for a 100km triangle, also held by Ron.

From Low To High

Ron Clarke reports:

Don't be fooled by COLD weather. Yesterday several members met out at Alex to do some maintenance and attend the safety meeting and Duane's award ceremony in the evening. During the afternoon the weather looked somewhat promising despite a strong wind (down the runway).
Despite COLD temperatures (a high of 54 degrees) lift was good and two flights were made in the Grob. Don and Mike Nichols climbed to 6400msl under quite heavily clouded skies. The thing to remember is that cold does not mean no lift - obviously good instability allowed some good soaring. I would estimate a well insulated pilot could have easily stayed up 3-4 hours.
ZA

More Clouds Please

Join the Cloud Appreciation Society, or at least check out their web site. Especially the part about Australia's Morning Glory.

More Sunshine Please

We did no flying at all yesterday. Just a handful of pilots flew today. The wind was strong and cold, right down the runway, and clouds hid the sun. Operations were prudently shut down and the equipment packed away around noontime. Towing the Blaniks back to the hangar facing that strong west wind required double-extra caution and the crew did a fine job.