No Flying Saturday 9/30

Director of operations Marty has called off flying today. To any of you who were really looking forward to flying with low ceilings, maximum crosswind component, strong gusts, rain and lightning, we apologize.

Today: Showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 64. South wind 8 to 14 mph becoming west. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

No Fly Zone

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kurt Ristow
Date: Sep 22, 2006 5:28 PM
Subject: No Fly Zone

I am declaring Alexandria a no-fly zone for Saturday.  The weather outside is frightful.  A direct crosswind with gusts to 30 mph+ with violent thunderstorms in the afternoon is the forecast.  Maybe Sunday will be a better day?

 

Kurt  

Sunday flights

We had a "thermal deficient" day. Cloudbase was very high, but the strong winds al ground level, and even stronger higher up, broke up and
disorganized the thermals.
Ed Escallon took 2 practice flights in the Grob.
Mr. Whitworth took 3 instructional flights where he REALLY learned about crosswind landings.
George Saunders saw the perfect chance to try some "unusual landing conditions" (his words)
Dick Hutch gave it his best try, but even he needs some lift to stay in the air.

Thanks to Tod and Mike Beckage for the always fun and enthusiastic work they do as crew, to Larry Pennington for the instruction and Mike Nichols for the tows, George and Ed for helping, and to Nyal Williams just for showing up to cause trouble :)

Mario Lazaga

Friday flights!

Mario reports:
We had a good day to fly. Not great but good and fun.
Ceiling was around 4500 MSL. Thermals were narrrow and capricious.
However, we had 7 planes in the air at one time.
In the following order:
Ron Clarke in ZA,
Mike Nichols QT,
Kurt Ristow 8UP,
George Saunders G102 CS,
Tom Ruble CAT,
Gerry Simpson IZ
and yours truly (Mario) G103
Everyone flew XC except George and Mario.

Unfortunately, after 2.5 hours of flight to Converse and back, in
uncomfortable conditions, Gerry discovered that his logger didn't record
a single point, because, his GPS never acquired enough satellites.
( Checklist item: Antenna working properly?)

Thanks to Larry Miller for the tows, George for his help moving planes
around. And congrats to all the XC-points hungry pilots.

ZA: Well done George

From: ZASoars
Date: Sep 7, 2006 8:21 PM
Subject: Well done George

Next time you see him congratulate him. 

 

George flew his 5 hour flight for the Silver Badge today in the PW 5  in quite difficult conditions . The day started late and the cloud markers dissapeared later . He did the "right thing" when he realised that getting back to Alex was not on and landed at Elwood . A good decision ( ZA made a similar decision too and landed at Marion )  .

 

Many thanx Mike for aerotowing us home ,

 

ZA.

 

PS. Dr Jack was optimistic !

We will soar Thursday

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars
Date: Sep 5, 2006 4:53 PM
Subject: We will soar Thursday

Larry says he will tow for sure even if we have only a couple of sailplanes . Right now George plans to use the PW 5 for a 5 hour attempt and I plan to fly . So it's on !  If you plan to join us  we'll be launching from 11: 30 on .

 

CU at the field ,

 

ZA.

Labor Day Flying

Labor Day Flying
We have a tow pilot for Labor day - We'll arrive at 11 - start operations at 12. Weather may be scrappy, but so are we!