First flights of 2007 possible on Jan 2

87Z is back in action, but the weather tomorrow doesn't look promising. Ron Clarke suggests making the first flights of 2007 on Tuesday:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars
Date: Dec 31, 2006 11:21 PM

It could be done . If enough folks are interested we could fly Tuesday (say beginning 12:30 pm). Let me know if you'd like to make an early flying start to ' 07 and I'll let our friendly tow pilot (Larry) know.

 

Happy New Year ,

 

ZA.

Annual Banquet

The CISS annual banquet is January 13, 2007. See Wingtips for details.

Final 2006 Club Contest Results

Thirteen pilots and three teams took part in this year’s Club Cross-Country Contest, and they made 32 flights on 8 days. This was a big jump in the numbers from 2005 when we had 9 pilots make 26 flights. Looks like all these new ship owners are exercising themselves and getting out on course! Awards will be handed out at the CISS Annual Banquet in January.

Top honors went to Ron Clarke, perennial winner and cross-country racer extraordinaire, who made six flights and came out on top on all but one of them. Tom Ruble surprised everyone and mostly himself to prevent Ron from his perfect record. The race for second place was won by a talented Chris Carpenter who flew his 40 year old Ka6 on four flights to within 9% of the leader: look for more out of him next year as he pushes his wood and fabric glider further up the score sheet. The top three places were rounded out by Mike Nichols who also flew on four days. His seasoned Libelle, a first generation fiberglass ship from the mid-1970s, is still a very competitive glider and Mike is getting more and more out of it each season.

New this year is the Team Category, in which more than one person can “team-fly” the same glider. The winning team of “AW” consisted of Darren Bedwell and Dave Newill, who flew their venerable ASW 15 into first place. Not far behind was team 8UP, Kurt Ristow and Don Taylor, flying their Discus B. Third place honors went to Team IZ, Gerry Simpson and Mario Lazaga, who did a great job flying their LS 4.

Brief summary of the rules: A “Contest Day” is any day on which at least 3 pilots fly a minimum task of 30 or 50 miles and are on task for at least one hour. Any airport may be used as a turnpoint. Scoring is based on speed with a bonus given for distance flown greater than the minimum (30 or 50) miles. All flights must be verifiable using a gps trace submitted by the pilot to the scorer. A pilot may make as many flights as he wants, but the cumulative score is based on the best 4 flights. All gliders are assigned a handicap factor based upon the SSA Sports Class handicap system. Pilots who have not achieved the Gold Badge distance leg (Kestrel class) are required to fly a minimum distance of 30 miles, all others (Red Tail class) 50 miles.

The results are here.

DON'T MISS NEW YEARS DAY !

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars

It may be global warming or maybe just plain old Hoosier luck but a
bunch of us had a goood time today flying the Blanik . Thanks to Bob
Currie the tow pilot a number of club members got to enjoy some quite
amazing gliding conditions on Christmas eve 2006.
The sky was clear, the winds almost nil and the mere opportunity to
soar on December 24 was a real thrill. The scenery was spectacular ,
we all got a little sun tanned (I kid you not) and some of us are now
current again. I've lived in Indiana for over 25 years and don't
really remember such a good day in late December.
So be sure to keep Jan 1 open . 87Z has now been "annualled " - it
does need another 45 minutes of "running in " time before towing , but
any interested tow pilot will be willing I'm sure to take care of that
before we start the 2007 season in style on Jan 1 .

Merry Christmas and see you Jan 1.

ZA.

Fwd: Flying Christmas eve

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars
So far we've not had an overwhelming response to the invitation to fly tomorrow, but several of us plan to take the Blanik up . Bob Currie has agreed to tow and the plan is to be at the field 12 noon. Come on out if you can - who knows tomorrow may be better conditions than Jan 1!
Ron (ZA)

News Flash: Blogger Not Really Broken!

I found the problem that was causing the sidebar of the main blog page to drop to the bottom, and making the page look terrible in the process. If you think the page still looks terrible I won't argue with you, but at least it looks more like what I had in mind.

I don't know how much time I spent trying to find a problem in the blog template causing the mess, but just now I realized that the problem was actually in one of the posts I made recently. There was probably an un-closed HTML tag or something screwing up the whole works.

I have been making a lot of posts on behalf of other people lately - Ron, Craig, etc. and apparently Blogger and Gmail do not play nice together when you forward an email directly to the blog from Gmail. Now I know how to avoid the problem and the page should look like itself again.

Technical Difficulties

For the last few days this weblog has not displayed correctly (at least in Firefox 2.0.0.1). I'm trying to track down the problem. Blogger is changing over to New Blogger, or something, right now and I am not sure if the problem is related to that.

The links are still on the page, but you'll have to scroll way down to find them.

ZA's Dream

From: ZASoars
If you wake up in the middle of the night during the next week it could just be because your internal clock is adjusting to longer days in the weeks ahead. Last night I had a dream where ZA was out on course from Alex - with Ristow a good 2000 feet higher ( normal ) . It was 3 pm and I heard on the radio that Nyal was starting to rig . Bedwell was low over Portland airfield and Wools was "topping up" he said before pushing on. Nichols, Ruble, Rutledge,Weber and Carpenter were all 15 miles ahead of me which made me realize that I should have flown with my longer wings. Taylor, De Witt, Newill, and Simpson were waiting to launch and Mario was taking a friend for a ride . Get the picture ?
My THORMONES ( Thermal hormones ) suddenly woke me up and did a quick calculation - we're less than 75 days from March thermals which can go above 9000msl.
This means you may now officially start planning long and exciting cross country flights in the 2007 soaring season. With the shortest day of the year behind us it's likely that every true soaring pilot will be counting the days to the first good flight of 2007.
On checking with the maintenance shop today it does seem there is a possibility that we will have a tow plane for January 1 . We should know by this weekend - Keep a lookout on the Blog.
Here's to longer days and a GREAT 2007 soaring season.
ZA.

Fwd: Saturday

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bixby, Craig

Hello from the Maintenance Crew

 

As Ron mentioned in the update he placed on the Blog, work has steadily been progressing getting the aircraft ready for next spring.

 

Especially 303BA as it will be the glider for use if we have flying on New Years Day, depending on weather and Towplane availability.

 

Saturday's weather looks great so if you are able come out and help finish up re-installing the interiors in the Blaniks and Grob.

 

The Maintenance Crew also would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Great New Year!!!!!

Maintenance update

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HELPED

 

Today we completed the inspection and "annual" process for the two Blaniks and the Grob 103. All are now signed off and will go back into service when their insurance is re-instated . Remember however that if we have a tow plane for Jan 1 flying only the Blanik 303BA is insured for flying !

A little work remains to re-install the seats and some minor work like retaping etc. Anyone that can make it out to help get 303BA ready to fly on New Years Day keep a look out on the Blog - we'll let you know if we plan to finish this work next weekend.

 

The tow plane situation is that we will do our best to have 87Z flying before year end but no guarantees as the engine is being overhauled as we write . Note - the other towplane will be out of annual Dec 31.   

 

THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO HELPED THE MAINTENANCE CREW COMPLETE THE WINTER .

 

The Maintenance Crew.

Show 87Z Some Love

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars
Date: Dec 8, 2006 2:40 PM

With some better weather forecast for tomorrow ( saturday ) the maintenance crew plan to get 87 Z cleaned up.  The good news is that it's in the warmer of the 2 hangars at Alex. and that helps !  Come on out and join us if you can . There's a good possibility that we'll get the 2 -seaters annualled tomorrow too.

 

Ron, Chris , Craig.

Fleet Ready For Inspections

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars

The good news is that the glider fleet is now ready for their annual inspections !  Many thanks to the club members that have showed up each week in the warm plus the cold to help get the fleet tuned up for 2007. No need to single out anyone in particular but those that have made up the "regulars"; we really appreciate your help !
Regarding maintenance costs in total , we do have to bite the bullet on the "annual " for 87Z, as it is going to cost a little more as we have 3 cylinders on that engine with well below normal compression . A " top overhaul " is going to be needed . Part of the cost of the tough life of Tow Planes .
Soon you can relax , but it's not all over yet and anyone that can make it out next weekend;will be able to help us in the luxury of a heated hangar as we plan to clean up 87Z while it is still in the "warm air" of the maintenance hangar. We hope to see you then !
The Maintenance Crew.