Saturday Flights

Wow, Saturday flying was much better than expected. Four students had 8 instructional flights. Charlie H. flew for the first time this year - 1.75 hours! Amazing. Lift was strong to 5000 feet, but the 20 mph west wind kept us right over the airport. Pete cooked up some great BBQ chicken. I hear it was finger liking good!

George

Saturday Flying

We will have normal operations today (Saturday May 31). Looks like a good instructional day. Pete has BBQ chicken for us tonight – so come for the food if nothing else.

George

Fwd: Thursday report

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

You can't always believe the forecasts . When we put the fleet away
this afternoon ( late ) the temperature was 74 degrees and the dew
point 39 degrees . So that should have meant that lift went to about
8000 msl . NO WAY . We were lucky to get to 5000 msl . I can only
assume that the instability was poor due to the high pressure . That's
the way it goes sometimes. However a very good number of flights were
made and I counted no less than 10 gliders on the field at launch time
- a record mid week turn out ? .
Tod Herrli flew 2 hours after soloing last weekend and I suspect Jack
Hensel may have also . Way to go guys . Not to look like a wimp Gerry
Simpson set off cross country at high speed and when I left the field
he was waiting for his crew ( George, Gordo and Tod ) to retrieve him
out of a hay field somewhere north of Alex.
CU all on the weekend. Thanks to Larry for the tows .

ZA.

Fwd: Thursday Flying [5/29]

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

It does look like both tomorrow and Thursday are likely to be good
soaring days this week . The proposal is to fly Thursday and Larry
Miller has agreed to tow . Come on out if you can make it, I suggest
11:30am to help get any club gliders and the tow planes out .

ZA.

ps. If anyone wants to fly Wednesday too please let the rest of us
know if any flying arrangements are made !

Fwd: Flying this week ?

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

Fellow Pilots ,

Both Wednesday and Thursday look like good flying days and I believe
we could probably get a tow pilot if there is enough interest .

Please let me know which of those days you would like to fly and if
there is enough interest we'll try to get a day set up.

Ron (ZA).

Fwd: May 24 results

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Don Taylor

Saturday was a tough day to go cross country, but a number of our
pilots did just that. Two who didn't make the scoresheet because they
didn't meet the minimum requirements a la the rules, were Saunders and
Simpson. Too bad we don't have a score for effort. Ristow did make
the flight up to Portland and back and will be added to the May 24
scoresheet as soon as his trace can be retrieved from his logger.

Brad Hays speaks for all, I think, describing his flight to Portland
and back. He made the lowest save I've seen on any trace so far in
the 6 years we've been doing this: 420 ft AGL !! (Be careful out
there: ed.)

In Brad's words "I scrubbed the flight to Marion (spent too much
time getting away from Marion)..... want to claim Alexandria to
Portland to Alexandria. Conditions were not fantastic. Very
disorganized thermals below 3,000 ft. and surface winds made them hard
to center. Better to have stayed high this day. My flight to
Portland against an 8 to 14 knot headwind was predictable...better to
stay on course and fly into and with the lift than to attempt to
circle in it. However, the return flight did not produce the
corresponding tailwind as the winds tended to die-down later in the
day. Almost landed out in a farm field 20+ miles from Alex but,
found some lift at 3 - 400 ft AGL...landing gear extended, ready to
turn to base leg....this one got me away. It was slow going and a
struggle to reach Alex but, good experience for the gray computer.
Most likely won't like the score due to slow return but, it was
fun!!!! VT "

Ground Handling

Remember:
In ground handling, it's not good practice to rotate a sailplane in place on the main gear. It's even less good to do it with two people in the glider. On the asphalt, it can wear a bald spot on the tire. On the grass, especially after a recent rain, it can tear a big divot out of the grass. I forgot this simple rule on Saturday and this was the result:
 

Firewood Donations Needed (But Read This First)

The upcoming WSPA seminar at Alexandria Airport needs donations of firewood from members who DON'T live in Emerald Ash Borer infested areas.

If you don't know what the Emerald Ash Borer is, it's a nasty little green bug, an exotic pest that kills ash trees. Keep reading...

Cheryl and I have a bonfire/wiener/marshmallow roast planned for one night of the seminar. However, we need some firewood to burn. If those of you who have fireplaces have a leftover piece or two of wood and could bring it to the airport next time you're out, we would be VERY grateful. (We need it by the last week in June.) I don't even HAVE a fireplace, so can't help at all. Kurt says the SE corner of the gravel parking lot would be his preferred place to stack it, temporarily.
Thanks so much in advance!
Marty Hudson

Our airport is in Madison County which is NOT an infested area (yet). It would be illegal to bring firewood there from an infested county, and unfortunately certain townships in Marion County and Hamilton County ARE infested and those entire counties are under firewood quarantine. Please do NOT move any hardwood firewood from Marion or Hamilton County to Alexandria!


Fortunately we as a club are accustomed to navigating complicated regulatory requirements - but who thought a pile of firewood would be such a bureaucratic nightmare? Well, it doesn't have to be. It's legal to bring firewood to Alexandria from a non-quarantine area, and lots of CISS members live in non-quarantined counties.

The quarantine applies to all hardwood firewood, not just ash. It does not apply to conifers.

This will be a great bonfire!

Here's the law.
Here's more information.
Here's a map of Indiana showing infested and uninfested counties.
Quarantines.

Friday Flying

We are flying Friday. Come at 11 and we'll start flying about noon. We'll start with instructional flights and launch the private gliders if and when it becomes soarable. Dr. Jack is optimistic - 400 up to 4000 feet, CU's at 6000. I'm not that optimistic, but we can have a good afternoon of instruction and test flying and maybe get some soaring in! Get ready for a GREAT weekend!

George

Friday Flying [5/23/08]

We plan to fly on Friday if the weather holds. We have a tow pilot - so come on out and enjoy the beginning of a great weekend.

George

Flying Monday

We have a tow pilot starting about 2 pm on Monday. If you want to fly, come about noon and help us get ready for flying at 2 pm.

George

Sunday Hangar Flying Report

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

This Sunday the weather was a little too windy for flying so the
members that showed up lent a hand and some really good work was done
! Dick Hutch was seen mowing around the office with his push mower (
not quite as quick as with the ride-on mower ) The cleaning up and of
the hangars continues and thanks to all especially some of our newest
members - Gordon , Dave and Bruce we set up a new charging station
for the club's hand held radios ( on the west wall near the glider
battery charger ) and have the heated hangar looking really good .
The field crew worked on removing the concrete gate post on the east
end but it's going to be a long process to remove unless we resort to
some kind of mechanical equipment ! They sure were serious about
setting farm gate posts solidly in concrete in past years .
Thanks to all who helped .

Flying Friday

Olaf has offered to tow for us on Friday. Operations start around noon. See you at Alex!

George

Club XC Contest Standings

The latest club contest scoresheet is here.

Great help given, a little more needed

By now most everyone has enjoyed the improvements that have been made at our GLIDERPORT since we purchased Alexandria airfield. We can lunch in the front office out of the weather. The runway lights are out and soon it will be possible to land on the south side grass if needed. Kurt is working on a plan to level some parts of that area and seed it when the time is right. Every member that wanted a spot at the field for his glider or trailer is now on the airport.

Which brings us to the point of this article. A big THANK YOU goes out to those individual members of our club whose generosity made the purchase of the airport possible. When all the pledges made have been sent in, the Capital Campaign will have raised approximately $51,000 this year.

But not everyone has made a pledge, perhaps maybe because they did not think they could make a significant contribution. But there is no such thing as an INsignificant contribution. Wouldn’t it say a lot about our Club if 100% of our members made a donation of some amount—any amount—to fully enable us to complete the conversion of the field to a gliderport? We still have some important tasks ahead of us: seeding, leveling, draining, signage, showers and bunks to name a few.

The committee would like to ask every member who has not yet pledged or sent in a (tax deductible) gift to consider doing so now to help us complete our airport conversion. What about using part of your windfall tax rebate? If each could help with a gift of say, $100 (or more) we would raise another $3,000 for the cause.

In about a month we plan to post in the main office a plaque with the names of all the contributors who helped make this opportunity a reality. Could we make it 100%?

The Capital Campaign Committee.

Club Meeting on Thursday

Be sure to make our next CISS Club meeting, Thursday, May 15th from 7-9 pm at Fishers Train Station. We plan to spend our first hour brainstorming our vision for our new gilderport. We plan to spend the second hour talking about the details of owning and operating this new facility. Fishers Train Station is on Municipal drive off of 116th street west of I-69.

George

Group Photo

John Morrical has posted the photos from Saturday here. Which one is the best?

SSA Picture this Saturday

At noon this Saturday we will take a CISS Club picture at our new airport. This picture will be part of an article for the SSA Soaring Magazine. Hope you can make it this Saturday at noon in your best soaring gear.


George

Fwd: Tuesday flying

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: ZASoars

After voting you might consider soaring. Bob Currie has agreed to tow tomorrow, but only a few have indicated an interest so far. Come on out for a 1pm start if you can. Today was good. DT climbed to 7999 msl and we experienced the passage of a weak cold front while flying. George got current in his new ship CAT. Watch for developments here ! ZA.

Hangar Flying Saturday

ZA reports that although there was no flying today, there was plenty
of work to be done around the airport.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars
With much to do at "OUR" field we appreciate members help on non
flying days . Today ( Saturday ) about six members showed up at Alex
and we were able to begin to organize some of the newly acquired
"stuff " that was purchased at the auction.
As well a Weight and Balance was done on the Grob .
Thank you to those who came out to help .

Fwd: Monday flying

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

Fellow Pilots ,

Monday looks good and Lynn Joyce has agreed to tow beginning 1:15 . I
suggest we get out to the field no later than 12 noon to get things
organized .

CU there ,

ZA.

Blow Out for Saturday

The wind forecast for May 3 is for 20 mph out of the southwest, gusting to 30 !! And to top it off there is a chance for thunderstorms. The cold front dragging off the low pressure situated north of the Great Lakes will be moving through in the afternoon, setting up what could be a decent soaring day on Sunday. Bottom line: no flying on Saturday. A few of us will be at the field around 10 am for a few hours to do a weight and balance on the Grob, so if your honey-do list is not too long, maybe we can find a list out there.

Sunday should be a different story: looks promising. Monday - Wednesday also look good with tow pilots available on Mon and Wed. Keep the faith.

Hangar Rental

ZA reports that the new Hangar Rental Rates are as follows:

Trailer tie down outside $ 30 per month
Glider trailer in T hangar $ 40 per month
Glider tie down outside $ 45 per month
Glider rigged in big hangar $ 175 per month
Glider rigged in big hangar with (corresponding empty) trailer in the
T hangar $2000/year (paid in advance)

To accommodate everyone, Kurt has agreed to work with the remaining
private power plane owners to ensure space is available in the
T-Hangars no later than the next 60 days, and in fact some space has
already been freed up with the moving of the Stinson out of one of the
T hangars.

If you have a glider and /or trailer you would like to keep at the
field call Kurt to make arrangements.

Any other questions please call Kurt .

2008 CISS CLUB SOARING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2008 CISS Club Contest Rules are here.

The CISS club contest is designed as a means for beginning cross-country pilots and racing pilots to practice their skills and fly together in a friendly system where information and techniques are generously shared....