Friday, February 27, 2009
That thing'll never fly
Check out this collection of photos of rare aircraft. You can see why some of them were rare...
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
SSA Article about Dave Newill
Here's an article about or member, Dave Newill from the March 2009 SSA Soaring magazine.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
February 16 in East-Central Indiana!
Who would have thought we could have a day like this? High winds, snow, ice, gray skies, low ceilings are often our lot this time of year, and we walk around with heads down avoiding the weather and dreaming of June soaring.
Today was different. Dr. Jack’s Blipmaps predictions and those of the sport aviation’s USAirNet indicated we would have light winds of 5 mph, a temperature/dewpoint spread of about 18 degrees, and a cloud base of about 5000ft. Well, it happened! We saw it coming and got ready.
A good lunch at Rachel’s fortified us for the cold, we opened the hangar doors at around 12:30. Tod Herrli, George , Ron , and Nyal got three one-hour flights with the help of Bob and 87Z. Tod flew with Nyal in the back seat yakking away, Ron and George went off for an hour (not sure who was flying, but most likely it was shared), and then Nyal flew with Ron in the back seat as backup and encouragement. It was c-o-o-o-ld!
Mind you, these flights were in a Blanik; N809S. The first flight reached 4900ft msl; we cut short to give others a chance. The second flight went out to stay an intended hour, and got back with 1:02, reporting that they had gone to Elwood and back, and the third flight repeated this tour and then made an excursion to the north to check the lift over the ethanol plant -- 1:07 flight time. We encountered lift at 1000ft up, and cloud streets everywhere! We stopped short to come down and warm up, but the lift was still going strong. There was at least four hours of good lift today; count ‘em --- f – o – u – r hours on February 16, in East-Central Indiana!
These Blaniks are perfectly capable X/C gliders on good days when the lift is dependable and enough time is available; we certainly flew silver distance in an hour’s time. It was out and back, but with the wind situation as it was, we could as easily have done it either east or west, upwind or downwind. Had we rigged glass ships and started earlier (the clouds were showing lift while we ate lunch), we could have done 100K, 200K, maybe even 300K today – if we had dressed warmly enough!
On that point, I have discovered that these dry chemical foot warmers are great for the toes. You should keep some around so you can fly more comfortably in the late fall, winter, and early spring. (It didn’t occur to me to use mine today.)
And come out to fly when there is a big dew point / high temperature spread with light winds.
Nyal
Today was different. Dr. Jack’s Blipmaps predictions and those of the sport aviation’s USAirNet indicated we would have light winds of 5 mph, a temperature/dewpoint spread of about 18 degrees, and a cloud base of about 5000ft. Well, it happened! We saw it coming and got ready.
A good lunch at Rachel’s fortified us for the cold, we opened the hangar doors at around 12:30. Tod Herrli, George , Ron , and Nyal got three one-hour flights with the help of Bob and 87Z. Tod flew with Nyal in the back seat yakking away, Ron and George went off for an hour (not sure who was flying, but most likely it was shared), and then Nyal flew with Ron in the back seat as backup and encouragement. It was c-o-o-o-ld!
Mind you, these flights were in a Blanik; N809S. The first flight reached 4900ft msl; we cut short to give others a chance. The second flight went out to stay an intended hour, and got back with 1:02, reporting that they had gone to Elwood and back, and the third flight repeated this tour and then made an excursion to the north to check the lift over the ethanol plant -- 1:07 flight time. We encountered lift at 1000ft up, and cloud streets everywhere! We stopped short to come down and warm up, but the lift was still going strong. There was at least four hours of good lift today; count ‘em --- f – o – u – r hours on February 16, in East-Central Indiana!
These Blaniks are perfectly capable X/C gliders on good days when the lift is dependable and enough time is available; we certainly flew silver distance in an hour’s time. It was out and back, but with the wind situation as it was, we could as easily have done it either east or west, upwind or downwind. Had we rigged glass ships and started earlier (the clouds were showing lift while we ate lunch), we could have done 100K, 200K, maybe even 300K today – if we had dressed warmly enough!
On that point, I have discovered that these dry chemical foot warmers are great for the toes. You should keep some around so you can fly more comfortably in the late fall, winter, and early spring. (It didn’t occur to me to use mine today.)
And come out to fly when there is a big dew point / high temperature spread with light winds.
Nyal
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Spring Safety Meeting Schedule
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gerald Simpson
There will be two meetings:
(1) Thursday March 19th 7:00p.m. at MCL Cafeteria (Castleton) and
(2) Saturday March 28th 9:00a.m. in Alexandria at I-99.
Members are strongly encouraged to attend at least one of these
meetings.
From: Gerald Simpson
There will be two meetings:
(1) Thursday March 19th 7:00p.m. at MCL Cafeteria (Castleton) and
(2) Saturday March 28th 9:00a.m. in Alexandria at I-99.
Members are strongly encouraged to attend at least one of these
meetings.
Thanx,
Gerry
Placing Info on the Blog
Several people have asked about the process for posting to this blog. Here's how it works:
Only people listed as 'authors' can actually post to the weblog. If you want to write a blog post, though, just write it up with a suitable title and email it to one or more authors and ask them if they'll post it for you.
The authors are currently Nyal Williams, George Saunders, Don Taylor, and me (Darren).
The blog is not an official instrument of the non-profit entity CISS. The governance of the weblog has relied solely on my own judgment (for better or worse). There aren't, or weren't, any formal rules about becoming an 'author' here because I felt I was able to keep up with it without help. Then I went inactive in the club and realized that we probably needed a few more authors because I wasn't checking in as frequently. These days I'm asking George Saunders to make the decisions (including, specifically, decisions about who to add as an author).
If you want to write up a blog post and send it to an 'author' to post for you, by all means do so. It helps if you can actually write it up in full. Including links and and coming up with a catchy subject line also helps. If you start doing this on a regular basis, maybe you'll be on the short list next time new authors are being recruited.
(If you just want to see what blogging is like, then get yourself a Blogger account and set up your own blog. You can write about anything you want, even soaring!)
Darren
p.s. Please don't be offended if you send an article to me and I don't respond or post it; I've got a lot of non-soaring stuff to deal with just now. Thanks!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Fwd: Lynn Joyce will tow today [2/13/09]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Herrli, Tod
CISS members,
Mr. Joyce has agreed to tow today. George Saunders and I plan on flying so please join us for a pleasant afternoon. Plan on meeting around 1pm and flying around 2pm.
Tod Herrli
From: Herrli, Tod
CISS members,
Mr. Joyce has agreed to tow today. George Saunders and I plan on flying so please join us for a pleasant afternoon. Plan on meeting around 1pm and flying around 2pm.
Tod Herrli
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Flying Sunday 3 pm!
We will be flying today, Sunday Feb 8th, starting at 3 pm. Come out and join us - 45 degrees, sunny, light winds - the runway is free of snow and ice. Pay no attention to the ground hog!
George
George
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Meetings This Saturday!
This Saturday, Feb 7th, CISS will have two meetings at the Remy headquarters on I-69. All members and interested persons are invited.
10:00 AM to Noon : Youth Camp Brunch. All who might be interested in our club putting on a youth glider camp this summer are welcome to come to brunch. George will explain his plan to have an affordable youth glider camp the last week of July. Please RSVP to George if you plan to come so he can have enough food!
12:00 - Cross Country Soaring Ron has invited us to discuss our plans for cross country soaring for the coming season. What badges do you want to earn? What contests do you want to fly?
Directions: Remy corporation headquarters is at 600 Corporation Drive in Pendleton, (Exit 19 off of Interstate 69). Come in the main entrance in the center of the building.
10:00 AM to Noon : Youth Camp Brunch. All who might be interested in our club putting on a youth glider camp this summer are welcome to come to brunch. George will explain his plan to have an affordable youth glider camp the last week of July. Please RSVP to George if you plan to come so he can have enough food!
12:00 - Cross Country Soaring Ron has invited us to discuss our plans for cross country soaring for the coming season. What badges do you want to earn? What contests do you want to fly?
Directions: Remy corporation headquarters is at 600 Corporation Drive in Pendleton, (Exit 19 off of Interstate 69). Come in the main entrance in the center of the building.
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