Grob and PW-5 in CISS Labor Day Weekend Contest

This coming weekend including Friday Sept. 3 through Monday Sept. 6 our club will be conducting a cross-country soaring contest with 9 participants including one guest from Michigan. It has often been suggested that we get our feet wet with a small competition to prepare for hosting a sanctioned SSA Regional Contest in the future. Our Board approved the event back in the early spring.

Six of the club private owners will be flying their ships along with Tod Herrli flying the PW and Olaf Tessarzyk flying the Grob 103. Don Taylor is the organizer, Ron Clarke and Josh Daisey will handle ground ops and John Earlywine will be the weather guesser.

There will be a contest pilots' meeting in the upstairs clubhouse each morning around 10am followed by assembly and gridding at the takeoff end of the runway. A rapid launch will take place in about a 40 minute window between noon and 2pm depending on the lift conditions. Ron and/or Josh will work with the normally scheduled ground crews and towpilots and instructors to smooth this all out. Heightened vigilance on the ground and in the air will be important !

Except for the launch timeframe, instruction and other club flying in the Blaniks should be conducted more-or-less as normal. The PW-5 and Grob will possibly be available prior to the launch and after they return to the field. This is an exciting first step for our club and we appreciate the forbearance of the larger membership during this time. Come on out and watch !

All Members Welcome - 11 am Sunday Soaring Soaring Discussions

A few CISS members have talked about various ways to learn about soaring.  These discussions coalesced into an informal study group.  The group's goal is to have interactive learning sessions about specific soaring topics lead by an experienced pilot.

The first session was last weekend.  John Earlywine lead a  discussion about cross country flight planning.  At the end of the discussion, we talked about ways to expand the group and gain additional member participation.  The group came up with a schedule for the rest of the year and all CISS members are invited to participate.  Here is our schedule:

Date	Topic	Leader
August 29	Weather Resources & Analysis	Ron Clarke
September 12	Radio Procedures	Nyal Williams
September 26	Thermaling & Speed to Fly	Mario Lazaga
October 17	Glider Instrumentation	TBD
October 31	Off-season Exercises & Resources	TBD

Sessions will be held at Alexandria starting at 11am and should last an hour or so.  All CISS members are welcome to join us for any (or all) of the discussions.  We think interactive sessions are a great way to learn more about soaring.  The more people who participate, the greater the opportunity to gain from collective experience.  

We've been very fortunate to have three experienced pilots volunteer as discussion leaders for upcoming sessions.  We would love it if a couple more experienced CISS pilots would be willing to lead either of the last two sessions.  If you're interested in volunteering, please drop me a line.

We hope you find one of the scheduled topics interesting. If so, please join us.

Mark Rottler

John Gardner is a Certificated Glider Pilot

Congratulations to John Gardner who earned his Private Pilot Glider Certificate on Monday August 16, 2010 flying 303BA.

Other CISS members who helped make this accomplishment possible include Larry Miller, the recommending instructor, and Mike Rielage, the FAA DPE responsible for the check ride. Larry also served as tow pilot for the event, with John's father John helping as the wing runner. 

BMapper Soaring Forecast Program

Dale Kramer's BMapper program displays Dr. Jack's forecast data in a very convenient, easy to use format. Several CISS members are using this free program to predict soaring conditions and to decide when and which way to fly. Some of the most used information is the predicted thermal strength and the expected maximum attainable altitude. Experience at Alexandria has shown these forecasts to usually be quite accurate.

Mark Rottler has generously donated some space on his server for downloads by CISS members.

If you would like to try BMapper go to:

http://soarindy.info/files/

and download the BMapper folder.

Complete installation instructions are in the folder in the readme file.

Kokomo Airport August 6-8

Anyone planning a cross country north during these dates needs to be aware of possible issues in the Kokomo area. Notams have been published restricting takeoff and landing runways and establishing an aerobatics box. 


In the announcement below, they specify airplanes only for the event...no gliders. It sounds like they also might not be receptive to gliders in the area or landing there during the event.

National Aircraft Aerobatic Competition..
The Kokomo Municipal Airport and Hoosier Hammerheads are hosting the
first Annual Hoosier Hoedown August 6th - 8th at the Kokomo
Municipal Airport. We are anticipating 25-30 Aircraft to participate
in this national event. The public is welcome free of charge.

Hoosier Hoedown
Sponsored by Hoosier Hammerheads IAC Chapter 124
Practice Day Friday, August 6th 10AM-7PM. Registration also available
this day.

Saturday, August 7th. Pilot brief 8 AM. Competition to start at 9 AM
Sunday, August 8th. Pilot brief 8 AM. Competition 9 AM
Classes: primary, sportsman, intermediate, advanced, unlimited. All
powered categories, no gliders.

Primary $50, all other $70.
Banquet Saturday night $20.00/pp

Hangar space $10 per night, per aircraft
Please contact Mike or Pam Wild (Wild Aerobatics) for additional
information. 765-864-0096