Club winter maintenance progress

Courtesy of Ron Clarke:

Many thanks to the dedicated who have turned out in good and not so good weather to help move the maintenance programs forward.
For your info the PW 5 is pretty well done. Good progress on the Blanik 303 BA and a start on 809S and the Grob. The annual on Pawnee 898 is almost complete.
We would like to invite y'all to come on out ( 9:30 'til 12:30 - and then lunch at the Greasy Spoon) each Saturday now - before the hangar gets COLD. Our goal is to get the rest of the fleet ready for annual inspections before year end.
ZA

New FAI Sporting Code

The FAI has revised Section 3 of the Sporting Code again.

Some highlights - er, lowlights:

On page 4 (and several other places) there is this note:
"At the IGC meeting 2004, it was decided that at some future date verification of badge flights will require the use of a flight recorder. Other means of verification shown in this edition of the Sporting Code will no longer be accepted.
October 2004"

Is there an epidemic of falsified barograph traces out there that nobody told us about?

On page 15 there is this:
"The Silver [badge] distance flight should be flown without navigational or other assistance given over the radio (other than permission to land on an airfield) or help or guidance from another aircraft."

Are these guys aware that flight recorders use GPS and that GPS is a navigation system using radio signals?

Road Trip?

During the winter we don't get many thermals around here. If anyone is interested in going to Ridge Soaring this winter, read what Karl Striedieck has to say about the ridge here and A New Pilot's Guide to Flying at the Ridge here.
Some pilots recommend taking a drive up and down the length of the ridge to get a feel for the terrain before trying to soar it. For a modest 300km gold distance/diamond goal out and return, that is roughly from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania to Cumberland, Maryland.

World Distance Award

Sign up for this NOW.

The World Distance Award is a lifetime award for accumulating 40,000 km of cross-country soaring flights. The rules have been tinkered with recently, so if you have any cross-country flights in your log book and think you ever might have any interest in participating, sign up before the end of the year and submit all your eligible cross-country flights to date. After 31 December 2004, flights over a year old will not count unless they've already been submitted.

There's a one-time fee of $20 for current SSA members to participate. There are certificates for reaching the milestones of 5000, 10000, 20000 and 40000 km and a nifty little 'ring of Saturn' to go on your FAI gold (or silver, I guess) badge once you reach 40,000 km.

Why 40,000 km? That's the distance around the Earth.

The rules and forms are here.

Usenet post with more details about the rules change.

Club Meeting 11/18

The CISS monthly meeting will be at Leppert & Hensley at 7pm on November 18.

Sunday Flying, November 14

A tow pilot will be available in the afternoon. Come on out and fly!

PW-5 Is Derigged

Today the work crew took the PW-5 apart and cleaned and waxed the wings. It will go on the trailer when finished to make more room in the hangar for winter work. However - if anyone really wants to fly it over the winter, it is very easy to reassemble, in theory.

Posting photos

I've got some photos of club gliders and I'd like to post them here, so let's give it a try:


Update: now Blogger hosts image files directly!

Conflict of Interest Policy

The CISS board adopted a conflict of interest policy on 11 November 2004. The policy can be found here.

Winter Saturdays

The season is upon us again - that is, the season to do maintenance on the
gliders. We'll meet at the airport each Saturday morning and start with
waxing the PW-5. Once it is done, we'll work on one of the Blaniks. If the
weather is good, drag the other Blanik and the Grob out and fly. Duane has
agreed to let us use the heated hangar for this, so come on out, even if
the weather is frosty!