Club Contest Update

Thanks to DT, here are the latest standings in the club contest. It was an excellent day; Brad Hays turned in a handicapped speed of over 60 mph, and flew over 100 miles. Kurt Ristow also flew more than 100 miles and Ron Clarke made a 200 mile out and return flight.

Saturday 6/9/07 Report

Saturday, June 9, 2007 saw strong lift around Alexandria. Ron Clarke
flew to Bluffton, Ohio and back (a round trip over slightly over 200
miles) with his 15M wingtips. He reported that there were no lift
markers up that way, and for a while he was afraid he would have to land
at Portland, Indiana on the way back.

Closer to Alexandria, there were more lift markers (mostly haze domes
with an occasional short-lived cumulus cloud). Several pilots made club
contest flights.

Ask someone who was there about the excitement at the warbird fly-in.
I'm not saying another word about it here.

-------- From Mario Lazaga --------

Congratulations to Dan Dewitt for his Silver Badge!

Last Saturday, June 6th. Dan Dewitt completed the last leg of his Silver Badge by flying from Alexandria to Terry (Indianapolis Executive) and landing there. He already had his Silver Duration and Silver Altitude, and had flown from Alexandria to Terry AND BACK! But having been a couple of hundred feet short of the turning point denied him the Silver Distance that time. This time he simply landed at Terry just to make sure.
Gerry Whitson flew to Terry and towed Dan back to Alex.

Chris Hall has now added a third pin to his soaring hat: 3 seagulls.
He went up for a "routine" solo flight, and stayed up for almost 2 hours! (1:58). He has now boldly gone where few have gone before. Congrats Chris! Live long and prosper.

Vaguely Familiar

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars
Anyone recognize the beautiful glider in the JUNE picture in the SSA
Calendar ???

ZA.

Saturday 6/2 Report

The thunderstorms in the forecast held off until flying was done for the day. It looked like it would overdevelop early, but it never became overcast, and by mid-afternoon cloud cover was no more than 50%. We had many flights over 2 hours. Several pilots made respectable cross-country flights and reported strong lift and strong sink, pegging the variometers at both ends. One pilot had to make an unscheduled stop at Marion, but got an aero retrieve. By late afternoon cloudbase was close to 8000 feet. It began to rain as we were putting the last aircraft into the hangar.

8000 feet and climbing

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ZASoars
Next time you see Mike Beckage or Dick Hutch let them know you know
they climbed up to 8500msl in the GROB last Sunday . The conditions
were fantastic just after a small cold front passed over the flying
area mid afternoon. Several pilots climbed to altitudes in excess of
8000msl and the GROB pilots were right there with them.
This is the time of the year when the best altitudes can be reached
over our area - come on out and see how high you can get this weekend.

ZA.

Contest Day 2

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

Here's the latest and greatest.  Saturday was definitely a challenging day, by the looks of the speeds.  Todd flew very well, Ron got stuck in some unbelievable sink (L/D of 22 in a 14 mile run for a Ventus 2 !) and Chris' Ka6 proved it can't penetrate in 19 mph winds.  And so it goes.  Good job by all.

Operations report for Sunday, May 20th, 2007.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mario Lazaga

We had a great day, with 20 flights in all.
Conditions were poor and windy until 14:00.
In the morning, Cheryl Beckage had her BFR.
Tom Klassen flew his Lak-12 for the first time.
Cap'n Miller celebrated his birthday flying the PW5 for the first time.
He liked it enough to fly the polish "floating marvel" again.
Sean Iams also took instructional flights, and a passenger ride with
Pete Detore.
At 14:10, Don Taylor took off for the longest flight of the day,
landing 3:27 minutes later.
Jack Hensel took 303BA for a short flight, with Nyal in the back seat.
Jack was 2 minutes short of a 3 hours flight! Ron Clarke, Terry
Wools, Dick Hutch and Mike Beckage also enjoyed the great conditions
of the day, all flying 2+ hours. Gerry Simpson was the last to land,
touching down at 18:00 after a 3 hours flight.

We all had a lot of fun, seeing the planes fly and the "super chair" of the DO

Thanks to Tod, Mike, Cheryl, Sean for crewing like pros. Mike Nichols
for the tows. Dale for the instruction, Cap'n Miller for the birthday
cake, and all who showed up for the great time.

Mario

Best Way To Recycle a Slightly Used Parachute

Make a wedding dress out of it.

This wedding dress was made from a nylon parachute that saved the groom's life during World War II. Maj. Claude Hensinger, a B-29 pilot, and his crew, were returning from a bombing raid over Yowata, Japan, in August 1944 when their engine caught fire. The crew was forced to bail out. It was night and Major Hensinger landed on some rocks and suffered some minor injuries. During the night he used the parachute both as a pillow and a blanket. In the morning the crew was able to reassemble and were taken in by some friendly Chinese. He kept the parachute and used it as a way to propose to Ruth in 1947. He presented it to her and suggested she make a gown out of it for their wedding.

Found at Boing Boing.

First Contest Day

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Don Taylor
Date: May 13, 2007 11:11 PM
Subject: First Contest Day

We're off to the races and Brad is in good form, trouncing the field
(at least the 4 flights that were sent to me. Are there more to
come? ZA??) These scores are preliminary, pending any corrections
received from the pilots. Only Todd sent the info requested on the
last page of the contest rules: many thanks Todd. It really helps
me calibrate my calculations.

Two comments: I am accepting the Diamond P turnpoint west of Alex,
even though it doesn't exist in reality. It's in the SeeYou and
Leibacher databases though. I am accepting the Tipton RRX even
though it's not an airport. Some of you want to use it, even though
an airport, Tregassar, is only two miles up the track!

Let's hope for more good wx and flights next weekend. C U at the meeting. DT

Friday Flying 5/11/07

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

Fellow Pilots,

Lynn Joyce has kindly offered to tow on Friday . Conditions should be
good and I suggest we plan for the first tow at 12:30, so if you plan
to fly and use a club ship be sure to get out in time to get it out
the hangar and ready .
Let me know if you think you'll come out - I hope to see as many as possible.

ZA.