Soaring News - August 2018

Photo Credit; Brandon Schultz

The club did 90 flights this month even though 7 days were canceled due to weather, every Wednesday Ops day was canceled. This is the first that I remember every Wednesday of the month was canceled. Sorry Wednesday fliers for all the bad weather news. With a total of 406 flights for this season and about 3 months left, the club is expected to be OK financially.

Reserve Saturday the 15th for the club annual picnic which will be held at the club hangar. Any pilot who would like a tow to near Merillat and retrieve, the club will accommodate.

A car club visit on the 11th was a big success with 8 glider rides before closing Ops early due to weather moving in. They enjoyed having electrical hookups at the hangar for their RV’s to cool their adult drinks. Thanks again Steve Rusinowski for your work installing the electrical outlets. And National Aviation Day was on the 19th without any fireworks but the club did 16 flights on that day.

Shipp has given up his AARP card and joined a new club, United Flying Octogenarians (UFO). These members are pilots still flying after 80 years old or is it young? There are 1510 of these old folks out there flying, 33 in Michigan. Scary huh? Airline pilots are required to retire after 65.

Did you check the glider brakes and tire inflation during the preflight? Reminder, the K7 doesn’t have a typical brake, the nose skid is the brake and requires forward stick pressure to activate on the ground. On roll out after landing, don’t point the glider toward something you may hit. Another reminder, make sure you plug the charger into the battery connector rather than the instrument panel and when unplugging, grasp both ends of the connector, the wires are broken easy.

When turning from base to final, keep the nose down and speed up. Outside rudder is OK but inside rudder is a control position for spin training.

Tom Shipp