Soaring News - April 2019
Photo Credit; Jean-Marie Deschamps
There was good member attendance at the April 6 safety meeting with presenters Rick Clark, Matt Schultz and Tom Shipp. The presentation on the K13 stall while turning base to final was a good example of what not to do; overshoot the runway, get too slow and use inside rudder = Stall. Flying the pattern based on wind speed and direction solves most of this condition.
After the safety meeting, we did 24 flights with 11 members completing Spring check flights and all 4 tow pilots getting Pawnee time towing.
Weather for the rest of the month has not cooperated as usual this time of the year, 6 Op days were canceled due to weather and 5 Op days completed for 51 total flights during the month. May weather is usually better for club operations. Easter was a real good soaring day for Larry Clayton, Dan Walker and Susumu Morita, while some were hunting Easter Eggs on the ground, they were observing from 3000 feet in good thermals. Steve Rusinowski is our first of the season to attempt cross country flying with a 15 mile flight South in the club ASW15.
When flying the K21 near gross weight or Kerry Brown’s G103, the tow pilot should tow at 75 mph, when entering thermals, the tow plane will often climb faster than the K21 or G103 can respond to the climb, the K21 or G103 responds slower than the ASW15, K13 or K7 due to weight. Tow pilots can help by allowing the airspeed to increase in thermals when towing all gliders rather than pulling back on the stick to maintain a constant speed. Allowing the tow speed to increase 5 MPH in a thermal will reduce glider oscillations going in and out of thermals. The tow speed will naturally increase in thermals and decrease in sink when leaving the thermal.
Our club operations invite software has changed some features this year compared to last year, depending on your web provider and your operating system, the invite response will be located either at the top of your email above the member distribution list or directly below it. Also, when a change is made on the calendar the change is not saved unless it is sent to members, so updates to the calendar are done on Favorable or Confirm invites, Jean-Marie is working on these issues. You can help the Operations Scheduler if you check either Accept, Maybe, or Decline when you receive the invite email. Look for late updates, Michigan weather changes with little notice.
After about 25 years of glider towing, Shipp finally completed a career total of 10,000 glider tows Saturday April 27 towing Rick Clark in the K13. Thanks Jean-Marie for posting the news on the Club Website and Susumu for the photos that documents the event.
When turning from base to final keep your aim point on target, nose down and speed up. Outside rudder is OK but inside rudder is a control position for spin training.
Tom Shipp
