SHENANDOAH VALLEY SOARING

On Saturday, September 11, we plan to participate in the Louisa County Airshow. We will move our glider operations from Eagle's Nest to the Louisa County Airport (LKU).

The airport is located off Hwy 22 (the road to Mineral) about 2 mi SE of the town of Louisa. In addition to the 4301 X 100 ft asphalt runway (09/27), there is a beautiful 2000 X 60 ft turf runway (10/28). The airport elevation is 493 feet; Unicom frequency is 122.7.

We plan to trailer the 1-26 and aero-tow the Lark early Saturday morning. Both gliders will be available to all SVS members from about 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to contact either Glen McInturff (hjm@sprintmail.com) or Bud Klaser (klaser@cfw.com), phone (804) 964-9055 Home (804) 978-5645 Work

Plans for the annual duPont Regatta, which will take place at Eagle’s Nest Sept. 17, 18 and 19, are taking shape, according to SVS President Bud Klaser, who notes that Bob Byron has offered us the use of his hangar again this year and Cowboy Showers has agreed to bring his square dancing group to the Friday evening barbecue. Gordon Aylor has arranged to purchase the barbecue from a local restaurant. It is much less expensive if we pick it up from the restaurant and serve it at the airport ourselves.

A dinning room has been booked at the Ingelside for the Saturday evening banquet. Ken Hyde and Rick Young, who have built replicas of the Wright Gliders at Ken Hyde's facility near Young's restaurant a few miles north of Warrenton, have tentatively agreed to be our speakers. Bud notes that their story, which was told in the April/May 1998 issue of Air & Space/Smithsonian, "sounds fascinating and I hope everyone will enjoy listening to them."

On Friday, July 9, I arrived at Eagle's Nest around 4:00 p.m. Since the 1-26 had been disassembled and loaded onto its trailer the previous Sunday, it wasn't long before I was ready to depart. As I drove past the end of the runway, Bruce arrived to join me on the journey to New Castle.

It was nearly 7:00 p.m. when we saw the small BRSS sign along Hwy 311. Lanier's new bridge, at the entrance to New Castle International glider port, was still barricaded so, we followed the trail across Craig Creek. Due to the recent drought, the water level was very low and the crossing presented no problems. With plenty of daylight remaining, Bruce and I decided to assemble the 1-26 at the south end of the runway. Before long, Dave and Lanier appeared to provide welcome help with lifting the wings. The 1-26 went together easily and before long, it was fully assembled and safely secured to the tie down cables at the edge of the runway.

When we awoke the next morning, we were disappointed to see an overcast layer at about 6,000 MSL. The wind was beginning to blow and it didn't look like this would be much of a 1-26 day. Cole was preparing to launch with a student in the Blanik and Dave suggested that I follow her in the 1-26.

The tow was bumpy and after release at 3,000 AGL, I found enough lift to gain 1,000 ft.under a dark cloud. As I approached cloud base, it began to rain and I wished that I had applied Rainx to the canopy. After leaving this thermal, I used up most of my altitude just getting back to the airport against the 25 kt wind. Soon I was entering the pattern for landing.

When I arrived back at the launch area, I found Lanier and Gary working on the tow plane. The tail wheel was flat and it was beginning to rain. Lanier removed a tail wheel from his Super Cub and installed it on the Pawnee but, by then, the rain had shut down the flying.

Gordy and Dick arrived and we spent the middle of the day hangar flying at the club house. At 2:00 p.m., John Molumphy stopped by in his Cherokee. The Pawnee was going to follow him to Philadelphia to pick up a new L-33. With the weather clearing, we would have an opportunity for one last tow before the tow plane departed with John.

It was decided that Bruce would make the last flight of the day. Conditions were not good but, Bruce thoroughly enjoyed his flight. With the airfield located in a valley, Bruce said being surrounded by mountains made the tow seem much different than at Waynesboro. After Bruce released, the tow plane made a low pass to drop the rope and headed off following John's Cherokee to Philadelphia.

On Sunday morning, the weather was unchanged. We spent another day hangar flying and waiting for the tow plane to return. Around 2:00 p.m., John called to let us know that he didn't expect to be back before 4:00. With a long drive ahead of me, I decided to begin my trip home.

The following Saturday, July 17, I stopped at Waynesboro on my way back to New Castle. Larry was sitting by the tow plane waiting for customers so, I decided to fly the Lark. I had visions of arriving at NCI in the Lark, instead of my truck, and claiming the boomerang trophy. However, a low cloud base and poor soaring conditions prevented me from venturing far from the airport.

When I arrived at New Castle, later that afternoon, Dave had made one flight in the 1-26 before the flying was stopped by a thunder shower. We hoped that conditions would improve but, more afternoon thunder showers were forecast for Sunday.

On Sunday morning, Dave enjoyed the first flight and, after an hour, he returned so I could take my turn. I had no trouble staying up and found good lift along a dark cloud approaching from the west. Then, a lightning bolt from that cloud signaled it was time to land.

In less than twenty minutes after my landing, the 1-26 was loaded on its trailer and I was on my way home. I've never seen the 1-26 disassembled so fast before. When we removed the wings, Dave asked "Is it a good idea to be holding these metal wings while lightning is striking the ground around us?" The rain was heavy but, the trip home was otherwise uneventful. — Bud Klaser

By way of clarifying our current insurance carrier’s position on club tow pilots, Costello requires the following:

1. 500 hours total time
2. 100 hours in tail draggers
3. 10 take-offs and landings in the Pawnee
4. Pilot must be a club member

Also, notes SVS president Bud Klaser, unless a new tow pilot has ten take-offs and landings in the Pawnee, "we will not be covered for accidents during the first ten flights."

Thanks to Joanne Tyndall for sewing those great, neat and new canopy covers for the Lark and the 1-26. Jim Garrison is also due a note of thanks for installing a wonderful canopy retaining cable for the Lark. that replaces original and unreliable one.. The Boomerang Trophy is back at New Castle after a five-week visit to Johnson City, Tenn.

E-mail from Fred Daams, early July: Hello from Colorado! It took some time and some doing to get to this point but it was all worth it. This is just to let you all know that everything is fine and the flying has been good too although so far I was able to get off the ground twice, but both flights were with young fellows who were first timers,15 and 17 years old, one from Italy and my neighbor boy. Flew around 9000ft.and 12000ft., not too shabby. But I will write you all the story as soon as I have more time. Greetings from Soaring Paradise! — Fred (fdaams@mindspring.com)

We all KNOW how to do it (or can recite how to an examiner), so I'm not going to waste ink going over that again — but not enough of us PERFORM it properly and consistently and continuously.

There are TWO excellent reasons why we should all KEEP OUR EYES OUTSIDE THE COCKPIT!

1. It will help avoid having an airliner spoil your day, big time, and
2. It will improve thermalling tremendously.

So here's a practice that is not only going to improve your life expectancy, but it'll improve your ability to stay up and go somewhere. Not everyone knows (or appreciates) this second point-but if you really ARE attitude flying, you're constantly scanning the horizon, the sky in the direction you're turning, and watching the bank angle and pitch angle out of your PERIPHERAL vision. If you work HARD at this, you will in a few hours discover that your airspeed remains constant, your bank angle remains constant, AND YOU WILL SEE OTHER AIRPLANES!!

There's a little test you can do to see if you've mastered the art of attitude flying with your peripheral vision. It's NOT a required or even important maneuver, and certainly is not one that you'd do except just to prove you can do it (sort of like boxing the wake). In fact, it's not even the kind of flying you should be doing if you're scanning properly! But it's away to see if your coordination and visual training is up to par, meaning you can fly consistently and coordinated WHILE LOOKING ANYWHERE YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING. Can you make a 360 turn while watching the point on the ground around which your inboard wing is rotating? And maintain an airspeed +/- 5 kts and a bank angle +/- 10 degrees? Now when you can do THAT, you know you can use your eyes for something useful — and that does NOT mean watching the altimeter or variometer!

Scan. Consistently. Constantly. You'll fly better, enjoy it more, and live longer.