elcome to Glidabout, the newsletter of the Gliding Club of WA (GCWA).

Transcription

1 N e w s l e t t e r o f G C W A p a g e 1 Inside this issue: W elcome to Glidabout, the newsletter of the Gliding Club of WA (GCWA). We are a volunteer organisation meaning we keep your costs of flying down by you volunteering to help. Find something you can to help the club. From the President 2 Airworthiness 4 Notices 5 Duty Roster 6 To Watch Out For: See Pg 5 Calendar: Round the Clubs SGM Monday 25 Feb See below for details. See the GCWA members web page for up to date info. E n j o y t h e C l o u d s w h i l e S o a r i n g I t s C o o l! GCWA: Bookings: Airfield:

2 N e w s l e t t e r o f G C W A p a g e 2 Hi All, From the President Kevin Saunders A mighty effort by all concerned resulted in us successfully hosting the WA State Comps, with 17 entries. Our new State Champion is Swain Johnson followed by Dick Sasse (at 93!!) See letter from Dick in this issue. The weather resulted in three comps days being lost and there were plenty of out-landings, but no incidents. Amenities The Shire s contractor has finished relaying the main water pipe to the airfield, but it has yet to be connected. Airworthiness ZAY is out for Form 2 and the fuselage is with Norm Harding for repairs to the scraped belly. GIC is back in the air after Form 2 and repairs to main and tail wheel areas thanks to Norm again. Kevin in the depths of an Annual Inspection JMC Form 2 is completed and it s back in the air. I flew it to Tammin and back to get some kms on the board for the Christison Trophy.Airfield The Shire CEO reports that some landing lights have been damaged and that this has not been reported as re-

3 N e w s l e t t e r o f G C W A p a g e 3 (Continued from page 2) quired. If you damage a landing light please make it your personal responsibility to report it to the Cunderdin Shire on at the earliest opportunity i.e. the next working day. They are also concerned at unauthorized motor vehicles being driven on the airstrips. Please make sure you have the authority sticker on your car and that you either have a hand held radio or are in convoy with a radio equipped vehicle before entering the aircraft movement areas (taxiways and airstrips). Stickers are available in the launch point van. The airfield gates should be closed during operations and closed and locked at the end of each flying weekend. Towplane FSJ is back in operation after its 100 hourly at Northam. There was no concern with the standard of work done at Jandakot by the previous maintenance organization, nor have they refused to do further work on FSJ. Having the work done at Northam has significant benefits in less ferry time and the saving of Jandakot aircraft movement and parking charges. Follow-up work is also easier to organize. Rosters The current roster takes us up to May Special General Meeting A reminder that there will be a Special General Meeting at the Air Force Association, Bull Creek (Meg Olive Room) at 1900 hrs (7 pm) Monday 25 February. The business will be the presentation of the Committee s plan for the purchase and operation of a new two-seater glider. Additional information will be sent prior to the meeting on request to Alis alisstarink@iinet.net.au. See you at Cunderdin. Kevin Logkeeper Required It is a loss for us that Bogdan is returning to Romania soon and we loose a good logkeeper. The Logkeeper job is an essential job in the club mainly about double checking the flying records and completing the logbooks accurately. It also provides some statistic on activity to the committee and the club for use in monitoring our activity level which warns us on income trends. So we are looking for a volunteer to look after the job. You need some computer skills, problem solving, and resolution in correcting records. It only requires action occasionally at the club and attendance at committee meetings once a month. Do a bit for the club and be on committee. Volunteer to Alis; alisstarink@iinet.net.au Gliders for Sale at GCWA Hornet 206: VH-GSE and Nimbus 2: VH-GCU. See February 2012 Glidabout for details.

4 N e w s l e t t e r o f G C W A p a g e 4 Airworthiness RTOA Feedback Hi Guys, Remember that Gliders are required by law to be maintained to the same regulations as GA aircraft, the only difference is that we can train and issue ratings which allow our people to do the maintenance and save us all costs. You cannot by law do more than your ratings allow. Aircraft need this extra care as a failure can easily result in death. History shows we do a good job at low cost and hardly ever have airworthiness failures. But we do have incidents the difference is that we have checks and redundancy that catches issues before they cause an accident. It all starts with the Daily Inspection and we realize this is our most important line of defense. This finds almost all problems. Make sure you find any issues when you do a DI. You must not change or make modifications to any glider. Strictly speaking this is very restrictive but with knowledge and sense there are a few things like changing instruments that you can get a rated person to do. A rated person can also repair items. You can assist but ask a qualified person to help and sign it out. There is a methodology for getting mods approved legally. Simple ones can be done cheaply, if too difficult it becomes expensive and probably impractical. Ask me about it. Lithium Batteries Lithium batteries are tempting for use in aircraft; they are much lighter for the same energy and may have other benefits. But they are new technology and are having troubles. With the recent Boeing Dreamliner Lithium battery fires and many other incidents we in GFA airworthiness are all of the opinion that they are still unsafe and should not be used in gliders. What really gets to us is that I am sure Boeing would have used the best batteries and spent millions developing the control system. If they cannot keep them under control then what hope has anyone. Looking at the Boeing investigation results to date it is clear that no-one is certain on how to produce safe Lithium batteries. It appears fairly clear that Li Ion Cobalt cells are unstable and impossible at this stage to produce with certain safety. GFA is likely to ban or at least strongly warn against using them in gliders. Don t get tempted to use them. Motor Ratings Motorgliders have become common and are resulting in more incidents and insurance claims than plain gliders. CASA is on our case and formal training is essential. GFA held a course last year for motors and have a second course planned for April We have 3 slots arranged for WA members. We need to take advantage of this and I have been selecting candidates based on motor experienced people that will give back to WAGA in return for the training. So far NGC are not going to send anyone, GCWA is sending John Orton, BSS is sending Matt Bell. I have a major overhaul rating and can help overhaul glider engines in WA. There are a few others with motor ratings so make sure your engines are safe (and legally overhauled by a correctly rated person). Don t take chances with airworthiness! What if you put a Lithium battery in your glider and it exploded or caught fire behind your head at 5,000ft. We are here to help. Cheers, Rob Hanbury

5 N e w s l e t t e r o f G C W A p a g e 5 N o t i c e s SGM to approve new x-country glider for GCWA. Monday 25 February. Round the clubs: 3 rd Sat of each month. Next is 16 March. Airworthiness Training. July/ August Get some training and a rating to help with glider maintenance. If you have a technical bent speak to John Orton or Rob Hanbury to get on course this year. Interesting and useful. Advanced Soaring Made Easy (Third Edition) has quickly become the world s leading book on gliding and almost instantly turned into a best seller. For the first time Bernard Eckey has compiled a book that comprehensively covers all gliding topics and deals with them in greater detail than ever before. It provides crucial gliding knowledge on 432 full cover pages, with 180 graphics and 20 tables. The book is clearly written and presented in a very attractive format. It is a must read for pilots striving for success and enduring gliding pleasure. German-born Bernard Eckey is an ASH 25 owner, a gliding instructor, and a level 2 Coach now living in Australia. With almost 4000 hours of safe flying to his credit he has already entered 6 flights in excess of 1000 km and one 1134 km FAI triangle in his logbook. He even set a remarkable 1000 km speed record without carrying any water ballast. His truly all-encompassing book allows ambitious glider pilots to get all the necessary information from a single source and make the difficult transition to a competent cross-country pilot with ease. This doesn t mean that performanceorientated pilots have been neglected! On the contrary, chapters on competition flying, glider fine-tuning and the all-important psychological aspects assist even experienced pilots to improve their success in competitions or enhance their chances at record attempts. This new third edition paves the way for success and assists pilots to discover the true fascination of our unique sport. No matter what an individual s ambitions are, all glider pilots will benefit from a wealth of information. Inexperienced pilots will gain valuable insights while building basic skills, avoiding setbacks and disappointments. Cross-country pilots can use the advanced theoretical knowledge in the development of superior practical skills. Competition pilots will find their knowledge challenged, resulting in insights that will greatly contribute to success. The book makes an ideal Christmas present. It is available by contacting the author on: eckey@internode.on.net. The price is only AUD (plus postage).

6 N e w s l e t t e r o f G C W A p a g e 6 Duty Roster Duty Roster. May 2013Final Date Instructor Tug Pilot Duty pilot Log keeper 9-Mar John Orton Knut Von Hentig Graeme Clinton Derek Mc Allan 10-Mar Swain Johnson Len Wright Andrew Herwig Russell Brierley 16-Mar Kevin Saunders Larry Turner Marek Dukowicz Doug Butcher 17-Mar Iain Russell Knut Von Hentig Bob Bignell Gina Broszkiewicz 23-Mar Swain Johnson Charles Galloway Damien Vaughan jorge Ortega 24-Mar Rod Carter Charles Galloway Terry Fromont Guy Horton 29 March. Good Friday 30-Mar Kevin Saunders Jordan Isles James Cooper Oana Pop 31-Mar Rod Carter Len Wright Vic Hare Ray Hoffman 1 April. Easter Monday 6-Apr Charlie Deal Charles Galloway James Cooper Alis Starink 7-Apr Swain Johnson Charles Galloway Bob Bignell Gina Broszkiewicz 13-Apr John Orton Dave Ellett Greg Mc Donald Malcom Mc Donald 14-Apr Dave Ellett Knut Von Hentig Chris Runeckles Derek Mc Allan 20-Apr Rob Hanbury Kevin Saunders Andrew Musca Unger 21-Apr Rod Carter Larry Turner Graeme Clinton Ray Hoffman AAFC Camp April 27-Apr Iain Russell Jordan Isles Marek Dukowicz Doug Butcher 28-Apr Rob Hanbury Knut Von Hentig Andrew Herwig Russell Brierley 4-May Denis Macneall Len Wright Alis starink jorge Ortega 5-May Kevin Saunders Larry Turner Damien Vaughan Guy Horton 11-May Charlie Deal Dave Ellett Greg Mc Donald Paul Shearer 12-May David Ellett Knut Von Hentig Terry Fromont Derek Mc Allan 18-May Iain Russell Charles Galloway James Cooper Ray Hoffman 19-May John Orton Denis Macneall Bob Bignell Gina Broszkiewicz 25-May Denis Macneall Knut Von Hentig Chris Runeckles Doug Butcher 26-May Swain Johnson Dave Ellett Vic Hare Alis Starink Phone Numbers L2/L3 Instructors Rob Hanbury Iain Russell Mob Rod Carter (L3) Mob Andy Repton Mob Swain Johnson: Mob Charlie Deal Mob John Orton Mob , AEI s Terry Fromont , Andrew Musca-Unger James Cooper Mob , Marek Dukowicz Chris Runeckles Charles Galloway Mob , Bob Bignell Tuggies. Charles Galloway Knut Von Hentig Mob Jordan Isles Larry Turner Len Wright Instructor/Tuggies Kevin Saunders (L3) Mob or Dave Ellett Mob Denis Macneall Mobile Damien O'Reilly Coaches James Cooper Mob ,Chris Runeckles Mob ,Kevin Saunders., Denis Macneall., Rob Hanbury. Swain Johnson