July, 2006 Volume 5, Issue 6 NEXT MEETING: 7:00 PM JULY 20 AT MCL CAFETERIA, CASTLETON, IN. www.centralindianasoaringsociety.org A Perfect June Day with CISS Picture by Dave Newill CLUB MEETING Thursday July 20th at MLC Cafeteria in Castleton! Come for Dinner at 6 pm or just for the program at 7 pm. We will be eating and meeting in our new executive dining room. The meeting starts at 7 pm and we must be out by 9 pm. Bring a friend, a spouse, or a date (I hope your wife counts as all three). The program will be two panel discussions: Flying the Astir and Everything you need to know about thermals and how to use them. Directions: From 465, head north on Allisonville Rd. turn right (east) onto E. 86th Street and then take the first right turn onto Castleton Corner Drive and the next right onto Castleton Corner Lane. It's at the end of that short spur right next to Allisonville Rd. At the corner of 86th and Castleton Corner there is a Pier One store as a marker. 1
From The President SHARED EXPERIENCE SUSTAINED GROWTH Members of CISS come from many walks of life. Club members represent an impressive array of occupational, social, and economic experiences. Hearing about these varied experiences is one of the highlights of visiting the airfield. From member experience comes the expertise to operate the Club day to day and to determine policies important to assuring group prosperity over the long term. Such decisions are like those each member encounters in daily life. Is it plan now and work the plan later? Or jump in now and not be concerned about the future? Is it accumulate resources now and purchase appreciating assets later? Or bow to momentary convenience and arrive at the future unprepared? Every Club member wants the best-ever future for CISS? Providing input to and supporting the work of Board of Directors is an important part of Club member participation. Experiences from all walks of life are valuable to CISS. Keep in touch with Club Board members and leadership. They are working on your behalf. Let your experiences be known, support their efforts, and express your appreciation for their hard work. Jim White President, CISS Board of Directors CISS CALENDAR 2006 July 01 13 20 August 18 Agenda items for the Board meeting to Jim White Board Meeting at Jim White s house Membership Meeting 7:00 pm MCL Cafeteria in Castleton Dinner at 6:00 pm. Barbeque at Mike Warren s 6 pm @ Creekside Farm Airport New Members: Rick Whitworth is an acquaintance of Gerry Whitson. Rick has previously flown gliders in Belgium and Bardstown, KY. He lives in the Louisville area. He visited CISS once last year with Gerry. Let s all welcome Rick to the club!!! Barbeque at Mike Warren s August 18th Mike and Lisa have invited us to their home for a barbeque Friday evening, August 18th starting at 6 pm. They live at Creekside Farm Airport, formally known as Lazy B Airport. Activities: Possible activities include: bonfire, hay ride, horse shoes, volley ball, kite flying, hiking on a ½ mile trail, fishing or wading in a creek. If we have rain, we may be in the hanger. What to bring: The club will supply the meat. Bring something to share, your own table service and lots of family and friends. If your last name begins with A-H bring a salad, if J-R a desert and S-Z something to drink. If you can, bring lawn chairs and folding tables. Directions to Mike Warren s : Feel free to fly in! But if you have to drive, Creekside Farm Airport is located just east of Noblesville at 13620 E 191st Street, Noblesville, Hamilton County, USA 46060. The phone number is 317770-9556 and Mike Warren's cell number is 317-679-8333. The easiest way to drive there is use Indiana State Road 37 to 191st Street. From the intersection go east exactly 3.5 miles and you will be at the paved lane going into the property on the north side of 191st Street. Weather and maintenance permitting Mike will plan to park the airplane near the end of the lane. 2
Desert Flying: Our club invaded Moriarty in June. Nyal Williams and Gerry Whitson flew Diamond Distance. Pete Detore and Terry Wools may both have Gold Altitude. Congratulations guys!!! Have you seen Nyal s new outfit for desert flying? REMINDER: Each person flying who is not a member of CISS is required to complete a release form prior to flying. Take good care of aircraft! A fee of up to $750 for damage is assessed the PIC. Keep your web profile up to date. Recently our chief instructor tried to contact someone on important business and none of the telephone numbers were current. If you have forgotten your password, email Mario at Mario.lazaga@lifegrid.com THANKS! ZA s CORNER - FLYING CROSS COUNTRY WITH A GROUP It's a great idea, but like any good idea it requires more than luck to make it happen! If you have not flown together with a group of your buddies, you should and I'll guarantee you'll like it. Maybe only the soaring birds enjoy each other's company "on the wing " as much as glider pilots who participate in this kind of cross country flying. The obvious advantage of flying together is the improved chance of finding more and better thermals, allowing you to stay aloft more easily. A few novices will stumble into thermals at a greater rate than one master. A significant issue is the different performances of the gliders in the "flock". Just think for a moment of Ka 6's and LS 6's. Chris Carpenter will tell you if you need to ask. The main difference however is not the ability to climb, it's the inter-thermal cruise speed on the good days. Remember it's not a race so slow up if you have the more slippery ship. In addition, the skills of the pilots will differ, but that's not a good reason not to try it. In my not so humble opinion I'd say the only way to successfully go off "as a flock" of gliders is to agree on a course before take off (one can change that in the air if for some reason another course looks better after launch ). Say, Alex/Elwood/ Marion /Alex for starters. All the sailplanes should start about the same time and communicate with each other on 123.3 or 123.5 ( Glider frequencies ) - NOT 122.8. Communications are important, but should be kept to a reasonable minimum. Safety messages mostly - like "XX, PW is coming in under you from the south do you see me?" or perhaps "I have a good thermal 2 miles east of Elwood." An important procedure is to fly on course with each other side-by-side, not one behind the other. Flying side by side a few hundred feet apart is both safer and greatly increases the chance that someone will find a good thermal. Flying one behind the other means you all fly in the same air, which sometimes is not good air! What it takes is for someone with a strong interest to suggest a "Tour de Indiana" and agreement from a few other pilots. Try it you ll like it! ZA (AKA Ron Clarke) 3
FUN AT THE FIELD Jack Hensel and Chris Hall relax after Jack s second solo flight. Dave Newill and Cadet Jordon Alexander (Dave must want a new camera) Gerry Simpson running operations John Weber brought his Discus from Arizona Andrew and Phil Gordon make a great father-son team! 4
Found on the Web- Emergency Bailout If you had to bail out of your sailplane, would you be able to? Here s a great web site to prepare you. It includes articles by Allen Silver who is an expert on bailout. The web site is http://silverparachutesales.com/ On the left side click on Articles. Tarnished Silver - George Saunders flew the PW-5 for 4 hours and 20 minutes on June 20th another almost silver duration flight! Associate member Rick Millane says Hi there! to everybody from New Zealand. The soaring conditions look great, Mike! Mike Reilage makes the practical test a little more interesting! Our Board of Directors. Jim White, President Chris Carpenter, Vice President Mike Beckage, Secretary Gerry Whitson, Treasurer Craig Bixby, Maintenance Chief Peter Detore, Operations Chief Tom Eaton, Chief Tow Pilot Nyal Williams, Chief Instructor Darren Bedwell, Trustee Dan DeWitt, Trustee Mario Lazaga, Trustee David Newill, Trustee Other members who serve the Club: Safety: Mike Rielage Web Master: Mario Lasaga Blog Master: Darren Bedwell New Instructors: Ron Clarke (LRPC) Club Promotion: Don Taylor (LRPC), Nyal Williams (LRPC) Membership Meetings: Don Taylor, Nyal Williams Communication: George Saunders (LRPC) Membership Promotion: Dan Dewitt and Jeff Melin (LRPC) indicates members of Long Range Planning Committee Send your newsletter articles to George Saunders or Mario Lazaga. Deadline for our next newsletter is July 24. 5
Visit to the Chicago Glider Club My wife was teaching in Merriville, so I drove with her and visited the Chicago Glider Club in Minooka, IL. As I was walking around the gliderport, a strange looking aircraft approached. It landed and out hopped Gene Hammond. Gene is a long time glider pilot and lives in one of the 5 houses at the airport. He was flying a homebuilt amphibious airplane and had just returned from practicing water landings on the Illinois River. Gene told me all about the place. Since we are hoping to buy our own field, I quizzed him about the process. They purchased the 1600 x 300 foot grass airfield in 1973, along with some wooded acreage around it. They cleared some of the woods to make home lots and sold those off with strict covenants. They purchased land on either end of the airfield. On the east end they cleared woods at the river bottom for an emergency landing strip. On the west end they sold off home lots with strict covenants to allow for an emergency landing strip on that end. After the sale of the lots, their mortgage was $11,000. They built some beautiful steel hangars that have only recently needed their first coat of paint. But I was most impressed with their club house build on the side of one their hangars. It is a first class lounge, class room and operations center. Just outside the club house is a play area for the children. The club house is festooned with glider information: instructions on how to preflight aircraft, safety reminders and other timely advice. It has two bathrooms with showers and a pay phone. They have file cabinets and bookshelves for aircraft manuals and a lending library of glider books and videos. They have two computers with Internet connection to check on the latest weather. What a great club house! Here s hoping we can build our own some day. George Saunders 6