Sunday 9-19

Well fairly good wasn’t a good description. Very good fit better. At least after you got over 4000 AGL. I found a lot of 4 to 8 knot lift above 4k. Below you would be scratching and I did some of that too. I managed to get to Poplar Grove, 12 miles SW of DeKalb, up to Dacy, back to DeKalb and finished back at SSI. 153 miles. Highest I got was 7000 msl. There were 14 flights total. And 5 were scenic rides. So a very good day for SSI in my book. Don and Mark did the towing, John Scott gave some rides. I wasn’t on the ground to see all that went on so this is word of mouth. The only low point was Jimbob had a flat tire on 401 and wasn’t able to get it fixed in time to fly. BTW his 195 is beautiful! I only got to see it in passing but what a stunner. Maybe one day I’ll get a chance to look inside. The next couple of days don’t look very good but Wednesday and Thursday don’t look bad at all. Blue is the only problem with them. Hopefully we’ll be able to get in some more flying before the season ends. John Lincoln

A few final observations on Sunday that I forgot. I was seeing corn stock leaves at 6000′ msl yesterday. It really gets your attention to see a 2 foot corn leaf go whizzing the canopy just a few feet away. At first I thought it was a hawk but on the next turn in that thermal I saw it was a corn stock leaf. I also saw a Paraglider at about 6000′ just north of DeKalb. He was a couple hundred feet lower than I and headed south. Didn’t see him again after that. Finally I landed over the fans and baskets of the balloon operation. They set up on the runway as per their usual routine. Thankfully they moved their vehicles off to the edge of the runway just before I landed. It wasn’t an issue for me as I just landed long, but after hearing all the discussion about “not landing over gliders staged on the runway” at the meeting it seems like we should inform all of our runway users to avoid staging on the runway if there’s a likelihood that the runway could/will get used while they are staged. The solution is to move the balloon operation to the alfalfa field. BTW this is the third time I have landed when the balloon operation has been either setting up or fully set up but not launched. John Lincoln

Denny and those who might be interested. As to avoiding a Paraglider it’s all visual in my case. I grew up and learned to fly without the advantages of transponders, Flarm, or ADS-B. It was and still is for me now see and avoid.

I don’t know but I would doubt that the Paraglider pilot had a transponder or ADS-B. I didn’t see a strobe light. Maybe he had Flarm. But I don’t have Flarm so no help there.

In my experience see-and-avoid has never made any noticeable difference in flying a task. Only a momentary deviation in your current location. Sink on the other hand can and has made large deviations necessary. And of course sink has ended more flights prematurely resulting in land outs than I could ever mention.

One of the interesting observations I made when I spotted the Paraglider was the feeling that he WASN’T moving. I was traveling about 70 to 80 knots and he was probably doing 20 to 30 knots. A closure rate of 50 knots. He seemed to be standing still.

Also I never expected to see a Paraglider. He must have been towed or winched up and then found a thermal.

John Lincoln