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I won’t be able to be at the field on Wednesday, but there is a large pile of dirt next to where the new hangar is being built that you may take some of for your filling requirements. John Lincoln
First I want to thank John DeRosa and especially John Scott, his daughter and her boy friend for the beer and sticking around and helping me derig. Thank You all.
John D didn’t mention where I went. It was all over. In order it was Belvidere, Popular Grove, Hilbert, Kirkpatrick, DeKalib, back to Hilbert, down to Huntley at the freeway, back to west of Hilbert and then back to SSI. It was a very enjoyable day after all.
John, isn’t all flying in August like this? JL
Yes Peter, eventually we wish to have electricity at the hangar. Is that something you could help with, i.e. engineering or wire size? John L
This isn’t a complete wrap of Thursday, just an add on. The excavation for the hangar was completed. The gravel is scheduled for delivery on Tuesday. The building should start about two weeks after that.
Now flying. It was fairly good. Cloud base was between 4000 and 5000 feet AGL. Don Grillo and I flew together for a trip to Dacy, Downers Grove and back to SSI. I lost Don then and wanted to see some new ground so I headed NE to Crystal Lake, then to Pine Hill at the state line and then back to Downers Grove. After that it was on to DeKalb, got stuck on the way though and had to work my way out of the hole I crossed. From DeKalb it was back up to Dacy, ride the cloud street back to SSI, turn around and run back to Dacy a final time and back to SSI and landing. I measured 221 mile for all the legs but a somewhat slow speed of 39 mph. Thanks to Greg Tomczyk for sticking around till I landed and helping me derig.
A final observation. There was one thermal just south of SSI that had, at one point, at least 6 of the seven gliders flying yesterday. Don mentioned that ALL should be turning the same way. I mentioned that with that many ships in the same thermal and at nearly the same altitude everyone needs to keep their eyes out of the cockpit, head on a swivel. It was very much like flying in a contest. I hope all heard Don and me about thermaling direction and watching out, it’s very important.
Congrats to all who had good flights yesterday, it was a fun day. Hope today, Friday is just as good.
John Lincoln
Well it was a nice day. Started slower than forecast, wasn’t as strong as forecast, didn’t go as high as forecast but it looked very good. Several flights of an hour or more. I heard that one of the 2-33’s was up for like 3 hours. John Scott had a nice flight in the 1-34. I thermaled with him several times. Maybe we should keep it. I heard of reports of pilots getting as high a 5000′. Thanks to John O. for helping me rig and Greg Tomczyk for the derigging help. Also thank you to Don Grillo for towing. There were several flights of the 2-33’s and the Krozno before the private ships took off. Carl lead the private ships as thermal sniffer and did a very good job. That said and against Don’s advice, I still didn’t get of until 2500′. Maybe next time I’ll release at 2000′. John O. was up for an hour and Carl longer than that. I didn’t count how many flights the club had but I would guess there were at least around 20. Way to go to all who helped and flew. Thank You! It’s great to see this club work so well on a week day. John Lincoln
Steve, I don’t know about the BBQ but I am interested in flying on the 4th and possibly the 5th. I will donate to the BBQ cause though! Anyone else? John Lincoln
Wednesday does look good. Thursday looks very good too. I have a conflict, but if we can get a tow pilot for Thursday I will change my conflict and fly. Anyone else? John Lincoln
Karl,
I was at the field yesterday and found 4 wheel platforms. I put 2 next to my storage box and 2 on the edge of the grass on the north side of the trailer tie down area. John L
Karl,
A wooden platform like what you describe had floated out toward the runway (but still in the trailer parking area) when I was out a while back after the trailers were moved and I put it in the grass on the north edge of the field along where the trailers and ships are tied down. I thought it was farther east than what Don described, but maybe not. Hope you fine it. John L
For what it’s worth. If the canopy did come open there is a very easy fix. I know because this has happened to me. (Note that this was on my check list of before take off things to do but because it was a contest and we ended up in a hurry I missed it.) When this happened I yawed the glider such that the relative wind pushed the canopy closed. This happened in a Standard Cirrus, so I used my free left hand to latch the canopy. Of course you have to also do EXACTLY what Don Grillo says you MUST do, which is fly the AIRCRAFT!!!!!!!! Also like Don says if you cannot see the towplane release, RELEASE, RELEASE!!!!!! One final note I will add here. I don’t do my pre-takeoff check list once. I usually do it 3 or 4 times. I do this so that if something happens on takeoff (and things have happened) when I run through my check list again in my head I can remember that I did check the items on the list. What ever the issue is it wasn’t an issue at the start of the takeoff roll. John Lincoln
