Yet another great day this past Saturday at Pendleton with flights up to 6600 ft., four Club gliders flying and five private ships airborne - 19 flights in all. Our trusty ASK-13 had four flights with Art Low demonstrated spectacular solo student stamina by staying airborne for 2:07 in the K-13. Neil Spriggs (of Lotus fame) did two good check flights in the Puchacz, the last one thermalling for 1:06, and then soloing in the L-33 for another !:45 You couldn’t erase the smile from his face - I think we have a keeper.
Two of our students (Sanjay & Jimmy) also "flew till they dropped" and benefitted from extended flights in soaring conditions. Well done gentlemen!
Similarly, Christian Alexiuu flew as a guest (with an instructor, as it turns out only for ballast) in the Puchacz, having only flown in the K-13 before, and did an hour of thermalling followed by an excellent landing - well done Christian.
Benoit Gadous, a visitor from nearby Cheney, and a TRIKE owner and pilot went up for an Intro. ride, and experienced some unusual attitudes in the Puchacz. Again, he was all smiles after his flight, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t follow up by joining our Club. I sent him off clutching some brochures. Benoit sometimes flies his Trike into Pendleton when it is not in operation (the airfield that is), and I invited him to come and fly in when we are operating.
Terry Colfer did a “marathon dash” from his duties as event organizer (the marathon), to fly for an hour in the L-33, before having to dash back to his evening marathon duties in Ottawa - I think we can rate this as a “Triathlon event”, but I don’t think it will become a recognised Olympic event - nice try Terry.
Ron Smith flew some of his guests in our trusty old “tin-can” - BLANIK, on four flights up into the wild blue yonder; and lastly, but not least, Ulli Werneberg, Bill Park, Frangcon; Ulo, and our President, Roger, all flew their own ships throughout the afternoon on extended flights - all returning to the airfield of departure.
Dinner was served at the “Bourgetel”, to join the Vaughans, and Jeremic for a pleasant evening’s repast and jolly good company. If you have not yet gone to the "new and improved" Bougetel, you will be pleasantly surprised.
Doug L-L
Monday 28 May 2007
Thursday 24 May 2007
An "Excellent" MayFly Adventure
Jean-Marc describes his MayFly experience...
Ian and I had lunch on the flight line while I experimented with the final glide calculator, which proved to be a very good idea later in the day. We took off at 14:28 and immediately after release, I thought I was going to heaven as we hit a very strong thermal which launched us to 5,400 feet in one shot.
The long week-end knocked at my door and I promised myself not to check my e-mails last Friday night. At first, I succeeded. After dinner, my wife and I went to Silver City to watch an IMAX movie and on our way back, we planned something for Saturday. Upon return, without even thinking about it, I turned on the computer and discovered an e-mail from Ian Grant inviting me to participate in the May Fly contest the next day and, by the same token, take a few steps toward my Bronze Badge. Without even knowing it, my better half had now entered into a competition with Ian. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and I anticipated the worst.
But none of that occurred.
I guess she must have realized that a grounded pilot constantly looking at the sky makes a pretty miserable partner. Instead, she left for the cottage with her sister for the whole week-end.
On Saturday morning, I started my “guilt trip” toward Pendleton. Ian had told me this would be a great day for thermalling and as a Roman Catholic pilot, I could not avoid the guilt of accepting the pleasure of being in Mother Nature’s arms for the afternoon. At the pilots’ briefing, however, I felt somewhat cheated when Ted Froelich gave his forecast. It was not obvious that Mother Nature was going to be so hot after all. But glider pilots must have faith. Delaying our departure to maximize our chances of staying up meant I could receive a “cross-country 101” from Ian while still on the ground, a real bonus.
But none of that occurred.
I guess she must have realized that a grounded pilot constantly looking at the sky makes a pretty miserable partner. Instead, she left for the cottage with her sister for the whole week-end.
On Saturday morning, I started my “guilt trip” toward Pendleton. Ian had told me this would be a great day for thermalling and as a Roman Catholic pilot, I could not avoid the guilt of accepting the pleasure of being in Mother Nature’s arms for the afternoon. At the pilots’ briefing, however, I felt somewhat cheated when Ted Froelich gave his forecast. It was not obvious that Mother Nature was going to be so hot after all. But glider pilots must have faith. Delaying our departure to maximize our chances of staying up meant I could receive a “cross-country 101” from Ian while still on the ground, a real bonus.
Ian and I had lunch on the flight line while I experimented with the final glide calculator, which proved to be a very good idea later in the day. We took off at 14:28 and immediately after release, I thought I was going to heaven as we hit a very strong thermal which launched us to 5,400 feet in one shot.
We managed to maintain enough altitude to go through the gates and start what was going to be the Way of the Cross, a combination of courses that must have been designed by Brother Hormidas, bringing us from one steeple to another within the Pendleton area, starting with Plantagenet.
This first leg was not too difficult as we encountered zero sink most of the way.
We then met Karl Boutin in an L-33 over the church and flew in formation with him toward Fournier, at least for a while because we lost track of him along the way. Maybe I was just too busy looking at Ian’s map and giving him a vector. The total absence of thermal made me wonder if I could still recite my act of contrition. I was somewhat relieved when I saw the steeple of Fournier’s church, with a cross pointing at the sky like a glider desperately looking for a thermal.
This is when we commenced our descent into hell. Ian asked me to use the final glide calculator to figure out whether we could make it to Pendleton. We could but with a thin margin. I kept recalculating along the way, using Wolfgang’s genial contraption as if I were saying the rosary. On the other hand, landing out began to appeal to me when I realized that I would need to tell my wife I had abandoned her for a flight of such short duration. Was it better to go through purgatory before going home? We arrived over Pendleton just in time for an abbreviated circuit and made it in one piece. We had flown for 27 km via Fournier and back to Pendleton without encountering a single thermal. Our glide took 3993 feet for an average L/D of 26.5. It was a challenging day for a novice cross-country pilot!
Once at the flight shack, we found out that Karl had landed out in Fournier and we needed to retrieve the glider. One more tick mark on my new Bronze badge sticker. I gladly volunteered.
We came back to the Club tired and lucky to get assistance from other pilots to rig the glider. Doug Laurie-Lean and I held one wing and took the instructions from Normand Fortin, wiggling our hips each time he would tell us to wiggle until he told us to stop our silly antics and start wiggling the tip!
My evening ended with a free dinner with Karl at the Bourgetel restaurant, our latin temperaments soaring over a nice bottle of red, discussing how to convert new souls to our wonderful sport.
My evening ended with a free dinner with Karl at the Bourgetel restaurant, our latin temperaments soaring over a nice bottle of red, discussing how to convert new souls to our wonderful sport.
What a spiritual experience! Thanks to my wife and Ian for letting me go on a wing and a prayer!
Wednesday 23 May 2007
MayFly 2007 - Epilogue
MayFly 2007 is over but the memories will last for quite a while…
We flew 3 of 4 days with task times of 2.5, 3.0 and 3.0 hours respectively with three landouts and no incidents. Total XC distance covered during the three contest days by 11 competitors was 3729.8 km
Everyone involved should be proud of what was accomplished. Airmanship and safety were first rate and many pilots new to XC flying got a chance to see what really leaving the nest feels like in a friendly competitive environment. The morning pilot meetings were brief and concise and our “fill the launch grid as you arrive” philosophy worked like a charm. Special thanks to our tow pilots (Wolfgang, Norm and Ron) and our flight line crew for their work in getting everyone airborne quickly. We had 11 launches in 35 minutes on Saturday and 10 launches in 32 minutes on Monday.
We flew 3 of 4 days with task times of 2.5, 3.0 and 3.0 hours respectively with three landouts and no incidents. Total XC distance covered during the three contest days by 11 competitors was 3729.8 km
Everyone involved should be proud of what was accomplished. Airmanship and safety were first rate and many pilots new to XC flying got a chance to see what really leaving the nest feels like in a friendly competitive environment. The morning pilot meetings were brief and concise and our “fill the launch grid as you arrive” philosophy worked like a charm. Special thanks to our tow pilots (Wolfgang, Norm and Ron) and our flight line crew for their work in getting everyone airborne quickly. We had 11 launches in 35 minutes on Saturday and 10 launches in 32 minutes on Monday.
Our CFI took the opportunity to fly with a different non-XC rated pilot along on each of the three days in the mighty Puchacz. I’m sure that Terry, Jean-Marc and Alan all learned a lot. Ask these guys about why there are so many sweat stains on the Puchacz “prayer wheel” (glider calculator)! The Puchacz has never flown over Maxville as high (7200 ft on Monday) or as low (1100 ft on Saturday).
Evening entertainment consisted of multiple installments of “so there I was” stories around the fireplace and various videos about aviation and reviewing the flights of day as recorded by Nick & Frank’s tracker system. This system has evolved over the years to the stage where flights can be tracked up to 120 km away. The system utilizes a small black box (mounted on the canopy of the glider) which contains a GPS and uses an integrated low power data burst transmitter to send 3 dimensional position data to a receiver for display on a computer back in the Boudreault hangar. The system was surprisingly accurate and even helped crew locate the position of where pilots had landed out before they called in their location.
In the end, the top three pilots were:
1) Nick Bonniere
2) Ulli Werneburg & Remi Knoerr (tied for 2nd place)
In the end, the top three pilots were:
1) Nick Bonniere
2) Ulli Werneburg & Remi Knoerr (tied for 2nd place)
Complete results can be found on the MayFly section of the GGC website.
Additional thank-you to:
-Ted for being our resident weatherman
-Everyone who helped with ground operations
-Martin for ensuring that both towplanes were available
-Christine for providing the “voice of GGC” on the radio and controlling the start gate.
-Nick for getting the 2007 version of the scoring program up and running
-Sonia for handling the registration paperwork
-Lucile for providing the salads and desserts for the barbeque dinner on Saturday evening.
-and of course, Ulli for being our contest director and coordinating our trophies.
So there you have it. Flying, friends and learning…it doesn’t get any better than this. Start planning now to attend in 2008.
Around the Club
David has started filling the pool so with some warm weather we should be splashing around in about a week.
Greg has been busy getting the tractor and mower ready for the summer cutting season.
See you at the aerodrome,
Roger
(photos: Dan Daly)
Monday 14 May 2007
Surfing in May, Riding the GGC Kahuna!
This past weekend gave us some the best May soaring conditions ever in eastern Ontario with blustery north winds on Sunday.
Many pilots had enjoyable thermalling flights including Nick who managed to pull off the first 500km flight in eastern Ontario this season. However something really unusual happened in the Pendleton area on Sunday.
After climbing up to about 6500 ft in a thermal just south of St. Isadore, the things became very smooth, wave soaring smooth. I nosed AT into the wind and was rewarded with a 3 to 4 kt climb to 9700 ft. My measured wind speed jumped from 18 kts. at 6500 ft. to over 40 kts. at 7500 ft and 47 kts. at 9700 ft. Tim Tuck connected with something similar slightly NE of Casselman and climbed to 10,400 ft! Normally wave sets up in the downwash of the Gatineau hills around the Ottawa River when we have strong north winds. Over the years many club pilots have reported climbs to over 10,000 ft. near the river. This was unusual in that both Tim and I were well south of the river but interestingly enough, downwind of the Alfred bog and LaRose forest. My only explanation is that the thermals over the Alfred bog and LaRose forest were so strong as to kick the higher speed upper air mass into a wave pattern. There were definite primary, secondary and tertiary waves (and rotor) with a relatively short wavelength (2 to 4 km).
Both Tim and I pushed up into the Gatineau hills later in the day to see if there was something bigger but the wind (rotor?) was chewing up the thermals that we needed to climb up to the “good air”.
Just goes to show you that there is always something new to discover in your own back yard.
Surf’s up!
Many pilots had enjoyable thermalling flights including Nick who managed to pull off the first 500km flight in eastern Ontario this season. However something really unusual happened in the Pendleton area on Sunday.
After climbing up to about 6500 ft in a thermal just south of St. Isadore, the things became very smooth, wave soaring smooth. I nosed AT into the wind and was rewarded with a 3 to 4 kt climb to 9700 ft. My measured wind speed jumped from 18 kts. at 6500 ft. to over 40 kts. at 7500 ft and 47 kts. at 9700 ft. Tim Tuck connected with something similar slightly NE of Casselman and climbed to 10,400 ft! Normally wave sets up in the downwash of the Gatineau hills around the Ottawa River when we have strong north winds. Over the years many club pilots have reported climbs to over 10,000 ft. near the river. This was unusual in that both Tim and I were well south of the river but interestingly enough, downwind of the Alfred bog and LaRose forest. My only explanation is that the thermals over the Alfred bog and LaRose forest were so strong as to kick the higher speed upper air mass into a wave pattern. There were definite primary, secondary and tertiary waves (and rotor) with a relatively short wavelength (2 to 4 km).
Both Tim and I pushed up into the Gatineau hills later in the day to see if there was something bigger but the wind (rotor?) was chewing up the thermals that we needed to climb up to the “good air”.
Just goes to show you that there is always something new to discover in your own back yard.
Surf’s up!
Tuesday 8 May 2007
Busy 2 Weeks
It’s been a busy couple of weeks!
Weekend and mid-week flying over the last 10 days and a well attended ground school student barbeque and spring operations safety briefing on April 28th have kept operations busy at GGC.
Last weekend provided great (although windy) flying conditions on Saturday and another nice day on Sunday. Mid-week flying has become a well attended and regular event. Ulli summarizes a recent flight experience below:
Hello Everyone:
It looks like the customary nice May flying has returned, at least for the past weekend. Let's hope it keeps going for the Interclub contest next Saturday and MayFly the following weekend.
At times, the lift on Saturday was outstanding, particularly in the hills later in the day in the direction of Mt. Tremblant where we finally connected with cumulus with 9,000'+ cloudbases.
However, for me the highlight of the day came a little earlier, near the Ottawa river when I spotted a pair of red tailed hawks circling a little higher than I was. Normally, this results in the hawks quickly disappearing out of sight as they core the thermal and climb away. However, in this case I was able to keep up with them and even gain a little. This seemed strange to me but I soon realized why. As I got closer to one, maybe 50 ft away, it looked at me and gave me a very clear view of his/her talons just to make sure I knew who was boss here in their domain! What a scene, a 4 ft wing span hawk threatening a 50ft wing span glider! I actually felt honoured to be accepted in their world, even as a potential enemy. I realized again what a special sport gliding is. In what other part of aviation could this kind of thing happen?
All the best,
Ulli
Weekend and mid-week flying over the last 10 days and a well attended ground school student barbeque and spring operations safety briefing on April 28th have kept operations busy at GGC.
Last weekend provided great (although windy) flying conditions on Saturday and another nice day on Sunday. Mid-week flying has become a well attended and regular event. Ulli summarizes a recent flight experience below:
Hello Everyone:
It looks like the customary nice May flying has returned, at least for the past weekend. Let's hope it keeps going for the Interclub contest next Saturday and MayFly the following weekend.
At times, the lift on Saturday was outstanding, particularly in the hills later in the day in the direction of Mt. Tremblant where we finally connected with cumulus with 9,000'+ cloudbases.
However, for me the highlight of the day came a little earlier, near the Ottawa river when I spotted a pair of red tailed hawks circling a little higher than I was. Normally, this results in the hawks quickly disappearing out of sight as they core the thermal and climb away. However, in this case I was able to keep up with them and even gain a little. This seemed strange to me but I soon realized why. As I got closer to one, maybe 50 ft away, it looked at me and gave me a very clear view of his/her talons just to make sure I knew who was boss here in their domain! What a scene, a 4 ft wing span hawk threatening a 50ft wing span glider! I actually felt honoured to be accepted in their world, even as a potential enemy. I realized again what a special sport gliding is. In what other part of aviation could this kind of thing happen?
All the best,
Ulli
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