GGC Members Go North & East

The spirit of adventure is certainly alive at GGC in the form of two very different trips by three GGC members.

Jarek is currently in Lesno, Poland volunteering as the Canadian gliding team captain at the World Gliding Championships. You can keep track of the Canadian team blog at this link:

http://teamcanadawgc.blogspot.ca/

A link to the World Gliding Championships website is given here:

http://www.wgc2014.hb.pl/

The worlds run from July 27^th to August 9^th. You can use the tracking link on the website to follow the competitors around the course in real time.

In the spirit of “The True North Strong and Free” David and Martin are returning from a 10 day adventure north of the tree line on the western shore of James Bay. Much like “Punch” Dickens, “Wop” May, Max Ward and countless other Canadian bush pilots, they could not resist the call (and fishing) of the north. Stay tuned for a photo evening in the clubhouse once David and Martin are back home.

p.s. If you’ve never heard of “Punch” Dickens, “Wop” May or Max Ward, you must go back to redo your grade 8 Canadian history class…or you can click on these links!

http://www.cahf.ca/members/D_members.php#Clennell%20Haggerston%20Dickins

http://www.cahf.ca/members/W_members.php#Maxwell%20William%20Ward

http://www.cahf.ca/members/M_members.php#Wilfred%20Reid%20May

Cheers,

Roger

Flight tracker output

Here's a sample of what the tracker outputs from this spring's amazing MayFly contest...  This is an iPhone 4 picture of a TV screen in the clubhouse.  There are 3 sections; on the upper left, there are time vs altitude plots for each tracker, which are modified to show contest numbers.  Each is a separate colour, so crews can see how their pilot is doing.  I took this one when VS, Ray's PW-5, was "King of the Hill"... at the bottom, you can see a signal cut-out from one of the trackers, when it was not powerful enough to call home (or battery was weak). Once back within line-of-sight range, it will just start up again. The blurry numbers are 1,000's of feet, so VS was about 6500' ASL.  Come fly MayFly...

On the upper right, a map of the area, showing the task. The same colour as the altitude trace is the ground track. A vertical line shows relative altitude.

On the bottom, statistics - speed, altitude, climb rate, average cross country speed, and so on.

All in all, it makes soaring a spectator sport, and the GGC clubhouse (nice new tile) is more comfortable for the crew.  There's also the pool out back... really.

This info can also be streamed to the internet, which we did for the 2013 Nationals, to torture the pilots who hadn't come. We don't do this on most days.

Finally, we can capture an unofficial IGC file, and use it for preliminary scoring if, for example, people land out on the final day of the contest, and the scorer is being pressed for final results. Once the trailer gets back with the official logger, a quick confirmation that the data was correct is sufficient.  Very handy (also, if a logger fails - it happens).

Nice system from two great guys! Thanks, Nick and Frank!

As always, if you want to see the picture a little larger in one of these posts, just click on it. To get back, click the x in the upper right...

tracker screen on the 37" TV in the GGC clubhouse (iPhone pic by Dan)

Flight Tracking Antenna Back in Service

After a short hiatus to replace coaxial cable strapping that had been eroded by the sun's UV rays, the antenna for Nick and Frank's flight tracking system was hoisted back into position on top of the main hangar. Thanks to everyone who helped lift the tower back into position.

Photo: Peter Bauer

This system is able to track gliders that carry the little GGC "black box" as far away as Brockville (over 100 km from Pendleton) and has been used extensively at Mayfly contests and at the 2013 Canadian National Soaring Championships host by GGC last year.

Photo: Peter Bauer

On good soaring days, Nick and Frank will usually hand out "back boxes" to pilots that are planning to fly cross country. With a rapid update rate and accurate 3D position data, this system has helped expose non-pilots to the dynamics and excitement of XC flying from the comfort of our clubhouse.

Mid-week flying

A report from Douglas Laurie-Lean on flying on Wednesday July 16th:

Today was a great training day at the GGC. The temperature was mild, and the sky was blue but interspersed with cumulus clouds in abundance. Unfortunately they dampened down the thermals and they didn't rise much above 3,500 ft., during the day.

Nevertheless, the Super Blanik was busy doing some 12 training flights. Phil Kerrigan had two flights and is progressing well along towards solo. Robert Pelley had three flights and is doing well, followed by Jim McCollum who had a back seat check flight. Then Jeff Schneider, after a check flight following his honeymoon absence, spread his wings for two solo flights. I gave Bob Goguen his Spring Check Flight, and last but not least, Wally Wilson flew his guest on a passenger flight, and I did another flight where I controlled the yaw string with rudders while Michel flew the glider with the stick and did a good landing.

 

Many thanks to Gary Paradis who came out to help run the flightline, and Simon Dufour who did the towing. Roberto Figueroa came out near the end to add moral support and to help put the aircraft away.

 

Regards,

 

Douglas

Flying Saturday 12 July

It was a beautiful and busy Saturday at GGC.  First, I'd like to thank our tow pilots, Jean-Marc Chadourne (morning) and Tom Hastie (afternoon) for the great tows and sometimes helping push gliders around. 

There are 7 students flying, and they're all keen to progress, and doing well.  We could have kept 2 two-seaters flying continuously all day, had we had the instructors to do it.  Claude Poulin had 3 flights, Jeff Schneider, Derek Casselman, Dan McDonald (after good work in the morning as assistant field manger), Norman Wong, and John Schmidt doing 2 instructional flights each, and Robert Pelly doing one flight in TR.  IFX did 13 flights, BQN 3, and JCZ 7.  Thanks to Remi for the morning's instruction.  In the afternoon, Paul Goyette really helped by dedicating his afternoon to instructing, on short notice,  and Wolfgang and Ulo also helped out.  Neither M7 or RM flew, since those who could helped instructing.  I know the students appreciated it.  Also, thanks to Abagail for doing great work on the log sheets, ropes, etc, as the Assistant Field Manager.

We had 3 passenger rides in the Puchacz, Doug flying Christian, and Karl flying two of our neighbours from Curran (thanks for the help).

Private owners also had a nice day, with Roger in AT (fresh from a podium finish at the Canadian National Soaring Championship at SOSA in club class) flying for two hours after assembling AT, Ulo, after instructing, flew almost two and half hours, Bill Park flew the batplane for a short flight, and Remi flew three and a half hours in KB (an ASW20 shared with Karl).  Gord flew OR for 3 hours and 9 minutes.

For those who like their Earth 'up there' rather than the more normal 'down there', Wally Wilson did some aerobatics instruction with the chief flying instructor, and took the Puchacz up for aerial daring-do later in the afternoon after being signed off for basic solo aerobatics.  What a smile after! 

Martin did good work fixing the vent window in RM, with a more robust version.  Great work in the background, which is usually not reported or noticed, but always is appreciated.

So, there is instruction, cross-country, passenger flying, towing, aerobatics, mechanical futzing, and post-flying, a swim in our popular Olympic pool, sometimes RC aircraft flying, and a nice dinner at the club...  Plus, it's healthy being out on a nice day, getting some exercise.  As my flight surgeon says, "exercise is medicine".

What's coming up?  Our annual Fly week kicks off on the Monday of the Civic Holiday long weekend.  We should be blessed with good weather, and the chance for students to make much more rapid progress in their skill development, for cross-country pilots to chase that elusive 300 km flight, and spend a week with friends.  Tenting is very pleasant this time of year.  Your Board of Directors will be doing an update on how the year is going after the kick-off day - more details on the club members' Yahoo Group shortly.

October 4 -14 will find much of the club in Lake Placid New York, to try to fly a glider in the mountain wave, where some members have flown as high as 27,000 feet...  A very nice, close-by, site with very different gliding conditions.  Expand your horizons with a bit of mountain flying, at the peak of the fall colours (or colors, should you hail from south of 49).

There's always something different at the club!

Flying on Friday 11 July

A report on Friday from Doug Laurie-Lean:

GGC Members:

As all of you who were unable to come out today, might have guessed, today was a great gliding day. I did seven instructional flights in the L23 (IFX).  Phil Kerrigan and John Schmidt had two flights each, and Jim McCollum just used me as ballast after his holiday in France, to fly off some rust, and Henry Kugler and Michel Mainville had one flight each. Their thermalling flights were all under an hour, but two were close, and heights of 4,000 to 5,800 ft. were attained. I always enjoy flying with Michel, our first Freedom's Wings flyer for the year. He flies the stick and I fly the yaw string with the rudder pedals. He has retained much of the flying ability that he had developed in the GROB when it was here. Don Henry had two flights in Tango Romeo, one lasting 0:17, and a shorter one.

There were sixteen glider flights in all, and among the single seaters were: Wolfgang in 'Mike Seven' (2:20); Martin Lacasse in the Club ASW-20, flying about 217 kms, in 4:12. Then among the private owners were:  Karl Boutin (5:17 in his ASW20); Gary Paradis with over 5 hours in his Pik-20; Dan Daly (3:44 in his SZD-55).  Karl managed a declared 300 km flight, but might have had a difficulty at one of the turn points. Anyway, the longest flight of the day and a most creditable flight.

A great day,

Douglas

Note - Karl's flight was a tune-up, with a declared length of about 297 km; he made the start point and finish, and each turnpoint using the 500 m FAI cylinder observation zone (incurring a 1 km penalty per tp), so it was a very nice 294 km polygon.  Though not long enough for the 300 km Gold Distance and Diamond Goal legs, Karl has applied for Silver Distance (> 50 km leg), Silver Height (gain of 1,300 m, required, 1,000 m), and previously qualified for Silver/Gold Duration with a flight of over 5 hours (this one was 5 hours 13 minutes after release), so, if all is correct with the paperwork, completed Sunday, it's Silver Badge performance.  All in all, a VERY nice flight. With a slightly longer course, we'll have a Gold Badge for Karl in the near future - maybe during fly week.  He used a Colibri, like the two the club owns. Route: Pendleton, Iroquois, Bainsville, Cheneville, Pendleton.

Here is his flight track, and Martin's (M7), a nice flight in the club ASW20, RM (Pendleton, Alexandria, St Andre Avellin, near Notre Dame de Sallette, and return).  You can see when the ground rises over the Gatineau hills, north of the Ottawa river.  The red boxes in the barograms indicate the location of controlled airspace - which we are required to avoid, and we carry GPS systems to ensure we follow Transport Canada's rules.

Karl's flight; vertical look at route, and time/altitude trace (a 'barogram'); dotted lines show altitude at turnpoints

Martin's flight; orange at the bottom gives height of the ground (from space shuttle altimetry)