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.
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| Karl's flight; vertical look at route, and time/altitude trace (a 'barogram'); dotted lines show altitude at turnpoints |
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| Martin's flight; orange at the bottom gives height of the ground (from space shuttle altimetry) |
