President Eric Shiever 482-4232

Editor Pete Lehmann 661-3474

Newsletter Production and Rack Doctor Jon McElravy (412) 466-3807

In-Active Instructor Jeff Hostler 767-4882 (NEW) 242-2318 (parents) or 958-6205 (beeper)

EDITOR'S INTRO

 Happy New Year everyone. It's threatening to become spring outside as I write this, and in fact a number of us have already savoured the premature X-C delights of spring. It's been a rainy washout of a winter. Let's go hang diving!

 On some of your mailing labels you will find an asterisk to the left of your name. If that is the case, it signifies that you have not yet paid your club membership for 1998, and this will be your last newsletter. If you intend to fly our sites you need to join, and, as you can see below, we need you to join to cover the club's annual expenses.

CLUB MEETING AND PARACHUTE PACK

At the annual and (thank God, only) club meeting we saw a number of new faces, Luke Thompson, C Hanan, and Paul Donahue. Dave Lytle made a re-appearance and re-joined the club. Perhaps he has wearied of sailing? John Scott bid us farewell by presenting his last trophies, wonderfully framed high altitude photographs taken behind Templeton on his last cross country flight. Furthermore, John donated forty bucks to the club in lieu of his membership. Thanks John, we will miss you. Notable by his absence was Ric Niehaus who was working to get time off to go to Australia, where he is at this writing. It is his intention to get some hang gliding while he's down there.

 Two substantive bits of business were discussed. The first point had to do with club finances. In reporting the club's finances, Dewayne Renwick pointed out that due in part to reduced membership and the increased cost of insuring Avonmore, the club operated in the red last year. We have sufficient reserves to cover this year's expenses, and it is hoped that the somewhat flukey nature of our membership numbers will fluctate in the right direction this year. If that does not occur, there is the longer term likelihood of a dues increase becoming necessary. 

The second point was brought up by Jeff Hostler. He pointed out that the true owner of the Avonmore launch is a company called FD Topper and Sons, and that a waiver in that name is necessary. As a result, you will find a copy of that waiver in this newsletter. Please sign it (it doesn't need to be notarized), and mail it to the club's secretary, Dewayne Renwick, at the address indicated on the form. 

Because of the changed waiver I took the opportunity to re-type and clean up the waivers, including the new launch waiver. I have mailed cleaned-up copies to Pat Brooks, Larry Huffman, Eric Shiever and Dewayne Renwick, so if anyone requires a set of waivers for new or visiting pilots, contact those individuals or me.

 NEW RATINGS, SIGNOFFS, AWARDS AND CLUB MEMBERS 

As was mentioned above, new member LUKE THOMPSON has earned his HANG TWO. Now we can toss him off real sites. No more of that Ellenville mountain stuff.

PETE LEHMANN has been awarded membership in the CATERPILLAR CLUB. The club is administered by the Irvin Aerospace Company, one of the original commercial manufacturers of emergency rescue parachutes, and it recognizes individuals whose lives have been saved by the use of parachutes. With membership, one receives a small pin representing a silk worm, the manufacturer of the silk from which early parachutes were made.

DRIVERS' PAGE

 The year's first XC retrieve drive was, not surprisingly, made by Brenda Huffman who chased Larry and Jim Meadows to Dewayne Renwick's house. She got there in time to alert Dewayne to get the beer out, and to erect a wind streamer for their landing. Her next mission took her over the back of Fisher Road to get Larry on the east side of Tussey Mountain. On the way home they then went to Pete L's lz to provide him with medicinal beer while he waited a few minutes for Pat to get him. 

Lynn Meadows got into the act on the following weekend when she got her longest ever retrieve following Pete in his new truck (John Chester is envious of her grabbing the first retrieve in 'his' new vehicle). She got to him at Ebensburg airport two minutes after he'd landed despite the fact she'd left the hill fifteen miles behind him. Outstanding job.

 John Chester returned to the scene after a long winter's absence. Because Pete had been kind enough to buy him a new truck, John was pleased to come out and drive. For his part Pete recognized his obligation to John and immediately went over the back. Of course, John was there within minutes of the landing.

Brenda Huffman then went and chased Larry 58 miles to Curwensville on his inaugural mid-week CSX flight. Then a few days later she went to Allegheny Mountain to pick-up Larry and Pete. On that same day, to the delight of PA beer distributors, Chimney Ferraton returned from an extended sabbatical, including an R&R trip to the Bahamas. He chased Mike Neuman for 69.4 miles to Osterburg and then went to get Eric Shiever at 73.6 miles. 

Andrew Holupka was kind enough to go after Pete one evening. Pete of course had said he wouldn't get far, but did and was grateful for the ride home.

At High Point in Cumberland both Brenda Huffman and Lynn Meadows chased, with Lynn getting Jim, Pete and Jeff Seruset, while Brenda picked up Pat and Eric.

NEW TOYS

CHARLIE MARTIN has received his WILLS WING FALCON 195 (much to Pat's and Pete's delight) as well as his HIGH ENERGY TRACER HARNESS. 

LARRY HUFFMAN has received his topless MOYES CSX3. On his first two flights he averaged 56 miles with it.

NEW TOYS

ERIC SHIEVER deserts the dwindling band of non-TANGENT pilots, and buys one.

LARRY HUFFMAN, after having been exposed to the virtues of kingpost-less divers, decides to go topless, buys a MOYES CSX3 .

PAT BROOKS, whose navigation has had its shortcomings in the past, is the proud father of a GARMIN 38 GPS which should go far in remedying that deficiency. 

PETE LEHMANN submits to the demands of driver JOHN CHESTER and buys a new BLAZER, thus retiring his Izuzu Trooper after one roll and 201,000 miles of faithful service. It is hoped that John will approve of the purchase and deign drive for Pete this spring. The FRONT RACK, after a combined 260,000 miles of service on the Pete's two Troopers, is passed on to JOHN FENNER's.

GOLF vs. HANG GLIDING

Q: Whats the difference between a bad golfer and a bad hang glider pilot?

A: A bad golfer goes: WHACK..."Damn"! A bad hang glider pilot goes: "Damn!"...WHACK.

TRADEWINDS SUBSCRIPTIONS

 For a one year subscription (four issues) send a $6.00 check made out to Daedalus HGC to Dewayne Renwick, 4 Griffith Dr; Home, PA 15747

ZIG-ZAGGING ALL DE-WAY(NE) HOME

by Jim Meadows

February 14, 1998. Winds NW 5-10. Even though the forecast was for light winds, the early morning looked favorable with noticeable wind velocities and some sunshine breaking through. An early morning cold front was moving through making long cloud streets, which later ended with small scattered clouds and lightere winds. After long periods of not being able to fly this winter, Larry , Andrew and I were eager enough to load up and meet at Templeton to give it a try. The cycles moving through were gradually becoming weaker as we set up. With a right cross, Larry was first to launch, and after a short flight landed on top as it shut down. I was next in line, with Andrew on my left wing and Brenda on my right wing, already cold from having launched Larry, I didn't want to linger too long on launch. After a few cycles came in, with a right cross that forced Brenda to pull down and back on my right wing, one finally straightened out and I launched. While scratching out in front, I stayed close to launch for a top landing in the event it shut down. After about ten minutes it looked like I would be doing just that, but then I hit some lift just left of launch. Slowly going up, I drifted a bit behind the ridge to keep in it. After a few truns and losing lift, I headed back out front with a tleast a little more altitude to work with and a better idea of where and how lift was working. Although the river seemed quiet, another cycle came through taking me to 3,600msl. Andrew was in the air by then, but soon landed on top after making several passes out front. Larry was on launch again and called to check my altitude. Still climbing, it wasn't long before Larry was climbing past me. We both circled up towards the thin wisp of moisture that was trying to form a cloud. At 4800msl Larry radioed to Brenda, finally in her car getting warm, to head to Route 66, and of we were on our first XC flight of the year. Heading SE, we slowly circled over 66 SW of the Exxon station. We topped out at 5,800msl, still not quite at cloud base. Larry radioed to Brenda to head to Route 85 as he pulled in and headed downwind. Larry started out higher and was flying faster thatn me so I pulled in and tried to keep him in sight, since Brenda was my ride back to the hill. Trying to catch up, I lost quite a bit of altitude an was in serious trouble. Out ahead near Route 85 I was glad to see Larry had slowed down to work a thermal. As I caught up we both circled and gained some much needed altitude, since we had both flown about four miles without finding any lift. As I floundered around, Larry was radioing me that the thermal was to my right. As I came around my right wing went up so hard I got truned away and I had to make a quick left and come back around for a different approach. Finally in the thermal, I got centered and went up for the ride. While circling I tried to keep an eye on Larry, but no matter where I looked I couldn't see him. After drifting about a mile south of 85 I heard him radio Brenda to head to Route 210, and shortly after I saw him a lot higher, flying downwind like a bat out of hell for Keystone Lake. Now, should I keep circling for more altitude, or leave now? I wasn't very high, but getting further away, fast. I decided to pull in, dropped my head, tucked my elbows in and did my best to catch up, but soon lost sight of him. Flying in and out of small patches of lift I eventually gained enough altitude to continue going and fly over 210. Looking back I could see cycles moving across the lake and was able o find more lift and started circling again. I finally saw Larry again, north of me circling under a cloud. He radioed to see what kind of lift I was in. I wondered how he had gotten behind me, and what he was doing. It looked like he was just boating around under the clouds having fun. Maybe he was hanging out waiting for me? Later, I learned that he made a 45 degree turn and headed due east to cross Keystone Lake. Over 210 he began circling again and was drifting with a thermal when I spotted him. Since I was trying to keep up and was having trouble keeping in lift, I headed north in his direction, but no sooner than I had done that, he changed his heading and headed due east again. Without time to catch up I felt like we were Tom and Jerry. So much for wondering if he was waiting for me. I changed my heading again, making a 45 degree right turn an dheaded NE to save some time catching up. nda was trying to contact Larry, to give her location, but he wasn't responding since he'd accidentally hit his call button and changed frequencies. He finally came back on to give Brenda instructions where to go, and he again pulled in and sped off like a bat out of hell. he was covering ground fast but it also looked like he was losing altitude fast too. Pulling in, I began chasing after him but hit some lift so I eased the bar out to let the glider climb. I continued flying slower, maintaining altitude and eventually made progress towards Route 954 where Larry finally stopped to work another thermal. He was still circling as I closed the gap. At that point, and for the first time in the entire flight, I was higher than he was. When I finally caught up, I entered the thermal at the same altitude as Larry and chased him out. He began making making wider turns which caused him to gly out of the lift. I radioed to him, but my radio wasn't transmitting as I discovered later. Larry changed his heading again, this time by almost 90 degrees, and headed NE. I finally knew where where we were going when he radioed Brenda instructions to take Route 119 to Dewayne's house and see if he was Home. Not only did Brenda make it to Dewayne's to tell him Larry was coming in for a landing, but also had time to put up a streamer in the back yard. I watched as Larry circled a few times before landing. At the same time, I was in serious trouble again, and was preparing to land about a mile and a half short. Unzipped and on my downwind leg, I hit some lift and my vario started singing again. Slowly climbin, I was drifting southeast of Dewayne's and would have to fly almost directly upwind to make it. It was about 3:30 by then, my right foot was a bit numb from the cold and I was worried about landing on it. After figuring I was drifting too far away and wasn't gaining altitude fast enough, I pulled in and headed upwind. It took about five minutes to get to Dewayne's, and another five minutes to down through all the lift that seemed to be everywhere, that giving my foot a chance to thaw out. At last I was low enough to set up an approach and landed after a 2:20 minute flight. No one had landed at Dewayne's before and this being one of his goals, he was more than excited to see Larry and me drop in. He not only put beverages in our hands immediately after landing, but also loaded our gliders for us. 

Larry feels our flight was challenging due to the crosswind, and calculated that his flight path from Templeton to the first turnpoint was 16 miles followed by another 8.8 miles to Home. His average lift was 250-300fpm and cloud base was around 6,000msl. I estimated my flight path was a bit longer and with all the zig-zagging was roughly 25.637 miles, average sink was 650-750fpm and cloud base was higher than I ever got. The flight was indeed a challenge, but it was also great fun since Larry was doing the navigating. I expect that once Larry gets his new wings, which I hear will be more bat-like in color, he'll be covering those country miles a helluva lot faster and going a lot further. Thanks to Brenda and Larry for making my fourth XC flight possible and a memorable one. And thanks to Dewayne for his hospitality, and just being Home. 

PULPIT FAILURE TO HOOK-IN ACCIDENT

by Pete Lehmann

 The Pulpit's wonderful new ramp experienced its first accident this past winter, though the ramp played no role in it. Bob Gillisse launched from the ramp unhooked, and then fell to the rocks below the ramp. He suffered multiple, badly broken bones, but is now, months later, well on the way to a full recovery. He was extremely fortunate he wasn't killed.

 Hook-in failures are one of my paranoid fears (I did one on aero-tow 12 years ago), and I just can't understand why the Aussie system of leaving one's harness always attached to the glider at all times meets such resistance in the US. With the sole, rare exception of not being able to get up onto a ramp due to steep steps, all other excuses against the practice are simply that, excuses. How many people have ever died because they couldn't 'walk around and watch conditions' (D. Pagen), or because dust devils trashed them on the ground while hooked-in (the usual Western excuse)? It's all nonsense, and flies in the face of the fact that a terribly significant number of pilots do fail to hook in. They can be rookies, or some of the world's most famous pilots (like Steve Moyes, whom I will ask why he wasn't doing the Aussie thing, US Team member Mike Barber at Hay a couple of months ago, and internet pundit Davis Straub who's done the same thing). I hope that the wire crew aren't berating themselves too harshly for not having caught Bob's mistake. It is a pilot's responsibility to be hooked-in, and while we are lucky if someone catches it, that's just luck we have no right to count on (incidentally, Jim Zeiset was going to launch Dinosaur unhooked before his non-pilot brother caught it). 

Maybe this terrible accident will at least have the salutary effects that Raean Permenter's accident did several years ago. Virtually all of us now fly with full face helmets (even if we 'can't feel the wind', the excuse of that era used to justify not flying with full face helmets), after she had the misfortune of demonstrating the consequences of crashing without one. Perhaps in a couple of years we will all use the Aussie hook-in system. I hope so.

PS In reading the Hang Gliding Deeds below you will note that we've since experienced another hook-in failure, Marc Fink's at High Point. Don't kid yourselves, it CAN happen to you. Be careful.

WHACK OFF

 I just came across this ad on one of the HG digests and I thought that it might be both useful and uplifting to many of the members in our club.

"From the makers of Glider UP, introducing WHACK OFF! If getting up is not your problem, but getting down is, then WHACK OFF is the product for you!!!! By generously applying WHACK OFF to your base tube in a firm stroking manner you'll always end up safely on your feet, a smile across

your face. With WHACK OFF, you'll never need to worry about a bent down tube again!"

HANG GLIDING CALENDAR PHOTOS NEEDED!

The USHGA Hang Gliding Calendar relies heavily on our esteemed membership for photo contributions to this wonderful project. If you have some hot hang photography, send it to us and send it today! Launching, landing, set-up, breakdown, truck/aero/boat/dogsled towing, whatever. The Calendar Committee wants to see it all! If chosen, your photo will be immortalized for all the world to admire. Hints of fame and fortune from this exposure are "in the air." But you have to send

your pics in now! Deadline is May 31st! Imagine yourself/glider/site being admired universally.

Send your photography (slides preferred) to: USHGA Calendar, PO Box 1330, Colorado Springs CO 80901. All photography will be treated with the utmost respect and properly returned. Don't delay-send 'em today! If you should have any questions, please call Jeff Elgart at (719) 632-8300 or email jjelgart@ushga.org

PS: Your submitted photos may also end up in the photo gallery of the USHGA web site http://www.ushga.org

ARAI TANGENT FLIGHT COMPUTER

 (If there's a technological cripple in the club who still hasn't bought one)

 Any pilot flying cross country, or with aspirations to do so, will benefit from the sailplane technology that makes speeds-to-fly easy. GPS interface is available, and the 3-D BAROGRAPH may be available sometime before SamArai graduates from high school. For more information on this easy to use, state of the art, performance enhancing instrument and/or personalized help with speeds-to-fly theory call Larry Huffman at 352-3726. He also has a demo instrument available for test flights. FLY IT YOU'LL LIKE IT.

HOW POLARS ARE CREATED: A FABLE OF THE THREE (POLAR) PIGS

by Chris Arai the Master Sprog

Editor's Note: What follows is something from Chris Arai (Sprog), our master of hang glider performance curves (or polars as they are known). The technicalities of it may be beyond you but the story is hilarious and you'll sort it out. By way of introduction, we're all trying to come up with a polar curve that accurately describes the new topless gliders' performance characteristics. That polar gets fed into our flight computers, which then use that information to tell us how fast or slowly to fly. If the polar is wrong in any significant way we will either be too slow, or, worse, hit the deck short of goal. Gibbo believed his new glider is so good he can fly a super-aggressive polar...and this is Chris' way of warning him of the risks. Read on:

Hi Pete,

Here is the story of how polars are developed to help on making up your tiny mind. First of all you're asking how come there isn't only one correct answer. The reason is that we don't have the best data set. All of the polars I have created here are within the scatter of data points we have. If for a moment you believe that the data we have is good, then any polar within that data must be reasonable. However we don't believe the data to be good, so we tend to stay away from the overly optimistic or pessimistic. That puts us somewhere in the middle. The problem is that the middle is a wide area. So then we squeeze ourselves by comparison with what we have tried in the past, the Conservative polar. It worked pretty well, but some feel that we should be more aggressive. The most aggressive would be a polar that went through the most optimistic of all the data points, which we already decided we are too chicken to do. There are 2 areas of the L/D curve that are important (this isn't hard and fast, but it simplifies things.) They are the area around Max L/D. and the high speed glide area.

Perhaps the best way to confront the issue is to relate a story by a self proclaimed riteous old gentleman who sat in a cave and ruminated about such things. The story is about three little spear chucking pigs named Nelly , Gibbo and Bradley. They lived in three separate areas of a large forest and had different beliefs about how well their spears performed in flight. They were wondering about the mystical Polar of their spears which governed how well the spears performed. (No one knew the origin of the word Polar, but they all figured it had something to do with the amout of boasting done about spear performance; possibly a contraction of the commonly heard retort to a boast of outrageous performance, "Ya' musta poll'd that un out o' your arse") Well, the three little pigs were preparing for an expedition to the land of Oz to the spear chucking championship of the entire realm, so one day they went to see the self proclaimed riteous old gentleman (Sprog). They each presented their idea of their spear's Polar, to which the Sprog said he would try to determine the best Polar for them to use. They each knew that although one could boast all day long about the Polar, once the spear was in the air you had to rely on the actual performance. The problem was that no one knew exactly what that performance was. Nelly had gone in search of his Polar and had come back with stories of the fabled YOW polar, but nobody believed such a spear could exist, even Nelly who claimed to have seen it. Bradley went off in search of his polar, and was convinced that the Maximum L/D was much less than what Nelly believed in. Gibbo figured that since the other two pigs had not found anything conclusive that he would save his efforts and just make one up. Gibbo however was the biggest boaster of the three little spear chucking pigs, and he claimed a polar that was very outrageous. In Nelly's Polar, he decided that the Max L/D was better than last year's spear, but the high speed wasn't much better. This was because he had been to the gliding games at Morningfield and had seen a spear with 15:1, which he didn't quite believe, but he was a proponent of large Max L/Ds. In Bradley's polar he left the Max L/D nearly the same as last year, but felt that he had new found performance at the high speed part of his Polar. Gibbo, the boldest of the three little spear chucking pigs, felt that not only was his Max L/D great, but so was his top end.

The Sprog went into his cave and ruminated for three days, eating nothing but mushrooms he had gathered the day before. This lead to a somewhat incoherent explanation for the three little spear chucking pigs, but the Sprog at least thought of it as useful. The Sprog calculated numerous things about the final end of a spears flight as it homed in on it's target, based upon the Speed Ring setting (all spears had a speed ring of the thrower's choice that could be adjusted.) 

"Nelly my boy," the Sprog belched as he smelled the peculiar odor of Fly Agaric on his breath, "by simply increasing the Max L/D you have been timid and foolish at the same time." If his spear were no better than last years, then he would risk a lot on those long slow glides at low speed ring settings, as shown in the Sprog's Arrival Height graph. The problem is that on the glides at higher speeds with a higher Speed Ring setting there is more safety margin built in, while at the low Ring settings little margin was built in. And all this for only a little gain, according to the Sprog's Climb & Glide Time Saved graph.

"Gibbo," the Sprog said while looking at the accumulated dandruff under his fingernails from scratching his head, you will win all contests, if your boasts are correct. If not, you will spear in well short of your targets" This he could see from his Arrival Height graph, which showed Gibbo loosing over 800 feet with a ring setting of merely 400 if he was wrong about his Polar.

"Bradley," the Sprog said as he swallowed a fruit fly he had caught hovering over his mushrooms, "you may have made the wisest choice." The Sprog had seen that Bradley's choice of Polars kept him conservative at low Ring settings, where the least extra margin from Ring setting was available, yet his high speed performance bet was

hedged by the fact that he could always turn down the Ring while on final if it proved too aggressive. He also gained quite a bit of time as well, especially at the higher speeds.

The Sprog suggested that they try a Polar most like Bradley's, as it provided benefit with the least Risk, which some of the Pigs feared terribly. The Sprog also suggested that if they had any further ideas about their Polars that he could ask his friend Uri Geller to bend them a new one. Lastly, the Sprog wished them the best, saying, "The Big Bad Wolf may huff and puff, but if you're clever you can blow his doors off."

The Sprog then turned and went back into his cave, muttering something about the folly of children. (Chris missed the Worlds as his first child, Sam Arai, was due during the meet, Ed.) 

USED EQUIPMENT FOR SALE/WANTED 

If anyone would like to advertise any equipment for sale, let me know before the end of each quarter. Also let me know if you've sold anything.

USED MOYES DIVER BAZAAR 

137 XTRALITE to a good home. It's in fine shape and will make you look better than you really are. $1,500. He is also selling his 

142 XS Very good condition. $800. Call Larry Huffman 352-3726

WILLS WING SUPER SPORT 163 New in '94; 70 hours; sweet handling and only tumbled once. Flouro Red, Yellow and White. Folding speed bar. Call Ric Niehaus 833-0266 for condition, price, etc.

PACAIR K4 PARTS GLIDER contact John Fenner for availability. 741-6792

UP COMET-2 165 Pacific blue, gold and white. $400 John Scott (412) 981-7460

CG 1000 HARNESS and PARACHUTE with kevlar bridle $350 together. LITEK VARIO and altimeter $45 Call Tom Linder 863-3529

KLASSIC 133 Built in October 1996. About 70 hours of airtime, excellent

shape. Ideal glider for light weight pilots. $3,000. Call Claire Pagen

at 814-383-2569 or e-mail at pagenbks@lazerlink.com.

MIKE NEUMAN'S LIQUIDATION SALE

WILLS WING HP-AT 158 Very clean, and only flown XC on Sundays by a little old lady. Call for details.

QUICKSILVER MX II (N3917A) Rotax 503 engine. Very good condition. Always hangared. Ballistic chute, ELT, CHT, and tach. $4300.00. 

Call (412) 898-3219

DOUG AFFOLTER'S GETTING OUT OF THE SPORT SALE

WILLS WING HP-AT 158 Approx. 150hrs, blue and white. $1,000, also,

BALL M-50 VARIO: all the doodads including barograph. $300.00 Doug Affolter tel. (216) 934-1305

PACAIR FORMULA 144 Good condition, 70+hours. $1000 OBO Contact Felipe Amunategui in Cleveland at; amunak_f@sprynet.com

COMPLETE PACKAGE: $2,350.00 

PACAIR FORMULA 144: red w/white LE and blue top. 2 speed bars, wheels and thermal mitts. 

HIGH ENERGY COCOON HARNESS: for approx.5'10" to 6'0". 20 gore chute with paraswivel. Omega 94 steel D-ring. Safety knife.

REFLEX FULL-FACE HELMET: large, new and with microphone built-in

FLYTEC 3005SI VARIO with airspeed indicator and mount.

Call Bill Kuhar: (216) 252-4313

COMPLETE FLYING PACKAGE: Super Lancer 180 (one owner), Odyssey harness, parachute, Litek vario, training harness, 2-channel Courier business band (USHGA) radio. Kevin Gallagher 282-6894 

FORMULA 154 Less than 100hours, purple LE, pink and blue. Good shape+safe edge downtubes. $900 OBO Call Christian Titone at (610) 286-9427

 HANG DIVING DEEDS 

DECEMBER 15 AVONMORE Pat Brooks gets :55 while Jim Meadows smokes him by five minutes to get an hour.

DECEMBER 26 HIGH POINT Larry Huffman gets 1:10 and wins $20 in the daily five buck spot landing contest (participation is mandatory for any Hang IV landing in the LZ).

JANUARY 11 AVONMORE In the club's first flight of the year Deborah Uttenreither gets 55 min. and 1400 over and has her boyfriend Paul drive for her.

JANUARY 25 AVONMORE Larry Huffman(1 hr) and Pat Brooks (:20) fly in nice but sometimes light air and find that the corn is finally down.

JANUARY 31 TEMPLETON Pat Brooks, Jim Meadows, and Larry Huffman go to the hill but Larry is the only one to fly(18 min). The group was rewarded by seeing an eagle though.

FEBRUARY 1 FISHER ROAD With 4 in. of snow cover Jim Meadows(20 min.), Andrew Holupka (15 min.), Jeff Seruset(44 min.), Eric Shiever(1:20), and Larry Huffman (2 hrs) have a nice sunny day. Eric(test flying his new Tangent) and Larry flew to the end of the ridge and landed in bare fields to keep dry while breaking down.

VALENTINES DAY XC MASSACRE TEMPLETON Spring is finally here. With a north cross at launch Jim Meadows and Larry get to 5800 msl and fly to Dewaynes house at Home, Pa.(see article) while Andrew Holupka got a 5 min. flight and landed on top.

MARCH 7 FISHER ROAD After the annual club meeting a number of pilots resolved to commit aviation despite a marginal forecast for the next day. In the end, the weather was superior to the forecast, though it was tough getting up on the ridge. Larry Huffman launched and, after struggling a bit, seemed to float around quite easily while not a single other pilot launched for over an hour. Presumably they were all waiting for it to get 'soarable'? Larry finally gained three grand and left. Pat Brooks and Jim Meadows launched after an extended unlaunchable period and just missed getting up. Pete Lehmann then launched and quickly climbed to 3,700 over in a suprisingly good thermal (350-450) and went over the back to follow Larry. Larry had gone northwest to get onto Warrior, and then Tussey Mt. which he ran until landing because he wasn't high enough to get over and continue beyond the big powerlines that cross Tussey west of Saxton (10.8 miles). Pete took a more westerly course, following the few clouds, and crossed Warrior Ridge and then out into the Martinsburg valley trying to get to the Dunning Mountain ridge. With the aid of a few very weak thermals he got there just high enough to dive over the ridge to land near US 220 south of Claysburgh (18.5 miles).

MARCH 15 TEMPLETON Winter? Nah, it's springtime. After a brutal return of winter weather, things looked kinda grim for weekend flying: lake-effect clouds, high winds and cold. But all of a sudden Sunday started to look a bit better as the winds dropped, the clouds broke up and the temperature rocketed into the (low) 30's. Jim and Lynn Meadows, Jeff Hostler and Pete Lehmann went to the hill where, after a brief snow shower, things became downright pleasant. Jim and Pete launched first and spent a frustrating hour trying to get to the cloud streets that set up tantalizingly close, but just too far north and south to be reachable. At about four o'clock Pete did finally get over a grand in a broken 150fpm thermal. He left figuring he could eventually reach a street. That he did, and then got to base at 4,700agl (15degrees) on his way to Ebensburg Airport (47.1 miles) where he landed at 6:00, only twenty minutes before local sunset. Lynn Meadows did a great job picking up Pete. She was there within two minutes of Pete's landing and helped him get out of there before it became completely dark. Meanwhile Jim (1,000ft) continued to fly the ridge for a total of 2:15 before landing below, while Jeff got 1:15 and two grand; landing at Slagels.

MARCH 23 AVONMORE Under a sky that was sometimes glorious and sometimes dumping snow, Eric Shiever got :25 (800ft) in the bad west cross, while Jim Meadows later got a sled ride. Eric wonders if they might not have been better off at Templeton.

MARCH 29 AVONMORE Avon-more-of-the-same, a right cross, the site's worst direction. Many pilots show up for the year's first truly pleasant and promising day of spring. Unfortunately the right cross burned a lot of the pilots, with only two people, Eric Shiever and Pete Lehmann getting more than a few hundred feet. Eric launched into a cycle and immediately went over the back, landing on 286 for 6.2 miles. Pete left early and later got to 5,000agl on his way to land (72.3 miles) south of Huntington after he was stopped by the Raystown Lake water hazard. It should be mentioned that he was flying with a Jeff Hostler-style nose cone. After his last flight two weeks ago, Pete had broken down on snowy ground....and forgotten his white nosecone on the white ground. He only realized his loss when setting up at Avonmore, and was forced to seal the nose with packing tape in order to be able to fly. Hardly stylish, but effective.

Back at the hill Pat Brooks, after a first sled ride in his XC, took out Charley Martin's Falcon, and our Grandpa succeeded in soaring fifteen minutes in the Grandpa Glider. Luke Thompson had his first soaring flight at the club, and managed to get five minutes of tree skimming, Andrew Holupka (slid), Dewayne ?, Paul Donahue :18 and Deborah Uttenreither(:08), Jeff Seruset (:18 and a sled), Jon McElravy :13), and Larry Huffman (:05 and :30). 

MARCH 31 AVONMORE Eric Shiever and Luke Thompson go to the hill, and Eric gets :53 flying experimentally, and successfully without a vario. He reckons he got to about a grand over in a pleasant flight. Luke then took a flight, getting an extended sled ride. 

APRIL FOOLS DAY AVONMORE: A TEST DIVING DAY On the previous day Larry Huffman had received his topless Moyes CSX, so he was very interested in test flying his new baby. It was raining in the morning, but the front pulled through and produced a wonderful sky by noon. Within minutes of launching he was climbing at 500fpm to cloudbase at 4,700agl. After that things became considerably tougher, and he only once again reached cloudbase at 5,100agl. Most of the time was spent scratching below, or chasing, weak clouds. In the end he made it 58 miles to Curwensville for an entirely satisfactory first flight on his diver. Pete Lehmann launched after Larry, but didn't get the immediate departure thermal. It took him 45 minutes of ridge soaring at 300ft before getting out to his best height of 3,300agl. After that it was pure scratching, only once getting as high as 2,800agl before landing at Hillsdale for 34 miles.

This was also the FIRST DAY OF THE LANDING CONTEST. Both pilots began it well. 

APRIL 6 TEMPLETON A promising, if somewhat strong forecast brought out a considerable number of pilots, including Mike Neuman from his winter hibernation. After Andrew Holupka had soared for half an hour Mike launched, quickly followed by Pete Lehmann and Larry Huffman. The trio climbed out in lift that varied from 500-800fpm, damn good by local standards. The soon split up with Mike taking a more southerly route while Pete and Larry eventually crossed over Ebensburg before running into, and landing at Allegheny Mountain. Larry got 54.1 miles to lower his average to 56miles/flight on his CSX. He also survived a very scary landing in what had become high winds. Pete landed near Blue Knob ski area for 61.5 miles, noting regretfully that his new nosecone didn't get him as far as the packing tape had the previous Sunday. Mike made it over Allegheny Mt before being drilled to the deck at Osterburg for 69.4 miles. He also got the day's best gain to 8,600msl (7,300agl). The day's hero however was Eric Shiever who launched after the first three and made good time before leaving them for dead on the ground behind him. Eric could have continued on, but wisely landed after hearing reports of increasing winds on the surface. He opted to land in the wide open valley near Martinsburg. His flight measured a personal best of 73.6 miles. CONGRATULATIONS!

 Ric Niehaus, who needed to catch an evening flight to Boston, first made a quick personal best XC to Indiana county airport where Karen scooped him up and delivered him to Greater Pitt in time to go to work. Very efficient planning. Not only was it his longest flight, but it was his best gain, going to 7.600msl (6,300agl). Pat Brooks got away from the hill, but then spent an eternity stuck around NuMine struggling to get high enough to get over Keystone Lake. In the end he had to concede defeat and land there for 12.6 miles. Good effort, though. The last cross-country pilot of the day was visiting DC pilot Marc Fink. Marc was slapped around on the ridge a bit before dribbling out in a thermal that never turned on. He got seven miles and then talked a farmer into giving him and his glider a ride back to his car down on Route 28. What a silver tongued devil. Paul Donahue made his first flight at the site, getting :30 before landing at Slagels. The steadily increasing winds forced Dewayne Renwick, Luke Thompson and Jim Meadows to break down on top.

APRIL 10 TEMPLETON Good Friday might have been an overstatement, but it worked out reasonably well. Andrew Holupka began the games with a short ten minute soaring flight before toplanding. He later flew for five minutes before the north cross flushed him. Larry Huffman then launched to gain further experience on his new CSX, which he did for about 1:15. Jim Meadows too soared for about an hour before top landing with Larry. Pete Lehmann flew with Larry for a while before dribbling over the back. He got to 1,900ft and left, figuring it was better than staying on the ridge where he'd get flushed in the end. Things slowly improved, and he landed at six o'clock on 286 south of Indiana for 25 miles. Andrew was kind enough to have chased him, and got there moments after he'd landed.

APRIL 11 HIGH POINT, MD With a light NW forecast many of the club's pilots went to Cumberland to take advantage of their higher site. The soaring forecast was good, but an unexpected cirrus layer dampened things down until it passed through later in the afternoon. The first of our pilots to launch was Pete Lehmann who soon climbed out, and as is his wont, left. He flailed around over the back before landing in the boonies for 17.5 miles. Jim Meadows and Jeff Seruset went later, and landed at 15.5 miles while Pat Brooks and Eric Shiever made it to Newtown for 12 miles. Paul Donahue chose to stick around the ridge, which he did most successfully. He flew for about three hours, and late in the day got through the inversion to 8,700ft for his second highest gain ever. Nice job. Larry Huffman had the hard luck award as he discovered a dinged leading edge while pre-flighting his CSX. He then suffered the further indignity of having to hang around and pack the parachutes of other pilots who'd had fun flights. Very frustrating.

APRIL 12 AVONMORE Pat Brooks and Pete Lehmann went out on a goose chase, hoping against reason that they could jump off into a downwind cycle and climb out. It didn't work, of course, but Pete got to fly Charlie Martin's 195 Falcon which he found to be magnificent fun. Charlie then made his first flight on the glider in his new harness. It worked well, and he was pleased with both harness and glider. 

APRIL 20 TEMPLETON A promising post-frontal forecast foundered on the soaking wet ground from days of rain. Jim Meadows got about twenty minutes in two flights, Pete got :45 and Pat Brooks flew to the Exxon Station and got to two grand for the day's taste of xc flying.

APRIL 21 FISHER ROAD Ric Niehaus, Marc Maskowitz and Pete Lehmann go to Fisher Road with a spectacular thermal forecast. Unfortunately there was a cirrus deck that shut them down, and Ric and Pete slid twice, and Marc three times.

APRIL 23 TEMPLETON Overcast skies and a right cross were not particularly auspicious conditions, but Larry Huffman and Pete Lehmann scratched out in amazingly light conditions. And then things became ever better as they finally reached Chestnut Ridge behind Blairsville. The cumies became active, and Pete later got to base at 8,700ft in a sprinkling of snow and ice particles. Larry landed north of Ligonier for 45? miles, while Pete got over Laurel Ridge and made it to Berlin for 71.6 miles. Back at the ridge Eric flew twice for :25, but the most interesting part of his day was discovering that the flooded parts of the lz were inhabited by dozens, if not hundreds, of large carp. He and Ric Niehaus went fishing for carp with their bare hands, and Eric picked up one that weighed some 20 pounds. Luke Thompson flew for twenty minutes, getting to 1,300ft, while Ric relaunched after five o'clock and got to 5,200ft on his way to a flight of 16.8 miles.

APRIL 25 TEMPLETON A northwest forecast and sunny skies brought out an almost unprecedented number of pilots, including several from Ohio. Conditions were initially somewhat gusty which, when combined with a fairly strong left cross, made some pilots uneasy. Pete Lehmann, Mike Neuman and Jeff Seruset climbed out together, but Jeff and Pete landed immediately about 7.5 miles over the back, while Mike pulled off a save to continue to near Marion Center for 25? Miles. Larry Huffman was off next, and quickly climbed out to 5,400ft and left, finally landing at Commodore for 29.5miles. John Fenner, taking a mental health day from his MBA program at Pitt to put in an appearance. He flew 17? Miles to Plumville. Jeff Seruset, after a quick return to the hill courtesy of Pete's friend Russ Moses who'd flown in from Minneapolis to drive, relaunched and soon climbed out for a surprising late day flight of 16 miles to Smicksburg. 

At the hill the other pilots experienced a mixed bag. Some received fast sled rides (Jim Meadows, Jon McElravy), and some had short soaring flights which included some unpleasant turbulence (Andrew Holupka), while Pat Brooks soared uneventfully before landing at Slagels. Several of the Ohio pilots chose not to fly due to the cross, reported turbulence, and, finally, the light conditions.

APRIL 27 TEMPLETON In what is becoming the "year of the right cross", conditions were again quite northerly as Larry Huffman, Ric Niehaus and Pete Lehmann went to the hill. Larry had the day's best flight on his second flight when he climbed out at as much as 700fpm to head over the back. He landed at Deming's Ridge north of Elderton for 14 miles. Pete left with a weak one, and only got five miles, while Ric demonstrated his doggedness in flying four times in an attempt to refine his landing technique.

APRIL 28 HIGH POINT/TEMPLTON At High Point light over the back conditions meant that only Larry Huffman even launched, and that resulted in a short sled ride in rotory conditions. The day's drama was provided when Marc Fink launched unhooked. Very fortunately he was essentially uninjured, having suffered only some nasty bruises. His glider flew around the corner to the left, and crashed through the trees, suffering a broken leading edge, but no apparent sail damage.

 Meanwhile, back at home, Eric Shiever flew three times at Templeton. His first two flights were short hops, and the last one was thirty minutes. He had a far more efficient day than that of the others.

APRIL 29 FISHER ROAD Larry Huffman, Ric Niehaus and Pete Lehmann went to Fisher with a promising forecast. Upon launching it became apparent that yet another forecast was not quite accurate. Larry and Ric both had two extended sled rides, while Pete got up from below launch for an odd 2:45 flight (5,600msl) which saw him flying with ospreys. The flight ended when he flew to the outskirts of Breezewood.