Editor Pete Lehmann 661-3474
Newsletter Production and Rack Doctor Jon McElravy 466-3807
In-Active Instructor Jeff Hostler 767-4882 (NEW) 242-2318 (parents) or 958-6205 (beeper)
Winter's on its way out and spring's around the corner. With that in mind pilots have been spending big bucks this winter getting the latest and greatest doodads for the coming flying season. The winter's flying has not been as bad as past winters, with a considerable number of light, thermally days that were sunny enough to make flying pleasant despite the cold temperatures. The light, scratchy conditions have been particularly well suited for single surface gliders. One doesn't need no stinkin' topless to have fun.
You will find below the time and place of this year's Club Meeting and Parachute Pack. Some of you will be receiving this newsletter for the last time unless you rejoin the club this year. The 'chute pack is a perfect opportunity to take care of necessary equipment maintenance and re-join the club. I hope to see you all there.
As part of the eternal struggle to keep the unwashed and unholy out of the Avonmore launch, Luke Thompson has donated a combination padlock to the club, and Pat Brooks came up with an ingeniously simple fix for the broken gate.
Bring your parachute (air it out the night before) and your checkbook to re-new your membership for the 1999 Daedalus flying season. Come and pack your 'chute, drink beer and get elected to a club position that will bring you great power, prestige and perks (but no interns). This is your one chance to flaunt your colorful nylon lacy things in public without fear of humiliation. Don't miss it. If you need directions to the fire hall call Pat Brooks at 724-352-3730.
Nada, none, keine, rien.
The winter has provided little opportunity for our drivers to display their skills. The only one who's done any regular driving has been Brenda Huffman. And much of that has been in repeatedly going to pick-up Larry at his regular trans-Clarksburg landing zone. Lynn Meadows has been out too, and chased Eric Shiever after his low altitude Jacks Mountain ridge ride.
Just to demonstrate how lucky we are with drivers, one weekday on my way home from Templeton I ran into Lynn Meadows in Kittanning. She was returning from Altoona with her Mom and had been monitoring the radio to see if anyone needed a ride. Are we lucky or what? We have drivers that troll for pilots even on their 'off days'.
As was mentioned in the last newsletter, Luke Thompson clipped a tree going into Templeton late last fall. He was very fortunate to escape injury in what could have been an ugly event. Luke feels that his accident holds a valuable lesson, so I will repeat here what was explained to Luke in the aftermath of his flight.
Luke's accident occurred after he had allowed himself to get somewhat low on the ridge before heading out for the LZ. Unfortunately for him he encountered an unusually heavy and sustained patch of sink on his glide out to the field. It soon became clear to him that it was going to be touch and go as to whether he was going to make it over the last trees and into the field.
This presented Luke with a situation that is commonly encountered by pilots in the course of their flying careers. Luke was desperately hoping to be able to get over the last tree and kept going toward the field even when he suspected that he might catch a tip on one of the trees. He reasoned that even were that to happen the glider would helicopter in sufficiently gently that no great harm would come to him. And in the end that is precisely what occurred. Luke clipped a tree with one tip, rotated and came down into big bushy stuff suffering nothing more than an easily repaired broken leading edge.
While Luke got away with it, what he did was in fact quite dangerous. One of the worst things that we can do as hang glider pilots is to hit a tree high up and then fall out. Worse yet is to hit a tree asymmetrically, as Luke did, and fall out. In both cases, and particularly in the latter case it is very likely that the glider and pilot will hit the ground after a considerable, accelerating and utterly uncontrollable fall. By Luke's having pressed on toward the LZ even after he realized his chances were poor of making it without contacting a tree, he placed himself at great risk of experiencing such a catastrophic descent. Because his glider hit asymmetrically it was very likely that the glider would have slipped in rather than performed the gentle descent he fortunately experienced.
The lesson in Luke's accident is that if you doubt you are going to make it into a field it is vastly better to perform a planned, precautionary tree landing rather than risk partially clipping a tree and then falling out in an uncontrollable descent. If a pilot deliberately plants his glider on the top of a big bushy tree it is almost impossible for that glider to fall out of the tree. The control frame, the abundant wire rigging and the pilot's desperately grasping hands will almost certainly securely anchor the glider to the tree's many branches. The key to accomplishing this is recognizing the developing problem in sufficient time to select a suitable tree and execute a clean flare into the heart of it. Perhaps most difficult is for the pilot to give up the dream of scraping over the last tree and making it into the LZ. Landing in a tree may be a bit humiliating, and may cause a bit of damage to the glider, but it beats the hell out of waking up in an ambulance. Deliberate tree landings very rarely hurt anyone, but stalled crashes out of trees routinely do. The choice is clear.
Perhaps reflecting a combination of local economic prosperity and the fact that we have a number of pilots who are making great progress in their flying, this issue of the newsletter finds our pilots buying a wide range of new items of equipment.
A FLOCK OF FUSIONS: JIM MEADOWS and ERIC SHIEVER have both bought FUSION 141s. While MIKE NEUMAN has bought Pete's FUSION. JIM and ERIC have made immense strides in their flying in the last two years, and all three will make excellent use of their new gliders' outstanding performance capabilities.
ERIC and LUKE also bought HIGH ENERGY QUANTUM PARACHUTES.
LUKE THOMPSON has sold all of his old flying gear, and upgraded
everything. Amongst his new toys he has a GARMIN 12 GPS which he
has found to be a vast improvement over the first generation GPS' he's
used before. Then there's the TANGENT flight instrument which brings
him into compliance with the Daedalus Club's norm of vario conformity.
Luke replaced his glider with a MOYES XTRALITE 147 which he bought
during his trip to California.
And to complete his ensemble, Luke also traded his ten year old single
surface UP Gemini for one of Lookout Mountain's new HARNESS, the GT
XC.
DEWAYNE RENWICK has retired his old pod harness for a brand new HIGH ENERGY TRACER custom made to accommodate his manly bulk. And for Christmas he received new battery packs that return him to radio activity.
ATTACK FALCON 195 sighted at club sites. PETE LEHMANN has bought a single surface glider to see how the other half lives. And he's lovin' it, but is waiting for its faired basetube to make it glide like his Fusion.
The Daedalus HGC enjoys a deserved reputation in Region
Nine for cross-country flying, but until now no one had taken the trouble
to enumerate the extent to which we do go XC in a year. Larry Huffman has
now done that, compiling a log of the total Region Nine miles flown by
club members and visiting pilots in 1998. It is quite an extraordinary
list. As one would expect, Templeton dominated as the site producing the
most miles, but what was surprising is that the Farview, OH tow site produced
more XC miles than did Avonmore. Considering how successful last summer's
flying was out there it is likely that this year Larry will be joined by
a host of others seeking to get some of those miles.
| Pilot | Miles | Longest | Hours |
| Pete Lehmann | 878.5 | 102 | 75 Hours |
| Larry Huffman | 803.92 | 74.7 | 89 Hours |
| Mike Neuman | 304.4 | 69.4 | |
| Jim Meadows | 259.8 | 39 | |
| Eric Shiever | 120.6 | 73.6 | |
| Pat Brooks | 85.8 | 15.2 | |
| Jeff Seruset | 68.1 | 16 | |
| John Fenner | 51.9 | ||
| Ralph Eckart | 47 | 25 | |
| Ric Niehaus | 44.8 | 25 | |
| Marc Fink | 35.6 | 28.6 | |
| Luke Thompson | 4.5 | 4.5 | |
| Total: | 2704.87 | ||
| Templeton: | 1736.6 | 102 | |
| Avonmore | 319.15 | 72.3 | |
| Far View, OH | 357.5 | 41 | |
| Daedalus Pilots (anywhere): | 2670.37 | ||
| Daedalus Sites (Templeton & Avonmore): | 2056.1 |
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
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, although the 3-D BAROGRAPH will only arrive with the rediscovery of Monica Lewinsky's virginity. 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 sold the demo, so you missed a chance to demo it and will just have to take our word for it that they're great varios. (Of course you could still buy a cool looking, uncompensated and slow reacting Flytec)
If anyone would like to advertise any equipment for sale, let me know before the end of each quarter. Please let me know if you've sold anything.
WILLS WING SUPER SPORT 143 $1200. Less than 100 hours, now surplus due to arrival of a new Fusion. Orange LE, orange and white undersurface. Build in 1995. Jim Meadows 724-226-0286
PACAIR PULSE 10 METER - low hours, less than 2 years old pod harness, pda parachute and helmet
Ball M19 vario, car rack, books, etc. He would like to sell it all as a package for $2500. Andrew Holupka e-mail
WILLS WING EURO-SPORT 167 Blue and white. Two extra downtubes, manual, batten pattern, and speed bar. $1,000 OBO Call Doug Cassley (724) 352-4497
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 XS 142 142 XSVery good condition. $800. Call Larry Huffman (724) 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. To contact him for details call Ric Niehaus' pager at 1-800-759-7243 code4473586#
PACAIR K4 PARTS GLIDER contact John Fenner for availability. 741-6792
CG 1000 HARNESS and PARACHUTE with kevlar bridle $350 together. Call Tom Linder (724) 863-3529
PACAIR FORMULA 144 Good condition, 70+hours. $1000 OBO Also a new spaghetti harness (for 5'6"-5'11") and 20gore parachute for $250. Contact Felipe Amunategui in Cleveland at; Dr.Amunategui@worldnet.att.net
PACAIR FORMULA 144: red w/white LE and blue top. 2 speed bars, wheels and thermal mitts.
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 (724) 282-6894
FORMULA 154 Less than 100 hours, purple LE, pink and blue. Good shape+safe edge downtubes. $900 OBO Call Christian Titone at (610) 286-9427
NOVEMBER 22 AVONMORE Well, it was surprisingly decent despite a SW 10-15 forecast that was in fact damn near dead due south (circa 60 degree left cross) and barely over 5mph. Not a recipe for success at a 430ft hill. In the end the real difficulty was in finding a cycle that was a bit stronger ie.about 10mph and straight enough (only 30degrees cross) to safely launch. After that, one turned right and ran like hell for the more southerly facing mini-ridge in the gap. If you got there reasonably high it was fairly straightforward soaring. Larry Huffman and Pete Lehmann got 1:20 and 1,100over in surprisingly thermally conditions. Eric Shiever got half an hour, Paul Donahue and John Fenner :25, Jeff Seruset :10 after an earlier sled ride, and Jim Meadows :07. Dewayne Renwick and Pete Lang were the day's hard luck guys getting sled rides. The day's real winner was Jeff Seruset who collected the $10 landing contest winnings. In fact his two landings were both good enough to win. That's consistency.
NOVEMBER 27 TEMPLETON The day after Thanksgiving we had something to be thankful for. There were two accidents at the site, but no one was injured. We have had a good safety record in recent years, so this came as something of a shock. Fortunately there were no injuries, but there was broken aluminum. The two incidents were a blown launch by Fred, a visiting Hang 2 from Ohio, and Luke Thompson who was flushed to the LZ and clipped a tree at the edge of the field. Fred broke a downtube and basetube, while Luke got a leading edge.
On a more positive note, everyone else managed soaring flights on what had started as a decidedly unpromising day. There was little wind, and that was severely left crossed. Nonetheless, it was soarable if one could safely launch and run to the road-cut to get up. Pat Brooks (1:10) and Pete Lehmann (1:43) got to 2,600agl, while Larry got :50, Eric :15 and Jim Meadows :07. Exhibiting enormous grace under pressure, Eric also nailed a top landing spot towards his Hang 4 before his assembled visiting family. Sonny Venesky was up from Kitty Hawk for the holidays and had a short soaring flight.
NOVEMBER 28 AVONMORE Another glorious late fall day with blue skies and warm temperatures. Fred Booher smokes all comers getting 1:35 and 1,300agl after everyone else had been flushed off the ridge. Everyone else had soaring flights of varying durations: Jim Meadows (1:25), Larry Huffman (1:10), Sonny Venesky (circa 1:00), Pat Brooks (:45), Jeff Seruset (:40), Jon McElravy :25 and Pete Lehmann :10 after having first test ridden a couple of motorcycles.
NOVEMBER 29 AVONMORE The tropical November weather continued. Temperatures reached the upper sixties as people arrived at launch in shorts for a light, crossed soaring day. Conditions were mighty light at times, but Larry Huffman (300over) got 1:05, Pete Lehmann :50, Pat Brooks :30, Jeff Seruset :15, Paul Donahue :10, Jim Meadows had two extended sleds, and Eric Shiever had a short soaring flight. Pat cleaned up in the landing contest by landing directly on the spot.
NOVEMBER 30 SOME MORE AVONMORE Flying for the fourth day in a row, Jim Meadows gets :15 of left cross flying while Eric Shiever makes it half an hour.
DECEMBER 2 YET MORE AVONMORE This is becoming silly. Jim Meadows makes it four out of the last five days, getting :25 of very light low altitude flying. Pete Lehmann flies his Attack Falcon for the first time, getting :25 of very light late day flying. He loved his new toy. Eric Shiever left his long suffering Dad to manage the store and came out for :20.
DECEMBER 6 EVERMORE AVONMORE As the tropical fall threatens to reach an end the multitudes descend upon the site despite a strong SW15-25 forecast figuring it might be their last flyable day for a while. Pete Lehmann launches first on his Falcon hoping to beat the forecast strong winds. Larry Huffman soon follows and he gets 1:50 (1,200agl), Pete landed after 2:05 after getting his first inkling of how poorly the Falcon glides compared to the Fusion. It climbs pretty well, though. Pat Brooks sacrificed an afternoon of watching the Stillers lose to get :55, as did Eric Shiever. Jeff Seruset got :54 in two flights, Jim Meadows :52 and Paul Meadows :15 test flying Deb's diver.
DECEMBER 9 TEMPLETON Finally a Templeton day, but only Pete Lehmann was in a position to exploit it and the Falcon very nearly made its first XC. It was quite left cross, and not ridge soarable. After waiting for a straighter launch cycle he jumped and ran to the west face above the road where he finally climbed out to 2,900agl back at Rainbow lake 2.1 miles behind launch. As he was alone and hesitating about leaving on what would undoubtedly have been a short flight he finally decided to see how the Falcon would go upwind, and try to return to launch. Well, it really does not want to go upwind, but he made it back to land in the field directly behind launch after a flight of :52.
DECEMBER 11 TEMPLETON Luke Thompson returns to the air with his rapidly repaired Pulse. He was rewarded with a short five minute soaring flight, and, as a bonus, he found both of the wingtips he'd lost when he went into the trees. John Fenner got twenty minutes before being flushed, while Pete Lehmann got :40 (1,100over).
DECEMBER 12 AVONMORE The very long string of soarable days ends with a blown forecast and utterly dead conditions. Only Jeff Seruset and Pete Lehmann set up. They knew it would only be for sled rides, so they decided to make straight line glides to see how far they could get. Not surprisingly, Jeff's XS went about 25-30% further, providing perfect evidence of the glide superiority of a higher performance glider.
DECEMBER 13 TEMPLETON Eric Shiever utterly smokes the other pilots. He soared twice in exceptionally light conditions, getting a total of :33. Pat Brooks had an extended sled ride, Pete two sleds and Paul Donahue one. Larry Huffman wisely drove.
DECEMBER 15 AVONMORE Yet another lovely, warmish, blue early winter day. A surprising number of pilots showed up to take advantage of nature's beneficence. Pat Brooks had the longest flight of an hour, including one of the lowest saves ever achieved at Avonmore. He may have been as low as 150agl when he scratched back up. Jim Meadows (:50) got the highest at 990ft over launch, Pete Lehmann 1:28 in two flights, Paul Donahue :15, Deb Uttenreither :10 and Luke Thompson five minutes.
DECEMBER 24 AVONMORE Pat Brooks and Pete Lehmann go out on a beautiful cold, clear day. However they suffer the right cross blues when the right cross worsened while they were in the air and flushed them both after :13 and :08 flights. Still, it was a pretty day to be out.
DECEMBER 26 AVONMORE Santa brings airtime and XC flying. While it was a touch cool and trashy it was still sunny and soarable and slightly XC-able. Larry Huffman had the longest flight of 6.8 miles getting to 3,700agl after having spent a while getting bounced up and down on the ridge. Pat Brooks showed up late, launched, climbed out and went over the back to land after 4.3 miles with Eric Shiever and Pete Lehmann who'd spent about an hour on the ridge before going over the back. It should be noted that this was the first XC for Pete's Falcon. Jim Meadows had been the first to go over the back for a short xc after he'd been trapped behind launch . On the ridge Jeff Seruset, Sonny Venesky and Adam Elchin all got an hour before Adam was trapped over the back and landed just behind launch.
DECEMBER 27 FISHER ROAD Pete Lehmann went out to fly with the 'Eers and DC pilots on a somewhat strong and eventually overcast day. The strongish winds made him wary about launching the Falcon, but in the end he launched into reasonable conditions and lift to 500over. With Tom McGowan and Judy McCarty in tow he took the Falcon on its first trip to the end of the ridge (6.2 miles). Compared to his Fusion, the loss of glide and speed were evident but the ability to land the Falcon anywhere he would have needed to was a big compensation.
JANUARY FIRST TEMPLETON An auspicious beginning for the New Year. Jim Meadows and Pete Lehmann go to the hill despite arctic conditions and a strong wind forecast. Fortunately the wind was lighter than forecast, and the sun shone, making it quite pleasant to set-up in the snow. Pete launched first and discovered conditions were quite light and thermally. Unfortunately when Jim launched it was particularly light, and he needed to pull off his first excellent low save, which he improved upon later when he was again very nearly flushed. After half an hour on the ridge both Pete and Jim got up and out for short XCs. Pete got to 2,300agl and made it 8.6 miles to land towards Rural Valley, and Jim landed on 66 towards Dayton for 5.0 miles after only getting 1,800agl.
JANUARY 7 AVONMORE Jim and Lynn Meadows, and Pete Lehmann go out into a winter wonderland of twenty degree temperatures, snow, blue skies and cumies. Launch required a bit of work to break up the icy snow crust so that one could launch without slipping. Even so, Jim nearly slid over the side while helping Pete launch. In the end the flying was somewhat anticlimactic as they never could get over 400ft, but they both flew for more than hour, and Lynn took pictures.
JANUARY 10 AVONMORE Eric Shiever shows up to rescue Pete from a bar where he was going to watch a playoff game. Unfortunately conditions were severely left crossed and Eric got a few minutes before being flushed, while Pete had a straight sled ride.
JANUARY 17 JACKS MOUNTAIN A beautiful, warm, sunny and snowy countryside. Very light and slightly cross conditions made soaring doubtful. Eric Shiever and Pete Lehmann got up to soar at 100ft over, buzzing launch for Lynn Meadows' photographs before deciding to try and head south to the Mt.Union gap. Eric scraped off Pete at the six mile mark and then continued effortlessly to the gap (12.5 miles) before turning around and heading back a few miles to land. Jim Meadows was the hard luck case of the day, enduring an extended sled ride.
JANUARY 26 AVONMORE A somewhat crossed light wind, sunny winter's day. Pete Lehmann launched first and soon climbed out to 2,600agl in lift that had hints of spring. He then left on what was a one thermal XC of 6.8miles. Back at the ridge Pat Brooks and Eric Shiever got about fifteen minutes apiece before a flush cycle decked them within seconds of one another. Later, after retrieving Pete, Pat flew the Falcon for forty minutes in light evening conditions. He had a big smile on his face when he landed.
JANUARY 30 TEMPLETON The forecast was unpromising: light and north; going northeast. When the first pilots arrived it was almost dead, overcast and right crossed. Despite that pilots began to set up as the sun came out, the cycles began, and things straightened up enough to hope for soaring. In the end Pete Lehmann got 1:20, Larry Huffman 1:05 and 1,300 over, Pat Brooks :45, Dewayne Renwick :10 and Paul Donahue :20.
JANUARY 31 BILLS HILL and FISHER ROAD Larry Huffman had the best flight of the day at Bills. He got to about 1,500over and penetrated against the south cross to work his way as far as the Route 30 gap, and then made it halfway back to the turnpike gap. An awesome flight in difficult conditions. Pat Brooks got :25 before being flushed, and Pete Lehmann had gotten ten minutes a bit earlier.
As it was clearly crossing ever more from the right, Pat and Pete bailed and ran over to Fisher Road, launching again at three into light but very left cross conditions. It was tough at first, but they finally got up beyond the road and then fairly easily ran the ridge to the end. Pat dove off the end first while Pete hung around on the knob for a bit. Pat then discovered that the ridges downwind of the big LZ were thermal soarable, and Pete jumped over to join him. After a while he lost it, but Pat cruised around for another ten minutes and nearly got high enough to leave and try to make it onto Tussey Mountain. In the end he didn't and Pat landed with Pete (6.2 miles) after an hour.
It was a really fun afternoon for all concerned including Paul Donahue who showed up at Bills later in the day. After a first sled ride he went back up and got a lovely 1:10 evening wonder wind flight that got him to 800over and allowed him to run the ridge from gap to gap.
FEBRUARY 11 FISHER ROAD Pat Brooks and Pete Lehmann drove out to test fly gliders despite an unpromising forecast. Pete flew Jim Meadows' little Fusion, but thirty seconds into the flight it began to rain. The rain instantly flushed the glider off the ridge and provided a spooky flight and landing. Later Pete scratched out ten minutes to check out the glider. Pat also first had a quick flight on Eric Shiever's Fusion before re-launching and getting :32 and 104ft of altitude. Finally Pete test flew his big Fusion before sunset after having done some work on it. He got half an hour and 114ft to crush Pat's altitude gain.
FEBRUARY 14 AVONMORE THE NEW TOY DAY A sunny, pleasant, albeit muddy, day brings out a number of pilots to play with their new toys. Luke Thompson flies his new Xtralite for the first time getting five minutes and discovering that pulling the vg makes it handle like a pig. Jim Meadows flew his new Fusion for a total of one hour in two flights including a half hour evening glass off.. Despite demands from the spectators Jim resisted their calls for him to loop the thing. Pat Brooks got :25, and Pete 1:19 in two flights. At the end of his second wonder wind flight Pete hucked his drogue chute for the first time on the Falcon. It was pretty funny to see a Falcon plummet even more drastically than normal. Larry Huffman had the flight of the day getting to 3,300agl and flying to his regular lz 6.8 miles out. Brenda is getting the road route memorized, and I suspect Larry will soon be installing a permanent personal windsock there.
FEBRUARY 15 AVONMORE PRESIDENT'S DAY Trivia Question: What is the appropriate gift to give or receive on this President's Day holiday? Answer Below. Another sunny, warm winter's day brings people to the hill. Jim Meadows has a ball zooming around in his new Fusion, enjoying the new found freedom to glide around in front of the hill without losing altitude. Jim got 1:20 before an interesting belly flop landing in the mud resulting from his not having been able to find his harness' zipper pull. Paul Meadows got 1:15 and, like Jim, got to 1,300agl, while Pete Lehmann got 1:22 and another sissy chute experimental landing. Dewayne Renwick had two extended sled rides including his first ever crossings of the gap onto the mini-ridge.
FEBRUARY 18 TEMPLETON Under gray skies and with very light winds Mike Neuman and Pete Lehmann showed up for Mike to test fly Pete's Fusion. After waiting a while for a lightly soarable cycle, Mike launched and flew and top-landed his Falcon twice for ten minutes each.
Trivia Answer: A blowjob