Evolution of a lesson

The Air Safety Institute is the division of the AOPA Foundation responsible for "continuing education" for pilots.  They maintain a library of online interactive courses that are very slick and probably expensive to develop.  Each week, the online AOPA newsletter promotes one of them, and this week it was "Mountain Flying," one of the ASI's earlier offerings.  We have seen it before.

When it first came out, the page illustrating mountain waves was quite horrible, and we criticized it:

Fortunately, that didn't last long. A few months after its original publication, the course was updated and greatly improved, although it still wasn't perfect:

Finally, the third version came out, and it's pretty good.  Can you spot the difference between this image and the previous one?

Yes, there is still a fair amount to criticize here, but this is probably the limit of what a typical airplane driver needs to understand about mountain waves. After all, the target audience of the Air Safety Institute seems to be airplane pilots, exclusively.

Which is a shame, since the pilots of gliders, helicopters, ultralights, and balloons probably could also use some well-made refresher courses on safety.

P.S. You should join AOPA.

Value of a Birddog?

This Birddog and truck went for $1.1 million at auction.  Maybe we should paint ours and get some cool lights....

Name those club members

All of them. Click on the picture for a hint.

PMSC 2013 Statistics

Club Glider Usage:

67 (SGS 2-33) - 226 flights, 92 hours
3J (SGS 1-23) - 71 flights, 65 hours
BA (Blanik L-23) - 64 flights, 40 hours
PM (HpH 304c) - 47 flights, 74 hours

Total - 408 flights, 270 hours

Tow Plane Usage*:

PMSC Birddog - 549 (57 were at Wave Camp)
NESA - 23 tows
GBSC - 3 tows

Total - 575 tows


Usage of PMSC Tow Plane**:

383 to club gliders (11 at Wave Camp) - 70%
125 to members private gliders (5 at Wave Camp) - 23%
41 to non members at Wave Camp (41 at Wave Camp) - 7%

Total - 549 (57 at Wave Camp, 10%)

* number of tows billed through PMSC (includes tows by GBSC and NESA)
** number of tows by PMSC's tow plane
 

Ski flying and breakfasts

The ski flying and breakfast seasons are both off to a slow start this year, due to a variety of mechanical, meteorological, and gastronomical reasons.

There are three airplanes on skis now, with the possibility of two more, and the first Sunday breakfast at Whistle Stop was enjoyed by a small crowd.  The days are noticeably longer now:  some of us are talking about glider flying at Springfield.

Contact Andy, Tim, or Rick about getting in the air on skis.

Christmas Present for PMSC

Santa sent a present to the club. It's 24 lbs of ballast in the form of Kennedy half dollars.

He had to send it in 2 packages. Here are the notes he sent along with them.

Thank you Santa!

Overseas report

Many of you know Roy Bourgeois, our friend from MITSA and GBSC, who has done many favors for our club, including lending us a glider way back when.

Roy has trouble getting out of instructor duty, so for the past nine Novembers, he has escaped his club and taken a trip to South Africa, where the soaring season is just getting started. Every year he creates a blog-style document for the folks back home. His flying, his adventures, and his writing have improved steadily over this period.

You really should take half an hour and read this year's report.

This is what our sport is all about.

Hint: The web page is large and takes a long time to load.  Be patient.  The beginning is at the bottom.

Disassembly day

In the fine tradition of the Post Mills Soaring Club a large number of volunteers, consisting of both active and inactive members, showed up at the field to take gliders apart, move trailers, and hangar the towplane.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the field:

and also to those who were there but didn't make it into the picture.  The volunteer-of-the-week award goes to Bill Swartz, who drove all the way from Portland, Maine to be a part of the crew.  The only member who lives farther away is Tony, whom we expect to show up next year.

The tiedown area at Post Mills is looking bare again.  It's time to look forward to flying at Springfield, skiflying, and breakfasts!

Weekend report November 22 - 23

Christopher writes:

We came, we flew, we winterized.

Tim flew his new PIK-20D (AT) in good lift, Greg & Mark ventured out in the Blanik to 5 grand, and Dennis dragooned Christopher into the backseat for another Blanik adventure, with snow falling sideways as he maintained plus numbers.  3K tow with scenes of the late Fall countryside from 4,400 feet, sustaining on workable if weak lift for an hour as the ceiling and snow came down to 3,000 feet, bringing them home early.

Ben and Ben's father (some call him Steve) came by just too late for Ben to get his 5th flight of the season. (Come back in December when the lines for a glider are shorter) [Editor's note: that trick might work, but only until December 16].

Someone needs to put in a PMSC requisition for an ice scraper to keep the canopy clean for late Fall soaring.  There's still time.

Three flights, with Andy towing, just enough interruptions as he was cobbling his Champ engine back to workable Winter form.

A pair of club records

Congratulations to Karl Strassberger for passing his Private Pilot checkride on Wednesday, a day on which two club records were set!

Once again, our indefatigable Designated Examiner, Bill Stinson, made the trip to Post Mills to administer the test. Andy was the towpilot this time. It isn't clear whether there was anyone else there that day, such as someone who knows how to take a photograph.

This sets the calendar record for the latest flight test in our club's history (November 20). Thanks go to Tim, Greg, Dennis, Karl, and Andy for arranging to extend our flying season and for keeping the towplane operational.

The other club record is for the lowest-resolution photo of a member's accomplishment ever taken.

Source

PM at FL160

PM at 16,000' over Mount Washington yesterday.  Photo ship was N331BA piloted by Dan.  Photograph by Greg.  Earlier in the week Pete took PM over 24,000' to earn his altitude diamond. - Tim

Don't let this happen to you - XI