Convector
Newsletter of the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association

I don't want this to sound bad, but there are only a few more of these that I need to write. After three years of a monthly input into Convector and the growing demands at the office, it is transitioning into a chore more than the enjoyable communication means it was three years ago. Carlos would most likely agree since it seems he has been left waiting on my input just about every month I can remember. Regardless, the past three years have been fun and on the whole I feel pretty good about M-ASA's current position.

As a first topic this month I should address the Board decision I first mentioned in December's Convector. This was the change from scheduling an OD to scheduling an Operations Safety Officer and a Record Keeper. With the holiday, the reaction was somewhat delayed but by the January meeting feedback was rolling in. Unfortunately, you guys are of little help. Ah, now I have you guys rolled back on your heels! It seems no matter how I sliced the feedback I saw the same result. M-ASA is split 50/50 on this issue. I saw this in the e-mails, at the monthly meeting and in a series of phone calls. I even tried to separate the ranks based on who pulled OD and who was exempt. Experience didn't seem to matter either unless you were an instructor. They seemed to feel the change was needed about 2:1. Nevertheless they are exempt so what do they know?

In the beginning I attempted to stress a few important facts regarding this change and they continued to surface throughout the discussions. First, no one event forced this change to be considered. It has been debated for a number of years. Secondly, the change would not have fixed any specific safety related problem. Instead it was a means to isolate the issues and allow better training to be focused where needed. The last point is that the current practice of training ODs by simply having them serve as AOD twice (once each field) does not work. The different calibers of ODs, weather constraints and operations tempo are simply too inconsistent to adequately do the job.

That all said we dedicated a monthly meeting where about two dozen members discussed the pros and cons. I then brought it back to the board for further discussion. Unfortunately, from the inputs we had, I knew going in I would only be able to please 50% so the task was more focused on what we could best do to address M-ASA's current situation. Here is the outcome:

1. Determine at the beginning of the operational season (March) the qualifications of each member.

   a) If you are not qualified to be an OD at the annual meeting you will be in training for the full season.

   b) Members under the age of 21 at the annual meeting will not serve as OD during the year.

2. Change the current policy of requiring members to have x number of flights and y number of hours to be OD to requiring ODs to hold a private glider rating or higher.
3. New members joining after the annual meeting will be trained for OD duty but not serve until the following season.
4. Separate the duty assignments by having one qualified OD scheduled for each operations day and schedule an additional member to perform the administrative function of keeping the records.

Yes, some of you will be disappointed to see the second person scheduled but in most cases this will be a duty performed by a member not otherwise permitted to perform the OD duty. There will be times you might draw the record keeping assignment but as new members join during the course of the year I expect this to be infrequent. The end result is that a higher percentage of members will probably get scheduled for a third duty assignment. On the up side, OD will have assigned help and be able to concentrate better on running the operation. It will also allow us more time to expose new members to our unique operation and focus dedicated training toward grooming these individuals to perform OD duty. Mike Higgins has been asked to put together a training program toward this end. The board felt that a short training program, more exposure to the operation and the current mentor program would go a long way in turning around some of the lapses we seem to be addressing at every board meeting. This change also helps take some of the pressure off of the OD at Fairfield during those weekends where the TFR might be in effect. Final guidance is being drafted which will be included in the Operations Manual and briefed at the annual meeting. This will also include provisions for the OD releasing the record keeper on slower days. There will be no extra person requirement for non scheduled weekday flying although the OD will need to be qualified.

The second topic I want to address is the safety and cleanup weekend on March 20-21. We will perform needed field maintenance and conduct some training on each of the days. Saturday will be done at Fairfield and we will move to Frederick for Sunday. We will start the day at 9 am with some training stations to review procedures and practices. We will then tackle some much needed chores such as painting, brush clearing, hangar cleaning and other similar tasks. We will have a cook out each day.

The table on page 2 is a first cut based on where folks tend to fly. It has lots of room for flexibility. If you need to be switched to a different day let me know. If you are not listed, you are an instructor, tow pilot or I absent mindedly forgot you. Let me know and I'll gladly add you to the list. We will review the list and work assignments at the annual meeting so it is fresh in everyone's mind. If you can't make either day and miss the session you will need to attend one of the monthly mentor sessions prior to flying. You will also be assigned a simple task to be performed and a suspense date. This type of club activity is essential to making M-ASA work. The only way we can afford airports like at Fairfield while keeping our tow and rental fees reasonable is by taking care of this stuff ourselves. Have you priced tows or rental fees at a commercial operation lately? Wow!

Glenn

First of all, I would like to express appreciation on behalf of all M-ASA members to those who responded to Chris O'Callaghan's recent letter requesting financial support to battle against the proposed housing development. We also appreciate the response to Jim Trigg's Petition and Statement of Position being sent to the town supervisors showing support for our cause.

For those not already familiar, I thought it would be a good idea to review recent history and status of our efforts to preserve our glider club in Fairfield. Last spring, the Wormald Development Company announced plans to build 1100+ homes in Liberty Township where M-ASA Fairfield is located. Two residents, Fred Crum and Bob Peloquin, had agreed to sell an "equitable interest" in their farms totaling approximately 700 acres in Liberty Township. Wormald had a good reputation for development projects and, in fact, has a substantial project just north of Frederick with the title of Worman's Mill. Those of us in Fairfield who read the announcement were mildly supportive, or at least resigned, to the inevitability of development projects in our community.

However, a closer look at the plans showed expensive homes (reportedly $1 million plus) located within 1/4 mile of our runway and directly in our flight path turning either left or right after takeoff. Still believing the project to be inevitable, Jim Trigg and I requested an audience with the Wormald Company and explained our concern. Although not very knowledgeable of our glider operation, they explained that our glider club would be a feature of their development - the same as the ski hill and the golf course - and encouraged us to write covenant language to be placed in the homeowners' deed acknowledging the presence of our club and agreeing not to take any action that would adversely affect the club.

This covenant language seemed the best alternative under the circumstances. In subsequent discussions with club members, we concluded that despite the protective language, homeowners would eventually object to having a tow plane flying overhead at 300 feet (or as little as 200 feet on a hot day towing a heavy glider) perhaps 30 times each Saturday and Sunday while residents were attempting a barbeque in their back yards. Inevitably, the residents would bring pressure to close down our operation in one manner or another. As a final resort, since the new development would outnumber the local residents, they would vote to close the airport.

In the meantime, Jim Trigg drew up the requisite documents for inclusion in the homeowner deeds. He presented them to Wormald and they agreed to have a formal approval prior to December 9, 2003, on which day a public hearing was scheduled. The designated date passed with no approval forthcoming, so we concluded the Wormald had no intention of reaching an agreement.

At the next scheduled hearing on December 17, 2003, Jim presented a position statement on behalf of M-ASA stating that we were "unequivocally opposed to the development". As of that time, we changed from "neutral" to "against". We also joined forces with a group of local residents in an organization called "Save our Liberty". This group was fiercely opposed to the development for a variety of reasons relating to traffic congestion, water availability, fire department limitations and school capacity.

In the beginning, we respected Wormald for its ability to do a complete and comprehensive job after consultation with all the affected interest groups, including M-ASA. By last fall, it became apparent that the plan was rather hastily conceived and contained very little in the way of community input. There also appeared to be several issues at variance with the local zoning ordinance. These could be used as a justification for rejecting the development proposal.

As of January 1, 2004, the series of public hearings will be nearly complete. By the end of January, the arguments "Pro and Con" will be discussed and a final vote will be in the hands of three Liberty Township supervisors. They have three choices: accept, reject or accept with conditions. Contrary to earlier opinion, I now believe the odds are in favor of a rejection thanks to the opposition of "Save our Liberty" with the support of M-ASA members. There is a most capable young lady attorney with considerable experience in these areas leading the effort at the public hearings. Unfortunately, there probably will be a lawsuit by the losing party when the supervisors make their decision. Perhaps the developers will become discouraged, but at this point, they are threatening multi-million dollar lawsuits against the Township and the supervisors if their plan is rejected or approved with onerous conditions.

Jim Trigg has done yeoman effort in preparing all the necessary legal documents and in representing M-ASA during the hearings. He and many other members believe that our only hope of preserving our M-ASA Fairfield operation is to participate in the efforts to defeat the proposed development.

In our opinion, everything possible is being done and will continue being supported by local residents and M-ASA members. To date, M-ASA members have contributed more than $6,000 and an anonymous local resident has matched this amount. The total spent on legal fees and expert witnesses to date is approximately $40,000 and if lawsuits are to follow, costs will continue to rise. We would hope for additional contributions from interested M-ASA members and Jim or I would be glad to discuss further details with anyone interested. We will keep you posted.

Planned changes to my personal situation preclude me from continuing to perform the duties of Convector editor for M-ASA. I would like to make the next issue (March) be my last issue. That will allow plenty of time for a smooth transition to a new editor.

I firmly believe that this is one of the best jobs at M-ASA (salary and benefits on par with M-ASA's own President!) When I accepted the job I promised myself that I would try out a new idea every month to keep the job fresh and interesting. Now, almost a year and a half later, I'm still far from running out of new ideas.

Owning a computer and familiarity with common office applications is a big plus (I will train you if necessary). I can put together an issue in less than four hours, but invariably something comes up and it may take me up to a full day of work a month to do the job right.

Interested? Contact me at convector@m-asa.org

Carlos Reyes

Most of a wet, miserable part of January had slithered past like a moldy snow snake and I was stir crazy and buried in income tax drudgery at home. Monday, January 19 arrived with sun, wind and cold. The sunny part got my attention and the attention of Jody, my wife. She let on that a little vacuuming and dusting would get me a kitchen pass to go fly! OK, but this is January! Now I have to get several normally sane people to come out to Fredrick on a day so cold it has brass monkeys worried about their continued reproductive abilities! (For those who don't know the reference, it's unprintable. Ask me later.)

I spent 45 minutes on the phone calling the usual suspects or leaving messages. Paul Rehm said he had seen a satellite photo with wave bars over Fredrick! He was packing! Bill Whelan was down with the flu, but when George Simms asked Mrs. Simms for a kitchen pass, she insisted he go! You have to tell us your secret George! Ray Scarpula was out the door as soon as I spoke to him. Bob Ball was hesitant about flying but said he would come out to help. Hurray Bob! Jeff Fink was asleep but his mom said she would pass on the message. Ok! We had critical mass, time to vacuum! Quickly! All the while I kept thinking of everyone motoring to Frederick while I was soloing a dang vacuum cleaner!

When I got to Frederick, Ray was cranking up the Pawnee, Jeff and Paul had assembled Paul's 1-35 (handling icy cold aluminum brrrrr!), and George and Jeff and Paul were about to get the K7 out of its nest. After the Pawnee test flight, Bob Ball and Ray helped me assemble my Ventus and in short order we were all lined up on the runway and Ray towed us all up on one engine start. Bob handled the launches and the board. The K7 went up first; then Paul stuffed himself in the 1-35, pulled on booties, stuffed chemical warmers in his socks and took off. Shortly, I looked up and saw the K7 at pattern altitude. Not a welcome sight! I looked away while I got the tow rope for my launch laid out and looked up, expecting to see the K7 on final......Nowhere in sight! George and Jeff had a very low altitude save and hit wave at 1300 feet MSL! They took it up to 6500 feet where the leaks in the K7 did them in and they froze so bad they landed, happy but stiff. Those brass monkeys really did have something to worry about!

A 17 knot wind was straight down the runway and the lenticular clouds were large and inviting. We all hit some rotor in our flights but it wasn't horrendous. The cold killed my cell phone battery, so early in the flight I called Dulles Approach to report our presence over Frederick. The controller was quite interested to hear from us and asked what kind of sailplanes we were flying. He also warned me of the approach of a "heavy" at my altitude. After awhile Paul and I noticed that the airliners were no longer flying near us but were passing east of us. Nice people, those controllers! After Paul and I got climbs over the field in the single digits we ducked under the upwind lenticular that was sitting just at the eastern base of the ridge and lost two thousand feet in the effort, but once on the upwind side of that cloud we both enjoyed pinned varios for several minutes until we were well above thirteen thousand feet. The climb began to slacken a bit but the sunlight was beautiful and was even warming me slightly. I happened to look down and saw very long shadows on the ground. Hey, that was sunset coming on! We decided on a rapid descent; Paul electing to keep at least 1000 feet above me for safe spacing. With full spoilers and flaps out and gear down, it still took awhile to get down. We had no trouble landing although Paul landed a little lower than usual, his tire having gone flat in the air. Disassembly was slow due to darkness and cold stiffened joints, but we all agreed it was a great day and we were glad to have come out to the field. My thanks to all who came out and especially to Bob Ball who made it possible for us to fly. Don't get out of the flying habit in winter. Wave is wonderful!

I guess the message I want to pass on is that careful thought, situational awareness, and resolve in the face of challenging conditions can result in a great deal of satisfaction, camaraderie and safe good flights. In George's words "Its great just to be there."

Jim Furlong

1. It's finally your turn to take Miss Daisy up for a spin. Hurray! It's an unusual day for Frederick-there is a strong wind heading directly into the ridge. Other than that, it's a beautiful hot, summer day. The take-off goes fine, but suddenly you realize that something is not right. The tow plane (Cub) is taking you directly towards the ridge! Oh my god! With the anemic climb rate and strong tailwind, you are not sure at all you could get back to the airport from where you are if you released. You wait some more, but the situation only gets worse. With the wind gradient, the higher you get, the stronger the tailwind. Name everything that you would do to get out of this predicament. Assume that everything you tried failed. What now, skipper?

I believe that the situation that I described is a lot more common than most of us realize. At Frederick, there is almost always a crosswind of some sort coming from the south. Many pilots (myself included) are concerned about the wind getting under a wing and giving them a bad day.

Unfortunately, even a little bit of stick deflection can translate into a lot of unexpected force for the wing runner. In a quartering headwind (as is common at Frederick), the ailerons will be effective very quickly. We are all taught to just let the wing fly off of our hand. From what I've seen and experienced, this is very hard to do for many wing runners if there is significant downward pressure on the wing tip. In desperation, I've had folks shove the wing upwards just as they let go. THAT IS THE WRONG THING TO DO. Always let the wing fly off your hand.

I've received a request to put a short note into Convector from Larry Stahl the manager of Grant county airport (W-99) in Petersburg, West Virginia. He is going to try to hold his first wave camp this spring! The date is tentatively the first through the second week of March 2004. Telephone number at Grant County airport is 1-304-257-4435 and his e-mail contact is gliding@frontiernet.net. I for one intend to attend to see if the weather cooperates for a diamond altitude attempt.

[Jim is the Chief Flight Instructor of our neighbor, the Skyline Soaring Club -Editor]

Thanks to the cybermagic of Webmaster Piet Barber, an overview of "Collision Avoidance in Gliders" is now available, and viewable on just about any browser (not just Microsoft Internet Explorer!), the Skyline Soaring Club website.

This has been one of the Resident Curmudgeon's pet projects for several (like ten!) years now, and the recent increases in traffic and security concerns in the area where his club (Skyline Soaring) flies gives the general issue even more urgency.there are (a) lots of misunderstandings about the "rules" and (b) lots of gaps in the real knowledge of just what various systems do and can do . . . meaning we're ALL "student pilots" to some degree in this regard!

Constructive criticism and suggestions for improvements always welcome. .. Enjoy!

	Frederick			Fairfield
Day	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Record Keeper	Operations Director	Tow Pilot	Record Keeper
13	Jack Goehring III	Karl Bernstein	Ricardo Cibotti	Harry LaBrie	John Hearn	Nicolo Costanzo
14	Robert Compton	Poul Hansen	Ali Abrishami	Dave Leizer	Chuck Forrester	Gary Cassell
20	< Working weekend - Fairfield >
21	< Working weekend - Frederick >
27	Jean Compton	Hans Jorgensen	Ralph Thrash	Rick Fuller	Max Ullmann	Garry Calvalho
28	Bob Whitehead	Dee Torgerson	Frank Benson	John Mitchell	Jane Robens	Mansoor Ahmed

M-ASA Duty Notes: Members assigned to operations duty must be on site in enough time to start operations by 10:00 a.m. and stay at the field until operations are concluded. Each person listed on the duty roster is responsible for that day's assignment. In the case of "no-shows," the person acting as OD should indicate this fact on the flight sheet. "No-shows" will be fined $100. Every effort will be made to accommodate the new member's stated duty preference whenever possible.

M-ASA Scheduler: Ray Watson 410-484-0333.