Byron Gliding News

Windsock
Byron Gliding News
June/July 2006 Editor: Ashley Osborne
ashjo31<at>hotmail .com
Phone 0266291171 or 0417 287 284
BBQ 4:00PM First Sunday of the Month
ALL welcome, food and drinks supplied. BYO alcohol

WELCOME :

Well it seems that the news letter is becoming a popular and informative read for the members of the club, I am receiving some satisfying comments from members that makes it seem all worthwhile. One I received from Tim Exley who is living in Japan. Tim comes to the club about once a year and was really pleased to know what was happening in the club, especially the progression of XJX motorfalke as he did his training and first solo in her. Thanks to all the other members who have also commented on the newsletter its nice to know it is benefiting you all, thanks again ^{Ashley
Osborne}

WHAT'S ON:

PLACES FILLING FAST SO PUT YOUR NAME DOWN NOW.

The next trip away will be out to Casino for the weekend. The Summerland Gliding Club is based out at Casino and is only a short flight over from Byron. They have a couple of two seater gliders to fly in which would be good for those wanting to do some Aerotows or to just do some ordinary gliding.

The date will be Saturday the 8^th and Sunday the 9^th of July .

I have found out about seeing if we can arrange with them to fly on the Saturday, as they usually only fly on Sundays and they are willing to fly providing the numbers are enough to warrant getting a tug and instructors etc. I am also going to find out about some accommodation in town so we can make a weekend of it.

All people interested in going to Casino please contact Ashley Osborne, 02 6629 1171 / 0417 287 284 .

If you want to drive, Casino is about 90 kms from Tyagarah

JULY BBQ

BBQ IS ON Sunday 2^nd July 4 pm All welcome All supplied

The clubs monthly competition is on 2^nd July prior to BBQ.

CLUB NEWS:

Congratulations to Cameron Davis for going solo last month. Apparantly Cameron was arguably one of Maccas best students he has ever had, so well done Cameron.

Our trip away to Boonah on the 2^nd 3^rd of June was another great success, Jerry Leach and Paddy Harrington flew ZDD, Macca ,and Bruce McBean flew YHB and Russell White flew his Grob FFN. Paul Midson drove out for the day on Friday. Bob Williams drove out on Friday morning Brian Marshall and Genzan Kosaka drove out on Friday afternoon arriving about six pm and I drove out on Friday morning also.

A good time was had by all of us, I specifically went with the intention of doing aerotows and had good success , as did Bob Williams, Most of the other guys in our group had flights in our gliders and also Boonahs gliders being the Blanik, ASK13, and ASK 21 searching for the elusive wave. The wave lift was there although it was elusive and only a few got to find it .

We were a little unfortunate with the weather, nice and sunny and not too hot although very windy with a strong gusty crosswind, which did make life a little tricky at times.

Apart from the flying we had a very enjoyable evening on the Friday night. The guys out at Boonah put on a BBQ for us and we all had a few beers and a few Bundys. The highlight was Russell White's Vindaloo curried Kangaroo, which went down a treat and was the talking point of the dinner. Boonah has very good facilities, nice bunkhouse and clubrooms and is a great place to fly at. The scenery is interesting with undulating country and a mountain range not too far away. I would recommend it to all.

Byron Bay Gliding Club members at Boonah

Vic Hatfield :

Some of you asked that I give some info about last weeks trip to Tyagarah

You may be aware that I spent last week at Tyagarah with Macca. Went up on Monday and home on Friday.

Tuesday started with a couple of familiarization flights with Macca, have not flown a M/glider for some years and then flew solo in the M/falke, YHB.

The weather could not have been better, most days clear and sunny, wind generally down the strip at 2 - 6kts. One day the wind changed 180 which created some thermal activity for one of Macca's flights.

The strip is 05 - 23. Regularly mown by Council,g rass is lawn height and has a few sandy patches. Regularly used by parachuting school using a Cessna Caravan. They usually drop from 14,000" and 'pop' at 4000'. Normal load is 5 to 7 jumpers. A Drifter [ultralight] and chopper are regular users and it seems the strip is used by other flying schools for their X/C nav exercises doing touch and goes. There is another commercial gliding club at the 05 end but do not appear to be as active as Macca's. Overall, it is a busy strip and one needs to keep a good lookout and listen to the radio.

The rest of Tuesday , W, T, and am Friday, I flew with students. Did a total of 27 launches and 9.5 hours.

The M/Falke presents very well. Has a good colour scheme and is similar to the Bergfalke to fly. Has excellent visibility, plenty of room in the side by side cockpit. We flew without headsets, under full power it was not difficult to communicate. It is fitted with a 'cruising ' prop and would climb better with the other type Macca said. Like the Bergfalke, it thermals well and the best one for the week, just west of Brunswick Heads, went to 4400 and best rate was 4.6kts. Shared this with 2 wedgies [did not expect to see them at the coast] and some pelicans. This was the students 1st thermalling flight and he had no difficulty in co-ordinating the Aircraft to remain in the thermal. I found the Side by Side seating ideal for instruction for this part of the flight. The Dimona could not stay with us !!.

The airbrakes are not very effective and we did a few sideslips to help the descent. Always landed with the engine off [after the cooling down process]. The engine management ,once used to it, is easy to handle.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed flying the A/C and believe that a M/Glider could be well used in our operation. It is ideal for circuit practice/training and a large number of circuits can be achieved in a short space of time.

Some criticism has been offered at our lack of outlanding training. A M/glider would allow plenty of paddock selection training without having the A/C and Tug out the operation for long periods of time.

Thanks, to all Vic Hatfield.

ps Macca would never allow me to have more than 15 litres in the tank -- keep the weight down he said. I think he was worried that if I filled it ,I would have flown it home. It did cross my mind !!.

YHB Motorfalke

BBQ SUNDAY 2^nd July at 4 PM ALL SUPPLIED

ALL WELCOME

(BYO ALCOHOL)

MEMBERS COLUMNS:

Articles are sort from members to add their thoughts here - do you have any stories, or any thing to contribute? maybe its a good flight, funny story you would like to share, maybe your suggestions for the committee to discuss or topics to bring up in the club meetings, got something to sell. Anything is welcome . E-mail me ashjo31<at>hotmail.com ph 02 6629 1171 or drop it in to the club. I am there almost every weekend and almost every Wednesday. If you can't make it to the club post it to PO Box 815 Byron Bay NSW 2481 and I will pick it up from Ian.

Ashley Osborne.

COMMITTEE MEETING:

The committee meeting of 28^th of May was basically a discussion, the main topic was landing fees. Present were John Witham, Alan Rundall , Ian Mcphee and Ashley Osborne.

Wave cloud at Boonah

TECH TALK:

Well we have got XJX back in the hanger now from the painters , the whole glider is now painted . Next stage is to get the cockpit area trimmed out which has been started and is looking good. Once that has been done the instrument panel can be inserted and the floor then the seats fitted followed by the canopy. We have the new prop on site also. So its getting closer all the time and a little exciting .

ZDD Dimona is going well. Macca made a new scoop for the underside of the cowling to make it run a little cooler , IT WORKED and the motor runs so cool now it is hard to get the temperatures up to operating temp. The oil cooler has been blocked of 50% and still it runs cool so maybe it will be removed during winter and used only in the summer months as it is too effective.

GLC is still waiting for its engine rebuild, it has been removed from the engine bay and is awaiting a trip to the mechanics.

FFN Grob is all good.

LAST LIGHT:

Another month slips by, you really notice when you are writing a monthly news letter. It seems like you finish one and start another Already its July and soon it will be Christmas....How long has it been since you flew last and spent some of that precious time enjoying your unique pastime of gliding. Come down and have a fly, take the time to spend some quality time and fly. Ashley Osborne.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING SUNDAY 20TH AUGUST

Macca and Russell on Boonah's buggy

MACCAS NOTES :

I need to remind people that VW engines rotation do not like cross winds from RH side on take off, while Jabiru/Rotax do not like cross winds from LH side. Russell White and Alan Rundle did know (and I do know Rick Hultgren does know the Ximango problem) but Jerry, Paddy and John Witham did not which surprised me. If faced with a take off in difficult cross wind, position the glider on the correct side of field so that when you get the swing you will be in the centre of the strip. Jerry and Paddy went very close to the fence when they got the VW swing to the right. If you want a demonstration, take an angle grinder and swing it suddenly, or try spinning the front wheel of a bicycle and then turn the forks.

Suggestions from Vic H. , who mentioned a few recommendations:

1 No Model for instruction

2 Lookout esp turning head and

3 negative G.

Also Vic mentioned about L and R circuits. At a gliding only field the norm is a circuit on the downwind side of field.

Years ago at Southern Cross when i was there they did a L/H circuit onto runway 14 but I was doing a R/H on the same runway. I did not see the the other guy as I thought nobody in gliding would be stupid enough to do a L/H circuit in such conditions and it was the nearest I have ever gone to a mid air on final.

What Vic is thinking and what I am saying from this is that if our members go elsewhere (esp gliding only airfields) they should learn to say LH or RH circuit - Vic could not manage saying turning downwind without adding the word LEFT and I can see where he is coming from. I learnt to fly power at a primary airport (Tamworth) now class D so I did LH or RH circuits at will without ever thinking what the normal is. Also I had never heard the word "cross wind" till 15 years later when flying at Tyagarah and I had to ask somebody what it meant. I had no idea it was this extra leg on the up wind side of a strip.

Like all RAAF airfields, Keepit call circuit call followed by "undercarriage down"

Everywhere is different

On another matter GQ are offering to buy Ozflarms for clubs interest free for them to pay back in 2 years.

Three places we visit are ALL FLARM equipped and that is Darling Downs and Keepit clubs. Also Boonah, I think if we go there we could hire FLARMS but would be much better to have our own. Vic and Mike Truitt (our RTO ops) are total converts. It would be best if other end had them as well and REMEMBER WE DO NOT HAVE PARACHUTES so I consider that FLARMS ARE essential and more important than GPS or x ponder. They will talk to the new mode S x ponders being introduced in Europe now and if we have re- registered our aircraft we have a binary code for the Smode - Does ZDD and XJX have their codes John.

Clubs Like Jondaryan Might not be keen on Jerry flying around without a FLARM next weekend

Brian and Jerry are off to Jondaryan next weekend and I am away the next weekend for 6 days.

MACCA

Until next time happy landings

THE LAST BBQ WAS SPONSORED BY DROPBEARS .COM

Many thanks to Russell White for his support

REMEMBER... BBQs ARE NOW ON EVERY FIRST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH AT FOUR PM........COME DOWN.

Newsletter June 2006
Newsletter May 2006
Old News