Salida Soaring Trip--OSC wil be taking one L-13 and the 1-26 to Salida Colorado with a follow on trip to the 1-26 Nationals near Colorado Springs.  Salida is three hours southwest of Denver.  The airport is located just outside of town at an elevation of 7517 ft at the highest end.  The runway has a 1.9% pitch down to the east so the east end is 140 feet lower than the west end.  The length of the runway is 7350 ft.  The FBO at salida provides glider towing service but it appears they no longer provide glider flight instruction as they are selling their Blanik.  The airport is about 9 miles from a 14000 ft peak to the west and about 4 miles north of an 11000 ft ridge.

The first subject is a review of the variometers installed in the Blaniks. I wrote this after opening the nose of 95Z to replace the 9V batteries in the varios and refresh my memory about the installation. The Borgelt vario is the one hooked to the TE probe. Right now the "external" power to the Borgelt doesn't work. "External" is the ships battery. The battery is fine and works other stuff so I presume there is a discontinuity in the connection to the vario. Hence the Borgelt on 95Z only works on the 9V "internal" switch position. (I received an email from Bill Stukenholtz saying he thought the power was getting to the vario and maybe the problem was internal to the vario.) The other vario in the front seat is also electric and has two 9V batteries. They both are working and are selected with the knob on the vario. This same knob will select the vario scale of either 6KTS or 15 KTS over the full scale. This vario has no tubing coming to it at all. I presume it is sensing cockpit static. Hence it is not compensated. The rear seat varios on 95Z are both pure mechanical types and are hooked to the ships static system, hence are not TE compensated. Actually one of the instruments is the typical Blanik style vario and the other is really an airplane type rate of climb with a scale up to 6000fpm.

In comparison, remember that 99950 has a Borgelt in the front hooked to the TE probe. There is a repeater of this vario in the back seat. There is a typical Blanik style mechanical vario (hooked to ship's static and not compensated) in each instrument panel of 99950. One thing to remember when flying 95Z is that the front seat varios both depend on batteries. If they don't do a self test sequence when turned on, they probably won't work in the air. It would be very easy to find yourself in the front of 95Z and have no working vario in your panel. Be aware. Also be aware that there is no master switch in either Blanik. It is important to remember to turn each electric vario (and the radio) off at the end of each flight. If a 9V powered vario is left on during the week you can be sure the 9V battery will be dead (and that there will be no spare available!).

The other item I want to cover relates to my recent email entitled "Nag Nag". As of this writing we have 16 members who have completed the safety requirements. Good! And thanks! Now let's look at those who are incomplete. We have 10 members who have not completed the safety requirements. Of those 10, 4 need only the safety flight. But on the other hand, 5 of those 10 have not done any of the requirements. My comments exclude our 3 pre solo members but 2 of those have done every thing but the safety flight which they obviously can't yet do. I have also not included 3 long time associate members who are on our roster but have not flown with us for several years and are already in the "No PIC" category. So, if you are not sure you have completed, and you wish to avoid the "No PIC" list, it is time to get your act together.

"Omaha Soaring Club" is the official newsletter of Omaha Soaring Club Incorporated. Articles are written by and for OSCI members unless otherwise noted.