Updated
29 Jun 2008
robert.craig@omahasoaring.net
21 Jun 2008 - I arrived at the field around 1045L. I had bought some parts for the air pump and installed them that morning along with bringing a new 9 amp-hour battery for the Blanik. Cecilia Daly and an intro ride showed up followed be Jaime Alexander, Jerry Adams, Mac McKain, Lloyd Kaufman, and Carl and Elaine Rump. Bob Moser was also at the field giving rides in the Cub. Jaime took the intro up first - a 65 year old gentleman celebrating his birthday. Cumulus clouds were starting to build to the north gradually working south. I took Shaddrick next for his safety flight. Lloyd then took up another introductory flight - this time it was an RC 1-35 pilot who is going to start flying U-2s. I launched next in the Russia. Even with cumulus clouds dotting the sky, I was not able to connect with good lift and headed back to the airport. I had just reviewed Tom Knauf DVD on landing accidents and remembered Tom saying that the best place to find a thermal is on the down wind corner of the air field. Sure enough I encounter some very weak lift in this location at 1700 ft and spent at least 10 minutes climbing the first 100ft. But the lift gradually strengthened and soon I was climbing through 7500ft with cloud bases still a ways above me. I headed off to the northwest. By the this there were thunderstorms building west to north of the field. The rain shafts looked to be at least 20 miles away. I climbed under another cloud to 8500ft - still at least 500ft below the base. Around this time Jaime took Sally Daly (a new member) for her first lesson. Mac McKain launched next in the Jantar (Bob Moser had given him a cockpit check out earlier). Mac and I circled under ever darkening clouds as the thunder storms were approaching. It was great to soar with another ship. Carl Rump took the last tow of the day in the Blanik. After I saw a lightning stroke over the city of Blair, I decided it was time to land. Carl landed just before me and we hurried to clear the runway so Mac could land and get the gliders in the hanger. The rain moved in just as Mac landed and we finished putting the Jantar and Pawnee away in the rain. After the gliders were in the hangers we did get some stronger winds for a short while. All in all, it was a good day with a new member and prospective member. It also showed that we are getting busy enough that we will either have to start flying earlier and/or also fly on Sundays to get everyone a reasonable chance to fly. Bob Craig
20 Jun 2008 - Hi All of OSCI, I met Kim Wallace at BTA a little before 8AM to get the Pawnee transponder certification done. Kim formerly was in avionics at Elliott Aviation at Eppley but now works for Duncan Aviation in Lincoln but they have an office in Omaha and he will come to the field. Convenient! We were done with that before 9:00. I was also checking out the reported low volume in the radio receiver and confirmed the problem. Kim said it probably is a toss up on trying to get ours repaired or finding a used similar radio in good working order. By then Jerry Adams and Bob Dyer arrived and we got the ships out. Travis Hedlund arrived giving us the luxury of a ground crew. I flew 2 flights each with Travis and Jerry getting some good training done in the smooth air. Bob Dyer towed. Bob then took the Blanik up with Travis as passenger and I towed. By then the thermals had gotten enough for Bob and Travis to stay up an hour. We got the stuff all put away by mid afternoon. Seeya Jaime
31 May 2008 - I arrived at the airport at 1030AM with glider in tow. The Russia had been in the shop getting a minor dent repaired on the fuselage. Side note – very few A&P want to work on fiberglass so I had to take it to Seward. Anyway, I set up the glider and prepared it for flight. Skies were mostly cloudy so I didn’t hold out a lot of hope for lift. Jaime, Mac, and Rick arrived next and we got 99950 out along with the tow plane. A prospective member showed up along with his dad and Jaime briefed him on our club. Jaime and Travis took off first in to a sky where the high clouds had dissipated and CU were popping – they ended up flying nearly an hour. Shaddrick Sunderman showed up around this time. Once the tow plane was back, I finally had the Russia ready for flight (minus the GPS – had forgot the password for the software – gotta love computers). Mac towed me up into some lift. Jaime and Travis were still up and I got to circle with them a few times. One of my goals was been to start flying incremental cross country flights and with lift up to 6000ft, I headed for Fremont. I flew over the Elkhorn river which was in flood and was amazed at how strong the current looked from 6000ft. The ground west of the Elkhorn had a lot of standing water and CUs weren’t as plentiful to Fremont but I arrived over the town at 4300 ft. It took a while, but I eventually climbed back to 6000ft and started back for Blair. While I was up, Jerry Adams joined the club. He is the guy who flew the red swift out of Blair all the time. Jamie took him up for a 40 minute flight. I easily got back to Blair airport and then headed for Desoto Bend to give the bird watchers something different to look at. I then turned to the field with the intention of landing but I heard over the radio that Mac had just taken off in the Blanik so I decided I would try to fly with him and climbed from 3300ft back to 6300ft. Alas, Mac was way above me and climbing and I couldn’t catch him – he made it to 7500ft though cloud bases were probably only about 6700ft. I had noticed this too that if you caught a thermal in the blue, the initial cumulus that would form would have a higher base the then the more mature cumulus clouds. I decided it was time to land and Jamie helped me put the plane away. Mac came down around this time and we put the rest of the equipment away everyone left except for me around 600pm. What a gorgous soaring day! There were only 4 flights for the day. The only fly in the ointment was that I could not find my car keys. After much searching and calling the wife to some rescue me, we found them next to my van hidden in the grass. Boy to I owe her since she canceled out on a movie to bring me another set of keys. Bob Craig
18 May 2008 - The thermal index looked quite good for Sunday so the prospect of good lift was anticipated. I arrived around noon along with Bob Dyer and Lloyd Kaufman. We extracted the glider and tow plane and I took the first tow. Lift was good and I stayed up for 33 minutes before pulling the plug for Bob Dyer to go up with a friend. Bob’s friend thoroughly enjoyed her flight. After Bob D. landed, Richard Endacott soared for another half. Lloyd had to leave so Bob Dyer took over tow duties. Carl Rump showed up next and Carl and I went up for a safety flight. Carl demonstrated that he still can fly gliders and made two more flights for currency. Finally, Richard Endacott and I went up for the hanger flight. Lift was quite good up to at least 6000ft though it was tough to get much higher. We took turns soaring around the area for one and half hours before the Blanik seat became too uncomfortable and Richard opened spoilers at 5000ft to come in and land. We had everything put away by 530pm. It turned out to be a very good day. No problems were encountered with glider. The radio was working though the battery in 99950 has got to be at least 5 years old. I would think it is due for a change. Also, we still need to install the new boom mike in the glider. The Pawnee is almost due for an oil change according to Bob D. Bob Craig
17 May 2008 - Hi All of OSCI, We got everything we could out of Saturday 5/17 and the result was a good day and two new members. I arrived before noon and found Lloyd already there with the Pawnee on charge. Mack McKain , Ken Costello, Carl Rump, Bob Dyer, Rick Endacott all joined us. We started with Intro Flights for John Lapesh and Ed Caballo. I flew with John and Ken towed. Ken flew with Ed and Lloyd towed. We gained two new members, Howard Deever and son Dan (15). They are both with the CAP Offut squadron. They both want to fly gliders. Howard has some power time long ago. Dan has some CAP orientation flights. I flew with Dan and Mack towed. Ken flew with Howard and Mack towed. Cecellia (My friends call me Sally) Daly came for another flight on her dream of learning to fly. Sally is 82. I flew with Sally last October when her family gave her a flight. Sally and I again ventured forth on an Intro Flight with Bob Dyer towing. Sally is easing into this dream and will probably join the club soon. She and I have had discussions on realistic expectations and plan on enjoying the journey. The last flight was Bob Dyer and Rick Endacott off on a fun flight. Mack towed and completed the refueling task. The wind was strong (15-25) all day but fortunately from the NW and pretty much down the runway or we couldn't have operated. The grass is getting pretty tall so the wind did help on takeoff. I talked with Lee and Doc today about mowing the grass and my concern over not seeing the mower on the field. My concern is confirmed in that the mower is in the process of being repaired, needing some drive train work. Doc says he hopes to have some mowing done by next Saturday. I understand there was also a great operation on Sunday. We benefit in many ways when we have a presence like that. Good effort to all! Seeya Jaime
3 May 2008 - Hi All of OSCI, We accomplished the photo flights pretty well and they (Nebraska Life Magazine) should have some good results. I saw some images just viewing in the camera and they looked good to me. It was nearly 2:00 when I arrived and found Mack preflighting the Pawnee, and Whit solving the oil problem on the 4 wheeler. He did and it ran fine for us. Larry Ortega came and stayed all day as ground crew. I did take a flight a little before 4:00 and Larry came along. Whitt towed. Bob Moser and Bert with friend Tammy also stopped by to help as they could while they were needed. We washed 99950 and it did look better. While Larry and I were up, Chris Amundson and Camille Kirchoff arrived in Chris's Stinson 108. Photographer Mike Whye also had arrived. We briefed the flight and waited until around 6:00 for the sun to get into a desirable position for our first flight. Mack towed. Camille rode along in the front seat as the desirable photo person in the glider (She is an obvious improvement over me). We towed up north of Blair and then headed to Kinnard in a line extending toward Bennington. The photo plane maneuvered to take pictures on tow. Prior to release Photo got off to the right so after release I maneuvered into formation with Photo, Photo held 65mph and a 300fpm descent. That was about 57kt for Glider. It worked out about as we had planned in that at that speed and sink I could easily stay with them using a little spoiler which gave me a way to control my formation position. Glider arrived over Bennington with plenty of altitude to return to BTA. Larry said the formation looked good passing the airport but rather strange to see a glider flying formation on an airplane! After looking at some of the shots in the camera we flew the mission one more time in essentially the same manner. As we landed the sun was just reaching the horizon. They shot a few more pictures of Camille and me around the glider, and then a group shot. Camile wrote us a $100 check for our expenses. She thought the story and pictures would be published by the end of the month. Mack and I survived on my bag of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. However I was pretty tired and hungry by the time I got away from the airport. Chris and Camille were still on their way to Norfolk. I'll bet they had an even later dinner than I did! Seeya Jaime
27 April 2008 - Bob Dyer, Lloyd Kaufman, and myself met at the field around 12 Noon. Winds were stronger than forecast with a pretty good west wind (cross wind). We got 99950 and the Pawnee out. Several issues became apparent before we started flying. 1) The 4 wheeler has an oil leak. Oil sprays out from fitting on the side of the engine when the engine is running. The source of the leak was not easily found or fixed so we didn’t use it. 2) The Pawnee battery was quite low and it barely started. The battery should be place on a charger before starting it the next time we fly. 3) On the preflight of the Blanik I noticed the left wing flap torque tube had a lot more play then the right one. There didn’t appear to be anything loose in the wing so we elected to fly it. 4) Also on preflight and during several tows, the rudder pedal on the right side for the back seat was occasionally hanging up on something. At first, we thought it was the seat, but closer inspection indicated it was not the front seat or belt and seemed to occurring under the floor. This definitely needs to be check further. Lloyd Kaufman gave me a safety flight to start off the flying. I then took two pattern tows. On the second pattern tow, I hit 800ft per min lift at 1200ft and climbed to 3500ft in no time. Since they were afraid to shut down the tow plane between tows, I pulled the plug and descended to the pattern and landed. I gave Bob Dyer his safety flight and he made a couple flights for currency. Lloyd had to leave early and since we weren’t sure we could restart the Pawnee, we decide to but the equipment away. By now the sky was dotted with CU and it was hard leaving the first good soaring day of the season. Bob Craig
19 Apr 2008 - Hi All of OSCI, Finally we had a flyable day, and it was spectacularly nice. We concentrated on landing currency for our CFI's and safety flights. CFI's Whitt, Ken, Bob M. and Jaime all got their 3 takeoffs an landings, working in Safety flights at the same time. Lloyd was already current on landings from flying a motor glider out at Lexington so he could instruct from the start. He worked in his safety flight as well. Rick, Mack, and Perry also got their safety flight done. We flew 15 glider flights, and 18 Pawnee flights, the overage being Jaime's first flight of the day and Mack re-familiarizing himself after not flying the Pawnee for a while. Most flights were pattern tows except for Rick, Mack, and Perry's safety flights which were 2000 ft. Perry got the longest flight of the day working hard in weak conditions and scratched out 39 minutes. Larry helped on the ground and Tim stopped by for a while. I was first to the field a little before noon. The first glider flight was off at 12:47. The last glider flight landed at 4:26. We locked the hangar door about 5:15. Safety Requirements The 4-27-08 version of our Safety Requirements Record is attached. Comments and corrections are welcome. Everyone please check your Flight Review date. It is YOUR responsibility. Preview The postponed UNO Student flying will probably have to be one of the next two weekends if they want to try again before the end of their semester. Bob Moser will continue to coordinate. Also on May 3, The publisher, Chris Amundson, and photographer, Mike Whye, from Nebraska Life magazine www.nebraskalife.com plan to arrive about mid afternoon to do some follow up aerial photograhy of our glider in flight. Some will recall Mike taking pictures last year at the field and from the glider. Chris has a Stinson 108 which should be a good photo ship. Seeya Jaime