From Bare Glass to Diamonds. - It's Badge time - Silver and Gold Badge

I know it has been awhile since I've posted anytime, but I have been out flying when I can!
It has been a fairly good year for me and my Libelle. I have managed to log about 55 hours this year. We have had a wet year again, and between thunderstorms and over development in the afternoons, I managed to complete my Silver Badge requirements, and achieved getting my Gold Badge as well!

I made 3 attempts for my Gold Badge, with one of my flights ending in my first land out on a muddy runway after getting knocked down by a fast developing thunderstorm that closed in around me after rounding my first way-point. 

I have achieved my first Diamond after completing my Diamond Goal flight.

So I'm planning my Diamond Altitude this winter, providing I can forecast a Waveflight.
















So, with the weather over the past few weeks not being the best for flying, I have re-modified my instrument panel with the addition of a new Borgelt B700 Vario, and replacing my Flarmview with a panel mount Flarmview 57.

Over the summer, my Borget B40 was giving me fits with the audio, and when I sent it in for repair, Borgelt made me an offer on purchasing a replacement.

So, it's back to watching the weather, and hoping for a early spring!

Safe Flying!

First Flights of 2015

The start of the soaring season form me started a bit rocky. I was fighting the feel and relying on electronic help, which proved to be in conflict for learning the basics, and I learned the hard way by missing thermals and doing a few relights. But after a few flights, I'm starting to get the feel again.

My past flights were nothing more than long noodle tracks in the sky.

Last weekend pushed me to my first long distant flight this year (just under 269 km) and to parts I have never been to before.

I was about three thermals away from landing out, but proved to be quite an adventure. Thanks to Mike Carris's mentoring, but I know I still have much to learn and do!












Here is a view toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, during which I flew over Pecos NM at 15000' before heading south.

Winter 2014!??! .... so soon!

Well gang... we went from summer to winter here in New Mexico. What happened to fall!!?!?

My last flight was in late September, I was hoping to get a few more in before the weather turns foul, but that didn't happen.

There have been some wave days, but those have been during the week, and with my glider in a trailer, it makes for an unpleasant ordeal to assemble and disassemble the glider a strong, cold wind.

So, I'm focused on working on the wrecked PIK-20B during the winter months.

So, for now, I'm standing down on flights for the next few months, until the weather settles down and good lift returns to my neck of the woods.

From Bare Glass to Diamonds. - It's Badge time - Silver Distance / Altitude - Part 2

My first filing of my Silver Altitude and Distance Badge had an error that didn't qualify for entry. My data-logger shut off at take off, and when I caught the error, I was already off tow and had to return to my start point. To qualify, I had to have a record of the launch and release. So I was back to retry my attempt.

I completed the task, and we filed my paperwork.

I received a confirmation letter from the SSA that I have successfully fulfilled the requirements for the altitude and distance portion of the Silver Badge. I still have to do a 5 hour flight to claim the Silver.








My flight can be seen on OLC at http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=3928232

Adding a FLARM

I posted this on a different site, but I thought I would share this story.

I recently purchased a FLARM from Cumulus Soaring, Inc. Since the airspace we share is full of heavy metal (airliners) in addition to gliders, I felt that this would be an invaluable instrument to have on board.

 

Just days before receiving it, I did a fly-over of our home. Louise ran out of the house to take a photo of me passing over, but the glider she saw was not me!. It was a Duo Discus (upper right corner and I'm in the lower left corner), and thou she did take the photo, being under a dark cloud, I did not see them until after they past.

 

 

As soon as the FLARM arrived, I was out to the airport to install it in the glider. I purchase the FLARM Core brick. It is a tight fit on the tray. What is even tighter, is the antenna installation. 

Since the Libelle does not have a combing, I had to mount the GPS antenna in the nose, top-side up, and the FLARM A and ADS-B antennas were mounted on opposite sides of the nose bulkhead. It now requires small hands to button up the tray!









For the display, I bought the LX Nav  FLARMview. It is bright and easy to read in flight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Tuesday was the first time I flew with the FLARM, and as soon as I released from tow, it went off. It was alerting me of a target using a transponder.

 

The object was above me and closing. As I was circling in the thermal, scanned the sky around me to see what I was closing in on. When I was just less than three hundred feet from it, I banked out from the thermal in a direction away from the target. A soon as I made the turn I noticed it was the club Grob above me at my six-o-clock high position. I didn’t know if they could see me, since I was at their 12 –o-clock low position.

 

During the rest of the flight, I was warned a few times of a approaching target,, and sure enough, it was the Grob.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a good first test flight with the FLARM. I certainly see a value in this instrument and those who fly with a minimum, a working transponder.

Thank you Paul and Renny for your help with this purchase. Money well spent!

 

Still more Trailer Mods

Howdy all!

I know that it has been a while since my last post. I have been busy with work, and doing some flying when the weekends are good. We have had a wet summer, and the soaring has been fair.

Since I don't have a hanger to store my bird between flights, I have been "Flying out of the box".

I had to create a storage box for my assembly equipment, after the bin I was originally using softened and the shaft from the Wing-rigger stuck the underside of the wing fairing.

The new enclosure is made of plywood, sealed in polyurethane paint, and marine carpet on the sides facing the wings.


So far, it works well in protecting the wings.




All that is left to do in the trailer, is to create and mount the wing-tip guards.

More Trailer Mods!

I have not been doing much flying over the past two weekends due to weather, so I continued to work on the trailer. I knew that I was far from finishing this sucker!

Now that I have a working glider, it is time to finish the means to secure it and the support equipment for travel.

I fabricated a rack for the horizontal stabilizer. It was made from aluminum to keep it light.


I was getting fearful that the struts would not hold the additional weight, but, for now, it seems to be working.

I used felt padding to reduce scratching the surfaces.













The next area on the trailer to tackle is the forward compartment to house the spare tire, wing rigger, support stands, the wing and tail dollies, and supply bins.