You really must have e-mail, and it's nice (but not necessary) if you can edit the roster on the website. Questions? Talk to Lisa via e-mail or to me (I've done it in the past, too!)
-Jim Kellett

It is rare that we publish material in the newsletter that is not written by a club member. This article appeared in the rec.aviation.soaring newsgroup on the Internet, and I feel compelled to share it with the club members.
-Joe Parrish

Safety in Soaring
If you look at the statistics, Soaring has a decent safety record. In the accidents that have happened, most were NOT the result of an "unforeseeable, uncontrollable, unpreventible" freak event. Most factors appear to be judgment, fatigue, etc. I have been with a club in Northern California for 5 years. The club I am with is 50 years old and has never had a fatality at a club soaring activity. The club has had aircraft damage in the past, and most of it was preventable from an accident prevention standpoint. In my limited experience, poor judgement complicated by either stress, fatigue or lack of experience seems to have been a chief factor. I am aware of only one metal fatigue issue that years ago caused one aileron to partially function in flight. The aircraft came home safely.

I believe I can assure my wife and children that I am relatively risk free if I:

1. Keep up my flight time and recent experience
2. Fly within the limits of my known abilities
3. Keep my eyes open in flight
4. On take off and landing have more than one option available in case of an emergency
5. Fly when I am rested and healthy
6. insure my equipment is in good working order
7. make sound judgements and
8. stay away from others who do not follow rules 1 to 7 above.

Like any other accident chain of events, most people who have accidents have generally violated the above principles and end up eventually losing. When we say we are pushing the limits we are generally breaking some rule and showing bad judgment.

I feel that the real question is NOT if soaring is safe. The question is am I safe. Statistically my chance of an accident is either 0% or 100%. As an individual, it either will or will not happen. If I continually break safety rules I am pushing the 100%. If I always follow 1 to 8 above I am helping to assure my 0% accident rate.

I have no consolation in statistics when I fly. If I break some of my rules and I am in the process of scaring myself to death, my ability to start following my safety rules is my ticket to safety. I do not think to myself, "I wonder what the accident rate is in gliders this year". The safety of a sport is the combined safety record of all of the individuals. So far my record and most of my club members is no wrecks and no injuries. I am Not hoping to keep it that way, I planning by following my safety list to keep it that way.

A case of metal fatigue or freak meteorological event may still occur, but that is not my biggest danger. My biggest danger is me.-From: William H. Snow

Small World...
In my "office", I have a little 4" TV set next to my monitor that I sort of watch while my old computer downloads, etc. etc. etc....

During a recent Sunday afternoon, while I was composing e-mail to my kids, Hugh Downs came on in a segment called "Invention" on the Discovery Channel... and like all good glider pilots, he had a soaring story!!

Seems that one Dame Barbara Cartland, now age 95 and still an accomplished romance novelist, pioneered, in 1931, long distance aerotowing of gliders with one Edward Mole (both these people English, BTW). She and Edward performed a 200 mile aerotow (using a Tiger Moth as a towplane; the glider was never identified) which proved the practicality of long distance aerotows. (Aerotow launching of gliders had been done in Germany, but this was a "first" for long distance transport.) The bottom line is that her initiative led directly to the use of aerotowing troop carrying gliders in combat!! For this she was recognized in 1984 by a Wright Air Industry award (by the United States), although she has never been commended for her accomplishment by the British government!!

There was also a tiny segment with one Tony Hutchings of the London Gliding Club doing a modern aerotow in a K-21.
-Jim Kellett

My First Flight !
It was the spring of either 1940 or 1941. A barnstormer visited Spartanburg Municipal Airport (still operating as SPA or Downtown Spartanburg) in South Carolina. Dad bought us a ride in the plane (see picture, above). At that time I was either five or six years old. I was told that I cried when we landed!

Here's a quiz - Mom took the attached picture of the passengers being escorted out of the plane. What kind of plane is it? Obviously I have no idea!
-Jim Kellett

Editor's Note: Actually Jim cried the last time I landed. Your intrepid editor, always on the cutting edge of 1940 Thinking, guesses a Travel Air 6000 (without much conviction). Anyone wishing to submit your guess, feel free. Be advised that any submission lacking photograph proof will be compressed into a black hole and donated to the UMd. Physics Lab.

We would very much like to use your experiences of the first time you flew. Let us have your own story, however long or short, and photos too. Orville Wright once said he got far more enjoyment out of thinking about what it would be like to fly, than he ever did after actually flying, But, ah that first time was a thrill!

Log This
New Designated Pilot Examiner!
-Shane Neitzey completed his requirements with the FAA to be a Designated Pilot Examiner! Congratulations to Shane! EDS oxygen system-I think you've all received Shane's notice of sale of his EDS oxygen system. This is quite a nice system, and I would like to propose that we gather a syndicate of 15 members to each contribute $50 toward the purchase of the system, including the transfiller. We could then make it available for use by the club. I can tell you that the wave camp holds much less allure if we're limited to 14,000 MSL.

If we can put this purchase together, the only personal equipment we will be lacking for altitude and distance badge flights are a a camera and (optionally) a parachute; we have the glider, trailer, and barograph already. But I get ahead of myself...

Please let me know if you are interested in this purchase. It costs only a little more than a tow and an hour flight in the ASK.-Joe Parrish I have a new e-mail address: joe@parrish.net.

No, I haven't quit my day job for the glamour and high pay of glider flight instruction. I'm just trying to separate work e-mail from play e-mail, and it's a cool address. (Let me know if you're interested in setting up a similar address for yourself. It's not difficult or expensive to do it, and you can keep your existing ISP.)

Hangar-
Tim and Lisa's departure leaves an opening in my hangar for an assembled glider ($75/month) or up to three trailers ($25/month). Long term lease or month-to-month.
-Jim Kellett

Tom Knauff posted the following message to rec.aviation.soaring: Doris Grove has finished her book, Federal Aviation Regulations For Sailplane Pilots and we are now taking orders. Delivery should occur in two weeks.

She has sorted through the vast array of regulations and segregated those that apply to glider pilots, which makes reading and understanding the regulations much easier. The latest changes through October 12 are incorporated in this 105 page book. $10.95 plus shipping, quantity discounts available.

The quantity discount is 25% for orders of 10 or more. If you'd like to get a copy, please reply back to me with a brief note.
-Joe Parrish

Changing times
-First, I would like to inform you that I have retired from the federal government effective 01/02/98, so I should have more availability for club activities in the coming year, especially week-day.

Second, I am wondering if there is any interest by any of the members in putting together a consortium to buy the Citabria 7KCAB Vickland mentioned in his E-mail last week. If so, let me know and I will fill you in on the details of the a/c. This would be an opportunity to do some relatively inexpensive taildragger flying plus possibly provide back-up tow capacity to Skyline.
-Spencer Annear

I am interested in reading the following Dick Johnson Flight Test Evaluations (FTEs). Do any of you old-timers archive back issues of Soaring?