NCSA 2007 ACCOMPLISHMENTS & AWARDS

FIRST SOLOS:

Seth Dunham: First Solo

Ben Hirashima: First Solo - 6/2/07

Paul McDonald: First glider solo

Bill Gage: first glider solo

NEW GLIDER RATINGS

Mike Voie: Comml Glider, 4/13/07

Bill Gage: PPG (12/21/07)

Dmitry Chichkov: PPG ( 12/21/07)

Johan Larson: PPG 7/25/07


FAA WINGS:

Morteza Ansari;; Mike Mayo; Richard Duggan; Shannon Madsen; Charlie Ferguson; Bruce Roberts; Taylor Nichols; Johan Larson; Buzz Graves; Peter Kelemen


BADGES AND BADGE LEGS

A:Seth Dunham; Bill Gage; Ben Hirashima; Paul Mc Donald;

B: Ben Hirashima; Paul Mc Donald; Mike Voie; Mark Violet; Dmitry Chichkov; Taylor Nichols; Larry Suter

C: Larry Suter; Taylor Nichols

Bronze: Larry Suter:

Silver Altitude: Taylor Nichols; Dale Roberts; Larry Suter

Diamond Distance/Goal: Shannon Madsen

World Distance Award (40,000 XC km): Yuliy Gerchikov:

Diplome #7 (750 km is a new diplome category) Rolf Peterson: 750 km


AIR SAILING CAMPS,

Thermal Camp: Larry Suter; Taylor Nichols: Thermal Camp; Mark Violet:

Cross-Country Camp; Jason Proctor:


NCSA 2007 AWARDS

Note: There are 2 classes: i: Adv + ii: Std

Winner in previous year in ii: std becomes "adv"


TOTAL GLIDER CROSS-COUNTRY STATUTE MILES -2007:

i. Adv:

1. Ramy Yanetz: 12, 393 sm

2.Yuliy Gerchikov: 11,072 sm

3. Rolf Peterson: 5,411sm (excludes powered X-Country flights in motorglider)

4. Morteza Ansari: 3,480sm

ii. Std:

1. Shannon Madsen: 5,474 sm

2.Mike Mayo: 4087 sm

3. Peter Kelemen: 890sm

4. Larry S: 553 sm (using the OLC dist on flights with a single leg 10sm or longer)


TOTAL GLIDER HOURS IN 2007:

Adv:

1.Ramy Yanetz: 277 hr

2.Yuliy Gerchikov: 229.1 hr

3.Rolf Peterson: 127hr (excl 39.9 instr)

Std:

1. Shannon Madsen: 137.5hr

2. Mike Mayo: 127hr

3 Morteza Ansari: 82hr


LONGEST DISTANCE FLIGHT ANYWHERE:

i. Adv:

1. Ramy Yanetz: 632 sm

2. Yuliy Gerchikov: 582 sm

3. Rolf Peterson: 526.6 sm Parowan, UT - North Ruby Mtns., NV - Parowan, UT

4. Morteza Ansari: 311 sm out of Air Sailing

ii. Std:

1. Shannon Madsen: 532 sm

2. Mike Mayo: 370sm

3. Peter Kelemen: 180 sm Trk - Herlong - E. Quincy - Mt. Rose - Squaw valley - Truckee 180 sm

4. Monique Weil: 114sm


LONGEST DISTANCE USING ONLY CLUB SHIPS:

1.Shannon Madsen: 236 sm in SS

2.Mike Mayo: 191 sm /: Truckee - Spooner - Susanville - Truckee - in 81C

3.Monique Weil / Ramy Yanetz: 114 sm

4. Peter Kelemen: 34sm

5. Larry Suter: about 30sm on a Diablo Wave day: Diablo-Antioch Bridge, Los Vaqueros, Byron


LONGEST (DISTANCE) FLIGHT FROM BYRON:

i. Adv:

1. Ramy Yanetz: 332 sm (500KM triangle) Willows-Mt Stakes-pasco egg hunt

2. Yuliy Gerchikov: 269 sm

3. Morteza Ansari: 56sm

ii.Std:

1. Shannon Madsen: 238.6 sm

2. Mike Mayo: 211sm

3. Monique Weil: 114sm -FB - 8/4/07

4.Larry Suter: Antioch Bridge is about 15 sm from Byron


LONGEST (TIME) FLIGHT FROM BYRON

Adv: 1. Ramy Yanetz: 7.2hr

2. Morteza Ansari: 6.9hr

3. Yuliy Gerchikov: 3.6hr

Std:1. Shannon Madsen: 6.3hr

2. Mike Mayo: 4hr 6 minutes

3. Monique Weil: 3.5hr

4. Larry Suter: 2.8 hr


HIGHEST ALTITUDE ACHIEVED:

a) FROM ANYWHERE:

i. Adv:

1. Ramy Yanetz: 18,000'

2. Morteza Ansari: 18,000'

3. Mike Green: 17,500'

ii.Std:

1. Mike Schneider: 20,200'

2. Roy Moeller: 17999'

3.Shannon Madsen: 17,999'

4. Mike Mayo: 17,999'

5. Larry Suter: 16,500'

b) FROM BYRON:

i Adv:

Mike Schneider: 20,200' Diablo wave 1/21/07

Ramy Yanetz: 18,000' Diablo wave 1/21/07

Yuliy Gerchikov: 15,064' -1/1/07

ii. Std:

1. Roy Moeller: 18,000' ft Mt Diablo on 1/21/07

2. Monique Weil: 13,500' on 8/4/07

3. Shannon Madsen: 13,200 feet (wave to the west of the radio tower ridge)

4. Peter Kelemen/Ken Pruchnick: 12,600' 1/14/07 wave Mt Diablo


FASTEST AVERAGE X-C SPEED ANYWHERE?

i. Adv:

1.Yuliy Gerchikov: 105.3 mph over 532.22 sm in 5:20:20

2.Ramy Yanetz: 102 mph in: 300 mile leg fromCerro Gordo to near Susanville

3. Rolf Peterson 83.97 mph over 254.9 sm in ASW20

ii. Std:

1. Shannon Madsen: 87.5 mph over 532 sm

2. Morteza Ansari .: 66.5 mph (over 350Km out of Air Sailing)

3.Peter Kelemen: 45 mph over 180 miles.


FASTEST SPEED WITH NCSA SHIPS:

1. Shannon Madsen: 37.4 mph over 236 sm (egg flight to Williams in SS)

3. Morteza Ansari: 36 mph in SS


LONGEST DISTANCE/TIME FLIGHT IN a 1-26

1. Larry Suter: 77sm, May 31(sic): Air Sailing, Stead, Tule etc (OLC dist)


STATE RECORDS:

Rolf P: Pending Utah State Records:

15m Class and Open Class - Free Out and Return - 497.1 sm

Sports Class - Free Out and Return - 448.9 hsm (handicapped sm


CONTESTS:

Rolf Peterson: Region 11 Contest (finished 3rd in Sports Class)

Air Sailing Sports Class Contest (finished 8th)

Morteza Ansari: Air Sailing Sports Class: 5th


TOTAL NUMBER OF FLIGHTS IN 2007

1.Larry Suter: 94 (tried for 100-TP had other ideas)

2.Ramy Yanetz: 62

3.Taylor Nichols: 51

4.Yuliy Gerchikov: 49


LANDOUTS:

1.Shannon Madsen: Five unplanned airport landings:

Dayton Valley; 2 times at Carson City; Bishop; Tracy

2.Ramy Yanetz: 5 unplanned, 3 planned landouts

3.Rolf Peterson: 1 unplanned landout at Eureka; NV flying out of Ely, NV --flight: Ely-Tonopah-Eureka - 314.9sm

4.Mike Mayo: 2 undesired landouts


TOTAL FLIGHTS LISTED UNDER NCSA on OLC:

NOTE: Pilots are strongly encouraged to post their flights on the NCSA page in OLC, to help the club rankings.


TOTAL FLIGHTS LISTED UNDER NCSA on OLC

1. Shannon Madsen 8,581km 26 flights

2 .Jim Conger 8,437km 28 flights

3. Morteza Ansari 5,579.km, 20 flights

4. Uwe Kleinhempel 3,183.km ..10 flights

5.Buzz Graves 3,489 km...... 12 flights

6.Michael I Green 569 km .. 5 flights


GRAND TOTAL NCSA OLC : Grand Total 29
,835.86KM 101FLIGHTS

-NCSA ranking for 2007: 27th out of 132 clubs
thanks to the 6 club members who listed their OLC flights under NCSA


TOTAL GLIDER INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT/HOURS GIVEN?

Monique Weil: 286 flights/102.3 hours

Dave Cunningham: 182 flights/ 86 hours

Rolf Peterson: 164 flights/39.9 hours


TOTAL TOWS/HOURS AND FLIGHTS?

Ken Ferguson: 171 tows in 35 tow hours

Tom Hail 157 tows in 33.8 tow hours

Dennis Vied: 20 tows in 4.0 hr


PILOT OF THE YEAR:

Adv: Ramy Yanetz

most XC miles (12,393sm), longest distance (632sm), - PASCO: -Longest O&R Distance Award: - 460 sm. Most hours (277hr) Longest flight from Byron 4/18/07 - 535km to Willows, Mt Stake and back to Byron.

Std: Shannon Madsen :

- Two round-trip flights from Byron to Williams to retrieve the PASCO Egg
5 flights over 500km:

(1) First 500k: Hollister-New Cuyama-Hollister (first day flying at Hollister) - 580km

(2) Diamond Distance/Goal flight: ASI-Mammoth Lakes-ASI - 570km

(3) Best flight to date: Truckee-Cerro Gordo Pk-ASI-Truckee 857km, 140.9km/h

(4) ASI-Bishop-ASI with 70nm final glide - 663km

(5) Truckee-Quincy-Patterson-ASI-Truckee - 554km


INSTRUCTOR OF THE YEAR 2007:

Monique Weil


List of 2007 Instructors:

Mike Schneider,

Rolf Peterson,

Boris Deianov,

Dave Cunningham

Buzz Graves,

Richard Pearl,

Monique Weil


TOW PILOT OF THE YEAR 2007

Ken Ferguson


List of 2007Tow Pilots:

Uwe Kleinhempel

Ken Ferguson

Tom Hail

Boris Deianov

Brian Forsyth

Dave Stroh

Thomas Daniel

Bruce Walters,

Don Brown

Rolf Peterson

Mike Schneider

Dennis Vied


NCSA SPARK PLUGS OF THE YEAR 2007: KP AWARD:

1. Bill Bullis, Ever present, ready to help with anything: stealth worker on TP and gliders; helping run the line;
Others deserving of mention:

Richard Duggan, always ready to volunteer - Work Day Boss; Chef; FM for "Intensive weekdays"; Johan Larson: BUZZARD editor; Charlie Ferguson: fabric and other repair - built table from cracked wing spar of 16YKen Ferguson and Willy Snow: "can do" guys - worked on temp AS repair in Truckee, flew crippled ship back


MOST IMPROVED PILOT OF THE YEAR 2007:

Larry Suter (: Highest ever in any kind of small plane (16.500'); longest flight in a glider:(4hr) 77sm, May 31(sic): Air Sailing, Stead, Tule etc (OLC dist)


MOST IMPROVED PILOT OF 2007 USING ONLY NCSA GLIDERS

Mike Mayo: Truckee - Spooner - Susanville - Truckee in 81C. =191 miles


Survived Third Year as NCSA President:

Bill Levinson


NON FLYING AWARDS winner is the judge for next year -

--BEST PHOTO - Shannon Madsen -

--BEST ARTICLE: - Shannon Madsen

1. Shannon Madsen: "My 2006 Flying Season Experiences" published June 2007 in West Wind

2. Bill Levinson: "2007 Women's Soaring Seminar" published Sept 2007 in West Wind

3. Ramy Yanetz: "Cross-Country Flying from Byron" published in West Wind, , March 2007

4. Larry Suter: "Thermal Camp, 2007" ncsa Buzzard

5. Roy Moeller: "Byron - October flight to capture the Egg" published Dec 2007 in West Wind

6. Johan Larson: Editor of Buzzard, NCSA newsletter blog; largest number of articles, book reviews, old photos, links to historic documents etc in Buzzard.


---Monique Weil

New Editor

Just wanted to announce I have taken over as editor of the Buzzard. I look forward to many interesting posts.

-Dennis H. Vied

Recent Accomplishments

Congratulations to new member Phil Hoyt, who has earned his SSA A and B
badges.

Well done.

--Dave Cunningham

Scenes from Winter Soaring

A 65-th birthday glider ride for Doug B.



Preparing for a checkride.



Dimitry cheers.



Egg capture. (No, I don't believe that rainbow either. Photoshop city.)



Pencil-work during a checkride.



Intensive training with Monique.





--Monique

Mistral flies at Byron

At long last, I finally had a chance to fly my Mistral-C in Byron late last year, December 15, 2007.

Here are two pictures: one before the first flight and one of my landing.





Thanks to Monique for the camera-work.

--Johan Larson

Please Welcome Seth Dunham

My name is Seth Dunham. I am a Generation Tech at a Modesto power plant. My aviation background is 5 years of hang gliding, and 30 years of having a father who is a pilot.

This year I began flying cross country in my hang glider by going to the Owens Valley and flying from Walt's Point south of Mt. Whitney where I climbed to 13,200 ft. and then headed north along the eastern Sierra slopes with a nice 20 mph SSE tailwind. Landed 30.5 miles from launch. This experience got me thinking about sailplanes and their cross country potential. So I joined NCSA.

I look forward to flying with and contributing to NCSA. I also look forward to going cross country in both types of gliders.

Happy Landouts;)

--Seth Dunham

Recent Accomplishments

Congratulations to:

SSA A badge

Seth Dunham

Tom Gilman (potential new club member)

SSA B badge

Tom Gilman (potential new club member)

SSA C badge

Tom Gilman (potential new club member)

WINGS phase

Taylor Nichols (phase I)

John Randazzo (phase III)

--Dave Cunningham

Aerotowing to Truckee

The accompanying chart has been marked to delineate landable airports and the altitudes need to reach them for aerotowing a Grob 103 to Truckee. Rich Miller wrote the computer program to plot the data using MatLab to draw the "chain-like" lines surrounding each airport that he selected as a landing option and to calculate the altitudes. The airports themselves are specified by a number next to them in hundreds of feet that indicate the arrival altitude for that airport – pattern altitude plus 1000 feet. For example, Truckee is indicated with "79". The airport is 59 hundred feet ASL plus 10 hundred feet for patterns, plus 10 hundred feet for checklist.

He computed the boundaries surrounding each selected airport – sectors – using a glide slope of 21:1 (3.5 nautical miles per thousand feet). You’ll notice two things about these sectors. First the boundaries are only straight lines when the airports are at the same altitude – Lodi and Franklin for example. Second the airports can be significantly closer to one edge of the sector when the altitude difference between adjoining airports is significant – Placerville and Georgetown for example. No corrections has been made for terrain altitude or wind.

Flying a direct route between Byron and Truckee takes you over Hangtown and Squaw VOR’s. The maximum altitude you’ll need is a little over 12,200 feet as you transition from a potential landout at Georgetown to final glide to Truckee. Blue Canyon is not a landout option on this route.

In the Central Valley there are multiple airports within each sector except for Byron and Funny Farm. Making each airport a separate sector would only clutter the chart.

The absolute furthest distances you can get from a landout airport are at the corners of the sectors. Flying above these altitudes adds an extra margin of safety. In the Central Valley the "maximum-minimum" safe altitude is about 5400 feet near Linden VOR.

Flying an indirect route through Donner Pass saves about 800 feet in altitude gain. This route makes Blue Canyon a landout option as you transition out of the Georgetown sector. The minimum safe altitude to reach Truckee from Soda Springs, or return to Blue Canyon is 11,400 feet (114 on the chart). Sierraville is an equal glideable distance from Soda Springs as well.

The boundaries between sectors are curved because they are hyperbolas (a straight line being a degenerate form of a hyperbola). Two airports are equally glideable along a curve, the points on which are closer to the higher airport by a distance that is equal to the distance the glider can fly in the altitude difference between the airports. This is a definition of a hyperbola with the airports the foci and the difference in distance to the two foci the distance the glider can glide in the elevation difference between the two airports.

The chart is for educational purposes and not to be used for navigation. This work was not supported by any government grant nor were any animals injured or killed as a result of this research .

--Rich Miller and Bill Levinson

October egg

On Thursday, October 4, 2007, Ramy suggested that the following day might be exceptional and was trying to flush some birds into the air. Shannon Madsen, Mike Mayo and Bill Brown signed up right away but I wanted to check the forecast first. It looked good, but based on satellite images, a little drier than the media forecasters were touting. Distracted by last minute issues at work, I neglected to notify the group that I would also be coming out.

The next morning was overcast but calm in the east bay but with broken heavy clouds to the east. Cloud cover was rapidly changing by the time I arrived at the field. I don't remember why but it seemed to take forever to get ready to launch. Eventually, just before noon we were ready, with Shannon taking off first and releasing at 2000. I followed, imprudently getting off at 1400 in what seemed a great thermal. That cost me about 20 minutes of milling around the pattern before I blundered into some real lift. I watched Ramy take off in the meantime. That was last time I saw him until he landed. I was hoping that the lift would be good to the east, enabling a flight down the east side of the valley but I soon abandoned that dream, as I struggled to get above 4000 under unpredictable clouds near Stockton.

Ramy had apparently started off to the north and it sounded like Shannon was heading that direction, reporting 4500 near Brentwood. Returning to Discovery Bay, north now looked much better so I followed the leaders. Turning slightly west at Rio Vista and on to Nut Tree the lift was well marked and strong. My lowest point on this leg was 3000 at Nut Tree. Very heavy cloud cover extended over the length of the ridge east of L Berryessa so a track east of the ridge seemed more comfortable. Enroute, there had been a lot of chatter about who was going for the Egg. Up to this point I just entertaining the thought but finally I concluded that since conditions were so good, it would be a shame to pass it up. Not having been this far north, I started to consult the sectional. This entailed considerable bouts of folding, re-folding, PIO’s and blue words. As it turned out, only the heading and distance were useful at this point, since Williams was too far to make out any landmarks.

My track took me over a range of low hills to south of Williams, gradually losing altitude. Near the north end of this range, I was down to 2000 and still hadn't identified which town was the target. A fellow pilot informed me that the town near the orchards was Arbuckle, not Williams. The orchards were quite numerous, interspersed with what appeared to be cleared fields. These "fields" were of particular interest as I was getting quite low. These later turned out to be very unfriendly vineyards.

Eventually, I found some lift that would allow a final glide to the next town I pressed on. Increasingly more uncomfortable about the distance to my intended touchdown point, I re-consulted the now mangled sectional. Williams lies just south of the point where the railroad and interstate 5 turns due north and it was now apparent that I was heading for the next town up the road, Maxwell. Tuning back to Williams, I was now desperately searching for the field. Fortunately, a local pilot heard my queries and helped out. Even at 1200ft the strip was difficult to see.

After an uneventful landing, one of the towpilots helped move the ship clear of the runway. After hurriedly exiting, I made haste to empty my personal ballast tank. It is most unwise to consume large quantities of coffee before a long flight. Relieved of several worries I was now inclined to relax, wander about and check out operation. Rex, however, strode out and handed me the Egg. Explaining the forms and logbook, he helped me push out to the line where a waiting towplane had magically appeared! It was around 3 o’clock and I should have been thinking of the return flight. The tow turned out be quite interesting. Ether the tow pilot managed to stay in lift during the straight out climb towards the ridge or they had filled the Pawnee with rocket fuel. The vario stayed pegged most of time. Density altitude may have played some part, but whatever the reason the tow to 4000 was exhilarating and short. The rapid ascent enabled me to find a good thermal just south of the field. Where was it earlier when I needed it?

The return track retraced the one taken north but with much better conditions. Cloud bases were over 8,000 with the vario frequently pegged. With a slight tailwind, progress was rapid. It still seemed better to go east of the main build up looming over the ridge. A slow thermal at 4000 between Dixon and Nut Tree gave me enough altitude to arrive at Rio Vista. It was here that I saw the only other glider enroute. Mike Mayo in E5 pulled in 2000ft below, but couldn’t connect with the lift. Arriving a little earlier and higher, I was able to reach the booming street spanning the delta which Ramy just reported leaving. The final glide to Byron was over quickly.

Since it looked like only Ramy and myself were the only ones with Byron made, I landed at around 5pm and waited for Ramy, who was relaying messages. Shannon had landed at Tracy and Mike eventually at Rio Vista, so we decided to tie down the gliders instead of de-rigging, in order to speed up the retrieves. Shortly, light rain and the setting sun resulted in a rainbow which Ramy, with his cell phone camera, took several shots of it and the egg being held triumphantly aloft.

-- Roy Moeller

Hangar One Faces Demolition

The iconic Hangar One at Moffat Airfield, originally built to house airships, is in danger of being torn down. The Navy is currently considering its options for the hangar, which is not currently in use. The cheapest option would be to simply tear it down.

More information about the hangar, and the movement to preserve it, here.

--Johan Larson