Well as usual I haven't gotten as much done on 3Y as I wanted but it is ready enough for the trip to Dalhart. I'll be packing like a madman tonight so that tomorrow after work all I have to do is hook up and head out. Ol' Blue is at the shop right now getting the A/C checked out. Hopefully it can get fixed, forecast highs are above 100 in Dalhart at least through Tuesday. Saturday forecast currently is 105 with thermals above 18,000. hopefully that keeps up all week.
I'll have the SPOT on for the drive and all flights. http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0xSWzZKb2GVSEASvOr6Tx08EyO4mMDphc
I'll do my best to post flight reports and OLC links here through the week.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Update
Been a while so i figured i should document what I've been up to. Last week was awful hot so I didn't get much done in the garage. We had 5 straight days of 100+. I did manage a really good flight last Sunday, but not in the Cherokee. I decided to take the NG-1 out and ended up barely finishing a 300 km FAI triangle! I've submitted the flight for Diamond Goal as well as 4 Kansas state records. I was hoping to do all Diamonds in 3Y but after the 6.5 hr flight and just barely making it home I felt I had earned it. Don't worry I still will have 300 km on the mind when I get 3Y back out of the garage. Here is the writeup I put on Soaring Cafe: http://soaringcafe.com/2011/06/diamond-goal/
3Y has been in the garage. I started doing a little practice fiberglass work by making a cap for the rudder. It turned out alright and is a much more complicated shape than the wing wheel which will be the next project. I have the fuselage and left wing in the garage now. I need to get some more felt before I get too deep into that project. I also have plans to work more on the seat back and I need to get the voltmeter wired up properly so that it works. I also would like to do some touch up painting in a few spots as well as perhaps getting the "YYY" Contest ID painted on the wing and tail. But to do that I will have to (finally!) get my air compressor wired up and running.
I did take the opportunity to do a small fabric patch on the left aileron of 3Y. There has been a hole on the top of the aileron for a little while now, not sure when that wound was inflicted, but a piece of wing tape has been sufficient until now. With the wing on the stand I figured it was a good time to do it right. I glued it in last night and brushed on some ekofill tonight. There is also the patch that we did down by the skid that will need paint when that time comes.
On 3T I have not made a whole lot of progress but have gotten a few things done. I did get the nicopress tool from Harry and tonight made my first nicopress joint. I need to make sure i'm doing it right but hopefully control cables will start to go back in the glider this week. It is supposed to cool off a little (90 instead of 100) for the next few days and the late sunsets are awesome.
I also did a little more Super Fill work on the right wing root, that job is almost done.
Summer soaring plans have gotten firmed up a bit. I'm going to try to get a few more flights in the NG-1 before the annual Kowbell Klassic free distance contest on July 16. With its L/D in the low 30's it will be my bird of choice this year I think. However between now and then I'm planning on going to a cross country camp in Dalhart, TX during the last week of June. I'll take 3Y there as I'm viewing it as a week of practice for the Region 10 contest in Llano in August where I intend to fly 3Y. Once Kowbell is over I will probably focus most of my efforts on contest prep, be that ground handling equipment or flying stuff. I still have a few bugs to work out of my Oudie/Nano setup. On the flight in the NG-1 the battery on the Oudie didn't last as long as it should've so I need to investigate that. It was hooked up to the external battery pack which kept powering the Nano for the 6.5 hr flight.
So that is what I have been up to lately, will be sure to post pictures as the cables go back in 3T and the wing wheel comes to life on 3Y.
3Y has been in the garage. I started doing a little practice fiberglass work by making a cap for the rudder. It turned out alright and is a much more complicated shape than the wing wheel which will be the next project. I have the fuselage and left wing in the garage now. I need to get some more felt before I get too deep into that project. I also have plans to work more on the seat back and I need to get the voltmeter wired up properly so that it works. I also would like to do some touch up painting in a few spots as well as perhaps getting the "YYY" Contest ID painted on the wing and tail. But to do that I will have to (finally!) get my air compressor wired up and running.
I did take the opportunity to do a small fabric patch on the left aileron of 3Y. There has been a hole on the top of the aileron for a little while now, not sure when that wound was inflicted, but a piece of wing tape has been sufficient until now. With the wing on the stand I figured it was a good time to do it right. I glued it in last night and brushed on some ekofill tonight. There is also the patch that we did down by the skid that will need paint when that time comes.
On 3T I have not made a whole lot of progress but have gotten a few things done. I did get the nicopress tool from Harry and tonight made my first nicopress joint. I need to make sure i'm doing it right but hopefully control cables will start to go back in the glider this week. It is supposed to cool off a little (90 instead of 100) for the next few days and the late sunsets are awesome.
I also did a little more Super Fill work on the right wing root, that job is almost done.
Summer soaring plans have gotten firmed up a bit. I'm going to try to get a few more flights in the NG-1 before the annual Kowbell Klassic free distance contest on July 16. With its L/D in the low 30's it will be my bird of choice this year I think. However between now and then I'm planning on going to a cross country camp in Dalhart, TX during the last week of June. I'll take 3Y there as I'm viewing it as a week of practice for the Region 10 contest in Llano in August where I intend to fly 3Y. Once Kowbell is over I will probably focus most of my efforts on contest prep, be that ground handling equipment or flying stuff. I still have a few bugs to work out of my Oudie/Nano setup. On the flight in the NG-1 the battery on the Oudie didn't last as long as it should've so I need to investigate that. It was hooked up to the external battery pack which kept powering the Nano for the 6.5 hr flight.
So that is what I have been up to lately, will be sure to post pictures as the cables go back in 3T and the wing wheel comes to life on 3Y.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Windy de-rigging
Well Leah and I are home now. I had an interesting flight yesterday. The wind was supposed to pick up in the afternoon and along with that the lift was supposed to get really good, like up into the mid teens. I took the first launch about 1 PM. I had waited for the wind to get over 20 mph. I couldn't find much, struggled in a few torn up thermals and had to land just as Bruce was launching in the Grob. I took the next tow figuring things were heating up and would be better and was rewarded. Bruce had found some lift too and I caught a good thermal southwest of the airport and worked it up to 10,400 feet! I was feeling good, radioed Leah in the truck, and headed north.
I had some concerns that I was going to out run the weather to the north. The NAM forecast had showed a definite northern edge in west central Kansas while either the RUC or GFS, maybe both, had shown the good stuff extending further north. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to hold position upwind of the airport with the powerful winds aloft so figured my only option was to go downwind anyway.
As I turned north I took a look at the Oudie. Indicated airspeed of approx 65 mph gave a groundspeed of 105-110 mph. While doing a little dolphining I was able to get the achieved glide angle over the ground up in the 40-50:1 range. This was awesome! Any hope Leah had of keeping up with me quickly vanished as I sailed past Lakin and headed for Leoti. I wasn't finding a lot of good lift as I pressed on but occasionally would take a few turns in something and gain a few hundred or maybe a thousand feet. I figured I had quickly outrun the good stuff and would have to take what I could get and maintain as long as possible. I inched lower and lower as I passed Leoti. Not even the huge stockyard north of town was able to kick off a powerful enough thermal to boost me back up. I could sure smell the cattle though!
Eventually it was time to land, after an hour and a half in the air. The approach was short and steep into a dirt field with corn stalks left over from last year. I tied the glider down, hit the OK button on the SPOT, and was able to get a faint cell signal to get a call in to Leah. After about an hour she had found me and we started to de-rig. In between the landing and her showing up, the front had passed. I noted it by an approximate 5-10 minute lull in the wind. It dropped from probably 20 or 25 mph down to 5 or 10. Then it came back. Except when it came back it was more like 30 or 35 with gusts higher and dust devils everywhere! We were not looking forward to having to take the glider apart in this weather.
We did manage to get 3Y back in the trailer with no additional damage beyond the scratches, bumps, and scrapes that it already had. That was a relief. I think we both ate at least a tablespoon of west kansas dust during the process.
The report from the other guys at Ulysses was that after Steve launched in the Nimbus after me the wind went from strong to stupid strong. They saw gusts of 55 mph on Ed's weather station. At that point Ed was having issues taxiing the Call Air and no one else was really interested in flying anyway. Steve managed to push upwind to Guymon, OK and caught a thermal over Hugoton, KS to 17,700 feet! wow! Bruce also managed to do well in the Grob, sealing his Silver Altitude with a climb to 14,000 and perhaps getting Gold Altitude as well.
Leah and I were all packed up and came straight back to Wichita from the field. The wind was supposed to be 40-50 mph all day today out there and we didn't feel like pulling the trailer in that. It was bad enough in the wind last night.
Total distance for my flight was right at 80 miles. Here is the OLC trace. Unfortunately the Oudie battery died so it did not record the entire flight.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=1097355504
Here are a few lousy cell phone pictures from the weekend, we didn't have the fancy camera with us this time.
Landout on Saturday, this was a former wheat field:
Tied down on Sunday
View from the cockpit on Sunday:
I had some concerns that I was going to out run the weather to the north. The NAM forecast had showed a definite northern edge in west central Kansas while either the RUC or GFS, maybe both, had shown the good stuff extending further north. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to hold position upwind of the airport with the powerful winds aloft so figured my only option was to go downwind anyway.
As I turned north I took a look at the Oudie. Indicated airspeed of approx 65 mph gave a groundspeed of 105-110 mph. While doing a little dolphining I was able to get the achieved glide angle over the ground up in the 40-50:1 range. This was awesome! Any hope Leah had of keeping up with me quickly vanished as I sailed past Lakin and headed for Leoti. I wasn't finding a lot of good lift as I pressed on but occasionally would take a few turns in something and gain a few hundred or maybe a thousand feet. I figured I had quickly outrun the good stuff and would have to take what I could get and maintain as long as possible. I inched lower and lower as I passed Leoti. Not even the huge stockyard north of town was able to kick off a powerful enough thermal to boost me back up. I could sure smell the cattle though!
Eventually it was time to land, after an hour and a half in the air. The approach was short and steep into a dirt field with corn stalks left over from last year. I tied the glider down, hit the OK button on the SPOT, and was able to get a faint cell signal to get a call in to Leah. After about an hour she had found me and we started to de-rig. In between the landing and her showing up, the front had passed. I noted it by an approximate 5-10 minute lull in the wind. It dropped from probably 20 or 25 mph down to 5 or 10. Then it came back. Except when it came back it was more like 30 or 35 with gusts higher and dust devils everywhere! We were not looking forward to having to take the glider apart in this weather.
We did manage to get 3Y back in the trailer with no additional damage beyond the scratches, bumps, and scrapes that it already had. That was a relief. I think we both ate at least a tablespoon of west kansas dust during the process.
The report from the other guys at Ulysses was that after Steve launched in the Nimbus after me the wind went from strong to stupid strong. They saw gusts of 55 mph on Ed's weather station. At that point Ed was having issues taxiing the Call Air and no one else was really interested in flying anyway. Steve managed to push upwind to Guymon, OK and caught a thermal over Hugoton, KS to 17,700 feet! wow! Bruce also managed to do well in the Grob, sealing his Silver Altitude with a climb to 14,000 and perhaps getting Gold Altitude as well.
Leah and I were all packed up and came straight back to Wichita from the field. The wind was supposed to be 40-50 mph all day today out there and we didn't feel like pulling the trailer in that. It was bad enough in the wind last night.
Total distance for my flight was right at 80 miles. Here is the OLC trace. Unfortunately the Oudie battery died so it did not record the entire flight.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=1097355504
Here are a few lousy cell phone pictures from the weekend, we didn't have the fancy camera with us this time.
Landout on Saturday, this was a former wheat field:
Tied down on Sunday
View from the cockpit on Sunday:
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Flight Report
Well the day was slow to start and I launched a little early today. Ended up maxing out at 6500 MSL (3500 AGL) and managed to work upwind 11 or 12 miles before having to land. The guys who launched later all managed 2ish hour flights with altitudes from 7800 to 9500. Leah came and got me though and we made it back in time for supper which is always nice.
Tomorrow might be a downwind day, we'll see. Monday is looking like a blow out so far.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=956800845
Tomorrow might be a downwind day, we'll see. Monday is looking like a blow out so far.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=956800845
Friday, May 27, 2011
Headed for Ulysses
Leah and I will hit the road this afternoon for Ulysses, KS for the weekend. Hopefully we'll be greeted with good thermals. Right now the forecasts are all over the map but I think it will end up OK.
the SPOT will be running when we're on the road or in the sky:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0xSWzZKb2GVSEASvOr6Tx08EyO4mMDphc
Will be posting flights on the OLC and as long as I have time at least short reports here.
the SPOT will be running when we're on the road or in the sky:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0xSWzZKb2GVSEASvOr6Tx08EyO4mMDphc
Will be posting flights on the OLC and as long as I have time at least short reports here.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Leah flies 373Y
Last night after work we went out to Sunflower and put 3Y together. We were hoping to get Leah a few flights in the glider before we take it to Ulysses for the weekend. Ended up with a late start of course but got her in the air shortly after 7. She had a good flight overall and *almost* managed a 30 minute soaring flight. She never managed to get back above release altitude but there was a lot of zero sink and weak lift that she took advantage of. All in all, a lot of fun.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=539793801
3Y is back home now, hopefully this week I can do a little tinkering with it and the trailer in prep for Ulysses this weekend.
Haven't had a chance to do much on 3T this week although the hardware for the control cables are in the mail.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=539793801
3Y is back home now, hopefully this week I can do a little tinkering with it and the trailer in prep for Ulysses this weekend.
Haven't had a chance to do much on 3T this week although the hardware for the control cables are in the mail.
Monday, May 23, 2011
1/3 Scale Cherokee's Fly!
In the last few weeks several of the builders of 1/3 scale Cherokee's have done their maiden flights. Here are some videos.
Creeve's glider is based on N8722E. The full size version is currently getting readied for flight by Gary Flandro.
I believe this is Dave Smiths, has a canadian registration number with the indian headress like 22E and 871Z.
And here is Nigels, a copy of the New Zealand Cherokee II.
Creeve's glider is based on N8722E. The full size version is currently getting readied for flight by Gary Flandro.
I believe this is Dave Smiths, has a canadian registration number with the indian headress like 22E and 871Z.
And here is Nigels, a copy of the New Zealand Cherokee II.
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