October 5 th ALES contest by Bob Nelson CD

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1 West Wind Vol Issue 11 November Newsletter of the Portland Area Sailplane Society Inside this issue: Club/Flying Field news Pg. 1 ALES contest Oct. 5 report Pg. 2 RES contest Oct.11 report Pg. 3 WT Field Cost analysis Pg. 4 Aero-Tow report Pg. 5 PASS Club News Financing a field lease will be a special topic at the meeting in November. Bring your questions and suggestions for club funds management. Refer to the Oct. issue of the NL for some specific discussions presented by members... Another one is presented in this issue as well. Aero-Tow report, page 2 Pg. 6 Indoor Fall Flying sched. Pg. 7 Fossil Flier Escapades Pg. 8 Fossil Flier Escapades Pg 9 SS Taranis coming! Pg 10 Flying Field news for 2014 Note the new field location and parking area. Fly on the east side of the turf only. PASS pics Pg 11 Nov. Events Pg 12 Club Officers & Officials President Bruce Rose Vice President Jim Gibson Treasurer Tom Culmsee Secretary Tom Fowler Director Kyle Kroker Director Sherrell Steinhauer Contest Coordinator Richard van Dijk LSF Coordinator David Portwood Librarian Don Lawson Web Page Editor Keith Ragsdale Newsletter Editor Roger Breedlove rogerzzzz@gmail.com We also use the A field in Salem at Kuenzi Turf. Again check your s each week. PASS Meeting Notice for November 11th. The next regular club meeting will be on Tuesday the 11th, at the Pizza place! Usual times... Gather at 7:00 and start at 7:30 PM. Round Table Pizza, SW Barbur Blvd., Portland, OR

2 P a g e 2 October 5 th ALES contest by Bob Nelson CD Beautiful weather brought out the competitive nature of the seven pilots in attendance. Jim had a problem in the second round that kept him sidelined until the sixth; but a little too far back to recover. Keith Ragsdale made his first ALES appearance and he looks to be hooked. After twelve hard fought rounds, here are the results (12600 points possible): 1 st Pat Chewning nd Robin Robinson rd Mike Skeen th Sherrell Steinhauer th Terry Erickson th Keith Ragsdale th Jim Gibson 6700 Start building for next season Photo... Here's Jim Gibson's Adagio 56" span motor glider that he flew in the later rounds, after his primary ALES plane was damaged and not flyable.

3 P a g e 3 October 11 RES Results Kevin Martin, CD October 11 RES Results Kevin Martin, CD Fourteen pilots turned out for the last TD contest of the season. Despite rain early in the morning, the skies cleared and the temperature warmed to about 70 degrees. The real weather issue was the strong breeze, which increased during the day. The first round was a 5 minute ID followed by two rounds of 8 minute ID. Because of the breeze and lack of lift the final two rounds were shortened to 5 minute IDs. Landings on the 50-foot lines were challenging. 1 Ken Eaton Keith Ragsdale David Portwood Dave Johnson Sherrill Steinhauer Mike Skeen Jim Gibson Richard van Dijk Tom Culmsee Jason Hood John Long Sam Alas Kevin Martin Terry Erickson 1528 Winner Ken Eaton practicing his hand/eye coordination!

4 P a g e 4 Willamette Turf Field Cost Analysis by Dan Fiedler Field fund analysis Hi All Looking at the news letter and the one ALES contest in there...there were 5 pilots on Sat. and 4 on Sun. at $10.00 ea. that is $90.00 or $70.00 if he is charging $15.00 for both days. So say $70.00 for ea. contest and he had 8 contests this year that is $ just from the ALES contest that the club never used to get??? Just the money from the ALES contests should pay the difference to the rent the field????? If we now give Steve $ for the field + $ for the barn + the $ for the aero tow (and aero tow make more than that ea. year) plus the $ from the ALES contest...just this alone adds up to $1, a year without even raising the dues. So just a little raise in dues would easily get us the field and a nice trailer for the equipment. Just my thought!!!!! Dan Fiedler

5 P a g e 5 Aero-Tow report for Oct. 4 by Jim Riggle Got to fly my new DFS 230 at the aero tow yesterday! Bird dog Roger told me that Fred Guilfoil up in Everett wanted to sell his DFS 230 and a Ka 8. I bought the DFS and Dan Fielder took the Ka 8. (Roger s also responsible for my acquisition of my Short Solent.) Found out when I arrived at the AT that Jim Gibson had seen it fly before up in the Seattle area and Bob Beardsley had towed it up before! Sort of an old home week. Made me much more relaxed about the first flight of such a nice airplane. Made 3 flights and everyone thought it was piloted well and flew great! (Little did they know just how poorly it was piloted on the first flight with the rudder controls reversed. But being used to difficult situations and getting lucky most of the time, looked good to others.) As to actual flying, it was pretty much a piece of cake. Even easier than my usual diet of Piper Cubs. As of late I ve had this fascination with ME 163 Komets though, both as powered airplanes off a flat field as well as off the slope. Compared to the Komets, the DFS was a real "pussy cat". My two "action switches" were the dolly release and tow release. Put the tow release by my left thumb, which I usually operate the throttle or spoilers with, depending on the airplane. (I fly with a Frankenmitter, old Futaba SS with 9c guts.) Put the dolly release down on the far right side of the transmitter and had my able assistant Tom throw the switch when the airplane was a couple of feet off the gound? Worked great and meant I didn't have to think about it! First flight was simply a "get it up and get it back safely" sort of thing. Having the rudder reversed didn't help but all worked out ok. Second flight was good but it needed a little down trim, was simply flying too slow without down input with the stick. Felt like the airplane has a pretty broad speed range from "gas bag" slow, to reasonably fast. Will try the "fast" part out on the slope as soon as it rains in Hood River and we can get back up there.

6 P a g e 6 Aero-Tow report for Oct. 4 by Jim Riggle, page 2 I am delighted to add it to my other troop glider models, 1/4 TG-8 and 1/3rd XTG-11 (Minimoa). Would certainly like to find a TG-2 to add to my collection! The build thread is at: Jim Riggle PS Am most interested in the DFS/FW 56 combination. I like those odd ball aviation things tried during WWII. (Years back snatched a TG-8 just to see if we could do it? Worked quite well.) In any event, mounting a FW 56 on top of the DFS would be a fun experiment for next spring. (Am currently working on rocket powering one of my 60" ME 163's.) Probably use a ME 109 instead of the FW 56 because ME 109 ARF's are readily available and I'm not interested in scratch building a FW 56. Because the DHS is so easy to fly, suspect I'll enlist a glider pilot for it and fly the 109 myself? Volunteers.

7 P a g e 7 Pass Contest Schedule 2014, V-final 01 Richard van Djik, Coordinator Field codes are ECE = Eugene Cracked Earth, MSP = Molalla State Park, WTF = Willamette Turf Farm, KSF = Kuenzi Sod Farm, SPF = St. Paul Field, TBD = location to be determined Special note on field assignments for events. The designated field for each event will be called by the CD prior to the event. So you will be notified either by newsletter or or both for each event for the designated field. Note 2015 schedule is coming. CD s need to check in with Richard and firm up your schedule for next year! SALEM INDOOR SCHEDULE 2014/15 Schedule is subject to meeting the financial and insurance requirements of the school. NOTE.. There is NO indoor fly in February because of the PASS club February Floaters contest schedule. Saturday :30pm to 2:30pm Saturday :00pm to 2:00pm Saturday :00pm to 2:00pm Saturday :00pm to 2:00pm First 1/2 hour open fly Next hour pylon racing CD David Portwood Last 1/2 hour open fly Place same as last year Claggett Cr. Jr. High 1810 Alder Dr. N.E. Keizer, Or For more info call or Dan Fiedler fiedlerdg@msn.com David Portwood, CD portwood@aracnet.com

8 P a g e 8 Fossil Flier Secret Go Juice Fossil Flier Escapades One hot day this last summer Terry Erickson broke out his secret juice and offered samples to any old Fossil needing a little pick-me-up! We soon found out why Costco had it on give away sale prices by the case... Woweee that is nasty stuff!!! Terry later reported that if you shake it enough to extract the carbonation, it tastes more like Kool-Aid. That may be but I didn t see anyone rushing up for a swig! He may well have some left over bottles to hand out as prizes at the HL contests!!! October White Elephant Swap meet Big turnout this year with lots of planes and goodies. Thanks to everyone for participating. Lots of treasures that moved from one garage to another!!!!

9 P a g e 9 Fossil Flier Escapades Oct. 19th Dave Woodall with his new Ellipsoid... smooth flyer. Keith and Dan F. putting it all together. Below David P. checking out the flying characteristics of Sherrell s Pike-E. Nice warm flying day... T-shirts required!!!! Club meetings held on second Tuesday of every month from 7:30 to 9:30 P.M. at Round Table Pizza, SW Barbur Blvd. Visitors are welcome. Visit our web page at For current event information, call the PASS Voic : To change outgoing message or to listen to received messages: 1) Dial ) During the greeting dial 0PASS (*7277). Note this password is new for ) Listen for the recorded prompts (changing the greeting is under user options ) Please always begin the outgoing message with: This is the Portland Area Sailplane Society telephone message center, SPONSORED BY TAMMIES HOBBIES IN BEAVERTON, OREGON.

10 P a g e 10 Single Stick Taranis TX Coming!!! The single stick tx fairly popular in the old days has become unobtainium for most fliers. Here are some development notes from an avid SS TX flier in our own club, Jim Riggle, on his Frankenmitter. Jim says he is anxious to see the SS Taranis when it is released. For a number of years I ve been frustrated with that fact that my left hand isn t as useful as my right? Now, my left hand will certainly pick up and pour a beer in my mouth just as good as my right steers the car quite well too. (But not at the same time.) Don t get me wrong, having a left hand is really quite useful, right now it s typing the asdfg s etc. So what s the solution? Frankenmitter of course! 5 or 7 years back I met a fellow enthusiast at the big Monroe, WA swap meet who had an old Futaba SS for sale. These ideas about a single stick transmitter with computer capabilities had been bouncing around in my head for a number of years already by then. Bought the transmitter and then, it bounced around in the shop for the next few years while I built and flew airplanes that needed a better guidance system than the 9c and my left hand. Sent the SS and my best Futaba 9c to Tony at Radio South and said, Build me a transmitter. When I got it back it was a little intimidating with all those switches and knobs here and there so I flew some of my simpler airplanes first and then progressed to the more complicated ones. My great fortune is to have a friend who owns a small machine shop and he has a break. (Break is a hydraulic device used to bend metal of all kinds including the kind aluminum the case is made of.) Dan s busy bending me a new box as I write this. Now the issue is to figure out how to punch the holes in the box in the right shapes. The round ones are easy but have yet to figure out how to make the square/oblong ones? I know that you, work with aluminum like it s wood, but don t know how to make square holes in wood either? An additional thought I have is that I m not going to put switches on the radio for things I don t use/do. Simply aileron, elevator, rudder, flaps, gear and throttle and nothing more. If someday I need another function I ll add the function at that time. Jim Riggle

11 P a g e 11 PASS Pictures Robin Robinson with his Beta. Sherrell with his 5M K8. Jim G. with his LF-107 Lunak. John L. with his Eagle. And a nice group pic of the Aero-Tow contestants at a recent event.

12 Upcoming Events: PASS Web Site- Check out our NEW Web Site at: PASS Event Line & Voic - (503) Sponsored by Tammie s Hobbies, Beaverton OR P.O. Box 805 Gresham, OR Mailing Address Line 1 Mailing Address Line 2 Mailing Address Line 3