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 Utah Soaring Association
June 2002
Newsletter
www.utahsoaring.org

2002 Board Members
President Dale Taylor 801-785-8177 dale@soarwest.com
Vice President Paul Schneider 435-649-2762 soarn912@cs.com
Secretary Ned Dolan 435-649-2896 nedolan@parkcity.net
Treasurer Jim Krog 435-655-9626 jdkrog@burgoyne.com
Maintenance Bruce Boyes 801-463-7047 bboyes@systronix.com
Nephi Safari a Success! - Jim Krog
The Nephi Safari was a great success. Nine gliders and an ornery tow plane made the scene. Many thanks to the Thompson's, from Morgan Valley Soaring, for all their efforts to make this work so well. The food was great, the programs cool and the soaring was excellent.

Many long flights were made with Bill Hill going the greatest distance, Nephi to almost Panguitch and return. Jim Krog managed a 300k, Nephi, Manti, Junction, Nephi. Dave Lane and Stan Misiewicz accomplished the Silver Distance.

New members - David Lane
Here is a list of the new members. I will try to get some info and pictures ASAP.

Tom Vayda, Tom Meecham, Roger Moore, Dee Luker, Heiner Biesel

Glider Limitations - Jim Krog
The performance numbers and limitations for each of our club ships have been posted to the web site for your review. Go to the Club Ships page and click on a photo to see the numbers for that aircraft. A great way to review prior to a flight.

2002 Calendar of Events
Spring BBQ June 15
Fall BBQ August 24
Disassembly Day October 26
General Meeting November 7
Spring BBQ - Jim Krog
Saturday, June 15th, Heber Airport, 3pm - ?pm. Everyone should come out for this event. Hotdogs, hamburgers, beer, pop, chips and beans will be provided. Please bring a salad/dessert dish. Family and friends welcome. Meet the new members. Have a great day flying then trade stories around a gathering of friends and great food.

Logo Shirts - Jim Krog
We have seven (3 large, 4 x-large) Polo shirts with the USA logo left over from two years ago. If you ordered and paid for one and didn't get it, or would like to purchase one call Jim at 435-655-9626.

First X-C - David Lane
I'd been dreaming of this for at least four years and seriously planning for about six months. Not this exact X-C flight mind you, but any flight I could look back on and know with absolute certainty that home was not a flat glide away. Landing at an airport I'd never seen before would be icing on the cake. The story sounds much more adventurous that way.

Climbing the South bowl of Mt. Nebo
Everyone assured me that landing fields were plentiful from Nephi to Manti, and I reasoned that this year's Safari might well be the perfect opportunity since I had the club 1-34 all to myself. In preparation I poured over maps and readied my flight computer and stuffed the cockpit with everything from candy bars to rope. In the end the "aw, screw it" mind set pretty much sums up what it took for me to finally fledge.

At 1:30, with a thin cirrus layer and no cumulus development in the area, Morgan Valley Soaring's "Ugly" dragged me out to the hills West of Nephi. I flailed around a bit and was able to waltz with Dan in a 1-35 for a time but soon sank low enough that I thought it best to creep back over the center of the valley... just in case. This was fortuitous. The valley was working at least as well as the hills.

As I climbed in a ratty thermal maybe one mile North of the airport Lynn and Aaron towed off to the West in the Duo Discus. I could see the big white wings low against the southern flank of Mt. Nebo, so at 11,000' and just over an hour into the flight I dove off in that direction and arrived a couple hundred feet below them in the wide bowl. From about 8300' we circled together and climbed past the summit, whereupon they went North to take some nice pictures.

I radioed that I was going to try my luck down range.

The top of Mt. Nebo
Salt Creek Peak is the name of the first mountain South of Mt. Nebo. I found and used two thermals in that six mile gap. Mentally buoyed by the prospect of abundant lift I was now actually entertaining the possibility of committing cross country flight. Ahead stretched a thirty mile long range of mountains whose peaks were not very "peaky" and whose width from East to West seemed a little daring given my current altitude of about 12,000'.

I would have to pick a side to favor while running South.

While I was trying to get as high as possible and deliberating on the sanity of this enterprise, Lynn had sped to the East and was now reporting that the Manti valley had some good lift. He was headed for the mountains East of Mount Pleasant.

If one could evesdrop on my internal conversation at this point it would have sounded something like... "OK, OK! I need to make a decision. It's 2 hours and 20 minutes into the flight, a trusted pilot is telling me the water's fine, I can see big green fields out there, and I'm climbing through 14,000'... I'm out-a-here!"

With that, I dove Southeast and radioed Lynn that I'd officially cut the apron strings. And of course I began plummeting.

I flew out to an area about half way between Fountain Green and Moroni before contacting lift. It was weird to circle and look back at the mountains now a pretty effective barrier back to Nephi, but it was also very comforting to be climbing. I couldn't see it, but Manti was only 15 miles away when the lift I'd been working got messy at about 11,500' and I decided to leave before blowing too much of what I'd gained.

"One more thermal. One more! ONE MORE!"... That's what I was silently chanting about ten miles out of Manti. At 9000' I wasn't yet spending much time looking at the ground, but the ground was occupying considerably more of my peripheral vision. When it hit, that last thermal was NOT going to get away. I latched on for all I was worth and climbed a couple thousand feet. Though I still couldn't see the airport I began to relax. No problem... just point it in the right direction and wait. I'd done that sort of final glide in the Duo Discus with Lynn.

At about 5 miles out I was certain that the dark black strip just West of the I-89 had to be the airport and that I'd made it! A couple circles over the sock revealed that a glider had already landed at Manti. It also revealed that I didn't HAVE to land right away. I was going up!

I climbed up the flank of Manti Mountain and did a lazy tour of the area before setting up for a landing at a foreign airport. And I was all smiles!

Stan and a group of locals came out to greet the guy whooping and hollering from the cockpit of the little yellow glider. Not something I'll soon forget.

Thanks go out to Lynn and Walt who helped me plan and prepare for the flight, and to Jim who went back the next morning with me to help disassemble. - David Lane