FREE FLIGHT 1980 #4 Jul/Aug p17 Club News Bluenose Soaring Club Bluenose Soaring started a new season with a new fee system as derived from investigations by Chris Purcell and John CIements. It is a fixed fee system with tow charges added on a per flight basis. The derivation of the fee bears merit and is hereafter described: Now the Gross Income required to run the club can be stated as equal to the Gross Income = (Number of Members)X(Flying Fee) + (Intro Income) + (No. of Launches)X(Tow Charge). Rearranging for Flying Fee we get, Flying Fee Gross = [Intro Income - (# of Flights) X (Tow Fee)]/ (Number of Members)]. Now from Treasurer Ralph Olive’s Proposed Budget we get the following figures to crank in: Flying Fee = 5200 - 750 - (2.50 X 1,000) $140, which is 14 our flying fee per member, covering the fixed cost of club gliders. Actually we have about 24 paid up members and as of July 20th we have about 639 flights; thus our Treasurer’s ink is black these days. CABLE Part of the reason we are operating at a faster pace than forecast is to the new fee system above described; but a lot of the credit must go to the greater reliability of the music spring steel wire we are using in place of the tow-target cable used previously. The differences between this and tow-target cable can be partly described as follows: Advantages of “piano” wire, 1. Much greater reserve strength; thus greatly reduced delays. 2. Better self leveling. 3. Better abrasion resistance. This is only applicable if the cable is not allowed to develop “knuckles.” 4. Somewhat better retrieve properties. 5. Somewhat easier to manage on release. As before, Schweitzer hooks cause the winch driver to mutter naughty words above his breath. 6. Less retrieve drag. 7. Much cheaper. Our cable cost 4c per foot, delivered to Halifax, all taxes paid. Disadvantages of piano wire, 1. Takes longer to splice. More of that later. 2. If you get a snarl on release, greater care and more time is required to get the cable safely back on the drum. 3. If the pilot releases (or is released) while the glider is still on the ground, and if the winch driver brakes hard, then the parachute. will continue towards the winch on its own momentum, putting slack in the cable which will form into helical coils which the glidercanthenflyinto.ltis, of course, imperative that the winch be shut off immediately in this situation. On balance, the impact of the advantages is such that it is unlikely that we would go back to tow-target cable. SPLICING Like everyone else, we had to develop our own method. Let me describe the operation briefly. This is the “battlefield fix.” 1. Cut off broken cable ends square with a hack-saw. 2. Feed 3 nicropresses on to cable sections as per tow-target cable practice. 3. Put one end into vice mounted on retrieve truck (or winch) heat to cherry-red with propane torch and then hit squarely with flat face of hammer to make a mushroom.” 4. Repeat Step 3 to other end. 5. Draw cable mushrooms snug against the 3 abutting nicropresses, and swage. This process, developed by Dick Vine and Tom Foote, is good for a week-end of flying; longer if one operated off grass. These two gentlemen are also responsible for our “permanent fix,” which is described as follows: 1. As above. 2. Feed the Foote & Vine Bullet on to the cable sections. This is made of stainless steel, 7/16 ths of an inch in diameter, 1-1/4 inches long, in which two .140 holes have been drilled longitudinally, and expanded at the mouths to allow the cable “mushroom” to be countersunk. 3. As step 3 above. 4. As Step 4 above. 5. Draw cable mushrooms snug into bullet and crimp with high-pressure swager. This process will apparently last a season. Both fixes take about 20 - 30 minutes to complete, but the latter requires a specialized tool. ROLLERS During our early investigation of the music spring steel wire, we read Mr. Henry Priess’ informative article in “Soaring” where he stated that a roller diameter of 12 inches or more was necessary to prevent excessive work hardening of the cable. The solution to this problem was worked out by Dan Morrison and Dick Vine, and fabricated by Dick. Basically, it is an adaption of the Tost azimuth-pulley system, but in this instance the pulleys are of 1-foot dia. inside the groove. They are held by side plates that are faced with two small diameter vertical rollers, and at the back end connected to a 3 foot, 4 inch dia pipe that is mounted in brass bushings. The system worked very well right from the beginning and Dick and Dan deserve heart-felt thanks for their efforts. If anyone would like to obtain drawings for a very modest fee, just write c/o our clubs’ address. STUDENT TRAINING Jack Dodds repeated his excellent Ground School at the Adult Evening Classes at Dartmouth High. The result was that we had 5 new well-informed students to start their flying lessons in early May. By the end of June, 4 of these students were ready for solo. This is so much a shorter cycle than in our past experience that we failed to ensure that the medicals were done and the student pilot permit was in hand. This improvement in training efficency was the result of the following: 1. A real attempt to follow the new SAC training syllabus with constant reference to the Progress Chart 2. The insistence of the use of the 2-22, with its low geared elevator and harmless spoilers, for the bulk of the training. 3. The greater efficency of the launch given by the new cable allowed more flights/student/day. 4. The new fixed fee system encouraged the students to fly early and often. As CFI, I was concerned that the students, when starting to fly the Ka-7, with its sensitive controls and powerful dive-brakes, would balk at flying it. Those fears have proved groundless as all the students consider it a joy; and can’t wait to get their glider pilot licence and get checked outln it. CROSS COUNTRY With the value of Silver being what it is, everybody went off prospecting for Silver C’s. With two barographs new to the club we were equipped to stake our claims. At first we were content to stay close to home and scout out the local hills by mining 6 Silver C Height Gains. Successful miners were D. Burleson, J. Clements, C. Purcell, T. Foote, R. Olive, and G. Graham. A fairly unruly bunch on Saturday night. Then some decided to poke out a little further. Tom Foote did a 150 km triangle in the Cirrus to get the lay of the land and then stormed off to Debert for Silver C Distance. Having found out that he left his claim stakes behind (forgot to turn on his barograph) he tormed back the next day with everything in order. Ralph Olive likewise stormed off to Debert and likewise forgot to turn on the barograph. The next-day weather was not quite so generous. Now turning barographs off and on proved so much fun that Chris, Tom, John, and Ralph decided to do their 5-hours all over again; having done them last year under 0. 0. observation. Then George Graham snuck off to Debert on a weak blue day in the Austria. But he proved to be a spoilsport as his barograph was on when he got there; thanks to his partner Chris Purcell. There have been a number of flights over 100 kin, but because our club is fairly small, people are loathe to land out because of the disruption caused; or is it the long wait? We may not be making money, but we are having fun. In early August we will be sending our up-and-coming soaring pilots up for their 5 hours. I’m looking forward to how well they do. We’ll keep you posted; and we’d like to hear how things are going in your soaring skies.