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The Arizona Soaring Association is a group of about 50 pilots who fly sailplanes at all levels of the sport; some pilots are
new to soaring and just learning to fly, while others compete in national and regional competitions, in addition to the ASA's
own well-known contest series that runs from March to September each year.
We fly from several locations. These include commercial operations
Turf Soaring and
Estrella Sailport,
private clubs Tucson Soaring Club and
Prescott Soaring,
as well as airports in Sedona and Sun Valley. During our active race schedule, we also fly
from Willcox and Sampley's in Aguila.
ASA is a chapter of the Soaring Society of America.
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| A time for celebration |
| report by ASA Secretary Bob Thompson December 21, 2011 |
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The 2011 ASA Christmas Season Celebration / Annual Meeting / Awards Banquet took place on Saturday evening December 17.
It was a very enjoyable social affair, with pilots renewing old friendships, discussing the season’s flying,
spouses and friends enjoying an evening out, and allowing new members to meet and interact with the core membership of ASA.
Many thanks go to hosts Pam and Ted Wagner, for providing not only their gorgeous new home to host the party in,
but for also providing all the scrumptious food for the evening. Pam and Ted provided quite a feast of very tasty items,
which required much time and effort to gather and prepare. Certainly, no one went home hungry. Thanks Pam and Ted!
read more...
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| Logan Survival Training CampRegion 9 and 15 Meter Contests |
| report by Nigel Cripps August 1, 2011 |
OK so that's a cheap shot at an event that took a lot of organizing by a
dedicated group of individuals, although at times that's exactly what it felt
like to the uninitiated, from the time we were dropped off low on the ridge for
the slow grind up the hill side with 60 of our newest friends, to running at
ridge top - or below - with little height to spare to reach potential landout
spots in the valley, and to the inevitable late night retrieves for self or
friends. It seems almost no-one was spared at least a little agony, although as
usual those who really knew what they were doing seemed to (mostly...) breeze
through the contest and even get back in time for some dinner in the evenings.
The Region 9 and 15 Meter contests were held concurrently at Logan in July 2011,
with about 60 pilots attending. More than usual rainfall in the spring had left
the contest area very green and spectacular to view from the air, with some snow
still visible at ridge tops, however the damp ground seemed to kill any hope of
thermals in the valleys, and for many days the fleet was not reaching the
hoped-for climb heights. Even so, a couple of days late in the contest period
gave the lucky survivors a taste of the promised land.
read more...
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| Attempting Soaring Records |
| by Steve Koerner July 13, 2011 |
I've been at the game of record flying for quite a long time having set several
15m national records in my Ventus B in the 1980s in California and Nevada. None
of those earlier records have survived though. One of my earlier records was
speed on a 500 km triangle at 85 mph. Interestingly, that record was later
topped by Alan Reeter here in Arizona; then reclaimed by me a couple years ago
with a 90 mph flight out of Sampley.
I particularly like working on big triangles. The two in my target radar now are
the 750 and 1000 km triangle speed records. The current US 750 km triangle
record is 93.0 mph and the current 1000 km record is 89.9 mph. During peak
season when the days are long enough to go 1000 km, I'll shoot for that one.
There is an interesting situation on the 15m 1000 km record. The current world
record of 90.1 mph is only a little greater than the current US record of 89.9
mph. The rules require that to establish a new record one must beat the old
record by an increment.
read more...
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| Moriarty Super Regional June 13-17 |
| report by Cliff Hilty June 28, 2011 |
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In my usual style and with the enormous help from my crew, I decided to try and fly to Moriarty
on Friday before the contest. I launched from Coyote Run (PSS home field) in Prescott Valley at
11:00am hoping to get an early start.
I struggled for a while off tow and finally got up to 13+ K at Mingus and thought I was on my way.
Rose and granddaughter Megan didn't leave till 12:00 noon when I was about over the middle of Verde
valley heading for Sedona. I managed Radio contact but knew that if all went well I wouldn't probably
get to talk to them again. After getting low at Sedona and again over lake Mary I managed to make the
rest of the flight without too much incident.
read more...
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| Visit to the Van Camp aircraft factory |
| report by Nigel Cripps,
photos Paul Cordell May
30, 2011 |
..aka Peter's garage in Glendale.
After 14 months and about 800 logged build hours, plus the same amount again
reading the plans and finding tools, the RV12 is taking shape and should be
flying this summer.
The wings are finished and stored at his Deer Valley hangar; avionics (Dynon + Garmin
495, no steam guages) are in, the engine (100hp Rotax 912ULS) is installed and
waiting for a new hub to hang the prop on.
Pete and Sam's workmanship looked excellent and initial trials in the backyard
paintbooth on the tail have proven successful.
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| Tucson OLC Challenge May 13-21 |
| report by Mike Stringfellow May 23, 2011 |
Fourteen pilots participated in the 9-day Tucson OLC Challenge at El Tiro Gliderport between May 13th and 21st.
These fourteen pilots completed a total of 66 flights covering 20,036 km for a total OLC-plus score of 23,441.
There were nine flights longer than 500km, of which three were longer than 600km.
Outstanding flights of the week included:
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Highest OLC-plus score of 834.27 for a flight of 672.1 km by Randy Acree in his Applebay Zuni ll.
This flight was also the fastest Speed OLC at 113.77 km/h.
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Longest OLC flight of 682.71 km by Cliff Hilty in his Ventus b for an OLC-plus score of 749.15
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Fastest overall speed of 102.2 km/h for a 542 km flight and 604.37 OLC-plus points by Mike Stringfellow in his Discus 2b.
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Highest Destination OLC score of 918.92 points for a 551 km flight by Craig Gorowsky flying the TUSC Standard Cirrus.
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An OLC-plus score of 583.94 for a flight of 489.7 km flight by Mike Parker in his PW-5
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Highest OLC-plus score of 561.44 for a 383.7 km flight in a club two-seater flown by Ron Barton and Randy Acree in TUSC's PW-6.
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OLC Challenge cumulative score of 4,401.47 points by Randy Acree for 10 flights totaling 3557.4 km in three gliders
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| ASA Contest Weekend April 30-May 1 |
| report by Nigel Cripps May 3, 2011 |
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A total of 14 pilots attended the race weekend at Turf Soaring, with good turnout in both
A and B classes, including visiting guest pilots who are always welcome for the ASA series.
Saturday's forecast for strong winds proved to be correct, and there were a number of landouts and aborted tasks in both classes, however
GW and 66 both made it around the turn area task in A class with GW winning the day.
Sunday promised better flying with high cumulus eventually appearing across the contest area. Despite a late start due to an elephant walk
which proved it's possible to have a downwind launch from both ends of the runway, all pilots were eventually launched; the sniffers and EM decided the
lure of going north was too hard to resist and immediately headed up over high ground, while A and B class followed some initial MAT turnpoints between
Turf and Moreton, before being set free to add on a lot more distance in strong conditions with climbs averaging up to 900 fpm to 15,000ft and beyond.
Most pilots turned in very fast speeds, with CH heading up to Mingus and back along a steady cloud street to win the day at a raw 85.73mph, and the N7 part
of team 2N7O coming in close behind. 9V continued his weekend-long domination of B class to win Sunday with a very respectable raw speed of 69.24mph.
Thanks to Kirk Stant (66) for CD'ing a very successful weekend, to 19 for the photos, and now it's on to El Tiro in two weeks.
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| Jet Sailplane Demo Weekend April 22 - 24 |
| report by Bob Thompson April 25, 2011 |
The three days of the ASA BonusJet demos provided by Bob Carlton at Turf Soaring / Pleasant Valley Airport went very well.
Fourteen pilots got their turn flying under jet power and thermalling for about 45 minutes each. Prior to each pilot getting
his turn, Bob provided a very professional cockpit checkout. For most pilots it was a strange feeling to not see a tow plane
and rope in front on takeoff. For those that had experienced self launch sailplanes, it was a strange feeling to not have all
the vibration and noise that is associated with 2 cycle engines and prop. It was smooth, vibration free, and fairly quiet
in the jet sailplane. Outside / behind the jet it was very noisy, though! And the smooth 1000 ft / min climb under full
power was a trip! Everyone seemed very pleased with their flights in the jet sailplane.
ASA president Chris provided a tasty BBQ dinner for everyone that stayed around for dinner. Thanks Chris! And Bob Carlton
provided an informative after dinner powerpoint and video presentation that included the history of jet gliders, the history
of the development of his jet gliders, a video of his acro jet sailplane, and a fun narrative of his time in the simulator
of flying the Rutan/Virgin Galactic Spaceship.
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