ASA

June 2001

June 1960: SILVER, GOLD and DIAMONDS IN THE ARIZONA SKY, by Marcel Godinat

June 1970: PILOT'S DESCRIPTION OF A WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT by Joseph Lincoln

June 1980: TuSC ASKED TO MOVE/ MILITARY AIRSPACE CONFLICTS

June 1960: SILVER, GOLD and DIAMONDS in the Arizona Sky

By Marcel Godinat

The first Cu, opening like cotton balls in an Arizona field, were already popping near Granite Mountain west of Love Field at Prescott on the morning or May 29, 1960. The morning was a soaring pilot's dream, but it was just a bit early for take-off for release over the valley at the spot I had chosen. There were still preparations to finish. Everyone was busy as bees before a storm. A final check of barograph, charts, water and emergency food - enough for two days of desert living -the official signatures. Bertha, my wife and crew chief and Dinky the white dog as observer, were ready to go but there was no sign of my crew, who was to drive up from Mesa. Since he was to drive the car, we were in a spot. At the last moment, Clay Hartman ran over to say that his crew had had to change plans and we arranged to switch. Kenny would be Clay's driver when he got there and my friend from Los Angeles, Max Dreher, who had driven all night without sleep, would go with Bertha.

At 1120 hours, Ruth rolled with the Cessna pulling the LO off toward the south. The release point I had selected was 5 1/2 miles east of the airport toward Mingus Mountain. This spot was chosen to compensate for the difference in altitude between Love field and Thunderbird field in Las Vegas. The extra distance was very close to the limit of 186.42 miles for a Gold Diamond Goal flight.

The weather office had said that I could expect SW winds at 10,000 feet in the afternoon and that scattered to overcast skies would prevail around Las Vegas by evening. Also they promised that there would be good convection. To the NE there would be heavy overcast. I was convinced that the goal selected was the right one for me, and I believed in it! At 2,300 feet above the ground I released in a weak thermal and gained 2800 feet at 1 1/2 mps. From that height, I could see two cotton balls, forming over the hills about eight miles NE. Flying fast through 4-5mps sink, I flew into the lift at last directly under the middle of the Cu. I'd lost 2000 feet, but the lift under the cloud was 4-5mps and in short order we were at 12,800 ASL. From this altitude I could look around and make a choice of routes. Which one? North or more southerly? Over Camp Wood or out along the Chino Valley? Along both routes the clouds had begun to trail long St. Nicholas whiskers of rain almost to the ground. The most important decision was to make the goal and forget about the speed. I had just settled that when, like a leaf in a storm, the LO was sucked upward toward the base of a black Cu at 6-7mps (1300FPM). As if to say, "Go ahead, boy", the cloud boosted me along. The speed was 100mph to get out from under before I got too close to the cloud base. The 500 foot cloud clearance on airways was in my mind. It was just 54 minutes since release and I was at 11,000 ASL heading toward Seligman. On the sunny part of Picacho Butte SE of Seligman, I found some up and soon the LO was at 16,000 feet. This was the last lift for a while. Over Chino Creek I looked WNW and saw lots or clouds, but they were fading. The conditions were those of a finished thunderstorm. My one hope was Aubrey Cliffs, Joe Lincoln's dream ridge soaring site. For the next minutes it was touchy. Nothing but down. I decided to try to get some help from the heat off highway 66. There was little. I was losing altitude at 4-5mps. I had to find lift. To the south there was a sharp outline of a fresh Cu. I flew over. Nothing. Look for a place to sit down. MY variometer hung at zero. It's now or never. Better but not good enough to get back to highway 66. Let's move out. A dark shadow drifted over us and, suddenly we began to gain altitude like old times. I suddenly realized that we had company. It was the old Father TG 3 from the Tucson desert. He was higher, circling, circling as if to say, "What's the matter LO, did you get into trouble?" And I wished, "Give me a hand." As if in answer, up we went to within 500 feet of the cloud base. Off we went as fast as possible on a course from Peach Springs to Hackberry. Around us, snow flurries brushed the wings and canopy. We're at 15,000 feet.

The time is 1350 hours and before us spreads the wide desert between Hackberry and Mount Tipton. It's a long way across, but the desert is warmed up and the sky is beginning to look like a sailplane pilot's sky. Cu's all around and the wind as predicted from the SW. From where I sat at 14,000 feet I could see Grand Wash Cliffs. It was here that I decided to change course so as to leave Mt. Tipton on my left. At 16,000 feet I could cross the desert and the mountains and fly over Temple Bar airstrip on the edge or Lake Mead. When we got there, we were down to 11,000. Gradually working weak thermals. I got back up to 13,000 and was able to set a course directly for Las Vegas. I had planned at first to go further south near Boulder City airport. Almost direct north of the dam, and out in the middle of the lake, my variometer jumped to 1 mps and I got an extra 2000 feet. I had it. My goal was only 27 miles away. We settled slowly and sleepily toward Las Vegas. Just south of Nellis AFB, we got a boost from a 5mps thermal and vent back up 2,000 feet. With this extra altitude, LO and I flew a circuit over the "ville de roulette" and then landed at Thunderbird at 1707 hours. A wonderful flight across the desert and mountains behind us.

June 1970: PILOT'S DESCRIPTION OF A WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT

by Joseph Lincoln

Takeoff in my Schweizer 2-32 was approximately 11:40 a.m. on the thirtieth of May behind a Cessna 180 towplane. Chris Crowl was flying passenger in the back seat and the declaration had been properly photographed. I released some ten or fifteen minutes later just east of the soaked bottom land of the Rio Grande River, which runs through Alamosa, Colorado, over the beginning of dry valley terrain, a few miles east of the town. There had been evidence of a good thermal before release, but it vanished. We sank from nearly 2,000 feet to an altitude of only 400 feet above terrain before usable lift was found. This was at a point roughly six miles west of Blanca Airport. From there we worked up to 13,000 ft in a somewhat disappointing thermal and flew out along the course toward the first turnpoint of the 100 kilometer triangle. The first turn is some buildings on the eastern border of Great Sand Dunes National Monument, twenty-four miles north and a trace east of the airport serving Blanca, on which our start gate was set up.

Roughly eight miles south-southwest of the turn, we turned south and worked back toward Blanca and the start gate. In due course, we made a pass through the starting gate and flew northward toward the first turn at high speed, but at very 1ow altitude along the lower slopes of Blanca Peak. This time we went clear to the first turn as we had done twice the day before - once at a speed of nearly 85 mph for the first leg. There appeared to be no workable lift on the second leg between the first turn and the hamlet of Mosca, so we gained altitude and flew back toward Blanca above the ridge between Blanca Peak and the turn.

Weather over the course consisted of fairly strong cumulus clouds with bases around 17,500 feet, no cirrus overcast, few dust devils and wind running from southwest at the surface at approximately 15 knots to west-southwest at cloudbase at approximately 30 knots. Lift at the lower levels was discouraging, frequently being in the neighborhood of 300 fpm. Up toward cloudbase, lift in a good thermal ran from 800 to 1,000 fpm. Above the ridge, running north from Blanca Peak, we were able to get some ridge soaring effect. When we returned to Blanca Field, there was a great hole in the sky to the southwest and it was necessary to wait over half an hour before we made our next start.

Two hours and fourteen minutes after takeoff we made our next high-speed run through the starting gate and turned north toward Blanca Peak, which lay nine miles northeast. Altitude lost in our dive through the gate was promptly regained as we started cruising northward at slightly over 11,000 feet, 3,300 feet above the surface of Blanca Field. Lift in the next seven miles was very disappointing, and there was one area of heavy sink. I was just about to abort the flight when we found a solid and respectable thermal on the southwest flank of Blanca Peak. Lift began at about 600 fpm and worked up to eight or nine hundred feet, while we soared from about 11,000 feet up to summit altitude, 14,317 feet. From here we passed over the summit and worked ridge lift while we cruised with quite good actual speed toward the first turn. North of Blanca Peak a cloud was worked which put us up over l5000 feet and over the ridge. While we were nearing the first turn, we worked solid 1,000 fpm lift up to 17,500 feet. During this fast climb the wind carried us a little east of the ridge. From here we flew west-northwest to the buildings of the first turn and photographed them.

West-southwest of the turn there were two clouds lined up in a street ahead toward Mosca. With impressive brilliance, I flew under this cloud street and was rewarded with solid 900 fpm sink until we flew out from under the clouds.

The sink ended approximately where the lift should have ended, and we were down to roughly 14,000 feet, perhaps a quarter of our way on the second leg, bucking a 30 knot headwind. For the next few miles sink was moderate, and we got a good thermal as we approached big San Luis Lake, which lies eight miles east of the second turn, just north of Route 150 which goes toward Mosca. In this thermal we regained our lost altitude while we discouragingly blew back toward our first turn. From 17,000 feet I was determined to make the second turn without further circling to escape the damage of the headwind. We slowed down in lift and speeded up in sink and presently rounded Mosca where we made our photographs from a point outside the town where we made our photographs from a point outside the town.

Glide angle for the last forty miles of the course had been worked out at 20/1,30/1,35/1 and 40/1. My passenger Chris Crowl was on duty giving me glide angles. The initial leg measured 24 miles, the second leg was 22 miles and the final leg was 24 miles, for a total distance of 70 miles. As we left the second turn, we were 500 feet beneath a 20/1 glide angle for tie last leg.

We set course for Blanca Field marked by the large Smith Reservoir which is beyond. Using the technique of slowing down for lift and speeding up in sink, we were able to make good time without further circling while we flew our cross-wind leg home. Half way back we got above a 20/1 glide angle and started increasing speed from 70 mph indicated until we gradually worked up to 100 mph indicated. Twelve miles out we contacted Don Barnard on the radio to be ready for our pass through the gate and were able to continue gradually increasing speed until we were indicating over 120 mph for our last few miles.

We passed through the finish gate 50 feet high, fifty-six minutes after the start, pulled up and did a 270° left turn for our landing on the main runway. Shortly after landing, we photographed our declaration with the amended time, and Don removed the barographs, one of which had not worked. Immediately after landing, Chris Crowl estimated our speed at 75 mph, roughly six miles per hour faster than the existing World Multiplace Speed Record for the 100 kilometer triangle.

EPILOGUE - This was our last flying day in Colorado. Later that afternoon, I soared back to Alamosa and we derigged. On May thirty-first, Don left the field at Alamosa and started trailering Cibola home, while I flew back in the Cessna carrying John Spealman, who had helped man the starting gate, and my young passenger, Chris Crowl. Two nights later, the four of us worked from 8:00 p.m. until midnight on a massive assault on the paperwork necessary to substantiate world records. On Wednesday, the third of June, all the paperwork was shipped off to Bertha Ryan, along with calibrations, four photographs, four maps of the flight and four copies of all the required record forms : 1 for the FAI in Paris, 1 for the NAA in Washington, 1 for the SSA and one which comes back to the pilot.

Five days later the telephone rang just as we were finishing supper. It was Bertha Ryan. The record came unglued because of an unconsidered technicality. There was no possible way to establish that we photographed the first turn on our actual speed run rather than on the aborted first flight, which had passed through the starting gate and carried north as far as the initial turn.

June 1980: TuSC ASKED TO MOVE

Excerpts from "THERMAL"

The Tucson Airport Authority has requested the Tucson Soaring Club to discontinue operations at Ryan Field by December 1, 1980. One reason for this request is that the Instrument Landing System now being installed for runway 06 will be ready for operation at that time, and it will require a left hand traffic pattern. This FAA requirement will result in traffic over the north side of the field, presently designated for gliders only.

TAA has also issued a NOTAM closing the first 1000 ft. of the west end of our south runway. Construction of the ILS antenna and housing
has started near the end of the runway. This event will affect our operations for the remainder of our time at Ryan in two ways. When
wind conditions dictate that we take off to the east, the hookup location for the sailplane will be east of the construction site. Also, ALL eastward landings will be made on the north runway.

For operations involving takeoff to the west the situation is a bit more complicated. By the time this issue of THERMAL is out progress on construction of the ILS antenna will probably dictate the discontinuance of launching from the south runway. With launchings from the NORTH runway, the south runway will become primary for landings.

So where do we stand on acquiring a new site? John Donatelli, Loring Green and Roger Wolf have been looking for a suitable, available site. Both TAA and the Arizona State Aeronautics Board have pledged assistance in obtaining State land for this purpose. Several parcels of State land which may be suitable for our operation have been found northwest of the Catalinas. Final selection of a site, the details on acquisition of same, and which agencies will be involved are all items being vigorously pursued by John, Loring, and Roger.

MILITARY AIRSPACE CONFLICTS

Capt. Darrell Holmstrom of Luke AFB recently visited both Turf and Estrella with maps depicting a "high mid-air collision potential" area. The area of prime concern is nearest Luke itself, specifically, we are advised to remain above 5000 msl in the vicinity of Litchfield, Luke #6, Buckeye & Pierce, roughly over Victor airway 16. Also, he noted that Luke #1 is now used for landing practice runs, called the GCA pattern. Downwind there is approximately over Circle City East of the freeway, with a turn to base over AO Strip, near Morristown. Altitudes here should be above 4000 msl, since the AF planes will be below that altitude.

Capt. Holmstrom stressed the need for general aviation to work with the Air Force on collision avoidance matters, rather than invite further restrictions from the FAA. He agreed that TCA airspace over- lying the V-16 area poses a problem, and suggested en route gliders call LUKE if the situation demands. Note that Luke operations are active Monday thru Friday, sunrise to sunset. Capt. Holmstrom may be reached at the 58 Tactical Tng Wing, Flight Safety Office, Luke AFB, Arizona 85309, 935-6941.

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