Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site osu-eddie.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!osu-eddie!sutter From: sutter@osu-eddie.UUCP (Bob Sutterfield) Newsgroups: net.aviation Subject: Re: Re: Introduction Message-ID: <1072@osu-eddie.UUCP> Date: Sun, 5-Jan-86 15:04:20 EST Article-I.D.: osu-eddi.1072 Posted: Sun Jan 5 15:04:20 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 6-Jan-86 05:09:41 EST References: <729@ucsfcgl.UUCP> <959@terak.UUCP> Organization: OSU Instruction & Research Computer Center Lines: 63 > Another newsgroup recently initiated an exchange of brief biographies. > This seems a good idea for net.aviation... OK, I guess it's my turn: Unlike all you high-timers with multi-engine CFI with A&P's thrown in, I am just a student sailplane pilot working slowly towards being permitted to carry my wife along. You see, there is no cheaper way to get into the air than flying with a glider club, and your canonical impoverished student finds this a very good idea. And much fun, too. My Dad took SEL lessons when he finished his PhD. He'd had the itch since he was 8 or so, and it's hereditary. He recently got a Mooney 201 and loves to show off the RNAV and how he can cruise from here to wherever without looking outside... He has his fun and gets places, but I like to dance with clouds in the afternoon sunshine. My time is in Schweizer 2-22, 2-33, and 1-26 types, all owned by the club, the Central Ohio Soaring Association. Oh yes, I once got to take a 2-32 into the mountains with an instructor from Colorado Springs. I have the A, B, and C badges, and the Altitude leg of my Silver. No cross-countries yet, since our club (wisely) prohibits them before completion of a Private. And since I am a weekend birdman, and everybody else in the club wants to use the craft at the same time, I can't do much toward the Duration leg just yet. Most memorable flight --------------------- I was attaining the Altitude leg (1000 meters altitude gain between lowest and succeeding highest point as indicated on a recording altimeter) of my Silver badge one fine summer afternoon. There were the usual puffball cumuli floating around on top of these wonderful thermals, bases at around 5500 feet (high for Ohio). Well, by about 4:00 some of them had developed into rainclouds. Still plenty of space between and below, but since we operate from grass, the response is to land with all due haste. By the time I cloud-hopped back to the airport, it was already being rained upon. So, I just hung around a nearby (dry) thermal for fifteen minutes or so while that scattered puffball shower passed through. There was another due soon, because I could see it upwind, and I really wanted to get into the hangar with the wings dry. I didn't know just how fast a 1-26 could descend: *very*. Full spoilers, full rudder-kicking slip, dropping at maximum maneuvering speed indicated. The variometer was pegged past 2000 fpm downward and my ears were popping. Some fun, huh? It was a steerable rock (closest I'll ever come to the Columbia :-), and I steered it into the pattern. A short landing near the clubhouse, and we dragged it into the hangar and shut the doors just as the rain started. Then there's the one about picking soybean leaves out of the wing root fairings, but that's another story... -- ----- Human: Bob Sutterfield Facilities Management Division The Ohio State University Instruction & Research Computer Center Work: Ohio Cooperative Extension Service, Computer Management Group OCES VAX System Manager/Programmer (VMS) Mail: sutter@osu-eddie.UUCP sutterfield-r%osu-20@osu-eddie.UUCP or: sutter@osu-eddie.ohio-state.CSNET sutterfield-r@osu-20.ohio-state.CSNET or: 2120 Fyffe Rd rm 109, Columbus OH 43210 Bell: (614) 422 - 9034