Skyline Soaring Club

Membership ReportSteve Rockwood, SSC Membership OfficerOur membership has continued to grow during the spring andearly summer months. The club now has a total of 100 activemembers, including three new Probationary members in thelast three months and nine Introductory members in the monthof July. Welcome the following members who have recently joinedwith Probationary status:• Carlos Troncoso: Carlos and his father Gonzalo each took a rideon a FAST voucher in April; Carlos caught the soaring bug, andjoined the club in May. Carlos is a frequent visitor at FRR. Sincejoining, he has amassed about 20 training flights including 6 inone day. The kid is tireless; helping to move planes, retrieve gliders,flying multiple times each day. He tires me out just watching him.Carlos and Martin Gomez both hail from Argentina so they havea lot in common and things to talk about in the native language,especially World Cup soccer new. Welcome to the club Carlos.• Hugh Bugs Forsythe: He joined the club in early May and yes,he goes by Bugs. Bugs is a very accomplished pilot as noted by hiscareers in commercial and military aviation; including Air Forcepilot of F-105, F-4, F-16, T-38, and C-123 aircraft, commercial airlinepilot flying Boeing B-727, B737, and B-777 plus an Airbus A-320.Bugs has been a test pilot for Gates-Learjet and served in SEA andIragi Freedom. At last count I think Bugs has only taken a hand fullof instructional glider flight but is nearly ready to solo, if he hasnot already done so. Welcome to the club Bugs and be nice to thenumerous Navy pilots we have in the club.• Thomas Gainer: Thomas just recently joined the club in earlyJuly. Thomas is new to the sport of soaring and anxious to learn. Hemade his first flight with instructor Bruce Codwise on the IndependenceDay weekend. Welcome Thomas.We have nine (9) new introductory members for July; Oliver Ash(brother of Mike), Jennifer Brady, David Henshaw, Chris Hutchins,Trevor and Christopher Roskind, Wyatt Schultz, Robin Simmons, andValeriy Vislobokov. Welcome all to the club and we hope you decidejoin the soaring club as Probationary members in the near future.In Praise of Spin TrainingMike AshThere I was....It was a hot July day, with middling thermals. There were occasionalstrong ones up to 5,000ft or more, but few and farbetween, and poorly marked. There were lots of bumps, weakthermals, stuff that looked strong but petered out, etc. I’d spenta few blissful moments up high, but most of the flight around3,000ft. As a consequence, I was getting uncomfortably hot in theglider. I was highly motivated to find another strong thermal justto cool off, let alone the flying benefits of altitude.Martin Gomez by Martin GomezThe trees were starting to get a bit close and I was starting tohave thoughts of returning closer to the airport. Suddenly, a sharpbump pegged the vario up. I pulled up into it, banked hard left,lowered the flaps to the thermal setting, and turned into it.The stick was in my lap, my speed was coming off, when suddenlyI got hit by a gust. The glider started to bank more to the left.I used right stick to correct for it, but that just made it start fallingover to the left even harder. A moment later, I was banked at acrazy angle, and my nose was swinging toward the ground.Spin entry!My training took over. Get rid of the back stick, unload thewing, neutral aileron, rudder opposite the spin direction. Rotationstopped before it really got started, and I pulled out without toomuch of an altitude loss, and just a rapidly beating heart.I doubt that I could have reacted so quickly had I not takenspin training previously. Everything was completely automatic, myhigher-level brain functionsdidn’t even kick in until it wasdone. I doubt that would havebeen possible without prior exposureto the event, especiallyafter baking for an hour or sounder the hot July sun.Skyline’s training fleet is superb,but we do lack a spinnabletwo-seater suitable for spintraining. If you’ve done yourtraining at Skyline, I believe it’swell worth your time to go alittle bit further and seek out afacility that can offer spintraining.Editor’s note: where is MissDaisey now that we need her—men are so fickle!5