Rubbing elbows with 1-26er's may cause a life long affliction with
"Soaring Dementia". Since there's no known cure, it's recommended that you join the 1-26
Association support group where you'll find others who share your affliction
and are understanding of it's effects.
1-26 News You Can Use.
Newsletter Delayed September 1, 2016
Our Newsletter Editor has experienced a series of unexpected family medical emergencies over the past two months, which prevented him from completing the third quarter newsletter when anticipated. He is working on it now and will have it uploaded to the website for download, and delivered to the printing company for publishing, as soon as possible.
2016 Moriarty Championships in the Mountain View Telegraph July 19, 2016 by Gary Swift
Iain Woessner, reporter for the Mountain View Telegraph, wrote two articles for our recent 2016 Championship event in Moriarty, New Mexico. Both of his articles are online at the Mountain View Telegraph website
I appreciated Iain's enthusiasm, and it was great that he spent as much time with us as he did, in order to get a more accurate feel for what our people and our gliders are all about.
Well-done, Iain!
Gary Swift
V.P., West and Newsletter Editor
2016 1-26 Championships Wrap Up of Results July 9, 2016 by Thomas A. Pressley
Number of Finishers = 2, Number Achieving Credited Distance on Task = 2, Number Achieving Distance Greater than Minimum for Contest Day = 2, MTT = 2 h, Valid Contest Day
On Saturday 6/25, the Turbine Self-Launching Schweizer 1-26 made it's first successful flights. There were five flights total for the day and very few problems were encountered.
The first flight was a post restoration flight, for we replaced the fuselage structure under the horizontal stabilizer and fabricated 23 new wing skins. We also wanted to make sure that under yawing the door didn't try to open. The aircraft flew perfect with absolutely no wing drop during stall and she flew perfectly straight hands off. Not bad for all the new skins!
Next we flew the aircraft with the turbines extended. Dad put the aircraft through a yaw series and flew from stall through Vne to determine the effects of the turbines on the handling. Interestingly enough, the turbines would come off of the fuel pump arming microswitch, located at the mast, which would disarm the turbines if they had been running. Dad also retracted and extended the turbines several times to understand the door dynamics. We learned that the door really likes to be sucked open by the low pressure behind the cockpit and the cable and magnet combination were a little too weak to keep the door fully shut.
The next flight was the first run of the turbines. Dad took off with the turbines idling while on tow, and when he released I flew in with the chase plane and my photographer took pictures of the tail in order to zoom in on the recording temperature strips lining the leading edges. With no temperature as a result of idling on tow, Dad advanced to max thrust and did a short climb. We checked temperatures again, still nothing, so dad did some power on yaws and stalls. For this flight we taped the door shut so that the resulting drag wouldn't effect rate of climb determination.
For the final flight we performed a self-launch. The door and microswitch were taped shut so that drag and an un-start wouldn't be an issue so close to the ground. The takeoff went well though the rate of climb and takeoff distance were lower and longer than expected. Density altitude didn't help as it was about 104F by the time we did the self-launch.
We are fantastically pleased that we are finally airborne after all of our hard work. We are working on some fixes this week to the door system which should hopefully keep it shut and aerodynamic. Below is a link to the video playlist Tyler has put together and a link to photos.
If you look at the OLC archive for '09 under my name, you may find something interesting. Six years ago I tried to claim my best
soaring flight to date, a 3.5 hour local flight, the first time I had stayed up for a notable amount of time. On my desktop, I
had Ron Schwartz's epic ridge flight from '09, which I had looked at a million times over. Well I accidentally claimed that flight
log when I tried to upload my flight and I didn't realize that I had until I had stumbled onto the '09 page, by which time I
couldn't delete it. Certainly OLC didn't give me any points, but nonetheless I apologized to Schwartz for
the mishap. He thought it was a riot!
The particular flight by Mr.Schwartz was a 1000km attempt in a 1-26 and he came very close to actually doing it. I viewed it with
awe and sort of believed that this flight was beyond feasibility, particularly for me. As much as I enjoyed flying the 1-26, I
expected to get a Silver in it and then I'd hit a brick wall and move up to higher performance. But I kept flying the fun little
bird, it kept working and little by little the badges started to drop away and big ridge flights became feasible for me. Mr. Schwartz
kept making epic flights and I kept learning and dissecting all the bits and pieces.
Finally there came a point when I tried to figure out the best way to do the 1000km flight. The big challenge from Blairstown is that
we hit a "brick wall" only 60 miles from the start. Having looked at Ron's flights, I realized that this was the bottleneck that needed
to be resolved. We just could not afford to get stuck there for two years in the morning and expect to make enough miles later in the
day. The first solution was to make a big lap on Blue Mountain and then put the third turnpoint farther South. This was a much better
solution, but nonetheless it is still a very challenging task. Blue Mountain early in the morning is no cakewalk and having to go 50
miles SW of the Potomac River is tricky too. Later I started looking at other options, from Julian and Mifflin, PA. While Knauff's place
is a wonderful site for most records, Altoona and Bedford gaps were too tricky to traverse early in the day, so that ruled out Bald Eagle
Mountain. The "back route" through Tussey still required jumping over the "Wall", which is easy in high performance, but not something to
take for granted in a 1-26. Lastly, the prospect of driving along the Knobblies with 20-1 was not exciting for me, so back to square one.
The Association is formed for the purpose of stimulating interest in, and promoting
the sport of soaring in the Schweizer 1-26 sailplane; to establish standards for
competition in the 1-26; to establish categories for record flights made in the
1-26; to disseminate information relating to the 1-26 and flights made in the 1-26,
and to give recognition to its membership for accomplishments related to soaring in
the 1-26.
The Association's goal is to foster the helpfulness, the camaraderie, and the
opportunity for head-to-head competition that is found in One Design groups
in sailing. It is an organization of people who share the common ideal that
soaring should be fun, not frantic - people who include pilots, families, crews
and others who are interested. Membership is open to everyone. Owning a 1-26 or
being a pilot is not required.
The Association has evolved a whole range of challenges and rewards to fit the
ambitions of pilots at all levels of experience and skill. It has, for example,
special recognition for those who complete FAI badge legs in a
1-26 with a very special Roll Of Honor
for those who complete all three Diamonds in a 1-26.
The Sweepstakes is an all-year X-C
competition that lets you fly at the time and place of your choosing against
pilots of comparable experience levels. It provides an opportunity to pit your
skills against the best in your division - on your own home turf.
The Association maintains and publishes Regional (including
Canada) 1-26 records which, are essentially the same as the SSA
State Records. Categories and classes include speed triangles, distance tasks,
absolute altitude and altitude gained for each class (Open, Senior, Feminine
and Junior).
A multitude of local, regional and other trophies and awards
are available to honor the best accomplishments of all our"achievers". The
longest straight-line flight of the year is especially honored with the H. Marshall Claybourn Memorial Award.
The 1-26 Championships is the high point of the
year for many pilots. Open to any 1-26 pilot in the world, the winner is indeed
the 1-26 World Champion. Since
team flying is encouraged, the highest scoring team is designated Champion Team. Numerous local and regional competitions
throughout the year give pilots and crews a chance to break into competition in
a low-key environment before going for The Big One
.
Soaring is exciting, it's relaxing, it's challenging, and it's fun - we know the
1-26 is the most fun. We'd like to have you join the 1-26
Association. Annual dues for individuals are $15.00 and family members at the
same address are $5.00 each. For informationon joining the 1-26
Association, click on the information listed below, or contact the Secretary / Treasurer.
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."
Helen Keller
If you have problems, questions, comments or suggestions email
the Webmaster.
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