|
|
The
Open Cirrus Association
Newsletter Volume IV, Issue
1
The Cyber Cirrus!! We’re online! Check out http://home.adelphia.net/~jimkellett for the first website devoted to "The Cirrus in North America"!! The site contains a short history of the Cirrus, largely from Selinger’s book; the current summary of what we know about the Cirrus’ early competitive performance; a table of accident and incident data on the Cirrus; and the histories of each of the 31 ships that you have already received in the written copies. Obviously, this (like any other website) is a work-in-progress. Check it out, and send me your comments, suggestions, and additions. I plan to ask Guy Byars (who keeps the Vintage Sailplane Associations’ website) to put a link to our site on that page. I’ll also post a notice to the newsgroups and the SSA mailing list in a few days which will give the site much more worldwide exposure. Let’s Do Breakfast! At the last few SSA conventions several Cirrus owners have gotten together for breakfast. At one, George Moffat dropped by to chat! This year, the convention will be in Knoxville, TN on February 24-26, 1999. It looks like the best time to try to organize an informal Cirrus breakfast will be on Friday. If you’d like to get together at, say, 7:15 AM that day, I’ll try to reserve a table in the dining room of the primary convention hotel, the Holiday Inn Select, and put a notice on the SSA’s bulletin board which I assume will be in the convention center. Let me know in advance if you’d like to do this, so I can get a SWAG for the size of table to get! The Vintage Sailplane Association luncheon is scheduled for Thursday – while the emphasis in this group is, understandably, focussed on machines much older than our Cirri, it’s an interesting bunch and you might want to join them, too! Check out the full Convention schedule at [out of date link]. Are You Wired Yet?? I have e-mail addresses for only a few Cirrus owners; Phillip Backman, Steve Cameron, Burt Compton, Gary Nelson, Karl Robinson, Richard Vine, Peter King, and Bob Wicks. I’m sure there must be more than this!! If you are, please drop me a note at my e-mail address, Jim@Kellett.com, and let me know. By the way, being connected today is getting to be like having a telephone – if you’re not on the net, you’re missing out on a lot of stuff! If you are not now connected, and would like to get a little sample to see if you really want to, drop by your local library, which, in most communities in America today, has a public access internet connection that you can fiddle with – and at least check out our own website. Maintenance Note Automatic Wedekind Safety Sleeves for the L'Hotellier connectors are FAA approved as of 25. August 1998 as an Alternative Method of Compliance for AD Number 97-08-06 R1 / Docket number 92-CE-41-AD. If you don't enjoy fiddling the safety pins into the little holes then this might be the way to go. (see report in the Soaring Magazine, September '98). However, they work only with one type of L’Hotellier connection, the ones that already have a little sliding trapezoid that has to be safetied with a pin. These sleeves obviate the requirement for the separate safety pin, making it a lot easier to deal with, especially the spoiler connectors hidden behind the spars. The sleeves are approved by Schemp-Hirth. The cost per sleeve/connection is $23.-.plus shipping and handling from: Tom Foote, owner of Cirrus No. 18 (C-FXGU) provided some excellent commentary about his love affair with the Cirrus. Tom bought No. 18 back in 1979 along with a couple of partners, and since then has over 1,700 hours in it! He did two Diamond Distance flights in it in the same week, back in 1988, at Keystone Gliderport in Pennsylvania! He also got his Diamond Altitude in it at Sugarbush in 1989, which completed his badge, No. 4768. In those 1,700 hours, Tom’s had but one close scrape – at Sugarbush in 1996. He was with four friends flying in wave on a blustery day doing long out and returns along the White Mountains. About 3 PM they returned to Sugarbush and someone looked down to se that the tow planes and Club gliders had been put away. There was no one at the office, but someone on the field replied to our call to say that the rotor was right down on the field and was thrashing things around real good. He suggested they consider going to another field to land. They talked among themselves, and none were anxious to land anywhere but at Sugarbush because the trailers were there. Since he’d flown there in rough conditions before, he volunteered to go in first. What a ride! 75-80 kts and tight straps. It was wild, but he got down after a couple of bounces with no damage. Three of the others made it OK but one fellow got caught in a severe downdraft and bent the rim of his wheel. Tom used to fly the Mt. Washington wave out of the now-closed White Mountain Airport in North Conway, New Hampshire. (It closed about 13 years ago, and the site is now condos and shopping.) The airport was located downwind from Mt. Washington, just the right distance for the tertiary wave to hang directly over the strip. To catch it, we towed to 800’ – got off and flew a ridge nearby, took a thermal up and out over the airport to contact the tertiary. It was so easy and on some days there were dozens of diamonds obtained. With regard to the all-important subject of maintenance, Tom feels the key is protection from moisture and sunlight. No. 18 still has the original gelcoat; although there are lots of fine cracks in the surface, nothing is loose and it looks perfect. He keeps it covered with a complete set of covers when it’s not in the trailer – it’s never spent a night outside. He keeps it waxed with Mother’s California Gold, a carnauba paste wax. At 210 lb. and 6’4", Tom is living proof that the Cirrus
has an accommodating cockpit! He’s had many 8+ hours flights in comfort.
|