Great convention! And we had another gathering of the owner/pilots of five Cirruses at a nice lunch on Friday, February 26. Present were (left to right) Peter King (No. 83), Steve Cameron (NO. 37), Bill Herderich and Steve Lindenbaum (No. 36), ), Jim and Pat Kellett (No. 67), Kathie Magner and Burt Compton (No. 33).

We had a most enjoyable discussion of flying and maintaining our birds, particularly about the dive brake mod required on those with Serial Numbers under 50.

There was some talk of having a Cirrus at IVSM 2000. No. 67 has "applied", but the field of planes is limited to 50 and the planning committee (correctly, we think) will give priority to older machines if there is competition for the limited slots.

There was also renewed talk of an east coast Cirrus fly-in. With two in Tennessee, one on SC, one in GA, one in VA, one in Ohio and one in Indiana, there exists the possibility of a once in a lifetime photo-op. (Just think of it – a formation of Cirri with the chutes out on short final!! There are two Vintage Rallys coming up in the east that could provide a focal point for such an event. How about it? (Especially Sandor, Peter, Steve L., Steve C., Fred, and Walter??)

Another project in the wings include a cleaned up website (we’ve just learned how to make them load faster for those with conventional modem connections, and the change will be phased in over the next couple of months). More importantly, we’re trying to get our hands on a full set of Schempp-Hirth Tech Notes in English which can be posted on our website. We feel the tech notes are more useful (and for sure more timely!!) than the FAA’s Airworthiness Directive process. Finally, an idea we stole from Bob Lacovara (who published the really neat book on used glider statistics); in 1999, we’ll put an updated Directory onto CD-ROM rather than printing out hard copy! Would you believe that costs less than 10% of printing? (Ain’t technology grand?)

The treasury is fine, thanks to the very generous contributions of those who met in Knoxville.

We have news from Jerry Dixon of Sintaluta, Saskatchewan, Canada that updates the record on No. 82. C-FBMX is currently owned by a trio of Jerry, plus Dave Chamberlain and Bryan Florence. The website (http://home.adelphia.net/~jimkellett) now has the updated information on this ship.

Well, a wonderfully circuitous set of events has finally led us to some information about "Nevada Charlie"! The internet is proving to be more valuable than the FAA in keeping track of aircraft.

A note to the rec.aviation.soaring mailing list was read by one Wayne Paul, who maintains a website (http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder) that deals with Richard Schreder’s sailplanes much like ours deals with the Cirrus. Moving right along, Wayne was an old friend of Stewart Tittle, an LS-6 pilot; both Stew and Wayne were bombardiers back in the sixties in A-6 Intruders. Come to find out Stew was familiar with N11NC and had mentioned it to Wayne at the Reno convention! So to make a long story short, Wayne put Stew in touch with me, and Stew put me in touch with Rex Mayes at Williams Soaring, and, as Paul Harvey says, here’s "the rest of the story":

Nevada Charlie really is a sad story. Turns out that one Dean Aldinger, who works for Rex Mayes who owns Williams Soaring, recently bought what was left of No. 64 and hauled it away from the airport.

Pat Ford had left this ship tied out for four years. Pat is apparently a character of substantial proportions and a lawyer to boot - and got 4 (!!) student licenses (but never got a private license), and crashed the ship "a number of times". Other pilots at the airport therefore prudently decided not to disassemble it and put it into the trailer (as had been reported from another source). Some people took photos and sent them as plaintive postcards from Nevada Charlie to Pat over the course of a couple of years saying "somebody please love me!" "Do you remember me?" etc. After four years sitting out in all that weather, and in addition to NC's frequent damage history, it was generally considered to be a write-off.

Part of the confusion in the record stems from the ship’s apparently having been sold several times in the last few years, but without any paperwork being executed – that’s why the FAA still shows it as being Pat’s, and at an old address too boot. At this writing, it’s not clear what Dean will actually do with the remains of the ship.

That the current California Feminine Singleplace Straight Distance record is held by Helen Dick, who flew her Cirrus 418.18 statute miles on July 20, 1974? (This came from a neat new website on California records see http://users.tminet.com/pawling/carecords.html).

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 10:30:20 -0500
From: Herbert Kilian <HKilian@compuserve.com>
To: Jim Kellett <Jim@Kellett.com>
Jim,
Thanks for the nice website, it made me think of the year I had an Open Cirrus almost exclusively to myself in our soaring club near Hameln, Germany for an entire season. The "hammock" style seat was swinging back on the winch-launches we had as our only means to get airborne, so you better have adjusted the rudder pedals back before take-off. Our ship with the registration D-6955 had of course the top and bottom air-brakes which were very effective as well as the rudder-installed drag chute. I remember being trapped on top of an overcast in wave one fall day and flying a compass course in the assumed direction back home. Since the base of the overcast was around 5,000 ft I was not too concerned going through it. However, a hole appeared in front of me and I decided to check the dive-bomb capability of the Cirrus. Extending the air brakes fully, I put the ship into a near vertical dive and aimed for the opening in the deck. As the handbook says, the airspeed never exceeded 200 km/h or around 120 mph which is redline. What a thrill pulling out of the dive under the overcast and trying to find out where you are! I did make it home that day and on many other occasions.

The May, 1996 Newsletter contained a story by Charles Yeates about a badly rusted Tost release cable in Cirrus No.77. And we all should know that Tost releases themselves have mandatory replacement requirements which should be checked at each annual. Here’s another bit of evidence of how important release mechanism maintenance can be, provided by Gil Alexander and involving Cirrus No. 80:

Date: Thu, 07 Jan 1999 23:35:42 -0800
From: Gil Alexander <gila@flash.net>
To: Jim@Kellett.com
[Re: Cirrus No. 80, N6660] . . . Max Weiss bought it a wreck after it landed out in the scrub after a really low altitude inadvertent tow release at Rosamond (I was there ...) At the time, the pilot's claim "I didn't touch the release" was suspect, but that was well before anyone translated the Tost tow hook manual with it's three year life span before rebuilding. I now think this was an early failure that the tow hook replacement is trying to avoid.

If my memory serves me right, the damage was basically cosmetic to the wings and a complete break to the aft fuselage. I tried to bid on the plane, but didn't get it. . . . [Ed. Note: there is no Form 337 for repair to this damage in the FAA records]. . . . hope this helps your records ... Gil Alexander (ACE), Schempp-Hirth glider owner (Mini-Nimbus s/n 16)... who changes tow-hooks on schedule...

Memorial Day Weekend, 28 to 31 May 1999

Vintage Sailplane Association Eastern Regatta This 25th Annual VSA Eastern Regatta will be hosted once again by Jan and Mai Scott at Scott Airpark in Lovettsville, Virginia. For information, contact Jan Scott at 12582 Lutheran Church Road, Lovettsville, VA 20180. Or via email at flycow@ibm.net.

Memorial Day Weekend, 29 to 31 May 1999

Vintage Sailplane Association Western Regatta This 12th Annual Western Regatta will likely be held once again at the Skylark North Gliderport, located at Central California's Mountain Valley Airport, in Tehachapi. They are promising aerotows by the FBO, early morning auto tows before the FBO opens for business, and maybe even more auto tows in the evening after the FBO closes for the day. There will be an awards banquet on Sunday night. A camping area is provided and RV hook-ups are available on the airport property at a reasonable rate. Motels are available within 2 miles of the airport. Food, 3 meals a day, is available at the Raven's Nest Sandwich Shop, located in the FBO office complex, as well as restaurants and fast food in town. For information, by email, contact Jeff Byard at jbyard@thegrid.net

June 1999

Vintage Sailplane Association Midwest Regatta This 3nd Annual Regatta in the Mid-West will be held at Lawrenceville/Vincennes Airport, Lawrenceville, IL. Hosted by Wabash Valley Soaring Assoc. Contact Dave Schuur (309)246-3328 or Bud Brown (618)943-2076 or David Schuur at dschuur@mail.isbe.accessus.net.

2nd week of July 1999

Vintage Sailplane Association Southwestern Regatta, at Moriarty, New Mexico. For information, contact George Applebay, Box 1812 Hangar #8, Moriarity, NM 87035

July 1 – 9, 2000

International Vintage Sailplane Meet (IVSM 2000) at Harris Hill, Elmira, New York, USA. This will be the 2^nd international vintage glider gathering in the USA (the 1st being in 1995). For information, contact the National Soaring Museum, Harris Hill, 51 Soaring Hill Drive, Elmira, New York 14903 USA, or via email at: nsm@soaringmuseum.org