tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
i need a 50 km cross country and a 1000 meter height gain, documented, so i can fly the contest at the end of the month. of course ive done both of these, multiple times, but the paperwork has always fallen through. we managed to get a towpilot arranged for today, but as the morning progressed i worried that the forecast conditions would not come true. high cirrus was masking the sun and shutting down all convection. all was not to be lost though as about 1 PM the bugs and sparrows were gone and we could see the faintest wisp of cumulus clouds on the horizon. i helped get another club member launched and then readied my own ship. up up and away i went. off tow i was down to 1400 AGL and quite worried when i got a decent thermal off of the Ames Power Plant. once to 4500 I was able to use other club members thermals to boost up to 6000 msl. from here i alerted my crew that i would be departing, heading for Grinnel Regional, KGGI. I knew that this would satisfy the distance requirement, and I did have a CFII student at 6 PM who demanded my attention so I couldnt get too far from home. After departingt he airport area i found good lift in the 5-700 fpm range and easily flew to Grinnel, rarely gettin below 5000 feet. a nice landing 2 hours after takeoff and I was happy to have gotten the silver distance and altitude legs done. Then I did it, I looked at the barograph trace, and it was messed up 
Seems that the way the paper was mounted to the drum stopped it from turning midway through the flight. so once again I had completed a silver flight without the documentation to show it. augh. the good news is that I now have 3 club members barographs in my possesion and Im taking all of them with me tomorrow. I think Ill head north and see how far I can go. No plans for the evening. just gotta find a towpilot...
Seems that the way the paper was mounted to the drum stopped it from turning midway through the flight. so once again I had completed a silver flight without the documentation to show it. augh. the good news is that I now have 3 club members barographs in my possesion and Im taking all of them with me tomorrow. I think Ill head north and see how far I can go. No plans for the evening. just gotta find a towpilot...
