Status of BASA gliders; Wave Camp
Grob 36L is back at Hollister and assembled. The wheel brakes are still very weak.
The DG-1000 is also assembled at Hollister. The wheel brakes are practically non-existent. Do not point this glider off the runway during your roll-out and expect the brakes to do anything useful. You will probably hit something solid and do lots of expensive damage.
We continue to have problems with BASA members touching down much too fast and then placing too much reliance on the wheel brakes to slow down. Your touch-down speed should be close to the stall speed of the glider, not 55 knots! Your job as a pilot is not to place the glider on the runway, your job is to hold the glider 6 inches off the runway until it quits flying. Then hold the spoilers open without engaging the wheel brakes until the glider has slowed to 10 knots or so. Glance at the airspeed indicator during your roll-out to confirm you are doing this correctly.
Wave Camp: A relatively new member (had his license less than a year) asked recently if Wave Camp is an appropriate event for him. Absolutely yes! Wave Camp is an ideal event for newer pilots. It is a great introduction to mountain flying, with lots of opportunities for dual flying and mentoring with more experienced pilots. You don’t need to go above 18,000 feet to experience great wave flying, so you don’t need to have a “chamber ride” to get a lot out of Wave Camp. For more information, see Hans Van Weersch’s Wave Camp web page.
– Harry Fox