If there is enough interest I would be willing to make up some laminated wallet size cards listing the cell phone numbers of everyone who likes to go XC from Rigdely, along with any other pertinent information like commonly used radio frequencies, popular waypoints etc. Email me with your information if interested or reply in this forum.
Also, what are your thoughts about keeping an XC check in sheet at the flight line for anyone with XC intensions to fill out? It would contain the persons name, XC intensions, radio freq their using, cell number, and if they will be needing a retrieve. They would call into Highland when safely landed so folks would know they are ok. Anyone who is flying locally could also sign the form stating their willingness to be a retriever if they so desire, that way they could be matched up with someone who does not have a retriever available.
What are your thoughts?
Ridgely XC'ers
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Ridgely XC'ers
Paul Adamez
Ridgely XC'ers
Great idea! Count me in: Hugh McElrath 301 980-6381
On 27 Feb 2005, at 13:39, padamez wrote:
> If there is enough interest I would be willing to make up some
> laminated wallet size cards listing the cell phone numbers of everyone
> who likes to go XC from Rigdely, along with any other pertinent
> information like commonly used radio frequencies, popular waypoints
> etc. Email me with your information if interested or reply in this
> forum.
>
> Also, what are your thoughts about keeping an XC check in sheet at
> the flight line for anyone with XC intensions to fill out? It would
> contain the persons name, XC intensions, radio freq their using, cell
> number, and if they will be needing a retrieve. They would call into
> Highland when safely landed so folks would know they are ok. Anyone
> who is flying locally could also sign the form stating their
> willingness to be a retriever if they so desire, that way they could
> be matched up with someone who does not have a retriever available.
>
> What are your thoughts?
>
>
>
> Paul Adamez
>
>
>
>
On 27 Feb 2005, at 13:39, padamez wrote:
> If there is enough interest I would be willing to make up some
> laminated wallet size cards listing the cell phone numbers of everyone
> who likes to go XC from Rigdely, along with any other pertinent
> information like commonly used radio frequencies, popular waypoints
> etc. Email me with your information if interested or reply in this
> forum.
>
> Also, what are your thoughts about keeping an XC check in sheet at
> the flight line for anyone with XC intensions to fill out? It would
> contain the persons name, XC intensions, radio freq their using, cell
> number, and if they will be needing a retrieve. They would call into
> Highland when safely landed so folks would know they are ok. Anyone
> who is flying locally could also sign the form stating their
> willingness to be a retriever if they so desire, that way they could
> be matched up with someone who does not have a retriever available.
>
> What are your thoughts?
>
>
>
> Paul Adamez
>
>
>
>
-
John Simon
- Posts: 300
- Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2005 12:33 pm
Ridgely XC'ers
Hi Paul,
??? I think this is a great idea.? I'm no XC guy... but maybe soon?? Count me in.?
?
John Simon
??? I think this is a great idea.? I'm no XC guy... but maybe soon?? Count me in.?
?
John Simon
-----Original Message-----
From: padamez [mailto:padamez@comcast.net]
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 1:39 PM
To: hg_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: Ridgely XC'ers
If there is enough interest I would be willing to make up some laminated wallet size cards listing the cell phone numbers of everyone who likes to go XC from Rigdely, along with any other pertinent information like commonly used radio frequencies, popular waypoints etc. Email me with your information if interested or reply in this forum.
Also, what are your thoughts about keeping an XC check in sheet at the flight line for anyone with XC intensions to fill out? It would contain the persons name, XC intensions, radio freq their using, cell number, and if they will be needing a retrieve. They would call into Highland when safely landed so folks would know they are ok. Anyone who is flying locally could also sign the form stating their willingness to be a retriever if they so desire, that way they could be matched up with someone who does not have a retriever available.
What are your thoughts?
Paul Adamez
-
Tad Eareckson
- Posts: 304
- Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 8:50 am
Ridgely XC'ers
I wonder if an XC sheet could be web based - might save some time, eliminate
transcription and legibility problems, and reduce some burden on the launch
line crew - especially if a downed pilot can access via cell phone or talk his
or her way onto the keyboard at the farmhouse.
Might also include description of vehicle and key access info (wouldn't hurt
to have a file with this and emergency contact for all flyers).
Always hoping to make it to the beach but usually end up near the windsock -
guess that makes not having a cell phone less of an issue. On those occasions
happy to chase and rack up a few brownie points towards that hundred miler I
keep planning to score.
transcription and legibility problems, and reduce some burden on the launch
line crew - especially if a downed pilot can access via cell phone or talk his
or her way onto the keyboard at the farmhouse.
Might also include description of vehicle and key access info (wouldn't hurt
to have a file with this and emergency contact for all flyers).
Always hoping to make it to the beach but usually end up near the windsock -
guess that makes not having a cell phone less of an issue. On those occasions
happy to chase and rack up a few brownie points towards that hundred miler I
keep planning to score.
-
Paul Tjaden
- Posts: 398
- Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:28 pm
Ridgely XC'ers
When expecting going XC, it's?always best to pre-arrange someone to chase or retrieve you. I always try to bother the flight line crew only when I'm unable to contact anyone else directly. I don't think posting to a computer screen (if possible) is going to get you too much attention either.
?
A cell phone is pretty much mandatory today unless you want to try to hitch a ride. Lauren and I try to have cell numbers in our phones memory of all pilots who are going XC that day so we can coordinate pickups once on the ground. Paul A.'s idea of having a card with all local XC pilot numbers would be nice for this as would a sign up sheet for potential retrieve drivers (although this is usually achieved by begging, cajoling, or some manner of extortion).
?
After my first "accidental" XC at Woodstock, pick up was quite a hassle due to not being prepared. After that, I "got religion" and purchased items to insure a timely pickup. For those newbies thinking about venturing away from home base for the first time?I recommend the following: cell phone, good radio with a spare telescoping antennae, a mapping GPS, water, snack, reading material for the wait, any other survival goodies you might need due to extreme conditions, etc. For your pick up vehicle you need plenty of?fuel on board, a radio with an exterior antennae, another cell phone (unless your driver comes equipped with one) and a Delorme map of the area.?The map is VERY important. It has latitude and longitude marked along the borders as well as extreme road details. ?Once you have given your pick up driver your coordinates, it will be a no brainer to find you even if all contact is lost after that. It is?VERY easy to get confusing directions from your GPS or from a local but the co-ordinates always work as long as you read them correctly from your GPS (and your driver writes them down correctly). Oh yeh, a cooler?filled with?beer is pretty important, too. (Lauren carries the small, plastic airline bottles of gin in her harness?instead).
?
Another good thing is to have your GPS mounted on your control frame so you can radio your approximate position to someone on the ground (or in the air) when you are getting low and expecting you might land. A good way to do this is to give distance and bearing to your launch location. That will get someone close enough to achieve radio contact.?If you get lucky and get a low save, you can radio back that you're continuing on. This is especially important in areas with poor cell coverage.
?
There may be things I'm forgetting but these should get you well on the way home in most situations. Make sure you check an aviation sectional chart for controlled airspace, etc.?and be careful to avoid landing where vehicles can't get to you.
?
One more thing. On your first flights, you'll probably want to go downwind and achieve longer distance for bragging rights but I have found that on light wind days, out and backs and triangles can be even more fun and if your successful, you land at home! If not, you'll be a lot closer and won't be "outstanding in your field" for such a long time. You can always break personal records or fly to the beach when the wind is stronger!
?
Sorry to be so "windy" myself this morning. Guess I'm a little bored. Haven't flown for quite a while due to poor weather (certainly not as bad as you guys are getting).
?
When your sick of all that snow, come join us here. Conditions should be getting better and better from now on and record breaking XC flights will surely follow!
?
Paul
?
A cell phone is pretty much mandatory today unless you want to try to hitch a ride. Lauren and I try to have cell numbers in our phones memory of all pilots who are going XC that day so we can coordinate pickups once on the ground. Paul A.'s idea of having a card with all local XC pilot numbers would be nice for this as would a sign up sheet for potential retrieve drivers (although this is usually achieved by begging, cajoling, or some manner of extortion).
?
After my first "accidental" XC at Woodstock, pick up was quite a hassle due to not being prepared. After that, I "got religion" and purchased items to insure a timely pickup. For those newbies thinking about venturing away from home base for the first time?I recommend the following: cell phone, good radio with a spare telescoping antennae, a mapping GPS, water, snack, reading material for the wait, any other survival goodies you might need due to extreme conditions, etc. For your pick up vehicle you need plenty of?fuel on board, a radio with an exterior antennae, another cell phone (unless your driver comes equipped with one) and a Delorme map of the area.?The map is VERY important. It has latitude and longitude marked along the borders as well as extreme road details. ?Once you have given your pick up driver your coordinates, it will be a no brainer to find you even if all contact is lost after that. It is?VERY easy to get confusing directions from your GPS or from a local but the co-ordinates always work as long as you read them correctly from your GPS (and your driver writes them down correctly). Oh yeh, a cooler?filled with?beer is pretty important, too. (Lauren carries the small, plastic airline bottles of gin in her harness?instead).
?
Another good thing is to have your GPS mounted on your control frame so you can radio your approximate position to someone on the ground (or in the air) when you are getting low and expecting you might land. A good way to do this is to give distance and bearing to your launch location. That will get someone close enough to achieve radio contact.?If you get lucky and get a low save, you can radio back that you're continuing on. This is especially important in areas with poor cell coverage.
?
There may be things I'm forgetting but these should get you well on the way home in most situations. Make sure you check an aviation sectional chart for controlled airspace, etc.?and be careful to avoid landing where vehicles can't get to you.
?
One more thing. On your first flights, you'll probably want to go downwind and achieve longer distance for bragging rights but I have found that on light wind days, out and backs and triangles can be even more fun and if your successful, you land at home! If not, you'll be a lot closer and won't be "outstanding in your field" for such a long time. You can always break personal records or fly to the beach when the wind is stronger!
?
Sorry to be so "windy" myself this morning. Guess I'm a little bored. Haven't flown for quite a while due to poor weather (certainly not as bad as you guys are getting).
?
When your sick of all that snow, come join us here. Conditions should be getting better and better from now on and record breaking XC flights will surely follow!
?
Paul
-
John Simon
- Posts: 300
- Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2005 12:33 pm
Ridgely XC'ers
Paul,
?? thanks this is good stuff for the new Ridgely XC wanna be guys (me).? Pagen has some decent reading on it but any "real" info is always appreciated.? Thanks and keep it coming one and all, experience is a good thing to share.
?
John
?? thanks this is good stuff for the new Ridgely XC wanna be guys (me).? Pagen has some decent reading on it but any "real" info is always appreciated.? Thanks and keep it coming one and all, experience is a good thing to share.
?
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Tjadenhors@aol.com [mailto:Tjadenhors@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 9:41 AM
To: hg_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: Re: Ridgely XC'ers
When expecting going XC, it's?always best to pre-arrange someone to chase or retrieve you. I always try to bother the flight line crew only when I'm unable to contact anyone else directly. I don't think posting to a computer screen (if possible) is going to get you too much attention either.
?
A cell phone is pretty much mandatory today unless you want to try to hitch a ride. Lauren and I try to have cell numbers in our phones memory of all pilots who are going XC that day so we can coordinate pickups once on the ground. Paul A.'s idea of having a card with all local XC pilot numbers would be nice for this as would a sign up sheet for potential retrieve drivers (although this is usually achieved by begging, cajoling, or some manner of extortion).
?
After my first "accidental" XC at Woodstock, pick up was quite a hassle due to not being prepared. After that, I "got religion" and purchased items to insure a timely pickup. For those newbies thinking about venturing away from home base for the first time?I recommend the following: cell phone, good radio with a spare telescoping antennae, a mapping GPS, water, snack, reading material for the wait, any other survival goodies you might need due to extreme conditions, etc. For your pick up vehicle you need plenty of?fuel on board, a radio with an exterior antennae, another cell phone (unless your driver comes equipped with one) and a Delorme map of the area.?The map is VERY important. It has latitude and longitude marked along the borders as well as extreme road details. ?Once you have given your pick up driver your coordinates, it will be a no brainer to find you even if all contact is lost after that. It is?VERY easy to get confusing directions from your GPS or from a local but the co-ordinates always work as long as you read them correctly from your GPS (and your driver writes them down correctly). Oh yeh, a cooler?filled with?beer is pretty important, too. (Lauren carries the small, plastic airline bottles of gin in her harness?instead).
?
Another good thing is to have your GPS mounted on your control frame so you can radio your approximate position to someone on the ground (or in the air) when you are getting low and expecting you might land. A good way to do this is to give distance and bearing to your launch location. That will get someone close enough to achieve radio contact.?If you get lucky and get a low save, you can radio back that you're continuing on. This is especially important in areas with poor cell coverage.
?
There may be things I'm forgetting but these should get you well on the way home in most situations. Make sure you check an aviation sectional chart for controlled airspace, etc.?and be careful to avoid landing where vehicles can't get to you.
?
One more thing. On your first flights, you'll probably want to go downwind and achieve longer distance for bragging rights but I have found that on light wind days, out and backs and triangles can be even more fun and if your successful, you land at home! If not, you'll be a lot closer and won't be "outstanding in your field" for such a long time. You can always break personal records or fly to the beach when the wind is stronger!
?
Sorry to be so "windy" myself this morning. Guess I'm a little bored. Haven't flown for quite a while due to poor weather (certainly not as bad as you guys are getting).
?
When your sick of all that snow, come join us here. Conditions should be getting better and better from now on and record breaking XC flights will surely follow!
?
Paul
Ridgely XC'ers
Bah! Give me grease pencil over trons any day! - Hugh
On 1 Mar 2005, at 07:34, TadErcksn@aol.com wrote:
>
> I wonder if an XC sheet could be web based - might save some time,
> eliminate
> transcription and legibility problems, and reduce some burden on the
> launch
> line crew - especially if a downed pilot can access via cell phone or
> talk his
> or her way onto the keyboard at the farmhouse.
>
> Might also include description of vehicle and key access info
> (wouldn't hurt
> to have a file with this and emergency contact for all flyers).
>
> Always hoping to make it to the beach but usually end up near the
> windsock -
> guess that makes not having a cell phone less of an issue. On those
> occasions
> happy to chase and rack up a few brownie points towards that hundred
> miler I
> keep planning to score.
>
>
On 1 Mar 2005, at 07:34, TadErcksn@aol.com wrote:
>
> I wonder if an XC sheet could be web based - might save some time,
> eliminate
> transcription and legibility problems, and reduce some burden on the
> launch
> line crew - especially if a downed pilot can access via cell phone or
> talk his
> or her way onto the keyboard at the farmhouse.
>
> Might also include description of vehicle and key access info
> (wouldn't hurt
> to have a file with this and emergency contact for all flyers).
>
> Always hoping to make it to the beach but usually end up near the
> windsock -
> guess that makes not having a cell phone less of an issue. On those
> occasions
> happy to chase and rack up a few brownie points towards that hundred
> miler I
> keep planning to score.
>
>
I came acrossed a list a frequencies that I intend to put on the card. They are not supposed to interfere with any repeaters on the 2 meter band, nationwide. One could reserve a bank of memory in their radio for them and pick one and not have to worry about interfering with either the input or output frequencies of any repeaters, pick one, lock it in your radio and your good to go. Using the lowest frequency may lend somewhat better performance since antennas are tuned for the middle of the band.
Am considering adding Eastern Shore repeater frequencies and access tones but am not sure if these would ever be needed. Has anyone ever used a repeater in their XC experience?
Not very many responders to the cell phone request, just the Tjadens, John Simon, me and Hugh. It's early still so I will keep probing from time to time to drum up more interest.
Last summers XC clinic was alot of fun and very informative, there would much to learn and enjoy with a solid group of XC enthusiasts at Highland this year sharing the knowledge and excitement.
Paul T, your last post was a great summarization on how to be prepared to go XC, although mostly for me I have had to rely on the the old thumb to get back to the airport, but the experiences have been great which I would like to share in some future post. Any body out there have some good XC tales?
The frequencies I mentioned above are:
2-Meter Band simplex frequencies
146.52
146.535
146.55
146.565
146.58
146.595
147.42
147.435
147.45
147.465
147.48
147.495
147.51
147.525
147.54
147.555
147.57
147.585
Happy soaring!
Am considering adding Eastern Shore repeater frequencies and access tones but am not sure if these would ever be needed. Has anyone ever used a repeater in their XC experience?
Not very many responders to the cell phone request, just the Tjadens, John Simon, me and Hugh. It's early still so I will keep probing from time to time to drum up more interest.
Last summers XC clinic was alot of fun and very informative, there would much to learn and enjoy with a solid group of XC enthusiasts at Highland this year sharing the knowledge and excitement.
Paul T, your last post was a great summarization on how to be prepared to go XC, although mostly for me I have had to rely on the the old thumb to get back to the airport, but the experiences have been great which I would like to share in some future post. Any body out there have some good XC tales?
The frequencies I mentioned above are:
2-Meter Band simplex frequencies
146.52
146.535
146.55
146.565
146.58
146.595
147.42
147.435
147.45
147.465
147.48
147.495
147.51
147.525
147.54
147.555
147.57
147.585
Happy soaring!
Paul Adamez