PW-5 rental for WC Nationals

SoCal isn't as far from Marfa as Houston or Dallas are....
"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:cKhxf.10080$V.1184@fed1read04...
http://www.downingsailplanes.com/

Check here.. I'm not sure if he is still in business.. but he may have a
source.. he is in SoCal.. a long way from Marfa..
BT

"Bill Thar" wrote in message
...
I am looking for a PW-5 to rent for the World Class Nationals at Marfa, TX
6/20/2006 - 6/29/2006.

Bill Thar

Yes, Marfa Texas is a long way from everywhere, but certainly worth the
trip. That's why I live/soar here. It's quite nice, being 500 miles
from Dallas / 900 miles from So. California. Nearest Super Wal-Mart is
186 miles away in El Paso or Midland, TX. Wide open airspace and 100
mile visibility. On a grassy plateau near the Davis Mountains and Big
Bend National Park. Big, quiet airport (MRF) w/ three runways. RV
hookups on site.

For more information on the PW-5 World Class US National Contest June
20-29, 2006, see the PW-5 page under "Marfa Gliders" on my website:
www.flygliders.com

I strongly recommend bringing a capable ground crew when bringing ANY
glider to Marfa.
Also rig a proper antenna for your crew-car. A 5/8 wave magnetic mount
works much better on your crew's handheld radio than a little "rubber
ducky" antenna. Find a ham radio dude and tune your antenna for near 1
to 1 "SWR". Purchase a 5/8 wave antenna at Eastern Sailplane or
wingsandwheels.com Why? Cellphones don't work that well out here
and if you don't bring a crew, then bring an ELT. Then again, there's
no CAP search unit out here. No, we don't expect you to land out, but
IF you do - there are few roads and the nights are cold in the summer
here - at 5,000' msl on the Marfa plateau. The stars are rather
incredible - so pack a telescope if you have one!

We fly year-round. Training and glider ratings / aerotows by
appointment. Thermals and wave in winter & spring.

Where "The Sun Ship Game" movie was filmed at the 1969 US Nationals.
Watch the movie, then bring your sailplane and pretend to be Gleb
Derujinsky (CI) or George Moffat (XX) - your choice. (Although my role
model was Ben Greene.)

Y'all come visit. We'll show you a good time!

Burt Compton Master CFI, FAA Designated Examiner
Marfa Gliders, west Texas
www.flygliders.com
800-667-9464

Oh boy, I think I found my fun for this week. These posting have
drifted away from the subject again.....weren't we supposed to help a
fellow soaring pilot to locate a glider available for rent? Even though
it is a PW-5 it is still a glider and it serves its purpose.

By the way us British glider pilots are not made welcome
in France, because allegedly two of our gliders were
unfortunate enough to get in the way of a free falling
parachutist and a French two-seater that spun in a
thermal respectively. Since then they will not recognise
our UK qualifications, despite this being a principle
requirement of the EU. I don't think they have ever
forgiven us and the Yanks for liberating their country
from German occupation!

Still never mind. I fly and spend my money in all the
other EU countries who do make us welcome and accept
our qualifications.

Now Derek you started making some sense....I need to give credit when
credit is due.

. I don't think they have ever

forgiven us and the Yanks for liberating their country
from German occupation!

- You're also known for selling your allies to, for instance Stalin,
so maybe it's healthier and smarter to stay ignorant and indifferent.

It looks like the debate is getting better...unfortunately I must
agreed with both statements. Boy....the winter is loooong indeed.

Burt,
as a "ham-dude" - a couple of comments.

If you want range, a 7/8 ths antenna is much, much better. So if they are
available go for it, the cost should not be to dissimilar to a 5/8 ths.

The only down side is these antennas are much better at putting the signal
closer
to the ground rather than up into space/sky. So a glider close in might not
hear to much well, so revert to a shorter aerial (a quarter wave is great
for this, and still much more efficient than a rubber duck) As a very basic
rule of thumb, a 1/4 wave might double your range over a rubber duck,
a 5/8 ths might give 4 times the range and a 7/8 ths 6 to 8 times!

The quality of the coax is also important. Amazing how much signal power
you can lose over 10 feet of poor coax. Get the best you can afford.

Cheers,
Malcolm (also a poor K6CR owner) :-)

"Burt Compton - Marfa" wrote in message
oups.com...
Yes, Marfa Texas is a long way from everywhere, but certainly worth the
trip. That's why I live/soar here. It's quite nice, being 500 miles
from Dallas / 900 miles from So. California. Nearest Super Wal-Mart is
186 miles away in El Paso or Midland, TX. Wide open airspace and 100
mile visibility. On a grassy plateau near the Davis Mountains and Big
Bend National Park. Big, quiet airport (MRF) w/ three runways. RV
hookups on site.

For more information on the PW-5 World Class US National Contest June
20-29, 2006, see the PW-5 page under "Marfa Gliders" on my website:
www.flygliders.com

I strongly recommend bringing a capable ground crew when bringing ANY
glider to Marfa.
Also rig a proper antenna for your crew-car. A 5/8 wave magnetic mount
works much better on your crew's handheld radio than a little "rubber
ducky" antenna. Find a ham radio dude and tune your antenna for near 1
to 1 "SWR". Purchase a 5/8 wave antenna at Eastern Sailplane or
wingsandwheels.com Why? Cellphones don't work that well out here
and if you don't bring a crew, then bring an ELT. Then again, there's
no CAP search unit out here. No, we don't expect you to land out, but
IF you do - there are few roads and the nights are cold in the summer
here - at 5,000' msl on the Marfa plateau. The stars are rather
incredible - so pack a telescope if you have one!

We fly year-round. Training and glider ratings / aerotows by
appointment. Thermals and wave in winter & spring.

Where "The Sun Ship Game" movie was filmed at the 1969 US Nationals.
Watch the movie, then bring your sailplane and pretend to be Gleb
Derujinsky (CI) or George Moffat (XX) - your choice. (Although my role
model was Ben Greene.)

Y'all come visit. We'll show you a good time!

Burt Compton Master CFI, FAA Designated Examiner
Marfa Gliders, west Texas
www.flygliders.com
800-667-9464

Yep, longer is better, but perhaps not as portable - I'm just tryin' to
get these glider crews decent communications as cellphone coverage is
relatively poor beyond Marfa Airport, and there are very few airports
around. So a crew at Marfa should be close by when the pilot gets low
and needs to know where the wires / fences / gates are located. Good
crew underneath a pilot out here can save a glider!

My Dad (Fritz Compton W4LJH) had very long wire ham antennas (extended
zep, etc.) on our gliderport near Miami. He hated coax especially in
the Florida humidity so he and I made "open wire feeders" like he did
as a kid in the 1920's. He also wound his own antenna tuners - would
check power by tuning for the strongest spark off the coils with a lead
pencil! Classic.

Dad was one of the first to use ham radio in his LK-10A sailplane at
the 1946 Nationals in Elmira, NY and in 1947 at Wichita Falls, TX.. He
would transmit one-way to my Mother on the road. He painted his
contest number on top of the trailer so he knew it was her. More than
once he told her to pass a slow truck on a long uphill grade - trucker
thought she was crazy - but Dad had told her "all clear".

Educating folks about crew car antenna tuning (by length) and seeking
efficiency with good SWR is important. In the 1960's my Dad built
homemade 1/4 wave VHF crew car antennas out of a wire and a flattened
tin can that we would slam into the top of the car door. Simple, and
we had close to 1 to 1 Standing Wave Ratio for 123.3. We had a simple
three letter code so he could tell me where he was on course and his
optimism about the sky ahead. It worked extremely well.

So thanks for the advice. As my Dad would say, "Lots o' watts is OK,
but good radio is mostly in the antenna." He is 90 years old - living
in Texas - but his signal is fading.

Burt Compton
Marfa Gliders, west Texas
www.flygliders.com

Malcolm Austin wrote:


The quality of the coax is also important. Amazing how much signal power
you can lose over 10 feet of poor coax. Get the best you can afford.

Cheers,
Malcolm (also a poor K6CR owner) :-)

Malcom and Burt,

What brand or spec coax is the best quality? I have an AV-5 antenna
with ground plane (as shown on Tim's page he
http://www.wingsandwheels.com/page14.htm ) that I want to connect to my
Icom portable (BNC both ends), so what should I look for in a fine
piece of coax suitable for this installation?

I have only a RadioShack SWR meter (that I use to tune my cb antenna)
so what can I rig up to tune the AV-5 to the Icom/coax installation?

I use a crimp on style coax connector, is there a better way to
terminate the BNC connectors than crimp on?

Thanks,

Jim

At 21:54 11 January 2006,
wrote:
Derek,
How many hours do you have in PW5?

Fortunately, none!

Derek Copeland

It looks to me that Derek is afraid that he might fly
across the
English Channel in the PW-5 and find himself in France.....

-----------------------------------
What a horrible thought! Although one would be more
likely to make a very small splash halfway across the
Channel in a PW5.

By the way us British glider pilots are not made welcome
in France, because allegedly two of our gliders were
unfortunate enough to get in the way of a free falling
parachutist and a French two-seater that spun in a
thermal respectively. Since then they will not recognise
our UK qualifications, despite this being a principle
requirement of the EU. I don't think they have ever
forgiven us and the Yanks for liberating their country
from German occupation!

Still never mind. I fly and spend my money in all the
other EU countries who do make us welcome and accept
our qualifications.

Derek Copeland

.. I don't think they have ever
forgiven us and the Yanks for liberating their country
from German occupation!

- You're also known for selling your allies to, for instance Stalin,
so maybe it's healthier and smarter to stay ignorant and indifferent.

You could try http://www.5c1.net/sass.html located just north of San
Antonio, Texas he has 2 PW-5s on the field.

At 04:24 12 January 2006, Gk wrote:

- You're also known for selling your allies to, for
instance Stalin,

I assume that you are refering to Poland, Czechoslovakia
and the other Eastern European countries that got stuck
on the Russian side of the Iron Curtain after WW2.
I should point out that we (the British) declared war
on Hitler's Germany in support of Poland and that Winston
Churchill did his best to get it returned to being
an independent country at the end of the war. Unfortunately
it had been over-run by the Soviet Army, possession
is nine points of the law, and they weren't prepared
to give it up. Also the Yanks didn't want to support
any further war as they had achieved their objective
of defeating the Axis powers, so that was that - fait
accompli to Josph Stalin!

What this proves is that wars very often don't give
the desired results, even if you win them. George W.
Bush's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, far from
defeating terrorism, has only stoked up even more hatred
of the West and more terrorism. Haven't the USA learned
any lessons from Korea, Vietnam and Gulf War 1?

Derek Copeland