1-26 Utilization and Participation

I would like to put out all call to all the clubs out there who still operate a 1-26. If you have new members just getting started with an interest in cross country soaring, your lowly club 1-26 can be a real economical tool for them.

The 1-26 Association has numerous awards to incentivize xc soaring. We have a yearly xc Sweepstakes that is tailored to newcommers. Awards are granted to pilots making xc flights according to their SSA badge experience levels.. This year there were very few entrants and a new pilot without a silver badge would have only made a flight of 35 miles total distance to have won that divisions award. All that is needed is a simple flight recorder, doesnot have to be FAI approved. No task declarations, no burdensom rules, just take a hand held logging gps with you and go fly, then upload the flight to the 1-26 association web site.

If your a club that has a 1-26 please encourage your members to put in a flight or two and upload them for a chance at some nice awards.

Dan 1-26 #225

I agree. When I was starting out, the 1-26 class had events at local contests that were often well attended. We took our 1-26 to several regionals (pretty hopeless but I learned a lot). I flew it in the 1-26 North Americans held at our then home airport in Richmond, IN.

The 1-26 Associations even then had awards of various kinds for juniors. The assembled pilots at the old Chester, SC regionals one year were impressed when I was awarded a Replogle barograph (ask one of the old timers) as a prize, a $100 value at the time.

At many contests, the best 1-26 pilots were very good indeed, which is certainly still true at the 1-26 national contest. And you found yourself asking "how did they possibly do that?"...just like most of us ask ourselves the same question today at a regional or national contest.

No, I wouldn't want to go back to flying a 1-26 all the time now. But it was a great learning experience and a way to help develop soaring skills that could be applied then and in the future. And the chance that I would damage something in an off-airport landing (of which I had many) were less than in today's higher-performance ships.

So, yes, if there are 1-26s around at clubs that aren't being flown, encourage members to use them, after making sure they have received proper instruction and guidance.

Chip Bearden
First contest: Central Ohio Soaring Association (COSA) Annual Fall Roundup, Sep 1968, in 1-26 #36.