Trying for a Diamond Goal tommorow - water ballast question

Ditto what others have said... Dinking around with water is a surefire
way to waste a boatload of time.

Concentrate on prep and other flying stuff... You'll be glad you did.

Larry "zero one"


"Scott Alexander" wrote in message
:

The forecast tommorow looks fantastic down here in Memphis! Looks
like perfect conditions to load up on water.

I have water bags in my Std. Cirrus that I have never used. Looking
at the wingroot, there is a hole that the bags are bolted to. These
bolts are easy to unscrew. This hole is appx. 1 and 3/4 inch
diameter. There is another hole about 3 inches in diameter that has a
clear plastic peice glued over it. My thought is that the water bags
are pushed into the wing through the smaller hole, then get pulled out
through the bigger hole. I don't want to just cut the clear plastic
peice off unless somebody can verify that it is indeed what the
plastic peice if for, or explain another way to test the bags for a
leak other than just pulling the bag completely out for a test.

My guess is that the clear plastic peice is for sealing. The cirrus
wasn't designed with bags, it was designed with fiberglass water
tanks. The water ballast bags are an aftermarket addition.

Thanks in advance,
Scott

Anyone have any experience?

On Apr 27, 3:05*pm, lanebush wrote:
Having only gotten close enough to see SA's rudder for five days in
Perry last week I can say that if Scott wants to fly with water he
should. *His skills are such that adapting to a little extra weight
while flying a task will not "task saturate" him.

XF

If everything's connected and checked out, I would load up. However,
the day before making an attempt seems a bit late in the game to start
checking out the system. As far as the flying wet goes, my only
experience is with my Speed Astir II, and it really 'grooves' fully
ballasted. I wish it flew the same empty. (perhaps the extra inertia
in the wings compensates for my natural hamfistedness!)

scott do you have a spot tracker? would be fun to follow your
progress tomorrow! have a good flight.

It's not the 'saturation' during the flight... Most sailplanes fly very
nicely with water...

It all the stuff that you have to mess with before the flight that is
the problem... Right when you should be relaxing and getting ready
mentally for the big flight.

Zero One



"lanebush" wrote in message
:

Having only gotten close enough to see SA's rudder for five days in
Perry last week I can say that if Scott wants to fly with water he
should. His skills are such that adapting to a little extra weight
while flying a task will not "task saturate" him.

XF

Good points. Thanks for the advice. No water tommorow. I'll let ya
know how it went.

Lane:

I'm signed up to do Cherry Valley, AR Region 10 north next month. You
should bid another long layover in MEM and come hang out with us
then!

Regarding Cordele: On contest day 5, I will be in the hospital
delivery with my wife Susan welcoming our 2nd child into this world.

I will be checking the daily scores and reports when I get a chance.
Have fun and go for first place!

On Apr 27, 8:21*pm, Scott Alexander
wrote:
Good points. *Thanks for the advice. *No water tommorow. *I'll let ya
know how it went.

Lane:

I'm signed up to do Cherry Valley, AR Region 10 north next month. *You
should bid another long layover in MEM and come hang out with us
then!

Regarding Cordele: On contest day 5, I will be in the hospital
delivery with my wife Susan welcoming our 2nd child into this world.

I will be checking the daily scores and reports when I get a chance.
Have fun and go for first place!

Scott,

Up to this point you had us fooled that you were a racing pilot.
Skipping a contest just because your wife is having a baby shows you
aren't serious about racing ;-).

Good luck tomorrow.

On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:28:12 -0700, Tony wrote:

No experience here with carrying water but I'd think that a Diamond Goal
flight wouldn't really be the time where I'd want to be learning how to
fly with ballast.

I must say I'd agree with that, if only because under reasonable
conditions you'll only be on task around 5 hours flying dry. If the day
is as good as you think you don't need to go faster: 5 hours for 300 km
is 59 kph, 32 kts average speed.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Up to this point you had us fooled that you were a racing pilot.
Skipping a contest just because your wife is having a baby shows you
aren't serious about racing ;-).

Good luck tomorrow.

Well, Scott is young and just beginning...he will remember that a true
racing pilot will plan better in the future...delivery dates planned
before or After the racing season! grinning, because Scott and Susan
will make the region 10 North!

Up to this point you had us fooled that you were a racing pilot.
Skipping a contest just because your wife is having a baby shows you
aren't serious about racing ;-).

It is always good to take some quality time out to create some additional crew members.
It can be almost as much fun though it can be a bit more
expensive.
GA

so now im wondering how the flight went