How About Story Time

I was new to Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, hired in as Chief
Systems Engineer on a classified program.Â* Within a couple of weeks of
starting with the company I was informed that the Chairman and CEO of
Lockheed (all of Lockheed), Dr. Dan Tellep, was coming to Denver to
visit our lab and that I was to give him a tour of our facilities.

During the briefing, I noticed that he was staring intently at me,
though lower than my eyes.Â* When the meeting broke up and I was to begin
the tour, he said to me, "Nice Lennie".Â* I was taken aback.Â* I had
attached my Gold Badge with a single Diamond to a tie clip and that was
what he was looking at.Â* But that broke the ice.

We talked soaring for a while and he told me that he had a Libelle back
in California.Â* I allowed that I had an ASW-19 and he was welcome to
take it up.Â* He told me in a soft voice that "the suits" wouldn't let
him do that.Â* Too bad.Â* When I got home that evening I looked in my copy
of the SSA member handbook and was surprised to see his name, address,
and home phone number.

Who'da thunk it?

On 4/16/2020 3:44 PM, wrote:

I had met Dr. Sam when Ellen and I had flown to the Tri-cities airport in 1966 in order to visit some friends of hers. I had my SSA handbook with me which listed members by state. I looked to see who might be in the area and came across Dr. Sam's info. Although it was a Sunday, I gave him a call and introduced myself. He asked where I was and I told him the airport. His response was that he would be out to meet me within the hour. It was a bit after noon when he arrived and we visited a bit all the while discussing glider flying. He said that he had a Ka-6 and would I help him put it together. Well of course, said I.
Once assembled, he asked me if I had ever flown one to which I replied the highest performance ship I had flown up to that point was a 1-26. Sam offered me his Ka-6 to fly. I was somewhat taken aback and asked him if he was sure he willing to let me to fly his bird. He was indeed, so after a cockpit check and a brief drill on local flying, he said he would tow me aloft and that I was to stay up as long and conditions and my posterior would permit which I did. Dr. Sam Huddleston was generous to a fault and is a classic example of the kind of individuals who are attracted to the sport of soaring.
Getting back to Strawberry Hill and the Phoebus, after rigging it, Dr. Sam asked if I would like to fly yet another of his sailplanes. Well dear reader, you know how that question was answered.
Dr. Sam proceeded with the cockpit check out. Among the things mentioned was that the tow release was attached to the landing gear. I was so enamored with all the fancy instruments (no COSIM vario to be found) that I hardly noticed the whistling noise as a great deal of what the good doctor was telling me was going in one ear and out the other.
Off I went. The Phoebus seemed to have no bad habits. As I towed through two thousand feet I decided to retract the landing gear which seemed to be a bit stiff. After gear up...time to release. I pulled the knob which dribbled out of the console about three inches and dangled there. I was still on tow. Well this is embarrassing, so I tugged on the release, all to no avail. As I pondered the problem, the light slowly illuminated. I was glad to know that I was alone in the cockpit with no one there to see my blush of embarrassment. I lowered the gear and the release cable with attached knob retracted its self into the instrument panel and so when I reached three thousand feet and pulled the release device, it worked. Nice going dumy!

--
Dan, 5J

In the late ‘80’s I was lIving in Southern California doing stability and control design/test on the Lockheed YF-22, prototype for the F-22. And in my spare time soaring the Sierras out of the usual places. I had to take a months-long hiatus from soaring during flight testing, so I wasn’t at the glider port for this one, but one Monday night late 1990 I got a phone call from a Libelle-flying friend, “I met someone you might know this past weekend at Tehachapi...�. My friend told me this nice friendly guy showed up, hung around all morning helping people rig, pushing gliders, running wings etc. When this guy helped my friend rig his Libelle, he said “I have one of these, haven’t flown it for years, too busy. I am looking forward to retirement in a few years, then I should have time to get back into it.� Normal situation, normal guy. My friend said that that this guy mentioned he worked at Lockheed. Maybe I might know him? “His name was Dan, last name begins with a T, maybe Tulip? Heard of him?� Haha, Dan Tellep, then CEO of Lockheed. Nobody at the glider port there had a clue, apparently.

Lockheed California Company and the Skunk Works has had a number of really good soaring pilots among its ranks, most famous of course being Henry Combs, whose soaring achievements were well known and highly respected among many of my fellow Lockheed engineers, pilots and non-pilots alike. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Combs

Cheers,
Jim J6



On Thursday, 16 April 2020 19:06:35 UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
I was new to Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, hired in as Chief
Systems Engineer on a classified program.Â* Within a couple of weeks of
starting with the company I was informed that the Chairman and CEO of
Lockheed (all of Lockheed), Dr. Dan Tellep, was coming to Denver to
visit our lab and that I was to give him a tour of our facilities.

During the briefing, I noticed that he was staring intently at me,
though lower than my eyes.Â* When the meeting broke up and I was to begin
the tour, he said to me, "Nice Lennie".Â* I was taken aback.Â* I had
attached my Gold Badge with a single Diamond to a tie clip and that was
what he was looking at.Â* But that broke the ice.

We talked soaring for a while and he told me that he had a Libelle back
in California.Â* I allowed that I had an ASW-19 and he was welcome to
take it up.Â* He told me in a soft voice that "the suits" wouldn't let
him do that.Â* Too bad.Â* When I got home that evening I looked in my copy
of the SSA member handbook and was surprised to see his name, address,
and home phone number.

Who'da thunk it?

Thanks for that, Jim.Â* I thought he was a really nice guy and you've
confirmed it.

On 4/17/2020 9:16 AM, Airport Bum wrote:
In the late ‘80’s I was lIving in Southern California doing stability and control design/test on the Lockheed YF-22, prototype for the F-22. And in my spare time soaring the Sierras out of the usual places. I had to take a months-long hiatus from soaring during flight testing, so I wasn’t at the glider port for this one, but one Monday night late 1990 I got a phone call from a Libelle-flying friend, “I met someone you might know this past weekend at Tehachapi...�. My friend told me this nice friendly guy showed up, hung around all morning helping people rig, pushing gliders, running wings etc. When this guy helped my friend rig his Libelle, he said “I have one of these, haven’t flown it for years, too busy. I am looking forward to retirement in a few years, then I should have time to get back into it.� Normal situation, normal guy. My friend said that that this guy mentioned he worked at Lockheed. Maybe I might know him? “His name was Dan, last name begins with a T, maybe Tulip? Heard of him?� Haha, Dan Tellep, then CEO of Lockheed. Nobody at the glider port there had a clue, apparently.

Lockheed California Company and the Skunk Works has had a number of really good soaring pilots among its ranks, most famous of course being Henry Combs, whose soaring achievements were well known and highly respected among many of my fellow Lockheed engineers, pilots and non-pilots alike. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Combs

Cheers,
Jim J6



On Thursday, 16 April 2020 19:06:35 UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
I was new to Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, hired in as Chief
Systems Engineer on a classified program.Â* Within a couple of weeks of
starting with the company I was informed that the Chairman and CEO of
Lockheed (all of Lockheed), Dr. Dan Tellep, was coming to Denver to
visit our lab and that I was to give him a tour of our facilities.

During the briefing, I noticed that he was staring intently at me,
though lower than my eyes.Â* When the meeting broke up and I was to begin
the tour, he said to me, "Nice Lennie".Â* I was taken aback.Â* I had
attached my Gold Badge with a single Diamond to a tie clip and that was
what he was looking at.Â* But that broke the ice.

We talked soaring for a while and he told me that he had a Libelle back
in California.Â* I allowed that I had an ASW-19 and he was welcome to
take it up.Â* He told me in a soft voice that "the suits" wouldn't let
him do that.Â* Too bad.Â* When I got home that evening I looked in my copy
of the SSA member handbook and was surprised to see his name, address,
and home phone number.

Who'da thunk it?


--
Dan, 5J

GETTING HIGH IN PAROWAN UTAH
I had been to a couple of the Marfa spring wave camps sponsored by Dick Johnson in the early 2000's so I knew what a Shear Wave was/is. Got to 23k+ in my 1958 Ka6CR. Great fun, some good story's from those meets.

Fast forward to a few years later in a early Region 9 contest in Parowan Ut..
Flying my aSW 20 XS.
Due to a 1st day navigation error I was about last on the score sheet.
We take off on this kinda windy blue day, Top of the start is around 10k.
Well I climb up super high for no real reason, waiting for the start gate to open. I'm up over 17k in the blue, when my thermal peters out and I bump into what I recognize from Marfa is a shear wave. I want to exploit this thing so I think real quick and turn off my logger, and slowly s-turn my way up to over 22k and drift way back to the NE. Then someone comes over the radio and says " Hey isn't that a glider super high about 15 miles NE? Jeez I was spotted. I pulled my hat low over my eyes.
The start gate was going to open in about 15 minutes so I lowered my gear and flaps and opened the dive brakes and descended down to 10k to get a start.

A couple of questions:

Was the wave aligned so that you could use it to make great speed on course?
Would it have taken too long to climb back up to 17,500' after the start
to make it useful?

Great story by the way!

On 4/18/2020 5:12 PM, Nick Kennedy wrote:
GETTING HIGH IN PAROWAN UTAH
I had been to a couple of the Marfa spring wave camps sponsored by Dick Johnson in the early 2000's so I knew what a Shear Wave was/is. Got to 23k+ in my 1958 Ka6CR. Great fun, some good story's from those meets.

Fast forward to a few years later in a early Region 9 contest in Parowan Ut.
Flying my aSW 20 XS.
Due to a 1st day navigation error I was about last on the score sheet.
We take off on this kinda windy blue day, Top of the start is around 10k.
Well I climb up super high for no real reason, waiting for the start gate to open. I'm up over 17k in the blue, when my thermal peters out and I bump into what I recognize from Marfa is a shear wave. I want to exploit this thing so I think real quick and turn off my logger, and slowly s-turn my way up to over 22k and drift way back to the NE. Then someone comes over the radio and says " Hey isn't that a glider super high about 15 miles NE? Jeez I was spotted. I pulled my hat low over my eyes.
The start gate was going to open in about 15 minutes so I lowered my gear and flaps and opened the dive brakes and descended down to 10k to get a start.
After that, the rest of the day I felt so low.
I like getting up over 20k, the air is so nice and crisp up there.
Nick
T

--
Dan, 5J

Sorry this is so long. Many years ago I owned an open Jantar and loved it.. It had a tube plumbed thru the hull under the seat for your ****ing convenience. I hooked it up and used it for a season, but then read in Soaring that with this type of arrangement, the pee would stick to the hull, and run back into the gear well and corrode stuff. I did a thorough inspection of my gear, and sure enough, it has started to corrode. I removed it, bead blasted it, powder coated it, and put it back in. The article also said that if you attach the **** tube to the gear door it would get the offending fluid away from the glider and it would solve the problem. In addition it said to put a T in the line so that you could blow out the pee so that it wouldn't freeze in the wave flights. I installed the new system with the T and tested it out on the ground with the glider in the cradle, and it worked great. Time for the test flight. Of course I waited until I REALLY had to pee. I lowered the gear and let'er rip. Instead of the pee going out the exit tube, it came blasting out the blow tube, gushing all over me! And as you all know, it's really hard to stop peeing once you get going, so I pinched the tube, and while I was trying to stop, the catheter condom blew up like a water balloon! I stuck the blow tube out the vent window, spraying pee all down the side of the fuselage. I was puzzled as to why it worked in the test, but not now. I figured that there was some kind of temporary plug, and that maybe I could blow it clear. I wiped the tube off and blew hard on into it, which just blew the condom up like a balloon again. Frustrated, and not thinking, I pulled the tube out of my mouth, and the pressure blasted the remaining pee all over me, and right into my mouth! My initial reaction was disgust, but my second one was gee, that isn't actually that bad... Back in the barn I found that when I sat in the seat, it crushed the tube running back to the gear. I eventually switched to a 2 liter bag which is much easier because I don't have to put the gear down and can pee in crowded thermals without getting it on my competitors.

Boggs

Sorry, I think I forgot to mention in my write up a many years ago that I put a spacer between the seat pan and the belly to prevent squeezing the tube.

But I have had the water balloon experience--when I used the tube in sub-freezing conditions and it froze. Fortunately, the blockage melted because I was running out of control. That's when I added the blowout tube--with a plug on the end. A little valve would be better but I was worried I'd get it confused with my drinking water tube. If what you're saying is true (I'll take your word for it), no big deal.

Chip Bearden
JB

Chip and Gary, obviously you need to upgrade to a Mark VIII:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJJb_ufo8A
PS: UH didn't believe it until I showed him...

On Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 8:59:57 PM UTC-4, Waveguru wrote:
Sorry this is so long. Many years ago I owned an open Jantar and loved it. It had a tube plumbed thru the hull under the seat for your ****ing convenience. I hooked it up and used it for a season, but then read in Soaring that with this type of arrangement, the pee would stick to the hull, and run back into the gear well and corrode stuff. I did a thorough inspection of my gear, and sure enough, it has started to corrode. I removed it, bead blasted it, powder coated it, and put it back in. The article also said that if you attach the **** tube to the gear door it would get the offending fluid away from the glider and it would solve the problem. In addition it said to put a T in the line so that you could blow out the pee so that it wouldn't freeze in the wave flights. I installed the new system with the T and tested it out on the ground with the glider in the cradle, and it worked great. Time for the test flight. Of course I waited until I REALLY had to pee. I lowered the gear and let'er rip. Instead of the pee going out the exit tube, it came blasting out the blow tube, gushing all over me! And as you all know, it's really hard to stop peeing once you get going, so I pinched the tube, and while I was trying to stop, the catheter condom blew up like a water balloon! I stuck the blow tube out the vent window, spraying pee all down the side of the fuselage. I was puzzled as to why it worked in the test, but not now. I figured that there was some kind of temporary plug, and that maybe I could blow it clear. I wiped the tube off and blew hard on into it, which just blew the condom up like a balloon again. Frustrated, and not thinking, I pulled the tube out of my mouth, and the pressure blasted the remaining pee all over me, and right into my mouth! My initial reaction was disgust, but my second one was gee, that isn't actually that bad... Back in the barn I found that when I sat in the seat, it crushed the tube running back to the gear. I eventually switched to a 2 liter bag which is much easier because I don't have to put the gear down and can pee in crowded thermals without getting it on my competitors.

Boggs

Where do you put the 2-litre bag--behind your seat?

Curious for myself.
Ian IN

most of the guys who use the bag, lay it beside there leg or strap it to there calf.