Evergreen Happenings

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There has not been too much XC flying for the last month in Arlington as the center of activity shifted to the Eastside and Ephrata (Dust-Up, ES encampment and Region 8 contest) but nonetheless a number of noteworthy events have taken place over here.

The Arlington Airport Appreciation Day was well attended with Evergreen providing an L-33 for the static display. We also have now a large glider picture in the main parking lot representing the glider activities at Arlington. The sailplane depicted seems to be a mix of the L-33 forward fuselage with LS-8 wings and winglets and a tail, that appears to be inspired by both, the Libelle and the Chinook.

There is another 1-26 on the line, a very special one. This early model - number 007, aka the "Pickle" - was once owned and extensively flown by Neil Armstrong. Bob Breidenthal, the caring owner, just flew it again after some lengthy down time and stayed up for some 41 minutes in weak conditions. Let's see more of this!

Kevin Finke organized a very informative presentation by Australian master pilot Gavin Wills (of the famous Wills family) about soaring in Omarama NZ and mountain soaring in general, including some interesting observations about the various convergence effects.

A flight test program with Brad's Tetra-15 was started in conjunction with a UW flight testing class organized by professor Breidenthal with the UW actually paying for the tows. The tests are continuing and will cover transition testing in addition to standard performance testing.

The committee for geographic names met on June 5 in Olympia to consider the proposed naming of Jordan Ridge and the renaming of Mount Washington to Bryant Hill and Blue Mountain (South) to Sultan Ridge and recommended them unanimously. The Final decision by the Board of Geographic Names is expected on July 3.

After a lengthy re-engining job the Piper Colt owned by Ron Clark, Roy Parzyk, Chuck Andersen and Brad Hill made its first aero-tow with the Tetra-15. It worked fine, even though it is not a Pawnee.

Three Evergreen members - Chris Young, Noel Wade and Steve Northcraft - are off to Montague/ Northern California to compete in the Standard Class Nationals. Best wishes to all of them!

June 27 saw finally some XC soaring activity from AWO, which included an off-field landing of CT (the newer L-33). John Gilbert got a little too low and chose to make a safe off-field landing instead of a marginal final glide.

And finally, with some thorough preparations by our flight instructors Jennifer Hunt passed her PPL glider examination by Neil Karman with flying colors - congratulations!