Yesterday I spent some quality time on the road, driving round-trip from Columbus, Ohio to Heinz Weissenbuehler’s M & H shop in Elmira NY to pick up my newly ‘Timified’ glider, about 350 miles each way.  It was a beautiful late fall day, with occasional wispy Q’s in northern Ohio, going to completely blue as I traveled east into Pennsylvania and then New York.  Even though I was driving and not flying, it was still great to be out in the open blue.

Heinz’s place is located just a mile or two from the Harris Hill gliderport and I got there around 2:30 – 3pm.  No one was home at the moment (Heinz was on his way back from picking up a new V2cx-T from Baltimore, and Karin was away), and so I took the opportunity to relax a bit and take in the spectacular view available from Heinz’s back yard.  His house is situated on the north-west slope of the Harris Hill ridge, and looks out over the ‘Big Flats’ and Elmira valleys, some 1000′ feet below.  It was cool to watch birds flapping by below me – unfortunately they were flapping and not soaring! ;-)

 

Pretty soon Karin showed up and I helped her tote groceries and with getting her/Heinz’s SPOT unit reactivated and running, and by that time Heinz showed up with the new glider in tow (literally).  It was a brand-new Ventus 2xc-T with all the trimmings (including both 15 and 18-m tips), in a brand-new Cobra fiber-glass topped trailer.  Heinz let me stick my head in the trailer to get a whiff of new-glider essence, and although I definitely drooled over the setup for a while, I’m not sure I’d trade TA for it; the 15/18 combination is wonderful, but it (and the motor) are also a bit more complex and heavier, and my glider was now, thanks to Heinz and Andy Brayer, in almost as good a condition as the new one (this is probably not really true, but don’t burst my balloon!).   While Heinz was rummaging around in the trailer, he came up with a package containing a beautiful wooden scale model of the new Schemp-Hirth ‘Quintus’ wonder-glider.  The scale model is a present for Professor Mark Maughmer of Penn State University.  The photo below shows Heinz, his beautiful wife Karin, and the also beautiful Quintus model.  Of special note in the background of this photo is Kai Gertsen’s book ‘Desperate to Fly’, published by Karin’s company BTLink Publishing and available directly from her or through Wings & Wheels or Cumulus Soaring.  All proceeds from sales of Kai’s book go directly to the U.S. Junior Soaring Team fund.

 

As I was helping Karin get her SPOT activation problems solved, I also happened to notice a pair of cool looking winglets being guarded by a vicious dog.  I had heard rumors of a new Maughmer-designed winglet for the V2, but this was the first time I had actually seen a set.  They are considerably higher and sleeker-looking than the current ones, and initial reports by John Seaborn (A8) from Uvalde were very positive.  This particular set is destined to show up on 5E, Erik Nelson’s V2ax flying out of Fairfield, Pa (M-ASA).  It’s not like Erik actually needs more help, he already kicks my tail every time I fly against him!

 

 

I had a bit of a fright as I got ready to hook up TA when I discovered the left tire was almost flat, but Heinz got out the air tank and got me back up to snuff.  I got out of there around 5:30 pm or so, and pulled into my driveway back in Ohio around midnight.  Then I got back up at 0730 and took the trailer to a local tire shop, where they were able to find and fix a nail puncture that was causing the slow leak.  Then it was off to CCSC to attend a board meeting, and to put my mistress away for the winter in her trailer barn slot.  I’ll actually take her back out again for a bit of a stroll in mid-December, as I’m giving a talk to a local aviation group, and we plan to display TA as an example of a modern racing glider.

I can’t thank M & H Soaring, Heinz Weissenbuehler and Andy Brayer enough for all the work they put in to get TA back up to ‘Tim Welles’ standards. I know they are professionals and charge a fair price for their work, but these guys seem to go way out of their way to help a relatively clueless pilot keep his glider in top form.  Heck, they even noticed that the rubber boot on my trailer tongue was torn, and replaced it too – complete with a new hitch assembly.  Now that is above and beyond the call of duty!

When TA comes out of her box next March down in Seminole and gets ready to spread her wings for the first flight of the 2013 season, I’ll be thinking of (and telling everyone who will listen) about the great job these guys did.

 

Oh, and I almost forgot; In the ‘Timification of TA, Part 1’ I mentioned something about seeing a project in Heinz’s shop that was peripherally associated with Dick Butler’s Concordia project.  As can be seen in the following two photos, that project is an overhaul/refurbishment of Dick’s previous wonder-ship the ASW-22DB, aka “Eta Biter”.  Dick apparently discovered that there wasn’t room in his hangar or time in his life for *two* wonder-ships, and so offered it up for adoption (I don’t really know the details, but that’s sort of the way Heinz explained it) to a good home where it could get some needed TLC and could be flown by a top-notch open class pilot (that would be Heinz).  I’m looking forward to seeing Heinz’s big grin as he scorches past the finish line in the Eta Biter next racing season!

 

Frank (TA)