We at Lake Keepit have been concerned for some time at the potential damage to Club gliders and pilots from inappropriate paddock choice. While we agree with the comments about teaching pilots how to assess paddocks (and continue to pursue this) there's no doubt than finding an airfield or ag strip is normally a much safer option.
Over the last couple of years we have accumulated a register of airfields and ag strips, including upper air photographs and GPS coordinates. A loose-leaf book of these outlanding airfields is maintained by the Club with as much pertinent data as can be assembled - photos, runway direction(s), owner name and phone, condition of field, cautionery notes etc. Study of this file by intending cross country pilots is encouraged. The Club's turnpoint database for downloading to data loggers/GPSs incorporates the coordinates for all these known airfields, with as much descriptive info than can be fitted into GPS data fields to assist pilots make sensible choices. Within a rough semicircle of 150km radius we have a database of 90 points, of which 66 are landable airfields or ag strips. (We have adopted airfields as turnpoints, rather than silos or other features, wherever available.) Most cross country soaring within this area can now be performed without losing glide slope to a suitable strip. This will be a feature of the upcoming NSWGA State comp in November and will be another safety initiative of the Lake Keepit comp. The club is indebted to Harry Medlicott whose initiative this has been, and who has collected the lion's share of the info on these fields. This has been an important part of his drive to improve safety in gliding, which will be strongly empasised in the forthcoming State competition in Nov at Keepit. Dave Shorter email [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note no ".au" in address) 11 Lighthouse Crescent, Emerald Beach, NSW 2456, Australia Phone (02) 6656 1979 Fax (02) 6656 2983 ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 10:08 AM Subject: [aus-soaring] Field Landings Web Page. > http://www.field-landings.co.uk/ > > I think it would be a good idea is someone (the GFA?) > put up a web page like this one for Australian conditions. > > Greg O'Sullivan. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -- > * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. > * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message > * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information. > -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
