[Scan-DC] Glider frequencies -- 123.3 MHz (main) & 123.5 MHz(backup)

[Andrew Clegg]

Dave, Ralph,

Thanks for the good info. My wife went gliding once (as a passenger) up in 
Corning NY, and she said it made her very airsick. By its nature, you have 
to do a lot of ups and downs and steep turns to ride the thermals, and 
there's no airflow in the cabin, so it's a good recipe for air sickness!

I wonder if any of the chatter I'm hearing on 123.3 is from Liberty or one 
of the other glider locals? They don't say too much, typically it's comments 
like I heard this afternoon: "You look like you're having fun!" Yesterday I 
heard one pilot say something like "Joe, is that you over there?"

Regards,
Andy



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Schoenberger" <davidschoenberger at gmail.com>
To: "Scan-DC" <Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 7:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Glider frequencies -- 123.3 MHz (main) & 123.5 
MHz(backup)


> Andy,
> Thanks for the interesting post about gliders.  On a somewhat related 
> note,
> one can listen for the skydivers operating out of Orange County Airport on
> 122.8000 (the plane may be monitorable even up in Northern Virginia). 
> They
> are fairly active on weekends.  122.8000 is also the CTAF/Unicom for 
> Shannon
> Airport in Fredericksburg.
>
> Dave
>
> On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 4:23 PM, Andrew Clegg <w4jecom at w4je.com> wrote:
>
>> A friend and I stopped by Front Royal airport (FRR) on Saturday. It's a
>> very
>> small airport staffed by some very friendly aviation enthusiasts. FRR 
>> sees
>> a
>> lot of glider activity, since they are at the foot of the Shenandoah
>> mountains. A prop plane is used to tow the gliders up in the air ($32 per
>> tow), then they detach from the tether, and the gliders stay aloft on
>> thermal currents. They can be up as long as 3.5 hours, although an hour 
>> is
>> apparently more typical. It depends on the currents. The gliders stay 
>> below
>> 8000 ft and they are outside of the controlled Dulles air space.
>>
>> Anyway, one of the glider pilots gave us a close look at his glider, and 
>> we
>> talked to him quite a bit about the radios. In his, he runs a standard 
>> VHF
>> radio tuned to the FRR unicom frequency, but when he's up in the air, 
>> there
>> are also two national "glider-to-glider" frequencies that he uses. So of
>> course I scanned those frqeuencies all weekend, and caught some "glider
>> chatter" from about 20 miles away from the airport. Anyway, I wasn't 
>> aware
>> that there were standard glider frequencies, and thought others might be
>> interested in listening in. I am back in Arlington now and I can hear 
>> some
>> activity, although they are quite weak, even with my antenna at 200 ft. I
>> suspect most or all of the activity is only on warm, sunny weekends.
>> According to the glider pilot, the best time of day for gliding is mid
>> afternoon on a sunny day, when the heat currents are at their greatest.
>>
>> If you ever get a chance, stop by FRR on a sunny summer afternoon. It
>> appears that they are launching gliders just about every sunny weekend 
>> day.
>> We saw two launches in the space of an hour. It's a nice place to bring
>> sandwhiches and a drink. They have chairs outside in back of the terminal
>> where you can sit and watch the activity from just a few tens of feet 
>> away.
>> They also have an airshow coming up on Sep 12th. Unfortunately I'll be on
>> travel then.
>>
>> Cheers!
>> Andy
>>
>> FRR unicom: 123.0 MHz
>> National glider-to-glider frequency (main): 123.3 MHz
>> National glider-to-glider frequency (backup): 123.5 MHz
>> FRR info: http://www.airnav.com/airport/KFRR
>>
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