http://www.ssa.org • August 2019 • Soaring 5after school and weekend plans that
we simply cannot break the ice to get
PARENTS involved to help us. That
is now the critical need (as well as
money) if American GEM is going to
make further progress.
We have successfully demonstrated
the Plane-on-a-Post with youth in
various locations, and this summer in-
tend to have it up and “flying” during a
Civil Air Patrol event with Soar Indi-
ana at Alexandria Airport. Addition-
ally, the CAP youth will be running it
as a demonstration at a local airport
- Indianapolis Executive KTYQ, June
22, 2019, during that airport’s pancake
breakfast, open day for youth, and
Commemorative Air Force gathering.
We did a series of “high speed” taxi
tests with the manufacturer, Kolb Air-
craft LLC in London, KY, earlier in the
year. We were well aware of the speed
required to get the little KOLB Fire-
fly with short wings (ideal for P-O-P)
up off the ground and grass skimming
(Ground Effect Machine = GEM) is
about 30 mph, and we did get some
skipping and hopping done at 30 mph.
We knew we needed a longer, under
cambered wing, perhaps with vortex
generators, to get the speed down to
a safer number like 22 mph or lower.
That wing is now finished. GEM #
is in production with the production
level steel safety cage, ground skim-
ming wheels, and tow release. Once
the new bird is finished, we will retest
to see if we have a “youth safe” aviating
machine. Simply said, we are trying to
duplicate the Lithuanian and Russian
programs with U.S.A. supportable
hardware.
Recently we became aware of a Rus-
sian proposal to the FAI to make Youth
flying in Primary Glider type airframes
an international, FAI sanctioned com-
petition. Currently the Lithuanians
hold, and have held for about 20 years,
interschool competitions. The Russian
proposal simply codifies the competi-
tion with some more definitions and
graphics. Youth – 9 to 14 years old
students – would aviate, essentially in
ground effect, while the glider is at-
tached to a ground towline loop with
a tether, thereby demonstrating ability
to control altitude and alignment with
a ground track. They would be scored
on their skills for this part, and then
go off the end of the line and land in
a targeted area, along the flight line or
at an assigned angle to that flight line.
The proposal is very extensive, and
hence not attached here.
The American GEM Youth Flight
Training Program could easily fit into
this competition, assuming it was ever
adopted by the FAI, with some minor
modifications to the competition air-
craft specifications.
We from American GEM would
be most interested in seeing the SSA
Youth program get behind our own
U.S.A. effort to complete our testing,
confirm that it would fit with SSA,
and CAP youth training efforts in a
way that might encourage SSA clubs
to set up their own P-O-Ps or even
full up American GEM-like train-
ing programs so as to encourage early
teens to think about soaring and flying
as a lifetime sport ... and sustain our
own society’s membership.Taxi test – skipping along the runway at 30 mph, no wind.