Alby's Voyage: July 2009

latest news

11/10/2017 - Sarah Arnold and Karl Striedieck fly the ridge, take one thermal to climb to just under cloud base and fly straight with no turns to Harris Hill, NY. Pins no. 32 and 33. Trafford Doherty, Director of the National Soaring Museum takes Alby in his care. Alby has now completed his Voyage.

8/5/2017 – Shane Neitzey took Alby from Front Royal to Eagle Field with a spectacular ridge flight – plus some thermals. See the flight on the OLC. With his flight Shane gained Pin No. 31.

Alby is now in the capable hands of Karl Striedieck who will make the final leg to Elmira, NY venue of the National Soaring Museum. This last leg is tricky but Karl is confident he can make it, with the best period for the attempt in October.

8/4/2017 – Dave Reilly flew Alby from Culpeper to Front Royal, completing his leg and earning Pin No.30.

7/16/2017 – Alby is at Culpeper airport, taken there by Dave Reilly who made it almost to Front Royal, but was 20 miles short when he decided to go back a little and land safely at Culpeper. He wants to try again soon.

6/3/2017 – Mamad Takallu flies his ASW-27 from Garner to Merlin, earning Pin no. 29 with a powerful straightforward flight.

7/17/2016 – Eric Lambert after almost one year abandons dreams of making a pure glider flights, starts the engine and motor all the way from Currituck to near Garner.

9/17/2015 - Eric Lambert flies Alby from First Flight to Currituck using the engine of his motorized Grob.

9/14/2015 - Alby arrives at First Flight, Kitty Hawk, NC!

Heartfelt congratulations to Alby pilot Eric Lambert, who found reliable lift on a blue day to get Alby safely to Kitty Hawk, for a well-deserved rest. Eric's notes on the flight are found in more detail below.

Briefly, he said, "I will return to First Flight in the morning and plan to meet with Karen Warlitner, the Executive Director of the First Flight Foundation, for a photo-op. We would like to have a photo of Alby next to the Wright Flyer. On Thursday and through the weekend, we hope to take advantage of this spell of good weather to fly Alby north."

8/31/2015 - Alby flew Sunday from Chesapeake, VA to Currituck , NC with Albypilot Eric Lambert in his motorized Grob 103.

Eric said that he found clouds to 5,000’ and lift up to 4 knots. He got low (1,700’) at the Academia facility (U.S. Training Center) but got back up to 4,000’ and then to Currituck. He said it was not difficult – sure I believe it, when the conditions are good! The flight of 25 miles required only two thermals, but it was one of the very few days that there were clouds and workable lift and no adverse winds. Clouds and lift disappeared soon after the landing.

Eric wants to spend four days of the long Labor Day weekend trying to fly with Alby the 33 miles from Currituck to First Flight Airport, a place that is so historically important for all aviators. Not an easy thing to do since near the coast the weather is not favorable to soaring in general, and in this case in particular the glider has to fly for several miles directly above water.

Alby flights No. 23 and 24 and pin No. 13- Dean Forney 7/19/09 and 7/21/09

Alby's Log, Leg #13: Littlefield to Decatur (leg one)

I met Steve and Reba Altman at the North Texas Soaring hanger in Decatur after I got off work Saturday. After looking at a couple of driving routes to Littlefield, Steve suggested we drive the one that was closest to the planned flight route so that we could study the terrain and check out possible land-out sites. We hitched up the Libelle trailer to Steve's truck and headed west at around 3 PM. We saw some vast areas of beautiful and colorful country. We saw some vast areas of ugly land-out possibilities. When we arrived in Littlefield, we drove out west of town to find the airport then checked in to the newest and nicest Best Western Motel in town. The lady at the desk gave us directions to a great authentic Mexican restaurant where we enjoyed a great meal. The forecast for Saturday was for a 40% chance of thunderstorms. As we left the restaurant we were treated to a spectacular display of lightning and could see the glow created by a large field fire caused by lightning strikes. I think all of the 40% thunderstorms hit Littlefield overnight; the other 60% went somewhere else.

The plan was to get an early start, utilize the legendary west Texas thermals to climb somewhere up in the teens and then cruise east 280 miles and land back home at North Texas Soaring in Decatur.

Take-off from Littlefield 12:35 July 19

I got off the ground a little later than planned, but as it turned out; it didn't much matter because the legendary west Texas thermals were late starting. I got off tow at 3000 AGL west of the airport and in dead air. I could see that most of the flat fields surrounding the airport were pretty wet. I found the first thermal just east of the airport, and it was not legendary. Due to the wind being around 20 knots out of the south, it leaned way to the north and was scrappy and fell apart just before getting back up to tow release altitude. I decided that the best bet would be over town where there was some dry asphalt and dry roofs to maybe generate a legendary thermal or two. There was a huge black field south of town, the one that burned up the night before. It consistently kicked off thermals but they were still the non-legendary kind that leaned over and fell apart at 28-2900 AGL. For almost two hours I kept grinding my way across Littlefield, circling and drifting north, gliding back south to start over again. I bet the folks that live there are still talking about it.

My plan at this point was to just keep sampling the thermals, wait it out until one of them became legendary, then head east. Finally I was getting a little higher, maybe 35-4000 AGL and then Steve called me and said he and Reba were about 10 miles out of town and were waiting to see what happened. They said I answered by saying something like "ummm, wellll ok, guess I will head out too". So I headed pretty much due east for my first checkpoint which was the town of Abernathy. Tom Pressley and the guys at Caprock Soaring had told me that if I stayed north of Abernathy I would be safely out of Lubbock's class C airspace. It actually wasn't that bad. The thermals were regularly spaced and gradually were getting a little higher, but still costing me in a lot of drift across course while climbing.

After clearing Lubbock the plan now was to just keep pushing east, correcting for the relentless wind drift and staying as close to course as possible. Slowly the checkpoints of Cone and then Crosbyton slipped past my wings. There were some medium high cloudstreets every now and then, but they all ran north-south and were spaced about 20 miles apart, and they gave up altogether as I approached the edge of the Caprock, where the elevation of the terrain drops off fairly quickly from 3500 MSL to 1500 then 1000. This is also where the badlands start and where there is 40 mile stretches of unlandable stuff. Just before leaving the high country, I finally found a couple of almost legendary west Texas thermals, showing 8 knots to my highest for the day of just a tad over 9000 ft.

For the most part, I was staying high enough where I could see landable fields scattered around the badlands within reachable distance. By that I mean that with the use of a thermal or two I could reach them, and failing that, I could leave course and head over to the highway where Steve and Reba were going east, and land there.

The only bad period I had was caused by a tactical error. After heading out off the Caprock with a comfortable amount of altitude but over the longest stretch of bad terrain for the day, I could see a very large blue area which no doubt contained a lot of sink and not much lift. North of the highway about 20 miles or so is a string of huge wind turbines and I could see several areas of flat farm fields scattered around them. There was also a few cumulous clouds there so I decided to veer off course and go around the blue hole. You know what happened next. The closer I got to the clouds the more ragged they became until they completely dissipated. Now all I found was sink and lots of it. The blue hole was pushed north closer to the wind farm and some better looking stuff had drifted in behind it. I turned back to the south to get out of the sink and surveyed the situation. I was within gliding distance of the highway about 15 miles away but didn't have enough altitude to get to the east side of the badlands. I headed a bit to the east but mostly back to the highway. About three miles north of the highway and 2500 AGL I found a fair thermal and climbed back up high enough to continue east to some landable ranchland. If I had just continued on course but aimed into the wind, I would have been able to skirt the south edge of the poor stuff and saved a lot of time and gained some extra miles as well.

Next checkpoint is the famous 6666 ranch. Pioneer oilman Amon Carter won the ranch in a poker game with a hand of 4 6's. It covers almost all of a very large Texas county and is still owned and run by his heirs. It is out in the middle of nowhere, folks. There is a world class paved and lighted runway adjacent to the highway on which family and friends come in their biz-jets. The ranch complex looks like a well maintained small town. I am told that they frown upon people landing there without a really good reason to. It looked like mine might be the classic glider pilots' reason: the wind quit, or least that was what I was going to have to make the ranch hands believe was my excuse.

Steve and Reba were parked in the shade of a few Mesquite trees at a rest area a couple of miles west. I could plainly see them sitting there. I was finding a thermal every now and then, and while I wasn't getting very high I was encouraged to keep pushing east. By this time the day was waning, and I was finding lift was topping out around 4500 or so, but it was still there so I kept on marching along. The next checkpoint was Munday and as I was getting closer to it, I could definitely feel that the day was almost done. There is a nice airstrip at Munday, but to go there I would need to deviate south of course by about 5 miles. On the other hand, the airport at Seymour requires that I go north of course about 5 miles but puts me further east and that much closer to the goal at Decatur. I could actually see what I guessed were water towers and grain elevators way off to the east, and thought that must be Seymour. I am 22.8 miles away and not high enough to make it. Just then I ran into the last thermal on earth for this date, and thankfully cranked around into it. It was a nice ol' thermal and by hanging onto it and milking it, I managed to get just a bit over 5000 ft and earned a nice final glide.

I arrived at Seymour with 700 AGL and entered a right hand pattern and landed to the south. Steve and Reba showed up about 20 minutes later (they had gone to Munday earlier). We had planned on leaving the Libelle tied down overnight, but after remembering what it was like at Littlefield the night before, and also seeing a big black wall off to the North West, I decided to de-rig and put the Libelle back in the trailer. We parked the trailer between two hangers and hit the road for Decatur. I was proud of my old ship for doing such a good job on such a challenging day, proud to get Alby moved on 180 miles closer to the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk, and extremely proud of and thankful for Steve and Reba's support. I would not have been able to make this flight without them. It is such a great relief and boosts your comfort level tremendously when you have a crew supporting you from ground level, and especially when you get the expertise and advice of a super CFIG like Steve Altman thrown into the bargain.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

View Flight on OLC

Alby's Log: Leg #13, Littlefield to Decatur (leg two)

At my home in Gainesville I woke up to the sounds of thunder and heavy rain. This was the next morning after landing at Seymour, and I had planned on finishing Alby's Voyage to Decatur today.

Late night phone calls from Steve Altman and me to Francis Berryhill and Jim Vickery, the ramrods of our club, North Texas Soaring, had placed the next phase of this adventure in motion. Steve and Reba would not be available to continue crewing because of work schedules, so it was arranged for Glenn and Elizabeth Maynard to take over. Towpilot John Thomas quickly rearranged his work schedule at Lockheed so he would be available after noon.I got a phone call from Glenn in Denton where it was also pouring rain, and he asked me if I was optimistic about the chances of making the flight. I had just checked Dr. Jack's Blipmaps and my interpretation was that the flight could be done if the rain quit early enough. The weather forecast was for the same thing for the next three days, chances of thundershowers in the AM and clearing in the PM, with 15 to 20 knot winds out of the north. I told Glenn that we should go for it, so he and Liz met me at the North Texas Soaring hanger in Decatur at 10:30 AM. It was still raining, and radar showed solid thunderstorms all the way to the Red River north of Wichita Falls. Glenn suggested we adjourn to Starbucks for further consultation, so we did. I called John at work and advised him that we were on hold for now. Finally the stuff began to dissipate and move off to the south, with clearing coming in behind it, but by now it was 12:30 and I could see there was quite a bit of high cirrus coming along behind the thunder cells. So the game was called and rescheduled for Tuesday. We all went home.
The next morning the same thing happened, woke up to the sounds of Thor slinging his hammer around the skies and rain pouring down at my house. Weather radar looked about the same as yesterday, except it looked like it might move out earlier this time. Dr Jack's Blipmaps didn't look as good because of expected winds tearing the thermals apart. Still, it looked possible, so I had my breakfast, kissed Sharon and granddaughter Sydney goodbye, and headed for Decatur. I got there early enough to get our good old Agwagon ready for John. Put a tow rope in, charts and jumper cables just in case and she was good to go. Glenn and Liz showed up shortly after that, and after a final phone call to John in Ft. Worth telling him it was a go, we were off to Seymour. I must say that as far as crews go, Glenn and Liz showed every bit as much hospitality as Steve and Reba had. They continually offered me goodies like Starbucks high octane brew and deep fried stuffed Jalapeño peppers. As we drove on through Bridgeport, Jacksboro, Olney and into Seymour we constantly were looking for and grading potential land-out fields along the way. I was encouraged to see small cu's developing but wished they would get up higher. They appeared to be 2000 to 2500 at this time.We had just arrived at the airport in Seymour and hooked the trailer up when we heard the Agwagon coming and saw John enter the pattern. He landed just in time to help rig the Libelle and it didn't take much time at all before we were all set to go. The wind was blowing straight down the runway out of the north and the windsock was standing straight out.

The plan now was to take a tow, release west side of the airport and see if the thermals were holding together in the stiff wind. The plan was to use the plentiful cu's for markers along the route, staying as high as possible below cloud base which was at this time, less than our planned 3000 ft tow.

The first thermal I got into off tow was a good one, held together OK, but Oh My Word! You talk about wind drift. The airport is about 4 miles north of town and as I circled in the lift I crossed the town north to south in a matter of minutes. Now it was time to get to work and get moving along course. Because I couldn't get high, I flew from cloud to cloud in a zigzag fashion. I would fly at about a 45 degree angle between course and wind direction, aiming at the next best looking cloud upwind. Almost every cloud I came to was working so I would take as many turns as I wanted in the good stuff, and just dolphin through the mediocre ones. While circling, the wind would shove me south and then I would head out northeast and repeat the process. I could see that this was not going to be a record breaking pace as the lightning bolt shaped course was netting me just about half of the groundspeed I would have achieved with no wind.
Even so, it was so easy that I imagine a Caveman could do it. Cruise at about 60 - 65 knots, climb under any cloud you want, push it a little faster through the occasional sink between and next to clouds, don't get too low, repeat process. I caught sight of Glenn and Liz twice along the way. They had no trouble keeping up with my pace, even though Glenn had to stop at every Dairy Queen he came to and get some more of those Jalapeno Poppers.It even got easier for a while because cloud base had crept up a bit during the strongest part of the afternoon, and the wind speed had eased off a bit as I got further east and south. Along with that, however was the fact that overall conditions were softening. As the sun moved lower toward the horizon, the wet ground and milder temperatures became more of a factor. After the flight, Liz told me from the ground it appeared as if the Munching Critters from a PacMan game were gobbling up the clouds after I used them, and they were gaining on me.They finally caught up with me about the time I came to the Bridgeport airport and began to eat up the clouds ahead of me as well. It was about this time that Alby and I began to have chats. He would say "Dean?" "Yes, Alby" I replied. "Are we getting in trouble here? It seems that we are just going around in circles and not gaining any altitude" "I agree. The day is dying so fast that I'm beginning to wonder if we may have to land." "Dean?" "Yes, Alby" "How much more do we need?" "Alby, if I could just find one more thermal, we could make it." "Dean, there are three of my Turkey Buzzard cousins, climbing rapidly, over there about 3 miles south of us. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we went over there and used some of it." "Good idea, Alby. Let's go for it!"

Alby is one smart bird! Even though his cousins did mind (they ran away as soon as the big bad Libelle started circling with them) there was a brief period where one of the Buzzards was circling off our wingtip about 100 feet and watching every move we made. It was great, got us back up to about 3700 agl and was good for a pretty fast dash home the last 15 miles.

Once again, Kudos and more for the crew(s). Thank you all so very very much for making this truly wonderful adventure possible. Jim, Francis, John, Elizabeth, Glenn, Steve, Reba, and the guys at Caprock Soaring.

Thank You All. Dean Forney
View Flight on OLC

Alby's Story

Alby is a Laysan Albatross. He was born and raised in the Midway Islands, not far from the very same Laysan Island that gives names to all the individuals of his species. His parents fed him for six months. They alternated trips of one or two weeks, during which one of them was feeding and the other was protecting Alby and the nest. The long intervals were necessary because often the food was very far away, up to 400 or 600 miles away. They fed him until he became as big as them, and then suddenly deserted him. They did that because they instinctively knew that he was developed enough to take care of himself from then on. And they could not spend all their energies in raising a chick. Although they can live 40 to 60 years, they can only raise a chick every couple of years.

The young albatross did not know all the tricks of life at sea, and the first year he had difficulties at times. One half of the fledglings do not make it through the first season, but Alby did, and everything was much easier after that. He went out on the open ocean and did not come back for years, not touching land at all, living off the bounty of the ocean, sleeping on it, learning to travel using the wind forcing the air up against the moving ridges formed by the waves.

Alby came back to his native island when he was three years old, because his biological clock was giving him the urge to look for a mate. His tentative dances with prospective mates were as clumsy as those of the other young albatrosses around him. Naturally nothing happened, but he experienced and practiced the ways of the elders.

He is 4 years old now. He has wandered the ocean all this time. He has gone through the vast expanses of water finding food, freedom, and safety. He has gone to the north Pacific and flown around the Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska and the fiords of British Columbia. Next year he will try again to go back to his birthplace to search for a mate, and probably will find one.

Albatrosses are at home in the open ocean, keeping at least 30 miles offshore. But Alby is different. He is curious about the land, just as curious as a young soul can be. In his voyages near the northern seashores he watched eagles fishing for salmons. That was not his preferred food, but he looked with interest at this different method of fishing. He communicated with the eagles, answering their whistles with his screeches.

He is fascinated by the land, but unable to penetrate it - he is used to mastering the wind over the waves, and the different way of flying inland is unfamiliar to him. He asked Eagle about the extent of the land, and Eagle said that there is land up to the summit of those far away mountains to the east, and more.

One day he met Pelican, and while they were floating and chatting over the gentle waves of a mild afternoon he learned that Pelican had actually been inland while flying with his flock. He had flown across the fertile valley of California, and over the magnificent mountains of the Sierra Nevada and farther more to the northeast. Alby learned that inside the land, beyond those far away mountains, there is a great lake, and peaks with snow, and forests and valleys, and towns and people.

Pelican described the beauty of the land, which is called America, according to what he heard when people talked about it. Being a sociable character, when he was inside the land Pelican also had contacted other big birds and knew a good deal about what lay farther inside that large country.

Pelican learned from the other birds that there are large deserts and arid mountains in the interior highlands. There are very few people in those deserts, few roads, few machines. Nature is mostly untouched by man there, with many animals running free. The air is not disturbed by artificial smells and mechanical noises. It takes many days of overflying this natural environment before reaching the majestic mountains of the Continental Divide. Here the land is green again with large forests. Snow may remain up to late summer, the rocks are harsh and austere.

From there one can overfly the vast farmlands that gradually decrease in elevation until they make room for the mighty rivers that cut the America land in two. Pelican had also contacted seagulls that told him about more land to cross going east, with plenty of houses and towns and people. There are cities sporting very high buildings that tower up toward the sky. There are rivers and lakes where an aquatic bird can feed. He heard tales from vultures and hawks that there is another long range of lower mountains and beyond that, couple of days away as the crow flies, there is ocean again.

Alby would like to go inland, see the beauty of the country, but he is not fit to go there. He does not know how to master the thermals the way eagles, pelicans and other birds with big wings travel there. He is made for the ocean.

Still he would like to go and try to cross this enormous island that he cannot cross, and get to the sea on the other side.

One day he flies along the shore, and sees some very big wings flying along the cliffs of the big town called San Francisco, as he understands people call this place.

Approaching those big wings, he realizes that there are people hanging on them. He discovers then that people cannot fly on their own, but have created artificial wings that support them. He knows what they are doing; he knows how to fly along the cliffs. He knows that, ‘cause such was the very kind of flight he took when he left his nest for the first time.

Soon those cliffs become a favorite place for Alby. He flies there often and so close to the flying people that learns many of the words they speak. He listens and learns that there are even bigger and faster flying machines with long wings for the people that like to fly like birds, which are called gliders or sailplanes. And there are flying crafts with propelling engines, capable of transporting many people at high speed. He understands now what are those enormously high flying machines that cross the ocean, so high that he barely can hear their sound through the whistle of the wind.

The flying people are impressed by the unusual behavior of this albatross, which so often flies with them instead of flying far away in the ocean like others members of the same species. They imagine that Alby wants to travel ashore, but does not trust doing it by himself.

The soaring people offer to take Alby inland, and to show him the beauty of the countryside. They offer to take him aboard their flying machines and let him cross this big island in silent winged crafts, no noises, no vibrations, no offending gas smells.

Alby accepts the invitation. He wants to see the mountains, the valleys, the lakes, the deserts and the forests, and the towns and the towers, and the roads and the bridges and the rivers of this beautiful land called America. He realizes that it is not possible for him to travel here alone, without the help of the flying people.

So the soaring people take Alby in their silent aircrafts across that vast territory. They understand. Because they themselves share the curiosity, the need for adventure, the thirst for knowledge of that young spirit. They share the independence that flying gives, the endless autonomous decisions that need to be taken in this constantly moving environment. They know the far-reaching view that this privileged position allows. But most of all, they share the elation of infinite freedom by being immersed in the sky, floating, suspended in the brilliance of this transparent ocean. Those are the reasons why they aimed for the skies, and now they cannot live any more without the magic of flight.

They take Alby with them, in the togetherness that unites all aviators. Alby’s great voyage has just begun.

Rules

ORGANIZATION OF THE VOYAGE

This website is recording the flights of Alby, his whereabouts and his flight log. The webmaster of the site is the Albymaster. All news and inquiries about Alby will be handled by this site.

Alby wishes to soar across America. He wishes to see it all, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, and then resume his wandering life across the seas.

Alby flies only in aircraft that use the energy contained in the atmosphere as a means for traveling. Motorgliders can use their engine only for taking off.

A proposal to fly with Alby shall be sent to the Albymaster. A proposal shall include a pre-declaration of the proposed flight.

Preference will be given, in order, to the site that is closer to Alby’s current location, to the first proponent in order of time, to soaring clubs or associations, to groups of pilots, or to an individual pilot. This means, for example, that an individual pilot has to wait for the soaring club to fail its attempt, before making its own attempt.

A club or pilot that has proposed to fly with Alby and has been accepted by the Albymaster, will be called the Albypilot. When a proposal is accepted, the flight should be made before the end of the next Friday.

If no other Albypilots have made the flight on their assigned week, the hosting club or pilot will have the right to make the flight before the end of the next Friday. If the host did not propose or is not able to make the flight, the next Albypilot shall make the flight before the end of the next Friday. And so on.

RULES FOR THE FLIGHT

Gliders can be towed to an altitude not exceeding 3,000’above take-off. Motorgliders will shut off their engine before that altitude is reached. The release or engine shut-off point shall be west of the take off field.

Each landing point will be to the east of the take-off point. If difficulties arise, an occasional back leg may happen, when accepted by the Albymaster.

The flight should end in a soaring site, or a place from where a glider can be towed out. If the flight does not end in the pre-declared location, the Albypilot or a pilot of the same club still have to the end of the next Friday to try and complete the flight as declared. If the pre-declared location still is not reached, Alby must be taken back where it started (not necessarily by flying).

Both the current host of Alby and the new host shall communicate the outcome of the flight to the Albymaster.

If the flight cannot be made before the end of the next Friday by the first Albypilot, it is the responsibility of the first Albypilot to give notice of the inability to make the flight, with timely courtesy, to the Albymaster, to the host, and to the second proponent in line.

The Albypilot who flies with Alby is responsible for keeping good care of him. When the Albypilot represents a soaring club or association, the representative of the club or association will be responsible for the well being of Alby.

The above rules may be superseded by the Albymaster when atypical circumstances arise.

Order of Preferences:

1 - The club that is closer to Alby’s current location
2 - The club that proposes first in order of time
3 - Clubs, soaring associations, soaring centers
4 - Group of pilots
5 - Individual pilots

ACCESSORY RULES

When start altitude, release to the west, landing to the east are difficult because of special local conditions, an exception may be requested to the Albymaster.

When an Albypilot cannot make the flight in the week he/she has been assigned, another Albypilot can make the flight provided he/she has been accepted by the Albymaster.

LOGBOOK, LAPEL PINS, SPOT DEVICE, GPS TRACE

LOGBOOK - Alby travels with a logbook. The Albypilot will fill out the log entry and sign it. The flight data will be e-mailed to the Albymaster and an entry will be placed in the website logbook. A description of the flight and pictures may also be sent along with the flight data, to be posted in the website. Enter all flights, successfull or not.

LAPEL PINS - The Alby case contains lapel pins. The pilot(s) successfully accomplishing a flight will get one pin each. The lapel pins are numbered. Check in the log book for the last pin number and take the subsequently numbered pin(s). If the flight is not successfull, place a bar in the last column (Pin No.). Please guard carefully the pins, we do not want them to misteriously disappear.

SPOT DEVICE - The SPOT device is to be placed in the glider in a place where there is sufficient visual contact with the outside (inside a shirt pocket is OK). It is to be used during the flight and placed in Alby's case when not flying. Instructions for use are in the case.

GPS TRACE - Pilots are encouraged to send their GPS log no matter how successfull the flight, as it will be posted in the map (flying with Alby is already a great success, to be recorded and displayed). Alternatively, it can be downloaded to OLC.

DISCLAIMER

Pilots who participate in Alby’s voyage acknowledge that it is a voluntary effort, and that the timing, route selection, weather decisions, and all other aspects of the flight are the sole responsibility of the pilot in command of the aircraft in which Alby is transported. The Organizers of Alby’s voyage, retain all rights to the concept, images, logbook, Alby trophy, and eventual chronicle of the journey, but neither they nor volunteers involved in the project nor the Pacific Soaring Council (PASCO) nor the Soaring Society of America (SSA) are in any way responsible for the decisions of the pilots that carry Alby in their aircraft. When pilots propose to carry Alby on part of his journey, they warrant that they have sufficient experience and will exercise all due caution to ensure the safety of their flights. By allowing pilots to carry Alby, the Organizers of the Alby project are merely keeping track of and attempting to facilitate the continued progress of Alby’s voyage.

WAIVER AND ASSUMPTION OF LIABILITY

Please accept me as a participant in the Alby voyage. In consideration of acceptance of this entry, for myself, my heirs, executors, administrators, personal representatives, successors or assigns I hereby release and discharge the Organizers, The Pacific Soaring Council (PASCO) THE SOARING SOCIETY OF AMERICA, INC., and their agents, representatives, employees, successors or assigns from any and all claims for damages or injuries suffered by me or by any member of my crew during the aforementioned soaring venture.

I further agree to assume full responsibility for and to indemnify, defend and hold the aforementioned entities and persons harmless from any and all legal obligations for damages to personal property owned by, or injuries suffered by, any spectator or contestant or personnel of the aforementioned entities, or by any other person or entity, which may be caused directly or indirectly by my participation in the venture. I further certify that I have read, understand, and agree to abide by the rules and regulations of the aforementioned endeavor.

I fully understand and agree that I am waiving any claim for damages that I may suffer by virtue of any act of negligence arising in the future by any act or omission of any of the aforementioned entities or persons or their agents, representatives or employees, and that the consideration for this waiver is the permission by the sponsoring or presenting bodies of the aforementioned venture allowing me to participate in the said venture and that such permission is being granted me in the reliance upon this waiver as set forth in this entry form.