A breezy day for our first day of operations, but we got 4 instructors (Jim, Jerry, Alasdair & Bill Barry) current in gliders today including a flight review for Bill. Bill Batesole is already current from flying his Carat so we are in really good shape with 5 instructors ready to go this early in the year.

Alder, Caleb and Derek worked hard running wings and retrieving gliders while we completed all the instructors currency flights but they each also got their first instuctional flights of the year late afternoon. So the junior section is back in the air too!

Thanks to Jim, Jerry and Alasdair for towing and also to Bill D. and Andy K for coming out to help get oeprations back up and running. A great team effort today

16 tows for Day one today.

Unfortuatenly the Wx for tomorrow looks like a bust so we have cancelled ops for 4/19. We will see everyone next weekend.

All, thank you for the great attendance on Satuday (4/4) for this years Annual Pre-Season Spring Safety Seminar. We had 32 members in attendance (21 in person and 11 on-line).

For those that were unable to attend, the agenda was as follows:

• Club & Equipment Status / Season Readiness – Andy Kozak
• Tow & Instruction Scheduling – Bill Barry
• FAA Accident Database Review/Lessons Learned – Jerry
• Instruction and Safety – Bill Barry
• Airport Operations Review and Discussion- Alasdair
• Open Forum – All

All presentations will be uploaded and available shortly in the usual ‘NESA Safety Seminar Presentations’ section of the reference Library which can be found under the Resources Tab of the website.

Here are a few pictures from the seminar:

Thanks also to Jim and Larry for organizing breakfast and lunch.

After the meeting several members stuck around to help with pre-season preparation. We got the first of the club ships (Yellow 2-33) re-assembled and back into the tie-down line. That helped make room in the hangar for the Callair Annual to continue (overhauled Mags are finally here). The 2-33 looked pretty lonely out there all on its own, but it won’t be very long until the rest of the fleet is back out there to keep it company.

Remember – First scheduled day of operations is Satuday 4/18. It’ll be a check-out and currency day. In order of priority we need to get Club CFIG’s glider current, Licensed Pilots Spring check-out flights completed and then back into student training.

Please sign up for instruction and check-flights. See you soon.

P.S. Please sign up for Ground Ops and line-crew slots on the schedule. There are many holes!

As usual the Thanksgiving Snowbird at Harris Hill tends to mark the end of the flying season. This year it was just Andrea and I that made the trek from VT so I flew for my old club Valley Soaring.

The Weather didn’t cooperate on Friday but we got a nice flying day in on Saturday followed by the annual HHSC/Snowbird banquet at the National Soaring Museum. Here are a few pictures from the event.

If you haven’t been to the NSM or aren’t a member please consider a visit or a membership. Thanks!

Have a great Christmas and New Year. See everyone at the annual meeting January 18th.

With Alasdair as tow pilot, Bill Batesole as instructor, and ground support from David Beach, Bill Detrich and Larry, NESA launched several flights today. Adler, Gavin and Caleb each took instructional flights in the orange 2-33, and Rick Sheppe from Post Mills had a fun end-of-season flight in LEL.

Yesterday marked the last Monthly meeting of the season, the annual glider wash day, and our return to the air after maintenance.

Thanks to Larry Perry, Jerry Smith, Bill Detrich, Greg Hunter, David Beach, Ed Burt and Erik Nelson for coming out on a cool, blustery day. It only took us two hours to wash the gliders. Also, a huge belated shout-out goes to Andy Kozak, Ed Burt and Bill Detrich for washing the CallAir a few weeks ago. It looked great.

We did a few tows after the glider wash – the tow plane runs great after getting it back from Springfield Aviation.

Again, thanks to everyone for volunteering their time to make the club a success.

Here is the wrap up photo album, video and thank you page from this years ACE Academy. Thank you to all our volunteers: https://www.flynesa.com/ace-camp-wrap-up-2025/

Some nice news articles too:

Mountain Times: https://mountaintimes.info/2025/08/06/ace-aviation-camp-gives-vermont-youth-flight-experience/

Springfield Reporter: https://fb.newzgroup.com/Papers/489184/2025-08-05/flippingbook/files/assets/common/downloads/publication.pdf

A note of thanks to all the volunteers who made last weeks camp a success including our amazing ground crew team of 5 Juniors (Adler, Anderson, Jean, Gavin & Ellenora. We had 100 luanches/400 operations(glider and tug take-off’s/landing) including 5 landouts – 2 at LEB, 1 at Post Mills and 2 in fields – all perfectly executed. Lots of people finished their first task ever.

We had 20+ visting gliders and crew, so the event did it’s part to support local hotels and restaurants. The 371 did a great job of catering a few dinners for the group

Just a reminder that the Green Mountain Aerobatic Contest is this weekend. We operate as usual, but be aware of NOTAMS for the weekend: Avoid the box, right patterns for 23 and 11

DLY 1600-2300. 10 JUL 16:00 2025 UNTIL 13 JUL 23:00 2025. CREATED: 08 JUL 14:35 2025 RWY 11 RIGHT TFC PATTERN DLY 1600-2300. 10 JUL 16:00 2025 UNTIL 13 JUL 23:00 2025.

DLY 1600-2300. 10 JUL 16:00 2025 UNTIL 13 JUL 23:00 2025. CREATED: 08 JUL 14:35 2025 RWY 23 RIGHT TFC PATTERN DLY 1600-2300. 10 JUL 16:00 2025 UNTIL 13 JUL 23:00 2025

AIRSPACE AEROBATIC ACFT WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 1NM RADIUS OF VSF SFC-4500FT AGL DLY 1600-2300. 10 JUL 16:00 2025 UNTIL 13 JUL 23:00 2025. CREATED: 08 JUL 14:33 2025

(Times in Zulu)

Lots to see and a great learning opportunity for students flying right hand patterns to these runways.

The NESA Memorial Day weekend cookout was a resounding success! Two dozen people attended and enjoyed grilled food and great company. Flying was a little weak for the day, but we had a great club get-together.