The weekend is a total washout, again. In the entire month of April, we only flew on two Saturdays, and not a single Sunday. That’s the bad news.

The good news is on the two Saturdays we flew we did 29 tows. The even-better news is that the Friday Flyers were out in force this month. Bill did five tows today, bringing our Friday total for the month to 20! That means the club did 49 tows for the month.

With any luck, this weather pattern will shift just a little bit, so we can have good flying on the weekends in May.

Remember, next Saturday, May 6, we will assemble the orange 2-33, weather permitting. If we can get some folks out, we can fire up the grill as we originally planned to do tomorrow.

Hope to see you out there!

The title of this post says it all. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is such that it makes no sense for us get people out to the airport just to sit around and talk about the crummy weather. It may still be flyable for some instruction – we will make that call closer to the weekend.

The new plan is to try to assemble the orange 2-33 next Saturday, weather permitting. If the weather is nice, we just might fire up the grill that day. Stay tuned for more info!

The Springfield schools reached out to NESA to participate in their Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program, and the club showed up in a big way! Bill set up the Carat, and he, Annie, Jerry and Andy spoke with the kids and their parents (or grandparents). It was great community outreach for the club, as a good number of parents see us flying and were interested in seeing a glider up close. Hopefully, some parents or older siblings will be interested in coming out on a weekend, or maybe even signing up for ACE camp.

Thank you to all that took part for NESA.

Next Saturday, April 29, at 10 a.m. is the first of the monthly member meetings. This meeting does not have a FreeConferenceCall option. Tentatively on the agenda is Alasdair briefing those present on the Open Glider Network (OGN) registration and tracking. The club received a ground station from the SSA that will allow us to monitor club member flights in real-time.

After that briefing, we will assemble the orange 2-33, weather permitting. Then, we’ll then fire up the grill for hamburgers and hot dogs, with coleslaw, potato salad, or similar with some type of dessert. (If anyone attending has a special diet such as vegetarian or vegan, let me know by Wednesday). Bring whatever you want to drink, if other than water.

Sign up for any currency flights you may need, or instruction you desire.

Hope to see you out there!

April showers might bring May flowers, but those same showers certainly are not conducive to soaring. No flying either Saturday or Sunday. However, on Friday we did seven tows. Alasdair, Andy, Bob, and Greg flew their ships, while Ben took two tows in the 2-33 to finish his currency requirements, then took up a passenger. Bill flew his Carat for the first time since he got back from Florida.

Hopefully next weekend will have better weather.

You can check CHUGs status at: Special Use Airspace & Air Traffic Control Assigned Airspace (faa.gov) Click on the Text List then filter by state.

Last fall the SSA distributed Open Glider Network tracking stations to clubs. We bench tested everything over the winter and the NESA glider tracking station is ready to install in the terminal building.

If you have a Flarm or OGN tracker device installed in your glider please register it in the OGN database. This will enable us to monitor club member flights real-time. To register your device use this link: http://ddb.glidernet.org/

To view tracker map use this link: https://glideandseek.com/?viewport=43.35814,-72.96570,9

A great weekend. Lots of soaring activity Friday with numerous NESA and PMSC ships flying and people getting good long soaring flights. Saturday, much more club activity – spring check rides, Flight Reviews and more. Sunday weather didn’t really cooperate, and we bagged the day rather than having everyone sit around for hours waiting for the ceiling to lift.

Looks like a nice Friday coming up, for the weekend regardless of weather, let’s get the other 2-33 and the 1-34 assembled and back on the line.

Lots of good flights today. Max altitude reported was over 11,000 (remember to check on CHUGS!). Welcome to the 2023 soaring season.

EDIT: I understand a number of members may have special diets (vegetarian, vegan, etc). If you want to attend the meeting and have such a diet, please RSVP to me no later than Wednesday, April 26. I will make sure we will have something for you.

The club member meetings are the last Saturday of the month from 10 to 11 am, April thru October.

This month immediately following the meeting there will be burgers or hot dogs or some other sort of grilled meat, with some sides. After that, there will be towing and flying!

Come on out, hear what the club is doing, chat with your fellow club members, then we can get in the air.

Hope to see you out there,

JiM