A huge thanks to Bill Batesole and a crew of NESA members including Andy K., Larry P., Paul H. and Bob I. who all showed up at 9am this morning to help. Yellow was applied to the fuselage.

Sat 5/18

Good soaring today and some more spring-check rides completed.

John Watkins and Paul Happ both completed their spring check-out’s with Jerry. Jerry also gave an intro lesson to a potential new member from West Windsor.

B9, IC, i1, VOL and the 1-34 all had nice long soaring flights today also with good streeting and lift to a 7k. Greg Hunter had another 5+ hour flight (two weekends in a row), found some weak wave close to Ascutney and got to 9,200 ft!

While we haven’t had the driest of starts to the Spring soaring season, we are getting some good flying if you can pick you days. So, if you haven’t been out to the field yet, watch the weather and come out and fly!

Sun 5/19

Perhaps not a flying but, it’s dry and Bill is out working on the 2-33 refinish, spraying silver on the tail-feathers today.

Thanks to all who showed up for the Spring Safety seminar. For those that registered for Wings you should see credit on your FAA wings profile in a week or so.

All presentations have now been posted to the Presentations and Documents section of the website and are available here: https://www.flynesa.com/resources-for-pilots/reference/nesa-presentations-documents-library/

After the seminar we had a great lunch cook-out, burgers, kielbasa, hotdogs, Veggie burgers, Mac Salad, Bean salad and more. Thanks to all who helped with that.

Of course mid-afternoon we finally got around to some flying. Lee Blair completed his flight review with Jerry and several ships had some great soaring flights in good conditions. At one point the 1-34, 1-26, i1, IC, B9, Q2, VOL and the CAP Blanik were all in the air at the same time, so some good thermal markers scattered around.

So, if it isn’t already obviously from the above, the season is off and running, come out and fly!

Our Spring Safety Seminar now qualifies for FAA Wings program credit:

If you haven’t already signed up for Wings, you can do so here through the FAA Safety website: https://www.faasafety.gov/login/reg/Register.aspx

Once registered you can sign up for the seminar here: https://www.faasafety.gov/SPANS/event_details.aspx?eid=92298&caller=/SPANS/events/EventList.aspx  While there is no requirement to sign up in advance to receive credit it is encouraged.

See everyone Saturday.

It is time for the annual Spring Safety Seminar. Mark you calendars for Saturday, May 11th at 10am in the FBO Building.

Weather permitting we will plan to see if the Grills still work and cook up some burgers for lunch after the meeting.

If you haven’t already been out and taken your Spring Club check ride, then plan to do so in the afternoon or on Sunday 12th.

It’s flying season and we haven’t seen enough of you out flying. Please spread the word. See you on the 11th if not before.

With Many thanks to Bill Dietrich, Larry Perry and Walter spring check-flights are now available for qualified 1-26 and 1-34 pilots using the PW-6 (i1).

The 1-26 is on the line. Greg Hunter had a nice 3-1/2 hour flight last weekend. The 1-34 annual is finishing up and should be on the line shortly also.

So come out, get your Spring check-ride and go-fly.

This from Larry Perry

I heard from Bill Batesole this morning, and due to an unanticipated improvement in the weather and a few hours of unexpected “free time” available from NESA’s favorite FedEx driver, the yellow 2-33 is another step closer to being back in service.

Although the wx forecast yesterday called for mostly overcast skies with showers, the forecasters changed their minds this morning to at least partly sunny skies and low winds.

At mid-late morning there was a fair amount of activity at VSF…Walter had (of course) arrived, and N60AB, the owner of the Beech Duke that commutes between ISP and VSF, was on final. The Upper Valley Flight Club’s C-172 was flying patterns. B2 arrived and towed Walter to 2500′ and by the time the Pawnee landed, Walter was climbing through 6000′

Bill did the work that required brains, I provided the brawn, or that amount I had available. Bill was hoping to get two more cross-coats of primer on both sides of the 2-33 tail feathers, and that went much smoother than expected. With the sun and weather holding up, Bill was able to get the final primer coats on the nose of the 2-33, as well.

As we finished packing the 2-33 fuselage back into Bill’s workshop around 3:30 pm, Walter called overhead, inbound to land. A pretty spectacular soaring day.

This from B2:

All stripped ready to begin:

Preparation for recovering:

Covered !!!

The annual dinner is scheduled for Saturday January 12th, 2019 at MacLaomainns in Chester.  5:30pm Happy hour, dinner 6:30. Everyone should have received an email invite, please RSVP as soon as possible.  The sooner we can give the pub numbers the easier for them, and the sooner we know we will have a solid quorum for the business meeting the better for us.  Hope to see everyone there in a little over a month :-).

All the club gliders were disassembled ahead of the snow and are safely tucked away in hangars for the winter.  Thanks to all who came out to help including – Brian Xander, Bill Batesole, Andy Kozak, Greg Hunter, Dave Carton and anyone else I missed.

We let the 1-3 annual slip so that it can be done over the winter and hopefully therefore will have no interruption to it’s flying season next year.