We will have our first picnic of the season starting late afternoon Sunday of Memorial Day weekend (Middle day of 3 days flying weekend) so mark it in your planner.

Given the current state of the world, this will be something a “DIY” style event:

1) While we will have some basics available – burgers, dog’s etc.  If that’s not your thing or you are not comfortable with that please bring whatever you want to throw on the grill. 

2) We won’t be having a pot-luck with shared sides, so please bring whatever sides etc. you want for yourself and family;

3) We won’t be using the picnic tables etc. so please bring a chair so that we can spread out for social distancing.  

Hope to see a good turn out for flying and our first “DIY” cookout event.

Third day in a row of 10k + altitudes. Amazing soaring these last few days. Unlike yesterday no snow at altitude today 🙂

Starting to look like a glider operation again 🙂 Happy Spring!

The presentation agenda is now final:

Wings credit is available. You can sign up at: Pilots – Quick WINGS – FAA – FAASTeam – FAASafety.gov

Joining Instructions:

• Meeting will be held via FreeConfernceCall.com which we have previously used for last years safety meeting and this years annual meeting.  Connection details are below.
• Instructions for joining and installing the application etc. are in the user Guide linked below.
• The meeting ‘space’ will be open at 8:30am – well prior to the start of business to allow some time for anyone using this for the first time to work through connecting/getting audio working etc.
• Please join on-line rather than by phone so that you can see the presentations and participate fully.

Online Meeting Connection Link

Online meeting ID: flynesa
Join the online meeting: https://join.freeconferencecall.com/flynesa

Back-up dial-in information:Dial-in number (US): (425) 436-6346
Access code: 2716044#

Attendee User Guide: NESA On-line Meeting user guide.

With much work by Brian Xander, our 2021 proving grounds X-C series courses have been set. Start talking to the instructors about your cross-country goals for the upcoming season. Note that the Springfield > Post Mills leg of the Striedieck tringle gets you silver distance – 50k+ (max release 2,200 AGL) whether you come home or land at Post Mills.

The 2021  Annual Safety Seminar will be held online,  Saturday April 3rd at 9:00am. Everyone should now have received an email invitation and instructions for joining the meeting online.

• The Spring seminar is as close to being a mandatory meeting as we have and we ask that all members make their best-efforts to attend.
• The full presentation agenda is being finalized and will distributed before the meeting. The instructors are working on their presentations and securing FAA Wings program credit for the event. Rusty Pilots will obviously be an important topic this year.  For many it’s not just a matter of the usual winter break but with COVID, some of us barely flew or didn’t get to fly at all last-year so Spring checkouts may need to be tailored to reflect that and get everyone back up to speed. 

Overall COVID vaccinations seem to be progressing well, amazing really when we consider it was really only a year ago that the pandemic was truly unfolding.  

• VT travel guidelines have been updated and out-of-state visitors who have received their vaccinations do not need to quarantine.  With caution in mind we will plan to begin the season with daily questionnaires/temperature checks etc., but we will be flying soon. Several of our instructors have already received their vaccinations so we will be in good shape for Spring check-rides.

As always, after the safety seminar the actual dates for the start of regular scheduled flying will be determined by weather and field conditions and not by the calendar.  

First glider flights of 2021 are in the bag. Jerry in i1. Tim Chow in the Callair.

Spring is just around the corner. Online Spring Safety Seminar details coming soon.

The 43rd Annual WSPA seminar (originally scheduled to be hosted by NESA in 2020) has now been tentatively scheduled for August 16-20, 2021.

Obviously both NESA and the WSPA will continue to monitor the COVID situation and Vermont travel restrictions in the upcoming months but there is optimism that by the second half of the year vaccinations have gotten much more widely administered and we will be able to host an event. Stay tuned for updates as the situation develops.

For more information about the Woman Soaring Pilots Association and the annual seminar please see https://womensoaring.org/seminar/

The minutes and a recoding of the January 30th Annual Membership meeting are now available in the member resources section of the website.

Meeting Minutes | New England Soaring Association (flynesa.com)

The link above is within the members area of the website. So, you will need to log-in to view. If you don’t have your own password you likely do have the Yellow 2-33 in your logbook..

Some picture updates from Bill of the former Blue soon to be Orange 2-33 winter recover work (I think Bill has fully embraced his retirement job 🙂