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.

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

We had a great crew out today to assemble the yellow 2-33 and the 1-26. We also did a dozen flights!

Larry Perry, Andy Kozak, Alasdair Crawford, Bill Batesole, Jim Wells, Steve Hurd, Bob Iulaino, Bill Detrich, Colby von Kannewurff, Ben Berg, Paul Happ, Don Graber, Mark Farley, Greg Hunter, Charlie Freeman and I all made it to KVSF today.

Alasdair did three flights, and as Bill was current from his trip down south, he flew with both Jims for them to get current. Charlie flew with Greg, Bill flew with Ben, and one Post Millian came down for a tow in his ship. Mark and Charlie flew with CAP and got current in their ship.

Tomorrow there are no tow pilots or instructors on the schedule. Next weekend is fully staffed, and the forecast looks phenomenal!

Hope to see you out there!

JiM

The weather looks to be better this coming weekend compared to this past weekend. We are planning to assemble a couple club gliders on Saturday, April 8, and do as many instructor currency flights as we can.

Next weekend is the first with an instructor scheduled, so go to the scheduling page to get yourself signed up for your annual club ship currency flight.

Members with their own ships are encouraged, but not required, to do an annual checkout.

This Sunday is Easter, so many folks are busy. If any tow pilots want to make themselves available, please send out a club-wide email to let folks know.

Hope to see you out there!