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

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

Took a few runs @ Magic Mountain this morning. Got a nice airshow – several F35’s dogfighting – putting out chaff – the works.

Remember CHUGS is now a permanent MOA from 9k to 18k so include knowing if its Hot in your briefings – especially on wave days!

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!

Tim Chow and Jerry Smith kicked off the season yesterday, both with flights of more than an hour in Tim’s sailplane, BU. Tim connected with wave and climbed to 11,000′ MSL, Jerry climbed in thermals to 6,000′ MSL. Both flight tracks can be viewed at https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=9299074#comment=undefined&map=43.3038%2C-73.6956%2C43.6446%2C-72.0435

A reminder to please check your email and RSVP to Larry with your meal choices for the annual club membership meeting scheduled for Sunday January 29th, 2023.

The meeting will be held at MacLaomainn’s in Chester, VT. 1pm social hour with meal to begin approx. 1:45~2pm followed by Business meeting 3:00-4:30. The cost is $35 per person.

Look forward to seeing in January.

Congratulations to Steve Hurd for successfully completing his private glider check-ride at Estrella Sailport in AZ on December 9th. A well-earned achievement and a great way to round out the season somewhere warmer!

Nice job Steve.

Alasdair & Colby attended the annual Thanksgiving weekend “Snowbird” spot landing contest at Harris Hill this year. Needed another body or two to enter a NESA team so we flew for valley Soaring Club.

Friday was too windy to safely have a spot landing contest with winds ~18G27, however it was a spectacular ridge day. Colby got his first real ridge flying experience with Hank Nixon (UH) as his instructor in the back seat.

Saturday was spectacular with 78 flights flown! The club trophy went to Valley Soaring. Colby and Alasdair placed 2nd in the Junior/Senior team category and Colby placed 3rd in the Junior category.

The event wrapped up with a nice Banquet and awards ceremony in the National Soaring Museum.

Maybe next year we can field a couple more participants and enter a NESA team.