
The Friday Fleet
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!
EDIT: In order to allow as many people as possible to get to the meeting, there is a small time change. Coffee and donuts start at 9:15 and the meeting will begin at 10:00.
The annual safety meeting is scheduled for this coming Saturday, April 1. Weather permitting, we will hold it at the KVSF terminal building. It will also be available on freeconferencecall.com for those unable to attend in person. The link will be sent out this week. After the meeting, we hope to assemble N1242S and the 1-26.
We will evaluate the weather forecast on Wednesday, March 29 and make a decision on how much of the meeting will be in person and when we will assemble the gliders.
Hope to see you 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
The annual safety meeting is scheduled for April 1 from 9 am until noon. It will be at the Springfield airport terminal building and also available online. We will send out an invitation with a link. We plan on assembling a couple club gliders after the meeting. The plan at this time is to spend the rest of that weekend and the following weekend getting instructors current. The first weekend for scheduled instruction is April 15-16. All this is assuming the weather gods smile upon us.
Our plan is to have the t-shirts you ordered available at the meeting, so get your order in to Larry by the end of February if you have not done so already.
Here’s hoping to a great season!
Greetings, NESA folks!
It’s a week after the Annual Meeting, and I wanted to reach out to the club. If you were at the meeting, it was great to see you. If you weren’t, I hope to see you out at the field. Dinner was great. We had 17 members attend along with some friends and family, bringing the total to roughly 30 people. The meeting was held after dinner. We will post the official meeting minutes to the club website when they are approved at the next board meeting. Here are some of the highlights:
Larry gave both the President’s and Vice-President’s reports, and Jerry Smith presented the Treasurer’s report on.
The members who attended voted for the ballot of club officers in person, and Andy sent an email before the meeting for absentee ballots. These are the NESA officers and directors for the upcoming year:
President – Jim Malecha
Vice President – Larry Perry
Secretary – Andy Kozak
Treasurer – Jerry Smith
Directors – Second year of two-year term Bill Batesole and Dave Carton;
newly elected to two-year term Steve Hurd, John Watkins
Three awards were presented:
President’s Award – Colby Von Kannenwurff
XC Award – Eric Nelson
Uplift Award – Jim Malecha
An annual honorary membership was awarded to Walter Streideck
The other board members and I are looking forward to the upcoming season. We will keep you posted on efforts to grow the membership ranks, increase the number of soaring days, and cost-cutting and fundraising efforts.
Thanks, and hope to see you out there!
JiM
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.