| Author |
Comment |
Leo
Jones
Unregistered
User
(7/13/04 6:59
pm)
66.52.165.45
Reply
| Edit
| Del
All |
St John Working
Group
It was reallly great to be at St John last saturday, and see so
many pilots, 16 I believe, from at least four different clubs. And
everyone went XC!! I think just about everyone had fun. Some pilots
were fairly new to XC and some were fairly new to St John. After all
the work Sonoma Wings and others have put in oover the years to try
to secure this premium Northern California hang gliding site, I
personally felt it was really wonderful. Both launches are way safer
than they've ever been, relations with the local people and
landowners are very good, and the Forest Service likes us, and we
have a very sound record of responsibility with them. St John is a
challenging and fun place to fly, and one of the best XC sites in
Northern California.
However with this comes an increase in
responsibility on our part as hang glider and paraglider pilots to
ensure that we are the best of friends and neighbors too with those
people. I am looking forward to the upcoming Fly In and barbecue to
help demonstrate that. With some good PR the folks at Stonyford
might begin to look upon us rather as the folks in Moore seem to
look upon the pilots who come to King. But we need to continue to
respect the folks who live there. For instance last saturday six
gliders landed at one spot near Chrome. No-one came out from the
ranch a half a mile away, though it's hard to believe they didn't
see us. It would perhaps be a good idea to go back to that ranch in
the very near future with a couple of bottles of wine and an apology
and a thank you. Perhaps an invite to our Fly in barbecue
too.
One of the things I think we perhaps ought to do is to
convene a meeting with representatives from other local clubs, to
discuss St John/ Potato Hill, its use, and future as a hang
gliding/paragliding site. If pilots come there to fly it is best if
they are fully up to date with site procedures, LZs etc. So far it
has been almost entirely through the efforts of volunteers from
Sonoma Wings that we have LZs and a launch too, notwithstanding the
many volunteers from outside the club - and some forced labor - on
the launch. :-)
But we need to change this. It would be nice
if there was at least one person in all of the local clubs who would
be fully involved with all the stuff that goes into keeping the site
open and free of hassles. Someone who knows the issues and
landowners etc. and will help work with the others. It could be more
than one person from each club - these pilots would then ensure that
pilots coming from their club to fly St. John would know the
score.
In other words it might not be a bad idea to have some
kind of St John working group. It would greatly help to spread the
workload and expense if this was borne by more than one club, and we
could be far more effective if we work together.
Leo
Jones
(not a Sonoma Wings Exec Committee member)
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(7/13/04 7:28
pm)
24.5.51.30
Reply
| Edit
| Del
|
Re: St John
Working Group
Well, Leo, I AM a Sonoma Wings Executive Committee member, and the
club president.
In my official capacity, I'll heartily second
your motion. A number if individuals have taken it upon themselves
to devote many, many hours to cultivate positive relationships with
local landowners, learning who they are and contacting them to put a
face on these hang glider pilots who show up weekend after weekend
during the summer. You and Jon James are two who have done most of
this work, and I commend you for it.
Unfortunately, it only
takes one or two bad incidents between hang glider pilots and locals
to sour relations in the Stonyford area. Our website shows several
properties where we are definitely NOT wanted. Landing there always
causes trouble for us. And there are other properties we're learning
of that would rather not have us land. We need to do a better job of
identifying these do-not-land properties and getting that
information to all prospective XC pilots. Amd we need to identify
properties where it is acceptable for us to land when we don't quite
make it to Burney.
With Vince's dramatic demonstration of the
XC potential from St. John (144 miles), I'm sure that more pilots
will come to try their luck. And with Eric Reed's 58 mile flight on
a paraglider, those folks will be stretching their XC wings
too.
Your suggestion of a working group that involves pilots
from the entire area is one who's time has arrived. I'd like to
encourage all of you who read this to take this message back to your
respective clubs and discuss it. It would be easy enough to create a
private email list where we can toss ideas around and disseminate
information as we get it. We at Sonoma Wings have inherited this
site from those who pioneered it and we've got a lot invested in it
- both emotionally and physically. We want our experience there to
grow and with all pilots' help, it will. I'll get together with Leo
and others to get the ball rolling. Please post here with your
ideas.
Thanks,
Ernie Camacho
|
Gregg
Hackett
Member
(7/14/04 7:12 am)
198.81.26.45
Reply
| Edit
| Del
|
Re: St John
Working Group
I agree completely with Leo and Ernie.
Thanks to all of you that have put
the time, money and energy into our flying sites! I have posted this to BAPA and
asked people to go to the link on our Bulletin Board. Hopefully we
will get support from BAPA since many members fly Potato
Hill.
Gregg
|
jwishnie
Unregistered
User
(7/14/04 8:39
am)
63.195.88.133
Reply
| Edit
| Del
|
BAPA
involvement
Ernie, Leo, Gregg,
St. John/Potato is a great PG site as
well and BAPA is eager to help maintain the sites and build good
relations with the owners of our LZs!
Please let me know
when this group comes together so that we can
participate.
cheers,
Jeff Wishnie
Co-site director,
BAPA
jeff@pacskyways.com
|
Daniel
Pifko
Member
(7/14/04 9:29 am)
64.165.57.235
Reply
| Edit
| Del
|
Club
communications
I'll echo what the others have said - thanks to Leo, Jon, Ernie,
and, and, and, for the great citizenship at St. John.
Count
me in. I'd be glad to help out on this committee, both as an
individual and someone who can communicate the site procedures and
community activities elsewhere. Most of the FlightPlans pilots also
read the SW web site, so you're already taking care of us by posting
the great info you do. I can also get the idea across on the Fellow
Feathers web site and at the club meetings.
With the fly-in
coming up the timing is perfect.
Daniel
|
Dave
Clement
Member
(7/14/04 1:31 pm)
68.124.228.222
Reply
| Edit
| Del
|
St. John
Fly-In
Ernie, What are dates for the Fly-In at St. Johns, I couldn,t find
it on our calender of events. Thanks Dave 
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(7/14/04 2:03
pm)
24.5.51.30
Reply
| Edit
| Del
|
Re: St. John
Fly-In
The date hasn't been decided yet. it'll either be 8/14-15 or
8/28-29. The weekend between these two is 8/21-22, which is when the
Sonoma County Airshow is being held. We don't want to conflict with
that.
We're tending toward 14-15. We are going to have an
Executive Committee meeting this next Monday where we should make a
final determination.
As for the calendar, I must appologize;
I haven't been keeping it up as well as I should have.
Ernie
|
Fred
Clement
Unregistered
User
(7/14/04 8:19
pm)
63.195.190.5
Reply
| Edit
| Del
|
St Johns fly-in
date
Ernie, I vote for August 28 & 29th I cannot make the other
dates. Fred
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(7/14/04 9:59
pm)
24.5.51.30
Reply
| Edit
| Del
|
Re: St Johns
fly-in date
Fred, please come to the Executive Committee meeting. We'll decide
on a date then. Next Monday, 7PM, my house.
|
Urs
Unregistered
User
(7/17/04 8:17
am)
64.171.187.3
Reply
| Edit
| Del
|
St.John Working
Group
I agree with Leo. We need to work on keeping ALL sites open. It
should be a hang I task, keeping sites open and how to treat land
owners. One idea that came to mind after reading Leo's post is that
we drive with beer in our trucks all the time (it is the law for HG
pilots), why not have a few bottles of wine in the truck as well for
the land owners. Maybe not 2 buck chuck, but i'm sure that there are
3 dollar wines out there. After packing up we could have stopped by
the land owner that lived at the end of the road and said thanks
with the wine. After that 
they would shoot us down to land in their field!
Maybe we could
get the USHG foundation to pay for it!
Urs
PS. I vote for the
21st for the fly in. Been keeping that date open since May. I'm not
a member, but play one on tv.
|
SonomaWingsBB
Topic Commands
Click to receive email
notification of replies