December Meeting Minutes

Sonoma Wings meeting notes from the Christmas Party held at Ernie's house on 12-11-1998.

By the time Peter Humes arrived at the party most attendees were already there. I happened to be standing in the kitchen as Peter laid out a huge salmon he had smoked himself. I, like many others had already eaten enough, but the sight of such a beautiful fish was irresistable. As I leaned against the counter and watched it was as if the carcess was devoured by a flock of seagulls, as club members desended on the tastey fish. These were people who, like me, had already eaten. The seagulls looked like; Brian Sharp, Jon James, Todd Robinson and Emily Walker, Andy Long, Charley and Elaine Warren, Leo Jones, Chris McKeon and Jenny, Denise and Peter Lindquist, Fred Clement, Sterling Calder, Ernie Camacho, Dan and Ronnie Tierney, John Blacet, Larry and Dianna Roberts, Henry Sieck, Roger Butler and friend, Kieth Butler and Cezanne, Greg Andronaco, Hank and Robin Roberts, Duane and Shiela Taylor, Bob and Ann Storms, Scott Huber, Gunter and Frieda Lohrentz, Albert Branson and Donna, Peter Humes, Greg Sugg and Pam and Chris Arai. I think I count 41 people. A full house.

Much more great food and libations was, of course, had by all as we listened to tales of the year past and talked with good friends.

One story we heard was how Matt and Todd had gotten to cloudbase at St Helena the previous Sunday, Dec.6 and flown to the defunct glider port in Calistoga. After breaking down they carried their glidres through town to the Calistoga Inn to have a brew and wait for the truck. They laid the gliders on the side of the building. After getting served and settled Todd stepped out to check the gliders and discovered his missing! Needless to say Todd "went off". He reported that nearby tourists put up their hands and backed away saying, "we didn't do it, we didn't do it" . A search party was formed and the glider was found in the bushes a block away. There was minor damage as it appeared it was dragged down the sidewalk.

Henry Sieck is offering his 167 Sport to anyone needing a glider. He will not be able to fly for awhile and can't bear the idea of it sitting in a shed suffering from lack of use. (Arthur?)

Many people were resolving to fly more in 1999. I didn't hear anyone saying they would like to fly less this year.

Ronnie Tierney reported no responses on the wrench on Hull Mt. If anybody com es accross it please let her know.(See the Nov1998 HotAir for wrench story) At Ronnie's insistence the meeting was called to order at 8:50. Club business was held to a minimum, but there were awards to award.

First Jon took a moment to recognize all the pilots new to the club this year. There were many! He thanked all the drivers. And he recapped all the members contributations for the year. It these contributations that make the club fun to belong to. Jon noted that the older we get, the more awards we bestow upon ourselves, then proceeded to bestow.

First, Todd was awarded a 40 mile cup. This is for a flight over 40 miles from a local site. Todd's was 46 miles from St John. Next was the "Coffee Can". It contained $40 and was awarded to Todd for the longest flight from a local site. Same flight as above. The money was donated to the club.

The "Best Flight" trophy is a beautiful wooden, Lisa Tate creation, with two gliders cicrling close together. We took nominations and voted for the winner. Nominees included, Leo for his flight at Lakeview and Todd for smokin everyone at the Regionals. Jon James won for his difficult XC flight from Hull Mt.

The "Go-For-It Cup" is another Lisa Tate trophy. These are great looking trophies that will be in the club for years and are a fraction of the cost of a conventional trophy. There was good competition for this cup with 78 flights submitted by nine pilots. 1500 miles were flown. The Lakeview trip yielded the most miles followed by the St John meet and then weekend flying at St John and finally the Regionals. Beer glasses etched with a hang glider were awarded for the first eight places. Several pilots submitted more than 200 miles worth of flights. Entrants listed from last place to first were; Charley, Scott, Ernie, John B, Matt, Leo, Jon and Todd. Competition for first place was close. Todd won the trophy with 320 miles for his ten submitted flights.

There was more competition than usual for the Turkey Award this year. After all the stories were told the award was given to a group of four pilots for spending the night out in the desert at Lakeview. The Turkeys are Ernie Camacho, Matt Jagelka, John Blacet and Bob Stanley. We got to hear each of their stories except Bob's. They all denied being worthy of the award. Such humble people. Matt didn't think it was fair to get the Turkey for his longest flight to date. John didn't think he should get it because he walked 13 miles to the highway and got out himself rather than spend the night with the others. Still he slept in the freezing desert. Ernie said he was just trying to find Bob.

The Outstanding Club Service award went to Leo Jones for the many contributions he made to the club last year. Leo reinvented the "work party". He was relentless in pursuit of new landing areas and more access to flying sites. Thanks Leo and keep up the good work. The meeting was adjorned and before we drifted apart and back to the food we heard stories about going over the back at St John. We heard how Chris Arai flew 100 miles in less than two hours in Wyoming. And we heard Matt's story of launching in France and landing in Switzerland. Many thanks to Ernie for once again allowing us to invade his space and leave it a mess. Thanks Ernie!

November Meeting Minutes

Sonoma Wings Meeting Notes from 11-16-1998

First let me take this opportunity to remind everyone that the Christmas party is coming up December 11th at Ernie's house at 12320 Old RedwoodHighway, Healdsburg at 7:00pm.

This was an interesting meeting. It was great to see so many new faces and we missed some of the regular, old faces. Matt provided videos from this past summer's Lakeview trip while the following people filed in. Brain Sharp, Charley Warren, Sterling Calder, Matt Jagelka, Chris McKeon and Jenny, Peter Humes, Duane Taylor, Ernie Camacho, John DeAguiar, Scott Huber, Bob Storms, Jon James and Guy Nicholas.

As usual the meeting was called to order promptly, a little after 7:00. We began with introductions. Peter Humes is a paraglider pilot from Glen Ellen. He learned to fly from Airtime of SF and flies at Funston and a private site, which he told a couple people about and then killed them later. Peter is presently rated P2. Next we heard from John DeAguiar. I hope I spelled his last name correctly. No one warned me I would have to spell names with two capital letters in them as part of this job. John is from Sebastopol. He contacted Wally Anderson for lessons and has had one paragliding and one hang gliding lesson. John reports that he had to convince Wally to teach him to hang glide. Wally was favoring the paragliding lessons.

Chris McKeon told us of a recent flight from McClure where he was up for an hour on a day where he had to work hard to get up. Guy is back in the sky on the Raven now with wheels. (Good move Guy) He has been going all the way to Mission Soaring's Hollister site. Guy also mentioned that there is a 'chute clinic coming up at Mission. The price is $50. Call them for details.

Jon mentioned voting for Jamie Sheldon for Region Two Director. Seems she is well qualified.

As most of you know the club has changed banks. Well now, a month later, our new bank has been sold to Cal Fed. Duane says this is unlikely to have much affect on us. We will still have free checking for the first year but will need to get new checks again, already!

We talked about whether or not we want to continue to meet monthly at the same place or change it. We will take a vote at the December meeting 12-11-1998 Christmas party at Ernie's house. Charley agreed to make the reservations again.

Offline discussions are ongoing regarding getting a group together to buy an aerotug. Charley read the notes from the last meeting. The group will meet next December 1st at Matt's house at 7:00pm. Ernie volunteered to research various organizational structures for this sort of undertaking.

Speaking of Ernie, did I mention that the Christmas party would be held at his house at 12320 Old Redwood Highway, Healdsburg? It's actually just out of Windsor. Bring money for dues and T-shirts. Also bring flying stories from the past year. The stories told at the last party were great entertainment! Since this will be our December club meeting it will start promptly, like all our meetings, at 7:00pm.

Next Jon reviewed the events the club did this year and asked that people start thinking now about what we want to participate in next year. Some events take months of planning and preparation. This year's events included the Rose Parade, Regionals, Lakeview trip, St John Fly-in, Go-for-it Cup, and the Coffee Can. Some things that were mentioned for next year were speakers for the meetings, learning sessions, a Northern meeting, physiologic training in a hypobaric chamber (to tell when you are getting hypoxic), and things to include paragliders.

We talked a little about the Fort Funston situation. There is a possibility the USHGA will revoke the site insurance and the site will be closed down, due to a history of complaints about unsafe flying. The feeling is that we should try to attend Fellow Feathers meetings to keep informed of the situation. Once the meeting was adjourned we watched part of the movie "Sky Riders".

The next meeting will be 12-11-1998 at 7:00 at Ernie's place at 12320 Old Redwood Hwy, Healdsburg. It's the Christmas party!!! Ernie's phone 707-433-1785 Below are directions to Ernie's; From the South: North 101 to Healdsburg. Take first Healdsburg exit: "Healdsburg, Old Redwood Hwy." Take left, going under freeway and head south on Old Redwood Hwy. After passing Foppiano Winery, you'll pass Limerick Lane on your left. Take the first left after Limerick Lane. You'll enter a private road. Take the first left, into my yard. The house is beyond the barn.

From the North: South 101 to Healdsburg. Take last Healdsburg exit, after crossing the river: "Old Redwood Hwy". Bear right and head south on Old Redwood Hwy. After passing Foppiano Winery, you'll pass Limerick Lane on your left. Take the first left after Limerick Lane. You'll enter a private road. Take the first left, into my yard. The house is beyond the barn. CW

October Meeting Minutes

The anxiously awaited election of officers meeting finally arrived. As voters made their way into the polling place there was much talk about the weekend flying. Three pilots had nice autumn flights at St John on Saturday and Elk had been good both days. Jon James showed around the new USHGA calendar. It's way cool. Once people stopped filing in present were; Sterling Calder, Charley Warren, Matt Jagelka, Todd Robinson, Bob Storms, Ernie Camacho, Larry Roberts, Duane Taylor, Leo Jones, Guy Nicholas, Peter Lindquist, Jon James, Chris McKeon, Scott Huber, Arthur Meadows, and Gunther Lohrentz.

Jon started the meeting right on time, whenever that was. The first order of business was reports from new pilots on the flying that they had been doing. Sterling began by telling us he had not been flying since the last meeting and some other stuff totally unrelated to hang gliding. Sterling will surely be the club's link to the paragliding community.

Guy reported that he went to a prospective training site on Kawana Springs road with Jon and didn't have much luck. It turns out that the hill isn't really that good and Guy broke a downtube on Jon's Raven. Chris has been flying his brains out at Goat Rock and Elk Mt. He had a flight at Goat Rock where he was able to soar around for awhile then showed the good judgement to go land when the wind began to pick up. He also got his first thermals at Elk, reporting gaining 150' in 50fpm lift. Chris went from having done one 360, to loosing count somewhere around 50 on his flight at Elk. From now on he'll only be able to wonder how many he has done. Arthur has been flying at Elk as well. He reported having two flights there in one day and feeling very good about returning to the air. He got some harness issues sorted out during his first real flying in four years.

Matt told us tales of flying in Switzerland during a recent vacation he took there to visit relatives. He flew two days from a site near Geneva, launching in France and landing in Switzerland. The conditions weren't the best but the experience was.

Next the meeting turned to talk of the "Go-for-it" Cup competition. The rules have been reviewed and explained and the standings as of meeting time were 1. Todd 315.8 miles, 2. Jon 289 miles, 3. Leo 217.3 miles, 4. Matt 207.3 miles. The contest is on until November 1st at which time I will publish all the results from all the contestants. A subcommittee was formed to review the rules for next year's contest. They will meet before the Christmas party and report their results at that time. Leo, Matt and Jon are on the committee. The other club competition going on is the "Coffee Can", which Todd is also leading with a 46.5 mile flight from St John Mtn.

Duane gave the club the Treasurers report next. All the receipts are in from the St John fly-in and we didn't go in the hole this year. In fact we came out $231.55 ahead due mostly to the sales of extra T-shirts. The club presently has $1200.00 in the bank, which should cover our insurance and other costs for the next year. A motion was made and seconded to open a club checking account at Glendale Federal Bank. This will make it easier to write checks to members for reimbursement of expenses, without the high cost of checks we had at Summit Savings. We agreed to a "Supporting Member" status for club members who want to pay more than the $15.00 yearly dues.

Site reports from Leo were next. He is still working on year-round access to St Helena and Vista Trail. Bud Getty says, "We'll see" regarding St Helena. Leo met with Mrs. Campbell about the landing zone for St Helena and will stay in touch with her as she gets over the loss of her husband. She needs a hang gliding friendly caretaker for the property if anyone is interested. People have been flying Goat Rock and carrying up from the beach. Elk needs roadwork. We have cut two water bars but it still needs fill in the deep ruts and trimming along the sides.

There was extensive discussion about an aero-tow operation at Crazy Creek. Leo met with Jim Inderbow and Jim is very interested in the idea. We need to put together a business plan to figure out how to make it feasible. A subcommittee was formed to look into it. They will meet at Matt's house on 10-30-1998 at 6:00pm. The committee is Todd, Duane, Leo, Peter, Ernie, Larry, Jon, Chris and Sterling.

At long last we got to the election of officers! There were a few new nominations, then some sniveling and "I can't do it 'ing" and then we voted. The new slate is President Jon James, Vice President Sterling Calder, Flight Director Leo Jones, Treasurer Duane Taylor and Secretary Charley Warren. Jon graciously declined a speech and started talking about campaigning for Secretary next year. I wonder where he got a silly idea like that. Sterling was elected on his paragliding merit. The thinking was the club could use a liaison to the paragliding community and since he is the only paraglider pilot in the club we wanted to make him feel important. He didn't seem too disappointed when we told him that the Vice President doesn't have any official duties in the club.

Ernie offered the use of his house for the Christmas party again this year. Same place as last year. As usual the party will be a potluck. It will be 12-11-1998 at 7:00pm.

There were a couple of nominations for the Club Service award, Leo and Jon. And Scott was nominated for the Turkey award for his landing in the blackberry bushes across the road from the Elk LZ.

The next meeting will be 11-16-1998 at the Stony Point Round Table at 7:00pm.

September Meeting Minutes

Before the meeting began there were books and shirts to buy and pictures to ogle and suds to swill. Todd had brought the left over T-shirts from the St John Fly-in. I have the remainder, 7 XL and 3 Med. John Blacet brought some extra Sky Adventures Stories of Our Heritage books. I believe he still has one for sale. (Gone--John)  At $25, they are a $5 savings under the regular price. The shirts are $15 and are pretty cool, for those who have not seen them. Of course proceeds from the shirts help keep the club solvent, so if you didn't get one send Duane the money and I'll send you a shirt.

The meeting started somewhat earlier than usual, being called to order at 7:45pm. Attending were: Ernie Camacho, Denise Lindquist, Peter Lindquist, Bob Storms, John Blacet, Todd Robinson, Charley Warren, Michael Swaim, Jon James, Scott Huber, Gunter Lohrentz, Leo Jones, Guy Nicholes, Sterling Calder, Duane Taylor, Fred Clement and his two sons.

First we talked about the passing of Mike Young. For those who haven't heard Mike was a Sonoma Wings member with little experience who was killed recently while towing with George Hamilton in Sacramento. He was 47 years old and is survived by two grown sons and his parents and a long-time girlfriend, Sue. He was form Texas where his sons and parents still reside. Mike had lived in Santa Rosa for 18 years and worked at Hewlett Packard. There was no one who depended on him. George was extremely upset over the incident and has just returned to teaching. Mike had tried getting lessons from Tim Shea who refused to teach him after awhile because he "wasn't getting it". Todd took him for a tandem flight a couple years ago and reported that Mike had freaked out and was throwing the glider around, nearly out of control. Jon was also unsuccessful at teaching him and strongly advised him not to try towing. The lesson here is; when someone comes into the community and is determined not to be a competent pilot we must inform everyone in the area that they should not give lessons to the person. This is a tragedy for all the parties involved. Mike is the second Sonoma Wings member to be killed hang gliding. Dick Cassetta was the other. Gunter will try to send a card to Mike's parents.

On a brighter note we were introduced to a new pilot, Sterling Calder. Sterling flies paragliders and had his first soaring flight last weekend. He is form Windsor and is taking lessons through Airtime. He reports being happy with the level of instruction but would like more structured, classroom type, learning. He is a former parachute jumper who enjoyed being under canopy more than free fall.

Guy Nicholes is looking for a harness for a big guy. He has Jon's old Raven but hasn't flown it yet.

Leo reported on the efforts to fly year-round at St Helena and to get an extended season at Vista Trail. So far no commitments from the powers that be. The road to the beach at Goat Rock is still closed pending funding to fix it. There was some discussion regarding top landing on the south end of the ridge. It looks like there are places to land for fall flying at St Helena, to the north of our old LZ and along Tubbs Lane to the south. We may also get permission to land on the Campbell's property due to the untimely death of Ken Campbell. His widow is friendlier towards us.

Everyone who entered the Go-for-It Cup is encouraged to read the rules in the January issue of "HotAir". Some people didn't realize that flights to goal, triangles and out-n-backs were worth more than one point per mile. Presently Jon has the lead in the contest. The cup has definitely had the desired effect of getting more pilots to try flying cross-country.

Nominations for officers were held and are still open. Elections will be held at the next meeting, so lets have a big turnout. Nominated were: Prez; Leo Jones and Jon James - VP; Todd Robinson, Matt Jagelka and Scott Huber - Treasurer; Duane Taylor - Flight Director; Leo Jones - Secretary; Charley Warren. Nominations for Turkey, Club Service and Flight of the Year awards are also being solicited. Submit officer nominations to the Secretary and other nominations to the Prez.

Leo got his observer rating and encourages others to get theirs. Talk to Ray Leonard or Eric Beckman by November to get it by the first of the year. They are only good for a year now.

We need to start thinking about where to have the Christmas party. Bring any ideas to the next meeting. The next meeting will be October 19th at the Stony Point Round table Pizza.

August Meeting Minutes

Well, we got to meet in the big room this time. Attending were; John Blacet, Brian Sharp, Duane Taylor, Charley Warren, Albert Branson, Todd Robinson, Bob Storms, Jon James, Scott Huber, Gunter Lohrentz, Ernie Camacho, Matt Jagelka, Leo Jones, Arthur Medows, Fred Clement, and Craig Clement.

Arthur Medows, a new member from England who has been living in the Dallas area and has just moved to Petaluma. He introduced himself and told us he has done a little towing but has done most of his flying in the UK. He is from Liverpool and has about 30 hours airtime.

Fred Clement made the effort to come to the meeting with hardware and stitches for us all to admire. He reports that the break occurred because he stuck his feet out in front of him rather than trying to touch the keel with them on landing. Fred's son Craig was with him and told us the story of his tandem flight. The highlights for Craig were landing on the wheels and upon spotting his sister, from 400', couldn't resist the impulse to spit on her. He only missed by a foot. Future bomb-drop champion. Craig is going into the eighth grade. All that entertainment was before the meeting began promptly at 8:00 pm.

The first order of business was reports on St John Mt. Last Sunday a few of us were confronted by an officer from the Department of the Interior Bearaue of Reclamation, while mowing starthistle in the primary LZ at East Park Reservoir. Before we were forced to cease and desist, we got about 90% of what we wanted to do done. Leo volunteered to call the agency regarding keeping the area mowed. Special thanks go out to the Berkley Hang Gliding Club, who donated $250 to the ramp fund and to the Sacramento club who donated $100. Sonoma Wings supplied the balance and the labor. With most of the receipts in for the materials for the ramp the cost so far is well over $350. The shirts, prizes, tasks and first aid kit are all in place for the meet. Needed are tarps, radios, drivers and crew people. Everyone should bring a large blue tarp so we can make a large petroglyph for the turn point. Radios will be for the crew to follow the action. The shirts for the event are $427. Matt will have entry forms for the Saturday am pilots meeting. The Stonyford locals report that Stephan; the owner of the Flying S Ranch has passed away. The new property holders are reportedly not hostile. The property does however still have eight-foot fences all the way around it. Not to mention ostriches and buffalo.

Charley got a request to do the Rohnert Park Founders Day parade. There were no takers to organize the late September event.

We heard from Ernie and Gunter about the Pillsbury LZ property. The club encourages pilots to call PG&E and request information on getting a camping permit for our old spot.

Nominations of officers will be at the next meeting. Elections will be at the October meeting.

There is an LZ at St Helena at the north of our old one that should be good for this fall. A few pilots talked about a Labor Day trip to Lakeview.

Matt has been in contact with Ken Brown about operating an aero tow operation in the area, possibly at Cloverdale or Crazy Creek. Ken sounded enthusiastic about the prospect.

The race for the Go-For-It cup is heating up. Due to all the past weekends results not being counted yet official totals were unavailable. Todd and Jon are very close with about three other pilots right behind 'em. If you've entered remember to submit your flights.

The next meeting will be 9-21-1998 CW

July Meeting Minutes

Sonoma Wings meeting notes from: 7-20-1998 This was a short meeting and attendance was a bit lower than it has been lately. Present were: Charley, Todd, Emily, John, Duane, Matt, Jon, Guy, Leo and Scott. Some pilots had just returned from a trip to Lakeview and had tales of many adventures. We watched videos, courtesy of Matt, from Hat Creek, Lakeview and Indian Valley. We were also treated to photos of ErnieÕs truck stuck in the mud 87 miles from Lakeview and 100 miles from anywhere, where five pilots spent one night out in the desert. Ernie has been nominated for the Turkey award for his efforts. Fred Clement broke his leg and got to take an ambulance ride all the way from Lakeview to Santa Rosa. He underwent surgery at Memorial hospital. Both bones in the lower leg were broken just below the knee. Fred would like to sell his HPAT, which was undamaged, in order to buy something that lands easier. Hopefully someone who was there will submit a story for the newsletter Ed. The ramp party at St John was a success. It is in great shape for the meet, upcoming on 8-22 & 23. The project went a little over budget. We need about $150 more to offset costs. Please send donations to Duane and designate them as such. Duane also reminds us that he needs a paper trail for all costs and expenses. The Fly-in is coming up fast. The entry fee will be $30 and the event will be open to H4 and sponsored H3 pilots. The first day will be open distance XC. Leo is considering a triangle or dog-leg task for day two with goal being at East Park Reservoir. There will be a committee meeting at MattÕs house at 7:00pm on 8-3. Goat Rock is open for flying once again! The road to the bottom is still closed, so we have to carry up after we're done. The Arch View parking lot has been modified to accommodate more cars and is quite congested on weekends. Guy Nicholes got his H1 rating and expects to have his H2 in time to get a flight off of Hull before the season is done for the year. Congratulations Guy! He needs a glider and harness and is hooking in at about 250 pounds. The 'Go-For-it-Cup' and Coffee Can scores are adding up, although no official tally was available. The next meeting will be 8-17-1998. CW

June Meeting Minutes

Sonoma Wings meeting notes from: 6-15-1998 Another good turn-out included Sonoma Wings members; Todd Robinson, Charley Warren, Ernie Camacho, Jon James, Denise Lindquist, Peter Lindquist, Steve Bickford, Oliver, Michael Flood, Albert Branson, Duane Taylor, Leo Jones, Guy Nicholes, Matt Jagelka, Gunter Lohrentz, and Scott Huber. The evenings entertainment began with videos of the Regionals. The competition was entered by eight Sonoma Wings members with two other members flying as wind dummies. Listed here along with their final ranking in the competition are the SW competitors; #1 Todd, #5 Bill, #9 Ralph, #14 Matt, #18 Jon, #23 Greg, #27 Ernie, #28 Larry Smith. Leo and John B. flew as condition indicators. Leo and Todd both reported having hawks strike their wings while in flight! Once the meeting was called to order there was a report from the pilots who attended the Fellow Feathers election of officers meeting. People who fly at Fort Funston are encouraged to join Fellow Feathers. They are the governing body for the site. They were receptive to concerns expressed about unsafe flying practices at Funston. They understood any incidences could negatively impact their site as well as the sport. The St John ramp building party is finally on for 6-21 & 22. Preparations for the St John fly-in are well under way. The committee members are: Todd - T shirts and dinner, Jon - Safety, Matt - Forms & waivers, Leo - tasks and Charley - prizes. The club agreed to pay for a blown out root batten pocket on DeniseÕs Dream that was used in the parade. Camping is no longer allowed outside of campground boundaries at Lake Pillsbury. Oak Flat proper is still open to free camping but not the area we used by the LZ. Some pilots have been camping on the mountain at Red Spot. The logging road into Pillsbury is still closed. It is expected to cost $1.2 to $1.3 million to fix all the slides. Work is slated to begin in September or October. Steve reported that there is land for sale on the Blue Ridge by Lake Berryessa but the road up is no longer public. He says if anyone wants to open the site they will have to find a new LZ the landowner by the big barn doesnÕt want people to land there anymore. LeoÕs airline ticket is still up for grabs. ItÕs good til the end of the year. Poor preflights have been reported to have cost people good flights recently. Remember to do them and to thoroughly observe peoples gliders as you help them launch etc.

May Meeting Minutes

The meetings continue to be well attended. While we waited for this one to start besides the usual pizza and beer we were treated to parade videos, courtesy of John Blacet. Thanks John. At the meeting were: Albert Branson and friend Donnie Graves, Denise and Peter Lindquist, John Blacet, Charley Warren, Brian Sharp, Larry Roberts, Duane Taylor, Cameron Boyer and Alex, Jon James, Guy Nicholes, Leo Jones, Matt Jagelka, Ernie Camacho, Gunter Lohrentz, Todd Robinson and Emily Walker. Cameron Boyer introduced himself first. He is a skydiver who wants to learn to hang glide. He has had a life-long desire to fly in a cloud. Guy Nicholes reported on his trip to Mission Soaring for his first days lessons and his first flights. He paid $85.00 for a one-day lesson. He got four flights, getting as high as five feet off the ground on the best one. His niece got up to 15 feet high. She had her first day at the same time. Guy also learned a lesson about ground handling as he tried to walk across the hill while hooked in to the glider. The wind was a little strong and flipped him over. It happened slowly and there was no damage. Next we got a report on the Rose Parade. It was fun event to do and the participents are already talking about what they will be doing next year. Our entry was pleasantly positioned between a marching band and a large group of clowns. In the staging area, where the real party was, Albert nearly hit Lynn Woolsey in the head with a windsock on a pole, before the parade started. During the parade we gave away 110 handouts with local hang gliding information on them, to interested people on the route. Thanks to Matt, Bob, Albert, Larry, Leo, Philip, Denise, John and Charley for their contributions to the event. Sad news was next on the agenda. Chandelle is officially closed and defunct. Andy Whitehill will be giving lessons through Airtime of San Francisco. Chandelle was one of the oldest hang gliding businesses in the country. Thanks go out to six Sonoma Wings who lowered the new fence at the LZ at Elk Mt. They lowered a section, about 100 feet long, down to ground level. They also took two large bushes out of the creekbed, which were in the approach path. We were informed that the endangered Red-legged frog lives at the Elk LZ, somewhere across the new fence. St Helena is open for the year. We are still waiting for the LZ to dry out before approaching the landowner to be sure we can still land there. Everyone should call the Rangers at Duncans Mills and tell them that there is no problem with the launch and that we can hike our gliders up when done flying. At Lake Pillsbury there are boundary markers around Oak Flat Campground, but no fence yet. Our former camping area is now posted "No Camping". Oak Flat Campground will remain open through the summer. We can still land in our regular LZ. FERC will be dictating a new water flow regime, which will affect Lake Pillsbury. On June 8 there was a meeting of the Lake County Board of Supervisors to discuss the logging road to Pillsbury. Last year there were two accidents involving hang gliding vehicles on the county road. Drive slowly and vigilantly. Pilots going on the Lakeview trip on July 11 include: Jon James, Matt Jagelka, John Blacet, Todd Robinson, Leo Jones, and Ernie Camacho. There are two entries for the Go-for-It Cup, so far. Safety Report; We need a new first aid kit on St John. People should think about flying with one in their harnesses. Funston officer's election will be held June 9 at the clubhouse at 7:00pm. Pilots who care about the future of the site are encouraged to attend. Ward is the current President. Around 20 members usually attend. Jamie Sheldon appears to be a good candidate. The next Sonoma Wings meeting is June 15

April Meeting Minutes

Sonoma Wings meeting notes from 4-20-1998 This was a fairly well attended meeting. Present were; John Blacet, Charley Warren, Bob Storms, Ernie Camacho, Duane Taylor, Denise Lindquist, Peter Lindquist, Scott Huber, Gunter Lohrentz, Guy Nicholas, Leo Jones, Jon James and Matt A. Jagelka. While people filed in there was talk of how good Elk was the day before. Matt, Roy, Doug and Bill Vogel got over 2500' above launch and flew around for as long as they wanted, mostly around two hours. There were lots of paragliders there also that flew earlier in the day. They had good flights too. Roy had an awesome bird experience with a golden eagle. The eight-foot wingspan bird followed him around, very closely, for about 15 minutes. It flashed its talons at him and Roy admitted it made him a little nervous. When Jon called the meeting to order he announced he had no agenda and asked for business. Duane started the discussion by saying that if people have club expenses to claim they should let him know and they will get paid when he and Jon go to the bank. This will normally be right after the newsletter comes out around the second Monday of odd numbered months. Guy Nicholas introduced himself next. He is a new pilot who will be going to Mission Soaring for lessons in May. Guy lives in Santa Rosa. Jon apologized for the RV&Boat show falling through. Seems that the show management is strictly by the rules and if you are not there to set up before the show they will give your space away. We then spent a little time talking about strategies for getting new pilots into the sport. It was agreed that the club needs to do more of these kinds of events. It seems appealing to adults rather than children is a more successful strategy. Charley provided an update on the Rose Parade planning. We will use Denise Lindquist's 145 Dream to mount on Matt's tow vehicle. John Blacet will get the glider since Denise has a previous commitment for that day. We will meet at Matt's house the Thursday before the parade to wax his truck. That's 5-14-1998. The parade is the 16th of May. There were some good ideas presented for decorations. We need about four or five volunteers to walk along the parade route under the wingtips of the glider to guard the general public form the dangerous hang glider. Please call Charley if can help. 527-8091 Leo has offered his airline ticket to anyone with $150 to donate to the club. It is a standby, round trip ticket to anywhere Continental flies in the contiguous states. He says that if nobody wants it he will probably take a trip to nowhere in particular just to use it. The ramp party at St John Mountain has been postponed once again due to the weather. We are now going to try to do it Memorial Day weekend. This is a good weekend to camp on top of the mountain anyway due to the number of people using the lake. Leo gave the club an update on the status of all the site issues next. He has been in touch with Bud Getty and it appears likely that we will get year- round access to St Helena. Tom Dye Rock is way out of the way, to the north, in a saddle that no gliders have probably ever flown over. Leo reports that Brian Hickey wouldn't go for year-round access after they took their walk-around at Vista Trail. We will most likely get an extension anyway which should take us through the best time of year there. Debate continues over what to do at the Elk Mt LZ. Leo is working on reclaiming part of the fenced area for landing. It appears that the Forrest Service simply did not follow their own plan that the hang gliding community had agreed to. At Pillsbury, PG&E has finally begun to make a move that will affect us. It looks like they will be putting a fence around Oak Flat campground before Memorial Day. Oak Flat will be used for "overflow" camping only. We will still have day use privileges at the landing area. There was much speculation as to what else might happen. Ernie volunteered to look into what kind of terms the horse people have for their lease. They have exclusive camping privileges in the area. One of the items of speculation was that we might be asked to pay a Day-use fee next season. Another was that we might have to go outside of the basin for free camping. I am sending these notes out earlier than usual to give people a chance to volunteer to help out with the Rose Parade. The next meeting will be 5-18-1998. CW

March Meeting Minutes

Submitted by Charley Warren This was a good meeting. It started like all the others recently, with people shooting the breeze while waiting for everyone to wander in. We had videos provided by Matt and Andy to go along with the pizza and beer. By the time the wandering was complete Denise and Peter Lindquist, Charley Warren, John Blacet, Steve Bickford, Scott Huber, Brian Sharp, Andy Long, Todd Robinson, Bob Storms, Michael Flood, Chris McKeon, Gunter Lohrentz, Matt Jagelka, Duane Taylor, Jon James, Larry Roberts and Leo Jones were all in attendance. The videos included cool footage of the Millennium launching and landing at Funston. Very nice looking wing! Jon promptly called the meeting to order at 8:00. The first order of business was to welcome Chris McKeon, a new member who lives in Brentwood. He is a hang 2 who learned to hang glide at Dillon before it was closed. Chris also has recent experience in New Zealand. He told us tales of long ridges with few pilots to take advantage of them. Welcome Chris. Next we were introduced to an old member who attended his first Sonoma Wings meeting after being a member for nine years, Michael Flood. Michael lives in Calistoga and has flown Hull and St. Helena. He is a Captain for Fed- X and a former Top Gun, so don't try to intimidate him out of a thermal. Thanks for coming to the meeting Michael. We received news from Wings of Ragallo that Pat Denevan has bought Dunlap and is going to have a Fly-in there 5-22 ~ 5-25 1998. As of now there is no water on site so it is not open yet. Charley gave a Rose Parade update. The permit was submitted and accepted, and we are in the parade on 5-16-1998. We will mount a glider on the tow rig on Matt's truck. We are looking for a glider with a less than 30 foot span. If you have one that we could use please call Charley. The RV& Boat show at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds is 4-4 ~ 4-6-1998. Contact Jon James to volunteer time to man the simulator. This was a lot of fun last time we did it and we rounded up at least one new member from the last one. Due to the weather and the conflicting date with the RV & Boat show we postponed the work party at St John until 5-2 & 3-1998. Leo gave us a rundown of our site status, which follows. Leo and Brian Hickey have a walkabout scheduled at Vista Trail. They took the garbage cans away from there and there is now less trash on the ground there. Bud Getty, the Ranger in charge of Mt St Helena, says there are Peregrine falcons nesting on the north side of the mountain, on Tom Dye Rock. Leo is pursuing year-round access to both of these sites. Mr. Getty said he wished we could regain access to Sugarloaf Ridge. We must avoid any known Peregrine nesting areas in order to further our position at these sites. The landing zone at St Helena is still touchy. Don't land there without first contacting Leo. Michael Flood offered to help with the negotiations for St Helena LZs since he is a local and knows some landowners in the area. We haven't received our insurance papers back from the USHGA yet. Some other clubs got theirs back recently so we probably will too. Fences and a berm have been installed in the LZ at Elk. Leo has been in contact with the Forest Service to try to get them removed and sounds encouraged. They had an original plan to leave them out to accommodate us. Mention was made that the BLM will appropriate funds for work on recreational projects on Forest Service lands. (St John launch? Elk LZ?) Matt reports that the winch is now mounted in his truck and is ready to tow. It needs only minor modifications to make it easier to put in and out. The club paid John for upkeep of the website. He reports improvements have been made and more are on the way. Gunter went to the USHGA meeting in Portland and gave us an interesting report. Jon reported on his investigation of FERC and found out that since it is a public entity, all its business is public record. They have a website that contains all correspondence with the public. Gunter's letter of protest is even there. FERC's position is that intervention on the Lake Pillsbury LZ issue is premature. They have a process that one must go through to become an intervener. Only interveners can meddle in their world. Jon wants to be an intervener representing Sonoma Wings. We thought we should also keep Gunter as an instigator so we can work inside and out of their system. Jon will keep close watch on FERC. It appears that anything that may happen will take some time. Our best course of action is to remain ready to act, but do nothing for the moment.

February Meeting Minutes

Submitted by Charley Warren The meeting, like past February meetings, was lightly attended. Present were Gunter Lohrentz, Ernie Camacho, Fred Clement, Matt Jagelka, Peter Lindquist, Denise Lindquist, Charley Warren, Jon James, Duane Taylor, Leo Jones and Todd Robinson. The light turnout was a little surprising considering the auction of the airline tickets that was to take place. While people were filing in we watched recent videos of Goat Rock, provided by Matt. The beach erosion is amazing! Anyone going to Goat Rock to fly is advised to walk the beach first. The pilots who flew in the video were having to land at the north end of the parking lot. There is a ten-foot drop off where we usually land and there are large boulders at the bottom of the drop off. The tops of the boulders look suspiciously like the rocks I tried to dig out of the sand for my yard. Hmmm. It looks like it will take the beach a couple years to recover from this winter. (Goat Rock is now closed due to road slippage. I talked to a ranger on 3-1-1998 who said it will be reopened as soon as they can get FEMA money to fix the road. cw) Chris Arai had the best excuse for missing the meeting as he and his wife had a son on 2-6-1998. Congratulations to Chris and his wife. The meeting was called to order at 8:00. The assigned action items were updated first. Ernie reported that we maybe too late to get in on the RV & Boat show. Jon James had some contact regarding the show that he will follow up on. Maybe we can still do something for it. Charley reported that he received an application for the Rose parade. There is a ten-foot width limit for floats that we may be able to get around, if we want to display a glider on a tow rig. We can at least mount a glider sideways on something and drag it down the street. Any offers for a glider we could use? The work party is still on on St John Mt for April 4 &5. The option to cancel due to weather is still open too. Leo and Ernie have been in contact with the Sacramento club, NCHGA. They still want to participate but are concerned about the weather that time of year. People are encouraged to bring chain saws and other tools like shovels, buckets and jackhammers. Leo has a list of materials. The goal is to widen the planks at the exit end of the ramp. We will also work on the "west" launch, that needs protruding rocks flattened and brush cleared. We have worked there this time of year before with quite a bit of snow on the mountain and have gotten to fly. It's beautiful! Jon reports the site insurance has been paid and our USHGA Chapter renewal forms have been sent in. Our permits are in the process of being renewed for St Helena and Goat Rock/Vista Trail. We may be able to get on a three year or longer renewal cycle rather than our present two-year cycle. Brian Hickey is back as Head Ranger of the Duncans Mills district of the State Parks dept. Leo got a letter from Allan Buckman, a state Fish and Game biologist. The letter stated that we are no threat to any birds that may be in the areas that we fly. This is the last obstacle to year-round flying at Vista Trail and St Helena. We will still need to renegotiate our permits to get year-round access, but it looks promising. For now we can fly Vista Trail until March 31 and St Helena after May 1. Everyone flying at the coast is encouraged to continue to pick up trash the rangers know we're doing it and it may help us get more access. Duane gave us a Treasurers report. As the end of 1997 our balance was $520.82. Income for 1997 was $650.00 dues, $181.50 donations, $10.69 interest, $1489.00 T-shirts, $43.19 carried from 1996, that equals $2374.38 total. Expenses for 1997 were $545.46 newsletter/postage, $710.00 site insurance/use permits, $19.00 trophies, $579.10 T-shirts, for a total of $1853.56. With the dues that have been paid for 1998 and donations our present balance is $1097.28. Obviously, with our declining membership we will need to do some fund raising activities to cover our expenses for 1998. Currently we have 37 paid members for 1998. John Blacet requested that the club pay him $96.00 for keeping up the club web site. Much discussion ensued. There was some dissention among members who don't have computers and those who were opposed to having to pay for something the club never asked for. The issue of the clubs financial status was also raised. Some members thought the web site gives us a nice presence so the whole world can see what we are doing as a club. The fact that we were paying for Internet access for the past year anyway was also raised. In the end a vote was taken and it was agreed that John should get something for his efforts. The consensus was that if we were going to pay for the service we should get some control over the content. Ernie will get with John to discuss the arrangements. The next topic that generated lots of discussion was the Oak Flat LZ issue. The official Sonoma Wings club position is this; "Oak Flat is the best place to land and we should do what we can to retain our right to land there. Camping at the LZ is a separate and secondary issue. We should not be subject to any more restrictions than other users of the area." It is also the feeling of the club that now is not the time for a letter writing campaign. We need to find out whom the people and agencies are to write to so our efforts have the most impact. We don't know if it would have the most impact to write to PG&E, FERC, or the Forrest Service. What we know as pertinent facts are: PG&E is the landowner. PG&E wants to sell the land. Trisha Sanchez is the PG&E contact person. The Federal Energy Resources Commission, FERC, has some say in how the land can be used. Speculation on the issue includes; The Forrest Service could become the new landowner. (There are no dates known for talks scheduled between the Forrest Service and PG&E, if any) PG&E might try to restrict access to the area in order to make the land easier to sell. PG&E says they have an application on file to have the FERC boundary extended. Gunter's contacts at FERC say PG&E has no application on file. Jon James volunteered to further investigate FERC. Finally we got to the part of the meeting where the "Buddy Passes" were auctioned off. There were no higher bids than the previously submitted ones. Ernie got one pass for $200 and Leo got the other for $50. Leo wouldn't raise his own bid but said that if anyone else wants to donate more money to the club they can buy his out from under him for a minimum of $75. These are a great deal! They're standby; round-trip tickets to anywhere in the continental US. Leo reports that he has been staying in contact with the landowner of the LZ we used last year at St Helena. The situation is delicate there and we need to contact Leo before landing there for updated info. Once again the dates for club trips for the summer are: Lakeview the week beginning July 11, Regionals June 12~14, Nationals June 20 ~ 27. Entry fees are $100 for the Regionals and $275 for the Nationals. Ray Leonard is staging a 450 points meet in the Carson City area July 25 ~ August 1, which some club members are planning to attend. Leo says he is going to Lakeview and would like to get a list of interested pilots like we did for the Owens last year. Todd reports that he has the bottoms for several trophies but needs tops. He is looking for one for the Flight of the Year award and one for the Go For It Cup. Anyone feeling artsy should contact Todd. CW