Sonoma Wings meeting notes from 11-20-2000.

At the meeting vying for club offices were Ernie Camacho, Justin Miller, Steve Acton, Ghigo Acton, Charley Warren, John DeAguiar, Kurt Bainum, Marcus Peterson, Albert Branson and Donna Matthias,

Duane Taylor, Gunter Lohrentz, Scot Huber, Leo Jones, Derk Steggewentz, Matt Jagelka, Jon James and Bob Storms. While waiting for the meeting to start we watched a cool video of speed gliding in Austria and another of Carrie Castle

in the Owens.

Order was called at 7:48.

We got a brief recap of the Officer's meeting. They made some changes to the officers’ duties. The changes will require the bylaws to be amended. We

voted to accept the changes and amend the bylaws. The most significant change was to split the Flight Director duties into two offices: a Site Director and

a Safety Officer. The Vice President was also given actual duties!

From there we went right into the election of officers. There were many heartfelt stump speeches and a couple of close races. There was an infusion of

new blood balanced with the "old guard". When all was said and done Sonoma Wings Officers for next year are as follows: Prez Albert Branson, V.P. Ernie Camacho, Secretary Kurt Bainum, Treasurer Matt Jagelka, Site Director Leo Jones, Safety Officer Jon James.

We would like to say a special thanks to Duane who was Treasurer for what seemed like forever.

Ernie volunteered to take over the newsletter duties. Thanks Ernie!

Leo and Ernie will be working with John Blacet to update the webpage.

Club meetings next year will be less business oriented and more fun. Most

of the business will be conducted offline.

Leo displayed a great piece of artwork from Roger Butler depicting the landing situation in the Stonyford area. He and Albert will be working on getting shirts made with it by the Christmas party.

We heard from Steve Acton who recently moved to Ukiah from Bishop. He said it was a job related move and assured us that yes it is a bit of a flying

adjustment. Steve's son Ghigo wants to learn to fly.

Justin Miller, one of our few PG club members, has started to learn to fly hang gliders.

Marcus Peterson is from Santa Rosa and has been learning form Doug Prather in Modesto. He reports it's no further than Hollister.

Pilots are encouraged to take gifts to landowners around St. John and St. Helena to help with our landowner relations campaign.

Justin reports finding a good PG site at Lake Sonoma in the Pritchet Peak area. He has talked to the head ranger and will be pursuing the issue.

The next officer's meeting will be after the Christmas party.

If anyone has someone they would like to have acknowledged at the party, let Albert know beforehand.

The tug group has $14K but needs $30K.

We talked about setting a goal for the club for 2001 to develop a training site. It was agreed that Crazy Creek would be a likely spot.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:26.

The next meeting will be the Christmas party 12-8-2000 at Matt Jagelka's

house. – CW

Sonoma Wings meeting notes from 12-8-2000.

This was the annual Christmas party meeting and it was a good one. Some forty-one people were at Matt and Lori’s house for the event. We played pool and darts, watched videos, ate and drank while waiting for the meeting to start.
Once again the food was outstanding. There were fresh vegetables, salads, cheeses, pizzas, taquitas, and giant shrimp and of course Peter’s now legendary fresh smoked salmon. Lisa Tate brought hang glider shaped cookies. There were also other deserts and casseroles and too much food to mention. Peter Humes also furnished a keg of home-brewed beer. It was a very smooth and tasty dark ale called Steep Canyon Stout.
The partiers included Lori and Matt Jagelka, Elaine and Charley Warren, Todd Robinson, Roger Butler and Keith, Rich and Danny Sauer, Dianna and Larry Roberts, Frieda and Gunter Lohrentz, Jon James, Leo Jones, Anne and Bob Storms, Shelia and Duane Taylor, Anthony Abate and friend, Chris McKeon and Jenny, Kurt Bainum, Barry Levine, Laura Thurston, Maya and Ernieclause Camacho, Albert and Donna, Lisa Tate, Terri Edington, Robin Ramsey and Hank Roberts, Greg Sugg, John DeAguiar and Ariel and Sylvia, Leo Bynum and Kate Withey, Marcus Peterson and Justin Miller.
The meeting portion of the party convened around 9:30. First we thanked our most gracious hostess and host Lori and Matt.
Albert briefly recapped a rough year for the club. Unfortunate events included Todd and Matt having their gliders stolen, trips to the Owens where people didn’t get to fly, a couple broken bones and a lot of broken tubing. Much better events included Rich Sauer placing second in the Nationals, Bob Storms smoking at the Regionals, the Chelan trip and the awesome King Mt trip.
Next Albert introduced the slate of officers for 2001. They are Albert Branson President, Ernie Camacho Vice President, Matt Jagelka Treasurer, Kurt Bainum Secretary, Leo Jones Site Director and Jon James Safety Officer. Jon gave a short speech. Ernie has volunteered to do the newsletter next year. He says it will be done online.
We heard from new member Leo Bynum. He comes to us from southern CA, is rated to fly tandem and has a tandem glider. He wants to fly with us. He is presently living in Sebastopol. His phone is 415-509-2084, e-mail leo@nearspace.com.

Awards presentations were next on the agenda. Nominees for best flight were Rich Sauer for a 150’ save in Texas, Matt for his first 100-mile flight, and Kurt for a 100-mile flight from King. The Best Flight Award winner was Mike Kunitani for a 169-mile flight in the Owens.
The Go-for-It competition had 18 entries. Rich Sauer won with a score of over 1100 for his ten longest flights. That’s an average of over 110 miles each for ten flights! Rich made a short speech and said that as long as we all keep flying together we will all get better.
Driver’s cups were awarded to Donna Matthias, Linda Sauer, Lori Jagelka and Nancy Ferguson. We cannot thank our drivers enough.
Rich also won the Coffee Can. He made us all agonize while he read off all the names on the five-dollar bills in the can. Rich said that some of these were harder to win than others. He also said that he was quite pleased to win some of them. He thinks it will be hard to repeat this next year.
The club service award went to Leo Jones for all of the many things he has done for the club for the past couple years. Also in contention were Jon James, Duane Taylor, Ernie Camacho and Charley Warren.
The turkey award went to Matt for a blown launch at St. Helena. Matt got up and told his side of the story. There were many contenders for this one including Leo for two blown launches, Barry Levine for breaking the same arm twice, Ernie for driving off with untied gliders on his car at least three times and Chris McKeon for an incident at St. Helena where he struck a tree on launch then plowed into the ground short of the LZ in rainy conditions.
The most improved pilot award went to John DeAguiar who had his first soaring flights this year. John reports that he has sold his training glider to Justin Miller who has persuaded Wally Anderson to give him hang gliding lessons.
Next we heard the tale of the cooperative effort to get shirts made in time for the party. An idea was spawned at a meeting about six weeks ago. The next day Albert called Kevy Metal Graphics to reserve a production slot. The same day Leo contacted Roger Butler with an idea for a cartoon depicting a glider landing, then being chased by two sheriffs, an ostrich and a buffalo. The artwork is great! Albert and Donna were a little late arriving to the party because they were folding shirts as they came out of Kevin’s ink dryer. It was that close. Contact Albert to get your shirt. They are a must have!
Also for sale, through Ernie, are speed gliding videos for $15. The proceeds are to benefit Paris Williams to help defray competition travel expenses.
The meeting was adjourned around 10:30.
The next meeting will be January 25th at 7:00 at the Occidental Rd Round Table Pizza. -- CW

Executive/committee/officers meeting 12/14/00

Present: Albert Branson (president), Jon James (safety officer), Charley Warren (retiring secretary and newsletter editor), Duane Taylor (retiring treasurer), Matt Jagelka (treasurer), Ernie Camacho (vice president / social secretary / newletter / webpage person), Leo Jones (site director), Justin Miller (paragliding representative).

Issues discussed: Goat Rock - State Parks insist we must have waivers on our persons - some are on file but they aren’t really worried about that. Ernie agreed to put a copy of the waiver on the website so that pilots may download/copy it. Advised to keep forms in vehicles just in case any are needed.

Paragliding at Goat Rock was discussed, re. John Blacet’s posting. Leo had already apprised State Parks to expect more paragliders. Suitability of Goat Rock for PG discussed - agreed OK for P4 pilots who are Sonoma Wings pilots or their guests, but not advised for PG in general. Justin and others to explore the possibility of the South end of the site for paragliders.
It was also agreed that Ernie would ensure that we get on BAPA’s mailing list, Justin would contact Kim Galvin, and the amended rules would be posted to the website asap.

Paragliding at Vista Point: Leo had brought this up in a discussion with Duncan’s Mills State Parks office. No different to the rules for hang gliding.

Paragliding at St John/ Potato Hill was also discussed. Ernie agreed to e mail the BAPA webmaster and issue a strong warning to all about the perils of landing on the Flying S ranch.
"Neither soft words or nor even gifts will sooth the wrath of the inhabitants of this region should thou landest here, whether by ignorance or misfortune, and ye verily will be arrested if thou doest such. Fortunately there is no need to undergo such tribulation - goest though in search of the wisdom and guidance of sonomawings.com - and thou shalt land astray no more!" Etc.
Leo will contact Gaspo.

St. Helena: "Bud" Getty, the district Superintendent of Parks, Silverado District, is retiring. He has been very co-operative towards us and has allowed us to fly year round at St Helena. We thank him and wish him well. His replacement is David Nelson. Leo will contact him and arrange a meeting.

Here I wrote down, "Albert will contact USHGA", but I don’t know what it was about - I didn’t write that bit down.

Christmas Cards/Gifts to landowners and other folks who have helped us and been our friends. We made a list. Justin and Karen brought a case of " Sonoma Wings Zinfandel", from Garden Creek Winery, specially bottled and labeled for us. Great job! great artwork by Karen. Other presents include calendars and more booze. Albert volunteered to print out some Christmas Cards, and several members volunteered to deliver said presents and cards.

Safety: Charley showed a machined aluminum bracket from the top of his downtube assembly on his Fusion. The bolt had completely broken through the bracket, probably as a result of a hard landing Charley had made. He was going to send it back to Wills for them to look at. Check your gliders!

Betty Pffeifer’s Parachute Clinic: Sat 13th & Sun14th January. Somewhere on Graton Road. We (??) agreed to contact Kurt and Steve Bickford. Leo will announce details on the Bulletin Board.

Membership Cards: Matt has them.

Treasurer transfer: Redwood Credit Union, Duane to Matt.

Website: Much discussion. Unanimous that it had become static, and a change/ frequent updates were needed, as was more input from club members. Jon, Ernie, Leo (and Kurt Bainum) all interested in helping maintain site. John Blacet had admitted he was too busy to do frequent updates, and was ready to hand responsibility over to suitable person. Ernie wished to take on responsibility for this, with help and input from others, and this was agreed. Ernie also was keen to do an online newsletter, including stuff posted online by club members etc. Printed copies would be sent to those who wanted them.

Club meetings: We agreed to try and re-schedule these from the 3rd Monday of the month, to the 4th Thursday of the month. We felt that more people might show up. Albert said he was going to talk to Round Table Pizza. Help is needed in organizing a monthly event/theme etc.

Leo (for Charley)

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