Club Meeting - February 22.

In attendance were: Albert Branson, Leo Jones, Larry Roberts, Brian Robins, Brian Sharp, Bob Storms, Duane Taylor, Dirk Steggewentz, Matt Jagelka, John Blacet, Charley Warren, Ernie Camacho, Laura Thurston, Justin Miller, Peter Humes, Jon James, Greg Sugg, Scot Huber, Steve Acton and Ghiago Mocarzel.

Pizza and beer were consummed. There was a full slate of activities scheduled for the meeting, too many actually, but luckily Mike Vorhis postponed his appearance until the March meeting. That left a dissertation by Brian Robins on the rigid wing scene, and a show-and-tell on harness setups by the rest of us.

Before we started talking Rigid Wings, a call for a work party at Crazy Creek was made. It'll be the weekend before the tow clinics. So, plan on showing up on 3/24, 25 with your shovel, rake or whatever. More info will be posted on the Websit's bulletin board as the date gets closer.

Now to the Rigids... Brian held forth for over an hour on the history of rigid wings in hang gliding, on the current state of the art, and the possible future of these high-performance wings. Here are a few things that I can remember him saying, sort of:

- The Swift was the greatest Rigid Wing ever built
- The Millenium was the greatest Rigid Wing ever built
- (just kidding)
- There should always be a place for flex wings, but the differences between
them and Rigids may blur.
- The current emphasis on cleaning up the pilot/control frame drag is natural.
- The current crop of wings are all relatively similar in performance.
- Reducing drag is where advances will be made.
- All wings spin. The trick is designing a wing to reduce the spin tendency to an acceptable, low level.
- Rigids are less-fatiguing to fly.
- and lots of other tasty tidbits that are strictly off the record. You had
to be there.

After Brian's presentation, we took a break while raffle tickets were sold for several nifty prizes. The big prize of a folding cot was won by John Blacet. Justin contributed a few bottles of his great wine, with the Sonoma Wings label. I don't know who won that. At any rate, the club made some money.

Then it was on to XC harness best practices. Several pilots brought their harnesses and shared what worked well for them. Again, you had to be there to get the most out of it. I'll mention two items - that I espoused at the meeting:

1. Get an in-flight photo of yourself this year. I've got a nice camera setup that's easy to attach to your glider. If I'm not using it I'll gladly let you borrow it. Vince did just that this last week and got some nice shots of himself at Funston.

2. Get your radio headset / push-to-talk switch setup as clean and clear-sounding as you can. Ernie and others are willing to help you build a custom setup.

2a. If you have a mobile unit in your vehicle, get it tuned up as well.

The meeting was adjourned around 9:30, but show-and-tell went on for another half hour or more. It was generally agreed that this had been a good meeting and that Ernie was the best V.P. this club has ever had.

(Hey, you take the minutes next time and you can write anything YOU want, OK?)

Humbly submitted by Ernie, standing in for Kurt.