Sonoma Wings Meeting Minutes

 

Thursday, September 26, 2002

 

The meeting was called to order by treasurer Matt Jagelka at 8:12 p.m.  Those in attendance were: Jon James, Derk Stegewentz, John DeAguiar, Bob Storms, Anthony Abate, Gregg Hackett, Kurt Bainum, Ernie Camacho, Sterling Calder, Eric Gromala, Michal (pronounced “me how”) Krombholz, and Greg Sugg

 

St. John

Matt reminded everyone that the St. John ramp repair work party was on for this coming  weekend.  He urged everyone to come because there is lots of work to be done.  He also said that we should land at Leroy Walkup’s field instead of the field in town near the store where we have been landing quite a lot.  We don’t want to wear out our welcome at that field which is owned by Joe Hester.  Leroy Walkup’s field is directly across from the Walkups’ Kelly green house along the road to Fouts Springs.  The Walkups’ lease the field to another man for grazing, and he said it is fine with him that we land there and drive in to retrieve gliders.  Parking may be a slight problem.

 

HG/PG Fly-In at Elk Mountain

Gregg Hackett said that BAPA is having a fly-in at Elk on October 12th.  Everyone is welcome, paragliders and hang gliders alike.  During that same time period, October 9th through the 14th, Anthony Abate will be down at Torrey Pines for an instructor certification clinic.  He has room on his vehicle for a couple of hang gliders if anyone wants to go down.

 

Training Sites

John DeAguiar, club safety officer, asked for suggestions for possible HG/PG training sites.  Dylan Beach was discussed, however, there seems to be little chance of reopening it as a training site due to congestion and a lawsuit filed long ago against the owners. 

Gregg Hackett said there is a possible site on Skaggs Springs Rd. east of Stewarts Point on Hwy. 1.  It would be suitable for small groups only and is not easily accessible.  Gregg went on to say that there is a good looking hill near the intersection of Hwy. 37 and Lakeville Hwy., near Sears Point Raceway.  It gets a straight-in sea breeze most days in the summer.  The land is owned by Sears Point Raceway.  He suggested that J.W. Seeley be the club person to contact them because he is on good terms with the people who operate the raceway.  For the record, the raceway is now called Infinium.

 

It was mentioned that Sugar Loaf Park may be a possible HG and PG flying site.

 

Ernie Camacho is offering Landing Wind Streamers for sale.  We were introduced to using them at the King Mountain competition.  He is selling them in packs of 10 for $7.50 to club members.  They can be reused several times.  Everybody who has used them says they are really good, easy to use and easy to see.  He has put up a website to describe them:  http://home.comcast.net/~erniecamacho/

 

Nominations for Club Officers

Next meeting, October 24th, is the time to nominate people for the club offices.  Nominations will be accepted for: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Safety Officer, and Site Officer.

 

Radios and Communications

Greg Sugg said that we continue to have radio problems when flying X/C.  Probably the most annoying thing is poor audio due to wind noise.  Most full-face helmets solve that problem, but some pilots don’t use that type of helmet.  Rich Sauer uses a boom mike with a good amount of foam rubber around it with great results.  Winter is a good time to troubleshoot your radio gear.  Pilots have a responsibility to the rest of the group to have their radios working properly: good audio, good PTT switch, good antenna, fully charged battery and a fully charged backup battery for after landing.

 

Matt and others pointed out that we need to formulate radio communication procedures for chase and retrieval during X/C flights.  The procedures should include such things as reporting your position to the chase driver at certain intervals; always acknowledge all transmissions; if a pilot does not respond, should the driver go back to find him or continue on; what to do if your radio fails in flight; etc.  We should start a bulletin board discussion on the topic.  Linda Sauer would be a valuable resource because of her extensive chase experience at major competitions and the World Record Encampment.

 

John DeAguiar will look for an upcoming amateur radio “no code tech” license seminar so those who need to can get their Ham Radio license.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

 

Greg Sugg, Secretary