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Sonoma Wings meeting notes from 12-12-2003
This was our annual Christmas party meeting. The new club officers were installed, awards were awarded, memories were remembered and a good time was had by all. The coolest thing that happened at the meeting was done by one of the many children attending the event. But, I'll get to that shortly.
Attending the meeting were, in no particular order, Charley Warren, Leo Jones, Gregg Hackett, Dianna and Larry Roberts and their grandkids William and Nathaniel, Kurt Bainum and Anna and Kai (sorry Anna I didn't get your last name), Kimberly, Kelsey and Spencer, Anthony Abate (and a couple of his alter egos), the Sauer's -Rich, Linda, Danny and Kimmy, Chris and Deborah Gallagher, Todd Robinson, Mike Doughty, Jon James, Ernie Camacho, Lori and Matt Jagelka, Nancy Ferguson and Vince Endter, Chris McKeon and his niece Kaitlin, John DeAguiar, Robin and Hank Roberts, Weegie McAdams, Greg Sugg and his friend Dean, Donna Matthias and Ashley, Lisa Tate, Brian Padgett, Fred Clement, Scot Huber, Kerri Lemos and her friend Aaron and Leo Bynum. That's 46 people. Counting Kimberly's boyfriend and Chris McKeon's sister, there were 48 people at Kurt's house. I probably missed someone. Please post if you know who they are.
While waiting for the actual meeting to begin people ate lots of great food and traded flying stories from the year. There was an unusual amount of sailplane talk. Two of our members have been taking sailplane lessons. Larry Roberts has had many lessons and is flying solo. Todd Robinson has had a half-dozen lessons and will solo soon, knowing Todd. I'm sure we'll see them both blasting through our thermals at St John next summer. They have both been learning at Crazy Creek Soaring Center in Middletown.
We met Mike Doughty who is a new pilot living in Petaluma.
In one corner of the kitchen, where most people were hanging out, was a display of three model hang gliders that Spencer had made. They were complete with wooden ribs, control frame and of course, colored rats for pilots. The gliders were nice thin wood frames with light paper sails. Very nicely done Spencer! The display even included a wind streamer, standing straight out.
Lisa Tate brought hang glider shaped Christmas cookies. Several of the kids had a good time frosting and decorating them. Of course we ate them all up when the kids were done.
Speaking of eating, we had a whole turkey, a whole ham, lots of salmon, great artichoke crab dip, all kinds of salads, the largest apple I've seen in my life baked and dipped in ¬" thick chocolate. The apple was about six inches in diameter and eight inches tall! We ate a pot of beans, and cheeses, cakes, and cream puffs and lots of other stuff.
At 9:20pm the Vice President, Donna, called the meeting to order. First she introduced the new officers for 2004. They are President - Ernie Camacho, VP - Donna, Secretary - Charley Warren, Treasurer - Matt, and Site Director -Greg Sugg, Safety Officer - Fred Clement.
We thanked Kurt for opening up his house to 50 of his friends. And we thanked Lisa for coming all the way from Idaho just to party with Sonoma Wings.
Donna turned the meeting over to Ernie and we recapped some of the flying we did in 2003. As a club we flew all over the place including Woodrat, King Mt, the Owens Valley, Florida, Texas, and many other states and a few countries. We had a successful fly-in and a "Record encampment" at St John Mt this year. We had two club members tumble in 2003, Barry Levine and Lou Bartells. They both tumbled in the Owens Valley and both had successful parachute deployments.
Next Ernie and Donna handed out the awards.
First the club service award was given to Matt Jagelka for his willingness to keep the treasury for so long and his efforts to obtain and retain landing sites in the Stonyford area.
Next the Redtail trophy was awarded for the longest five flights from five local sites. Scot Huber was the winner of a nice looking trophy of a golden eagle and a stuffed redtail hawk that screams like a hawk when you squeeze it. Second place was Rich Sauer, third was Vince and Matt was fourth.
Rich left the Coffee Can at home but promised to get to the winner, Vince. Rich was second, Todd third and Scot fourth. Vince was awarded with a plaque for his longest flight from a local site. All the longest local flights this year started from St John Mt.
The Go-For-It trophy was awarded next. It went to Vince again. Second was Rich; third was Scot, fourth Todd and fifth Kurt. Aside from the beautiful Lisa Tate hang glider trophy for first place, the top five finishers got a pint glass with their ranking and hang gliders etched on then by Lisa. All the Go-For-It entrants received a nice glass.
At this point the meeting was taken over by a child. Spencer stood up and commenced to award the model rats on hang gliders he had built, to various people for certain dubious achievements. Linda won the first one for most pilots fed throughout the flying season. Next Lori Jagelka received a rat on a hang glider for the longest chase without retrieving a glider. And Ernie won the last hang gliding rat for the most bulletin board postings. Everyone in the place was rolling with laughter! Thanks Spencer, that was the highlight of my night!
Next the Best Flight trophy was awarded to Scot for a flight from Diablo. He went 102.3 miles without a driver. He said getting back was an adventure in itself.
The Most Improved pilot award was given to Brian Padgett. Ian Ridel was a close contender for the award.
The Turkey award was last. This year was no different than years past in that there were lots of deserving feats for the award. The nominations included Charley for putting his foot in his mouth at King, Albert for collapsing his glider on landing at King, Matt for crashing into King Mt, Scot for blowing a launch at King, Jon James for a blown launch at St John and Scot for gardening at St Helena. The winner was Scot for overzealous gardening.
At about 10:15pm the meeting began to dissolve into mayhem and it was adjourned.
The next meeting will be at Round Table on the fourth Thursday in January.
CW
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