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Notes from the Sonoma Wings meeting held 12-10-2004.
The meeting was held at the home of Kurt Bainum and his family. Thanks Kurt and family!
At the meeting were Kurt Bainum and Anna and Kurt's kids Kimberly, Kelsey and Spencer, as the party was at their house. Also attending were Chris and Jenny McKeon, Donna and Ashley Matthias, Scot Huber, Leo Jones, Charley Warren, Kerri Lemos, Jon and Nancy James, Andy, Jeannie and Sydney Long, The Branson's, Albert, Allison and Addison, Kurt Rademacher, Hank and Robin Roberts, Greg Sugg, Todd Robinson, Lou Bartell, Matt and Lori Jagelka, Ernie Camacho, Anthony Abate, Andy Miller, Dave Clement and his wife Alex and Fred Clement and wife Shelia, Justin Miller and Karin Warnelius, Gregg Hackett and Darlene, Larry and Dianna Roberts with daughter Jennifer and grandkids Nathaniel and William, Rich Sauer and Linda, Kim and Danny and Mike and Lauren Tierney. That's some 51 people counting the known kids. Kelsey had several friends over too so it was hard to keep track.
This meeting was the Christmas Party. This year, not only was this a pot-luck affair, it was also a masquerade party! Guests began arriving in costume bearing great loads of food and drink. The dishes included a whole ham and a whole turkey! There were numerous variations of salads and deserts and crab-stuffed peppers and deviled eggs. Thanks to everyone for bringing all the great food. I didn't hang out by the food and take notes while people were filing in, due to me being in the way in my costume, so I don't know all of who brought what, but I can report that there were some exceptional dishes and that people put a lot of effort into their offerings.
Many people showed up in costume. Some claimed they didn't have time to put anything together, others claimed they didn't know it was a masquerade party. Those who said they didn't know were busted for not reading the minutes from the last meeting. The costumes included Kurt's wizard and Ernie's Hogwarts. Spencer had on giant bird feet. Donna was a bumblebee, Keri was an Angel. The Sauer's all came in costume Rich a vulture, Linda a crab (What does that have to do with flying, you might ask? I did, "crabby driver" I was told.) Daniel was a Lori and Kim was a redneck windsock. 3G and Darlene came as Jumper Clause and Mrs. Jumper Clause. Charley had on some sort of bird costume. Scot was Thermal Man and Leo was the Red Baron. Leo's costume featured a Fokker tri-plane protruding from his back and front giving the illusion that he was flying it. I could tell he wasn't cause his feet were touching the ground. The costumes were a good time, Leo was right they made the party more fun. Next year there should be more costumes as people will have a year to think about it.
Ernie was standing the whole time he was there so it was hard to tell when the meeting was going to start. Just before 21:00 Ernie rallied folks to gather together and at 21:00 straight up the cuckoo crowed nine times and the meeting began. We started by recapping the year 192004. We touched on these subjects, Big Sur, Turkey nominations, Elk Creek VFD fundraiser, Vince and Ernie in Florida, Mary Quiberg's gate, the Treadlightly work party, Cinco de Mayo site record from St Helena, Vince at the Worlds in Austria, Rich Sauer sets McClure site record 162.4 miles, King Mt meet, first fatality at Hull Mt, upgraded site info on website, four 100+ mile flights from St John Mt, second generation Camacho flying, St John fly-in, ramp work party, Silent Air show and losses we suffered. We lost five pilots from northern California this year, three to flying, one to cancer and one to an auto accident. They were, JC (James Crosley) a Cloud Street Gang pilot killed in the early spring, Neil Cruz the Hull fatality, Chris Giardina killed at King, Mike Pelton auto accident and Bob Ortiz who died from Leukemia at the tender young age of 64. We had a moment of silence to honor them all.
It was noted by Jon James, our new Safety Director, that we as a club have historically had a superb safety record. Let's keep it that way. There was discussion on this topic.
Next we got right into the awards portion of the meeting. First thanks went to Jon James for tracking the comp results and keeping them up to date.
The Go-For-It Cup was won by Vince with 1117 points. Next were Scot 851, Rich 524, Jon 348 and Kurt 347. Lisa Tate etched pint glasses were awarded to all participants with placing etched into the top five glasses. The top finisher was also awarded a plaque this year.
The Red Tail comp was won by Scot with 145 miles, then Vince 140, Rich 98, Gregg 87 and Jon 72 miles. The top finisher was got the perpetual trophy. All participants got Lisa Tate etched mugs.
Scot won the hotly contested Coffee Can with a record breaking effort of 158.4 miles from St John Mt. The Coffee Can take was only about $40 this year.
The same flight was the winner of the Best Flight award. Also considered were Scot's flex-wing flight from St John of 110 miles, Vince's 144.4 miles from St John which was the first flight from St John over 100 miles. Greg's 76 mile declared flight to goal from St John to Cottonwood was also considered. The Best Flight trophy is a beautiful piece of Lisa Tate art and is a perpetual trophy.
The Most Improved Pilot award went to Gregg Hackett who went from being a good pilot last year to flying like mad all year this year.
As usual there were many nominees for the Turkey Award but in the end it was Kurt who won it for two tandem flights at Goat Rock. One flight ended with the glider wheels rolling across the top of a vehicle just before landing. The other flight ended going downwind into the beach and causing the passenger pain. Also nominated were Ernie for his Grindstone Canyon incident, John Blacet for a bush landing on top of Goat Rock launch and Jon James for reporting his position 30 miles off at King resulting in an extended retrieve time. The Turkey award is a perpetual trophy.
The Club Service award trophy went to Lori Jagelka for driving and also for being there and helping out pilots in time of need. Gregg was a close runner-up for his work getting the paragliding community more involved in our club.
Driver awards were given to some of the higher profile drivers in the club including Anna, Lori, Linda, Suzi, Kathy, Nancy, Donna and Pete. These awards were nice clocks made from Lisa Tate artwork.
Ernie asked that everyone continue to report their flights on the bulletin board. The reports are being archived and they are our history.
Our next meeting will be 1-28-2005 at the Occidental Rd Round Table Pizza at 7:00pm.
Ernie never sat down, but at 22:33 the meeting was adjourned and we all went back to our merry making.
Charley aka Hangfly the Airhead
Sonoma Wings Secretary
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