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Hi Kids! Here are the minutes from the meeting Tursday.
Enjoy!
Hangfly the Airhead
Sonoma Wings Meeting notes from 2-26-2004
Attending the meeting were Ernie Camacho, Larry Roberts, Charley Warren, Bill Wood, Donna Matthias, Fred Clement, Dave Clement, Kerri Lemos and Aaron, Roy Grossman and William Grossman, Greg Sugg, Matt and Lori Jagelka, Jon James, Steve Harvey, Leo Jones, And Kurt Bainum. 18 Folks.
While waiting for club members to arrive we listened to stories from "the Grade". Ernie had his first flight from there today and Kurt set a new altitude record and distance record, getting to 3500! over the ocean. Leo and John B also flew. Everyone flew to Fort Ross and Kurt flew well past there. Pilots launched around 2:00pm and landed after a couple hours when they were starting to get cold.
Ernie called the meeting to order at 7:49.
He started by telling us about how well the Minolta Freedom Zoom EX works for in flight photography. Check the Equipment section of our website for details on how to set it up. Two key features of this camera are the 28mm lens and the fact that the auto-shutoff feature can be defeated. Club members have been snapping them up on ebay for very little cost.
We have used only 180mb of web space out of 500mb available for our site. Ernie suggests we fill it with pictures. He says shoot slides and shoot Fuji film; it has better color balance for ariel shots. Get your photos to Ernie any way you can and he'll get them on the web. He can scan slides and negatives and prints. You can email him digital shots.
Next we heard more details about the flying at the Grade today. Seems Ernie learned the lesson that one should not land behind the hill in strong conditions.
Also, regarding safety, we were all reminded to beware of the rotor behind Goat Rock. Small changes in wind direction make a big difference in the strength and location of the rotor. And lower-performing gliders can have difficulty getting through the venturi behind the rock. These conditions can change quickly while you're in flight. Be aware!
From this day forward the club is asking that all incidents get reported to the Safety Officer, Fred Clement, so he can report info at the meetings that may save someone from getting hurt. The report can be as easy as a phone call or phone message to Fred. Or an email to him. We are reminded that the Site Director can prevent people from flying club-regulated sites per the club bylaws. All we're asking for is for people to give a report.
We got a report on the recent Executive committee meeting. It was held at Ernie's on 2-12-04. First it was agreed that exec meetings did not need to be regularly scheduled and that when we do have them we will announce them on the bulletin board before hand so members have a chance to attend. The executive committee is working on documenting processes the club has to go through for permits and site insurance, to make it easier to hand-off to new administrations. We encourage people working to open new sites to keep a journal of their efforts. Some info may prove valuable in the future. The club does have an archive. We looked at minutes from the first club meeting from 4-23-1980. The committee also talked about safety, the calendar and the website.
Ernie is still looking for help with the website. Call him if you're interested in helping out your club. We have a virtual trophy room coming.
New faces attending the meeting included Bill Wood from Ukiah and Roy and William Grossman. They are all taking lessons from Pat Denevan. Bill also has two daughters taking lessons from Pat. He sounds more serious than they do though. Roy Grossman and his son William are from Davis. They found us through our website and joined our club.
We will be having a work party to install a gate for a landowner in the Stonyford area. Tentatively this will be in April, probably as soon as we can get up the mountain.
The 2004 club calendar was the next topic. Cinco de Mayo will be on the ocho. Memorial weekend pilots are going to Woodrat and to the Owens. The Regionals are 6-19- 04. King is 6-23 thru 6-27. The Pacific Air Museum airshow is most likely 8-14. The St John Mt fly-in is tentatively 8-21. The Santa Rosa Rose parade is 5-15-04. No one is very enthusiastic about doing it this year. We have done it several times and have never gotten any response from it. The deadline for entry is early in March. Call Linda Sauer if you want to get involved.
Jon gave us a site report. Goat Rock and Vista Trail are good to fly. Jon and Leo met with a Ranger at St Helena and our paperwork is in process there.
Matt reported that we have 40 members paid for the year so far and that we have enough money in our account to cover our expenses for the year.
Ernie, Matt and Leo all offered help packing chutes if anyone needs it or if they need a place to do it.
Finally we moved on to the raffle. We took in $70 for the club. Larry Roberts won a book on clouds, Greg Sugg a book called Cloudsuck. Dave Clement won a camera donated by Ernie. Dave promptly gave it to his brother Fred and announced that due to shoulder surgery, he will be available to drive for a month. Bill Wood won a bird field guide, Ernie a windsock and Kurt a poncho. Dave Larry and Jon won Glider Pilot signs to carry in their harnesses.
The next meeting will be 3-26-04 at Roundtable pizza.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:31.
CW
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Great report, Charley!
I'd like to add that Roy Grossman as another son taking HG lessons who couldn't be at the meeting. That's two sets of father/2-children getting into the sport. We hear of the sport stagnating and declining in the U.S. It's great to see that our club is not following that trend!
Thanks to all for attending the meeting. The good cheer and friendly faces - new and old - are very encouraging.
Ernie
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