Aerobatic program attracts a visitor

The now famed and unique Canadian experience, the SOSA aerobatic program, is getting attention far and wide. Last weekend a student from the Quebec gliding club L'Association de vol à voile Champlain paid us a visit. Simon-Pierre, a young 21 year old student arrived by bus (a 10 hour ride) from Montreal on Friday evening and had arranged to take aerobatic instruction from the only Canadian club offering this type of flying. That shows some dedication.

Although the weather was pretty awful Saturday, Pat O’Donnell was very kind and took Simon-Pierre to the flight history museum in Hamilton. By Saturday evening the weather suddenly cleared and at about 7 pm Scott got the DG505 out of the hangar and on the flight line. Andrea jumped in the back seat and Scott in the tow plane and a couple of flights later Simon Pierre had a smile on his face.

Lorna and Terry entertained him later to a quiet dinner and a nice chat and about midnight Simon Pierre camped out at the clubhouse. Sunday was great and Joe gave Simon Pierre another 3 instruction flights before the rain set in again in the afternoon. What a great weekend for this visitor.

Simon –Pierre has been flying for only 4 seasons at his club but had earned a license from cadets over 9 years ago and he has a power license. He is studying to be an aircraft technician at Ecole Nationale Aerotechniique where he in his first year. Scott and Andrea are visiting Montreal to compete in power aerobatics and I’m sure they’ll look up Simon Pierre.

Texas Tales

Some of you may have noticed (tongue in cheek) that our Pres Dave Springford has been away. He has taken his trailer and the LS8 on a trip down to Texas (avec Virginia and Sassy) competing in various contests. Obviously he's having much better weather than at SOSA and he has promised to send it up here when he's finished with it. Dave sent me this economical dispatch but hasn't mentioned results.

The weather in Hobbs was fantastic, we flew 9 out of 9 contest days with one rest day in the middle. I also flew two great practise days. We are now in Uvalde, the contest starts on Tues, so I am resting a couple of days and will fly one practise day.

Gardening - great job

This is a bit late but still worth blogging. Andrea put a team of volunteers together to plan and then put in place a new garden on the south side of the clubhouse. The family von Dyke were a large part of the operation - thanks to Katalin, to Malcolm, Dennis and his brother. Also to Charlotte Dannard (Don Plewe's wife) and to Wendy Tweety (Brad Muir's friend) . Well done Andrea for rounding up the troops and getting this going. Much help was given by Seven (Graham Smith's friend) who does gardening professionally. The garden looks great - and it's had lots to watering lately!!

Comments?

All of the articles on the blog have a comment box at the end and we'd like to get some feedback from you. Let it all out, c'mon.

Several people have asked me about these and anyone can append a comment. I get to moderate the comment because the site is open to all and I can usually get to it in a few hours. You'd be amazed at the obviously non-SOSA idiots who write "?**!! stuff".

Paul

Who and how many visit the SOSA blog

Someone asked me how popular is the SOSA Blog. I installed a meter at the bottom of the blog page for anyone to see. Just scroll down and click on the "site meter" image. There is a wealth of up to the minute useful and not so useful information. Seems that since March we have had about 5,500 visits, averaging 40 per day and roughly 300 per week. People come from all over the map - see below. This month visits from Taiwan and Netherlands (Westenbergs again?).

NE14 Boardsailing ?

Jay Allardyce and Luke Szczepeniak were at the field after the deluge of damp stuff (rain) had made it's mark on the SOSA field. It should have dried out by the weekend says Jay but just in case bring your bathing suits and Paul Fish will bring some sailing equipment.

Jay reports his findings in a colourful article - below

I woke this morning to find that the property value around Dave's trailer had increased overnight. This is due to the new lakefront proximity of Dave's trailer. I decided to go inspect the field on my bike, and I didn't have to ride very far to see the pools of standing water on the airfield.






Runway 21/03 is completely unusable due to a large pools of standing water approximately 100 feet x 25 feet in its center. The taxiways to the respective runways are also waterlogged. The center of the other runways do not have any standing water; however, my bike tires were spinning up quite a bit of water. The taxiway from both hangars to the runways is full of water and it would be virtually impossible to get the gliders to the runway without gettting them stuck/muddy. I have never seen the field in this shape after a torrential downpour. I would recommend that no flying take place on the field today due to its condition.

Tomorrow might be possible if the warm sun dries up some of the standing water, and the thunderstorms that are forecast later this evening do not happen. If you're standing at work, looking out the window and reading this, you'll likely see the first signs of cu for the day. Do not curse the weather gods just yet - the tephi for the day shows that it will overdevelop around noon. Besides, standing water in most fields in and around Rockton and likely most of Southern Ontario would not make any off-field landing a pretty one (and I for one and not coming to get you!). Cheers,Jay - The photo below is Luke's now soggy trailer patch.

New Cross Country program

Jim Carpenter has kindly offered to host a cross country clinic at the weekends. Pilots interested in cutting the apron strings and embarking on this fantastic adventure are invited to drop by the clubhouse at 1000 hrs on Saturdays and Sundays. We will get a weather briefing using the latest technology, all carefully explained by Bob Carlson - great stuff. Jim will talk about tasks for the day and he will pair up a junior pilot (sheep) with a more experienced cross country pilot (sheppard). Also one lucky pilot may be able to join a more experienced pilot in the DG 505. It's great fun. Any questions please e-mail Jim at carpentj@nexicom.net

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get the back seat in the DG and Jim guided us around the course with several other pilots flying club or other craft, including Jan Cina in the LS4, Doug O'connell in his 1M and Patricia Olivier Martin in the Junior.

Chris Wilson also took the time to sheppard us around in his Mosquito W2. The course that day took us to Hanover, Toronto Sailing and Guelph returning to Rockton, - in all 3.5 hours. You'll learn a lot so why dont you plan to come out and join us.


Last weekend was a bit of a washout but Jerzy Szemplinsky took charge of the 505 and escorted Jay Allardyce on a trip to Woodstock - and back - under terrible conditions. Amazing what can be done.

Clubhouse survey results

The clubhouse renovation survey produced some interesting results and you can view them at

http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=231609379874

We had 53 responses, all from SOSA members and 100% thought that the clubhouse renovations were needed. Most stongly agreed that the renovations helped to maintain community spirit, added a comfortable atmosphere, and encouraged social intraction.

Also most respondents thought that the renovations will help to retain existing members although more thought that the renovations will appeal to new members. That certainly seems to be the case with greater recent numbers reported by Mike Sury.

A more frequent use of the clubhouse and the intention to bring a spouse and family were expressed by most members

As far as further projects are concerned the survey revealed a wide variety of suggestions.

• Internet connection seemed to be popular although Martin says that this is not feasible at the moment
• Pool s also a popular suggestion and the Board has discussed this old chestnut many times and but is concerned with liability apart from the maintenance and cost. Discussion is on-going
• Office was also a frequent request and as you now know there is an office trailer located behind the clubhouse. Plans are to have a computer with See You and other software.
• There are many others and that were very interesting and willget further consideration.

Thanks very much for your responses.

Many people were involved with the project and to single out some without others is difficult. However to be congratulated for extraordinary effort in undertaking the clubhouse renovations are Angelo Savoia and Dave Springford assisted ably by Virginia Thompson.

Paul Fish

New instructors

Lorna Novosel our Chief Flying Instructor has proudly announced that we have four newly qualified instructors. These SOSA members have undergone a rigorous excersise and a significant time committment in order to qualify. Remember that all instructors continue to volunteer their time and so it is very much a labour of love. Well done and congratulations.


Eric Gillespie and Andrew Corrigan
























Rafael Bravo






















Sergei Morozov

SOSA 40th Anniversary Bash

On 16 July 1966 the first glider launch took place at the newly createdRockton aerodrome. This year marks the 40th anniversary of glider operations from our airfield.

To celebrate this event we will hold a party on the long weekend 5 Aug. Mike Sury is organizing this event and he is planning one wild party with a good ol' fashioned bbq burgers, hot dogs, salad and desert. The cost is $10 a head.

As an after dinner - pre fireworks activity, we can enjoy some sports: badminton, v-ball, boccie ball (some people consider this a sport). Of course we'd have to have everyone sign a waiver so there's no trouble from broken hips or slipped discs.

Look for more from Mike Sury

Phil Watson – it’s not just old rope

One of the most critical pieces of equipment we use at SOSA is often unappreciated since it appears to be such a simple device. However the lowly tow rope is used in one of the most important phases of each flight – the launch – and we rely for our safety on the stability of the ropes and the tow and glider rings that are spliced on to each end. For this we owe much to Phil Watson who volunteers his time to maintain the ropes in such a great condition. Many of our members see Phil at the field with his self designed and self made splicing box, patiently and methodically completing the task and finishing the job with such mastery. Phil had some big shoes to fill having taken over the ropes maintenance task from Carl Raufeisen. Carl is remembered by many SOSA members as a perfectionist and he passed away several years ago.

Phil has been a member at SOSA since 1991, and was licensed in 1993, later qualifying as an instructor. I was initially trained by Phil and I recall in one of the first flights how I was impressed by his thermalling technique opposite another glider.

Phil learned to fly power planes in 1954 under a flying scholarship, funded by the military and through the cadets when he was 17 years old. He initially had aspirations to take up flying as a career but Phil also had an interest in photography using this in his stint with the US Marines when he was attached to a battalion as a photographer in 1961. For a 28 year period Phil was a full time police officer and spent 5 years in the forensic department employing his photography skills. For many years he was also the commanding officer for the Air Cadets attached to the Dundas Squadron and later the Burlington Squadron specializing in range shooting and survival training. Phil is a long time resident of Waterdown, not far from SOSA.

When you get a chance watch Phil at the SOSA clubhouse or on the field, working his fingers delicately around the splicing box. Ask him to explain the technique and you will gain an excellent appreciation for this important art.

Luke Szczepeniak successfully completes his 50km

Last Sunday Luke took off in very tough conditions in the club Junior and to the amazement of many he made it to York Soaring over 50kms to the north. The day looked good with cu all over the place but a stiff 25 knot north wind broke up the thermals pretty quickly. Anthony Kawzowicz and Jerzy Szemplinski were among the very few to go cross country and stay above 847 ft (sosa ground) but many including your SOSA blogger were not so able. More to Luke's excellent achievement. Here is Luke's recount of his adventure


I took off from SOSA at 13:00, and struggled to stay up in the air near the club for about an hour and a half. There was quite a bit of wind from the north, and the thermals were broken up. To my amazement I managed to stay up with Anthony and Jerzy, but soon saw them heading away from Rockton. About 14:30 the conditions started improving slightly and so I started moving further north. I finally got a good thermal east of Puslinch and figured it was my turn to go on course. I headed towards Guelph Airpark. Due to the airspace restrictions, I could not use the thermals all the way to the top, and with the heavy head wind I wasn't making a lot of progress. Not having much luck, and with the trees looming closer and closer, I turned around and headed for the quarry north of Reid's Field. As it turned out, the quarry was working and I caught a good thermal.

I saw Anthony heading north, and took it as a good sign. This time, instead of heading over Guelph, I decided to stay just to the west where I could see another quarry ahead and some good fields, just in case things didn't work out.. This tactic seemed to pay off, as I got another strong thermal, but to my dismay, I saw that the Jantar had turned around and was heading in the other direction. I saw a what looked like yet another quarry ahead, and was fairly high, so I decided to press on. The object in question turned out to be a lumber yard around the Old GGC, but it was working quite well. With the vario chirping away happily I headed to Fergus. By the time I got there however, the few Cu had had disappeared from the sky. Not knowing the area very well, and only having a general idea of where the York Soaring airfield was, I stuck around Fergus figuring it was my best hope for lift. The search for the infamous "one more" thermal continued as the altimeter unwound. The Fergus airport looked better and better with every foot of altitude lost. My persistence paid off, I managed to find lift down wind of the school bus yard and my way to Arthur was clear.

The operation at York Soaring seemed to be running at a leisurely pace, there was a tow plane on the ground, getting ready to tow the Krosno, and the big 3 seat 2-32 was in the air. I landed the glider and pulled it off to the side. I saw a number of 1-23 and 2-33's on the ground as I walked over to the flight van, and was directed towards Allen who was in the office. After a quick and friendly conversation I arranged for a tow and called SOSA to let them know that I had arrived at York, and was getting aerotowed to Guelph.

Update from the youngest SOSA member

The youngest SOSA member Madelyn Burany Huntsman (4 weeks old) attended the National Championships and flew a low contest finish in the Burany Kestrel. As you can see in the photo she was a little unsure during her first gliding experience, with hand firmly on the parachute rip cord. Hey Mom where is the in-flight entertainment?

As some may have noticed, Kathy and Carl decided on a name change to Madelyn Elizabeth although speaking from experience I'm pretty sure the parents will be calling her a few other choice names in about 15 yrs.