Youth Camp

SOSA is pleased to host the annual Junior camp that runs from Aug 23rd through September 1st. At the camp this year are 12 licenced young men and women who are given the opportunity to fly the more advanced aircraft at SOSA. The Juniors come from across the country and this year a heavy contingent from the Maritimes. Please welcome these youngsters to the club. Jay Alardyce mentioned that none of the Juniors have experienced thermalling and during the first couple of days there were soaring conditions which amazed the youth pilots. The photo is supplied by Kyke Nordman and is last years camp members. This years members
are pictured above

Dave Springford success at Uvalde

Dave won day # 3 in the U.S. Std. Class Nationals flying 80.03 MPH around a 326 mile task and then won again on day #7 flying 87.14 mph around a 398 mile task. See the link below.

http://www.ssa.org/members/contestreports/contestresults.asp

Take a look at the wheels on that baby

Your SOSA board has just approved the latest piece of equipment proposed by the Grounds Director, Andrea Kuciak.

Andrea reports that it is a Massey Ferguson 255 with the larger engine which makes it the same as a MF265. One of the nice things for the price is it's low time engine (1400hrs out of 5000 TBO) with a late serial number (which means all the kinks have been worked out) in almost new condition. The machine has been looked at it and is highly recommended. We moved on this opportunity since these tractors don't come up too often and sell fairly quickly. We are likely to spring for the tractor without the front end loader.

Westenbergs news

....and another future SOSA member. Many will remember Ed and Mirjam Westenberg who decamped back to the Netherlands for a while to raise their new family. Their return to SOSA has just been delayed by the arrival on August 3rd of the latest addition Lara 7.6 lbs , a sister for Lars who is now 2 years old. Congrats.

Don in Vancouver

Don Plewes sent me this great shot of his new sport ... jumping off Grouse Mountain with nothing more than a tent over the head. I suspected that a western sabbatical might have rather unpredicatable results but the normally cautious Don has surpassed expectations! It must be the inspiring view.

Don writes (with my edits) that things have been going well here with lovely weather. Generally very sunny and pleasant temps. I attach a photograph from the top of Grousse Mountain ~4000' ASL ..... and stayed up for about 30 minutes getting good ridge lift. These things fly so slowly and and circle in very tight little regions of lift. The nearby crows and eagles where doing about the same size cirlces for their lift as they soared together. It was wonderful to see.

Don is spending a year away from SOSA as well as taking a break from his job as research scientist at Sunnybrook Hospital.

Happy 40th Birthday SOSA

Last Saturday SOSA celebrated 40 years of flying at Rockton.

The celebration took place after the flying was done for the day (see photos below courtesy Andrea Kuciak) and the evening was spent in some obvious fun and games. Apparently golf was popular and Mike Sury reports that the winner Tomas Rezek edged past Angie Wilson to capture a free dinner for him and his family by driving the ball closest to the pin .... It was wonderful to see such a great turn out says Mike who did all the organizing. Marc Thomson brought his model aircraft which were admired by Andrew Corrigan and offspring. The dinner celebrations were a complete success with hamburgers hotdogs and even a huge birthday cake. If anyone knows who made this please add a comment to the bottom of this post.

Thanks to Pat O'Donnell for the great memories on film. The evening was capped by a huge burst of colourful fireworks. We shouldnt need to wait for 40 years to do this - how about an annual birthday event?

Convergence Zone

Joerg Steiber reports on todays excellent gliding conditions



The 3:15p satellite photo shows a string of cu following Hwy 401 from Windsor to London. This is a convergence zone where the seabreezes from Lake Erie and Lake Huron meet, producing a lift street from London to Windsor. According to the tephi for the day, cloud bases should be around 6000 MSL. I hope many of you were out flying enjoying these rare conditions.

Joerg Stieber (JS)

Mud Bowl, 40th anniversary bash with fireworks

This weekend we're running our annual club contest the Mudbowl. The weather looks very promising and I hope many will participate.

The tasks will be relatively easy. The idea is to learn and have fun. The first prize is bragging rights for one week!

I would also like to thank the following for helping to run the contest:

Contest Director Dugald
Chief Tow pilot Doug O' Connell
Scoring Luke
Grid Boss Neil Wilson
Weather Bob Carlson
Task committee Joerg and others

Even if you're not planning to enter the contest feel free to sit in during the briefing and hopefully we'll be able to show the race on the computer at the end of the day.

We are also holding a big celebration bash Saturday evening Aug 5th to acknowledge the SOSA 40th anniversary of flying at Rockton. A BBQ with gliding stories and a barrage of fireworks. Please let Mike Sury know if you would like to attend. mtsury@yahoo.ca


Happy soaring,Martin