SOSA communication survey

In an effort to further improve communication and involvement of SOSA members with the club we would like to conduct a brief member survey.

Erin Templeton (Pat's daughter) has agreed to undertake the survey and give us some feedback on any issues of improvement. Erin is currently in Sydney Australia and is studying for a masters degree in professional communication. She is taking on this project as part of her course work and as a "client".

Erin has created a survey questionaire to gain our opinions and feedback about SOSA communications issues. She would like some honest and helpful opinion from members. Erin will get back to us with the results and her advice as our consultant.


The survey can be found here,
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=670172513752

If you want to contact Erin her address is etmpltn@yahoo.com

Adventures of Wilfried Krueger in K2

Wilfried sent me these three pics in a 21 meg file which took me for ever to download. However the muttering under my breath tapered off when I saw these astounding pics. Just feast your eyes on these!!!

K2 at Mount Wheeler Nevada.

The photo was taken in June 2006 by Holger Weitzel during a 1000km flight which we team flew. Mt Wheeler is located 40 miles East of Ely Nevada and is~ 13000' high. Nevada is a paradise for Glider pilots.There are lots of Mountains and we cruise most of the time between 12000-17000'. Thermal strength is between 800-1400fpm. From our base "Ely" I flew this year alone 6 flights over 800km the longest being 1190 km.

The next photos were taken a few weeks ago (end of August) by Holger Weitzel, a friend from Germany who visited the USA and Canada with his ASW 26E. We left SOSA in marginal conditions, flew via Hagerstown to Niagara, where conditions improved a lot. The Photo was taken at ~ 6500' . Soaring conditions at the Peninsular are often outstanding and this was one of many flights I enjoyed over this territory. There a lots of Airports on the road to Niagara and going in this direction can be lots of fun

Fall Student Flying

Despite the wet weather lately, the fall season can be an ideal time for students to continue their flying training.

For example today, on Sunday 24 Sept the forecast was for 60% chance of rain, and the only two students at the field were able to fly 5 flights each. Condensed training like this will speed up your progress towards your first solo.

If the weather cooperates, there are still 6-8 weekends left this season to continue flying. In fact, for the last few years some students have continued flying into December! Remember you don't need blue skies to continue your training, so come on out and solo before the end of the year!

Also don't forget that SOSA will run a groundschool in the clubhouse for 3 consecutive Saturdays starting 21 October.

Paul Fish off to Sierra Leone

Paul Fish is leaving for a 7 month period to this west African country. He is working with the international development agency "Volunteer Services Overseas". The humanitarian work involves setting up a simplified assessment system to support the maintenance of infrastructure such as roads, sewers and water supply. You can follow Paul's travels on his blog site www.paulinsierraleone.blogspot.com until he returns for the flying season in May. (He'll do anything to avoid winter!!)

Summer General Meeting

The Summer General Meeting was held last weekend 16th September and was a great success. There were 42 members who took part in a lively discussion over a 3 hour period. Dave Springford chaired the meeting and led the discussion about the current status of flying this year and how we can get more efficiency out of the flight line. One of the more interesting parts of the evening was a review of our options to aquire the next glider in the fleet. There was undoubted agreement about the merits of a motor glider in particular in the early training phases for landing and take off. Cross country familiarity would also benefit greatly according to Herrie TenCate and the room agreed. Apart from the motor glider many other suggestions were made and debated. All of the minutes are uploaded to the Yahoo Groups file for members.

Joerg talked about the mentor program and how this is of great benefit to the students. He encouraged all to take part.

Dangerous or edible? Olga Burany needs some answers

Steve found and picked these mushrooms on the diagonal runway across from the hangar..today...Sept. 3rd and he wants to fry them and eat them...and I say .."hey...wait a minute"...

I wonder if any member might be able to indentify and tell us whether these are "good mushrooms" or "make you sick mushrooms"???

They are huge and he thinks they are good to eat..

thanks for anyone's input..
Olga

Board Meeting

• 
  In an effort to better communicate the activities of the SOSA Board, the blog will have a review of past meetings and the "public" topics we discussed.
  
  The image is the antithesis of the calm and cool manner of the SOSA board :-)
• Aerobatic Program. There was a request to permit solo aerobatic maneuvers under instructor supervision for those students having achieved a particular standard. The Board referred the issue to the CFI committee for their comments
• The club mission statement is to be reviewed to include the issue of equal opportunity and harrasement
• Ground School is to be held once again at the clubhouse Oct 21,28 and Nov 4th. The issue of fees was discussed. The merits of putting on the school was discussed having regard to the effort required. To be investigated is the issue of inviting a professional instructor from a power flying club.
• Trillium. Considered was the potential to apply for another grant this time for Youth Camp purposes
• The past youth camp performance was discussed and generally reported to be very positive. No incidents or accidents of note. Good flight line activity and great attitude of the participants. Thanks to Tom, Lorna, Dave Dan Martin and Willem for acting as instructors and chaperones. Likely to repeat the camp next year
• Request for the 505, LS4 and Jantar to be taken to the ridge in early October. Jerzy Sergei and Anthony to lead the group of 6 SOSA members. The request was approved at daily charges. However if the weather forecast at the weekend looks good the LS4 has to stay for members use.
• Paul is away for 7 months from Sept end and Graham Smith has offered to assist in his absence.
• Summer AGM agenda items
• Communication issues. We need to communicate Board activity better in addition to the minutes in the clubhouse. Resolved to blog the non-sensitive matters.
• Next Board meeting - Nov 11th at 0930. Venue to be determined

Summer General Meeting

Just to confirm, the Summer General Meeting for next Saturday September 16th at 1930 hrs (7:30pm) in the clubhouse.

First of all we are hoping that a member of the Trilium Foundation head office will be able to address the members and to see the work we had completed with their financial help. We are hoping that more funds are available for other projects.

We will dispense with the usual standard reports from each board member since we would like to focus on some discussion on the following topics

• Safety Officer - Willem Langellan will discuss various issues
• Flight line efficiency - how can we get more flights into the air
• Club procedures
• Next glider aquisition - nothing is formally proposed but this is a session to get some feedback from members
• SOSA runs on an entirely volunteer basis. Does this need to change?
• Mentor Program - how is this going? Feedback?
• Temporary help for club secretary
• AGM location for February 24th
• Any other business

Each board member will be available for questions

All SOSA members sustaining or not are invited to attend and take part in the discussion.