Heavy Metal Radio Calls

Predetermined radio calls to SOSA on 122.825 will be broadcast by West jet crews when they are inbound to Hamilton. As shown at the CAS Seminar this spring, Westjet traffic overflies the TETOS intersection (basically Plattsville) southbound and then turn east direct Hamilton. West jet pilots will make the following radio broadcast:

"Rockton Traffic WestJet XXX over Plattsville at 8000 ft, in descent landing YHM in 18 minutes".

This broadcast is meant for information only, do not respond to it. Once the tranmission has been made, they will be going back to their IFR frequency.

What this means to our operations is that you should now be looking out for 737 traffic inbound from the west to Hamilton and descending from 8000, down to about 3500 by St George.

SOSA Youth Team Steak Barbeque and NavCan Airspace Briefing

SOSA Youth Team Steak Barbeque

On Saturday, June 9th, the SOSA Youth Team will be hosting a steak barbeque. The cost is $15 and includes a juicy AAA rib eye steak, salad, and a delicious dessert. All the proceeds from the barbeque will go to support the SOSA Youth Team in their endeavours during the 2007 season. This is guaranteed to be a great evening of fun, friendship, and food! Please join us for a wonderful meal that will help support the youth team. Please respond to jay_airplanefreak "at" hotmail.com with the number of individuals attending if you are interested. There will also be a sign up sheet in the clubhouse for those interested. Please indicate by any of these means whether you will be attending and how many people are in your group. Bring the whole family, or treat some friends to a fabulous steak dinner! Please indicate your intentions to attend by Wednesday, June 6. Cash Payment for dinner will be accepted the night of the barbeque. A donation box will also be passed around for loose change in support of tows for Chris and Jay who will be competing in the Canadian Nationals in Hawkesbury at the end of June.

Jay Allardyce


Representatives from NavCan will also be at SOSA on the 9th to brief us on the airspace changes that take effect 5 July and the airspace review that will take place over the next year. The briefing will start at 6 PM in the clubhouse.

Student Training

The Tuesday, Thursday and Friday student training nights have been rather short on students since starting two-weeks ago. Ray Wood has been at the airport on Thursdays ready to instruct and no students have appeared. Tuesdays and Fridays have also been light with only 1 or 2 students.

So come on out for these mid-week sessions and you can have an instructor to yourself for the night!

Airspace Survey

NAVCAN is conducting a review of the Airspace in the area of Rockton and it is important that all SOSA members make their voice heard to protect our right to fly from Rockton.

Please take 10 minutes to complete the survey on the NAVCAN website and make your voice heard to preserve our ability to continue flying gliders in Rockton.

Take the survey here

Mid-Week Student Training Nights

Mid-week student training nights are scheduled to start this week (Tue 15 May). Student training will take place Tues, Thurs and Friday evenings from about 5 pm until sunset.

Aerobatic training will take place on Wednesday evenings.

Any instructors who are interested in voluntering their services for one of these week nights this season, please contact John Brennan

Meet Adam Oke - our Mid-week towpilot

Adam Oke is our mid-week towpilot for the season. Adam was a member of SOSA last year after having attended two Youth Camps at SOSA the previous years.

He is enrolled at the Huron Flight College where he completed his Commercial license this year. Adam earned both his Glider pilot license and Private license with the Air Cadets.

Adam is checked out in the Blaniks, Puch, Juniors and PW5 and has been signed out to carry intros. He also took his first flight in the 505 this weekend and you can still see the smile on his face in the picture above, taken many hours later!

He is now checked out to tow and is living in a trailer at SOSA in the North Campground. Look for his Black Hyundai station wagon beside the trailer closest to the entrance. So come'on out any day - Adam will be there to tow.

Spring Refresher

Adam discussing circuit procedures

Remember that while you are in the circuit, or the high key area at 1850 ft (ASL, of course) or lower that all turns must be in the same direction as your circuit. Since gliders fly left hand circuits, at Rockton, all turns must be in this direction.

A glider at mid-downwind decides to turn - for some unknown reason - it must only turn left, towards the runway. Why? Because if there is another glider over-taking this glider on downwind it will pass on the right since we should never turn right while in the circuit.

Why are these policies in place? Think about the purpose of the circuit - it is to put everyone in the same landing pattern so things are predictable - imagine if there was no circuit and you arrived on final from any direction!

Another traffic pattern to observe is: never fly the opposite direction of the downwind at circuit height (again below about 1850ft) in the same position as the down wind leg is located.

Picture this scenario - it happens all the time at SOSA - We are launching and landing on Runway 18, you are scratching in weak lift over the Safari and the southerly wind is blowing you away from the airport. You decide to return and land. How should you get to the High Key to start your circuit?

Since the towplanes are flying their downwind west of the field - straight towards you - and the glider are flying downwind to the east of the airport the safest place for you is directly overhead the runway so you avoid flying the opposite direction of the downwind traffic. Of course if you find yourself in this position you must also think of what height is required to safely return to the high key to join a normal circuit. You should plan on a minimum of 500 feet to fly the distance from the safari to the high key, meaning you need to leave the Safari at 2350 ft (1500 AGL)!

While this example uses Runway 18 and the Safari thermal, this situation can occur on any runway. As glider pilots we must always think about where we are with respect to distance and height from our circuit entry point.

The Soaring Weather is here!

The weather we have been waiting for has arrived! Looks like a great 5 days coming up.

Dr Jack is forecasting great soaring today 500-600 fpm, and it should be mostly the same through the weekend. The tephigram shows 5700 ft top of lift in the blue - so don't expect Cu's to show the way.