Member meeting this Saturday

After a great weekend of flying and instruction, here’s a reminder that the member meeting is this Saturday, July 29 at 10 a.m. This month we will not get the grill going – hopefully the weather will cooperate, and we will be able to start flying a little earlier in the day.

Hope to see you out there!

Green Mountain Aerobatic Contest

Springfield is hosting the Green Mountain Aerobatic Contest this weekend. There are several NOTAMs relating to that contest this weekend for KVSF. They include:

Aerobatic aircraft within an area 1 NM radius of KVSF from the surface to 4500 feet AGL

Runway 11 right traffic

Runway 23 right traffic

Please check NOTAMs prior to flight in case there are others. Thank you, Brian, for pointing these out!

Hope to see you out there!

!VSF 07/004 VSF AIRSPACE AEROBATIC ACFT WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 1NM RADIUS OF VSF SFC-4500FT AGL AVOIDANCE ADZ 2307131600-2307132200
!VSF 07/006 VSF AIRSPACE AEROBATIC ACFT WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 1NM RADIUS OF VSF SFC-4500FT AGL AVOIDANCE ADZ 2307161200-2307161800
!VSF 07/005 VSF AIRSPACE AEROBATIC ACFT WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 1NM RADIUS OF VSF SFC-4500FT AGL AVOIDANCE ADZ DLY 1200-2200 2307141200-2307152200
Airspace Notams
!VSF 07/013 VSF RWY 11 RIGHT TFC PATTERN 2307131600-2307132200
!VSF 07/017 VSF RWY 11 RIGHT TFC PATTERN 2307161200-2307161800
!VSF 07/015 VSF RWY 11 RIGHT TFC PATTERN DLY 1200-2200 2307141200-2307152200
!VSF 07/012 VSF RWY 23 RIGHT TFC PATTERN 2307131600-2307132200
!VSF 07/016 VSF RWY 23 RIGHT TFC PATTERN 2307161200-2307161800
!VSF 07/014 VSF RWY 23 RIGHT TFC PATTERN DLY 1200-2200 2307141200-2307152200
Aerodrome Notams

Weather cancellation Saturday June 3

Good morning. Alasdair and I have decided to cancel operations for today. Last evening we thought it would be flyable, but the Terminal Area Forecast is much worse this morning than it was last night. So far tomorrow looks good, so keep your fingers crossed the forecast holds up.

Hope to see you out there.

Memorial Day weekend

The official start of Summer is upon us, and the weather forecast is promising! If you have not been out to the airport yet this season, it’s a great weekend to be there.

Friday, we will have a tow pilot available for soaring. Instruction is available Saturday and Sunday.

The member meeting is Saturday morning at 10. We will assemble the 1-34, have a brief discussion about situational awareness in the launch/landing areas, and cook hot dogs on the grill. The grill will be going late morning to not interfere with flying.

Hope to see you out there!

Weather Pattern is Breaking

Holy cow! It finally looks like we will have a flyable weekend. I will be out to tow tomorrow (Friday), and the soaring forecast shows there may be some lift, unlike last year’s Sink-o de Mayo.

Saturday we will assemble the orange 2-33, starting by 10 am. Then we will fire up the grills for hot dogs and hamburgers, done early enough to give a full afternoon in the air. The forecast is very promising for both Saturday and Sunday. We have tow pilots and instructors – all we need is you! There are still a few slots available on the schedule, so sign up for your season checkout if you have not done that yet.

Hope to see you out there!

Weekend Flying Cancelled (4/29-30)

The weekend is a total washout, again. In the entire month of April, we only flew on two Saturdays, and not a single Sunday. That’s the bad news.

The good news is on the two Saturdays we flew we did 29 tows. The even-better news is that the Friday Flyers were out in force this month. Bill did five tows today, bringing our Friday total for the month to 20! That means the club did 49 tows for the month.

With any luck, this weather pattern will shift just a little bit, so we can have good flying on the weekends in May.

Remember, next Saturday, May 6, we will assemble the orange 2-33, weather permitting. If we can get some folks out, we can fire up the grill as we originally planned to do tomorrow.

Hope to see you out there!

April Member Meeting Cancelled

The title of this post says it all. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is such that it makes no sense for us get people out to the airport just to sit around and talk about the crummy weather. It may still be flyable for some instruction – we will make that call closer to the weekend.

The new plan is to try to assemble the orange 2-33 next Saturday, weather permitting. If the weather is nice, we just might fire up the grill that day. Stay tuned for more info!

NESA at Springfield STEM

Bill and Annie showing kids the Carat

The Springfield schools reached out to NESA to participate in their Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program, and the club showed up in a big way! Bill set up the Carat, and he, Annie, Jerry and Andy spoke with the kids and their parents (or grandparents). It was great community outreach for the club, as a good number of parents see us flying and were interested in seeing a glider up close. Hopefully, some parents or older siblings will be interested in coming out on a weekend, or maybe even signing up for ACE camp.

Thank you to all that took part for NESA.

Member meeting and glider assembly

Next Saturday, April 29, at 10 a.m. is the first of the monthly member meetings. This meeting does not have a FreeConferenceCall option. Tentatively on the agenda is Alasdair briefing those present on the Open Glider Network (OGN) registration and tracking. The club received a ground station from the SSA that will allow us to monitor club member flights in real-time.

After that briefing, we will assemble the orange 2-33, weather permitting. Then, we’ll then fire up the grill for hamburgers and hot dogs, with coleslaw, potato salad, or similar with some type of dessert. (If anyone attending has a special diet such as vegetarian or vegan, let me know by Wednesday). Bring whatever you want to drink, if other than water.

Sign up for any currency flights you may need, or instruction you desire.

Hope to see you out there!