The annual safety meeting is scheduled for April 1 from 9 am until noon. It will be at the Springfield airport terminal building and also available online. We will send out an invitation with a link. We plan on assembling a couple club gliders after the meeting. The plan at this time is to spend the rest of that weekend and the following weekend getting instructors current. The first weekend for scheduled instruction is April 15-16. All this is assuming the weather gods smile upon us.
Our plan is to have the t-shirts you ordered available at the meeting, so get your order in to Larry by the end of February if you have not done so already.
Here’s hoping to a great season!
Happy New (Soaring) Year!
Greetings, NESA folks!
It’s a week after the Annual Meeting, and I wanted to reach out to the club. If you were at the meeting, it was great to see you. If you weren’t, I hope to see you out at the field. Dinner was great. We had 17 members attend along with some friends and family, bringing the total to roughly 30 people. The meeting was held after dinner. We will post the official meeting minutes to the club website when they are approved at the next board meeting. Here are some of the highlights:
Larry gave both the President’s and Vice-President’s reports, and Jerry Smith presented the Treasurer’s report on.
The members who attended voted for the ballot of club officers in person, and Andy sent an email before the meeting for absentee ballots. These are the NESA officers and directors for the upcoming year:
President – Jim Malecha
Vice President – Larry Perry
Secretary – Andy Kozak
Treasurer – Jerry Smith
Directors – Second year of two-year term Bill Batesole and Dave Carton;
newly elected to two-year term Steve Hurd, John Watkins
Three awards were presented:
President’s Award – Colby Von Kannenwurff
XC Award – Eric Nelson
Uplift Award – Jim Malecha
An annual honorary membership was awarded to Walter Streideck
The other board members and I are looking forward to the upcoming season. We will keep you posted on efforts to grow the membership ranks, increase the number of soaring days, and cost-cutting and fundraising efforts.
Thanks, and hope to see you out there!
JiM
Annual Meeting Reminder – Sunday January 29th
A reminder to please check your email and RSVP to Larry with your meal choices for the annual club membership meeting scheduled for Sunday January 29th, 2023.
The meeting will be held at MacLaomainn’s in Chester, VT. 1pm social hour with meal to begin approx. 1:45~2pm followed by Business meeting 3:00-4:30. The cost is $35 per person.
Look forward to seeing in January.
Congrats Steve Hurd!
Congratulations to Steve Hurd for successfully completing his private glider check-ride at Estrella Sailport in AZ on December 9th. A well-earned achievement and a great way to round out the season somewhere warmer!
Nice job Steve.
Snowbird Report
Alasdair & Colby attended the annual Thanksgiving weekend “Snowbird” spot landing contest at Harris Hill this year. Needed another body or two to enter a NESA team so we flew for valley Soaring Club.
Friday was too windy to safely have a spot landing contest with winds ~18G27, however it was a spectacular ridge day. Colby got his first real ridge flying experience with Hank Nixon (UH) as his instructor in the back seat.
Saturday was spectacular with 78 flights flown! The club trophy went to Valley Soaring. Colby and Alasdair placed 2nd in the Junior/Senior team category and Colby placed 3rd in the Junior category.
The event wrapped up with a nice Banquet and awards ceremony in the National Soaring Museum.
Maybe next year we can field a couple more participants and enter a NESA team.
Club ships tucked away until spring
Thanks to the efforts of NESA stalwarts Bill B, Jerry S, Greg H, Steve H, Jim M, Ben B, Brian X, Cameron C, Paul H, Larry P and A&P/IA Andy Gelston, the club’s yellow 2-33 and 1-26 received their annual inspections Friday and all five club aircraft were secure in club member’s hangars at the end of the day Saturday. All are ready for flight at the first sign of spring. Thanks, Bill, for the delicious potato leek soup both days!
Club members achieved several milestones this season. NESA welcomed eight new members in 2022. Jim Malecha, former chief tow pilot for the Memphis Soaring Society, relocated to the New London area a few years ago and joined in January, piloted the Callair for 147 tows throughout the season, and attained the CFI-G rating in October. Steve Hurd soloed.
On the junior front, Ben Berg attained his Private Pilot-Glider certificate in June and soloed in Bill’s Cub in September. Colby passed his written and Sebastian made his first solo!
356 tows in 2021, 441 this year, an increase of 24%, still a bit low but directionally indicating a return to more “normal” times.
Watch for updates concerning the club Annual Meeting in January.
Glider Wash and Precision Landing Contest.
Saturday, November 5th was the First Annual NESA Aircraft Wash and Precision Landing Contest.
We had a good turn out on this 75 degree November day with Jim M, Steve H, Ben B, Colby vK, Gerry S, Paul H and Bill B. The yellow 2-33, 1-26, 1-34 and the Callair all got washed and they gleamed in the sunshine.
Then we brought the yellow 2-33 and 1-26 to the flightline for some precision flying. The rules are simple; a touchdown line on the grass Rwy 29 was established with two orange buckets and if the pilot touchs down before the line it is a DQ (disqualification). Measured was the touchdown after the line. A vertical pool noodle was erected as the rollout stopping point and closest to the noodle was measured. Each pilot took a 1000’ tow.
Results:
Both CFIGs Bill B and Gerry S were DQ for an early touchdown
Steve H landed long, way long
Colby vK had the cross-wind get super strong during his flight and he elected to land into the wind on Rwy 23. He gets the good judgement award.
Paul H came in second with 13 paces beyond the touchdown line and 113” from the noodle for a strong second place.
Ben B in the trusty 1-26 landed 10 paces beyond the line and! 3/4 of an inch from the noodle to win the Contest. Congratulations Ben
Fun was had by all. If you are now addicted to sailplane landing competition, talk to Alasdair about the “Snowbird Contest” at the Harris Hill Gliderport, Thanksgiving weekend. A very fun event.
2022 Snowbird @ Harris Hill
The annual Snowbird spot-landing contest will take place at Harris Hill in Elmira, NY the Friday and Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend. For those that haven’t been it’s a fun chance to fly somewhere different and meet folks from other clubs.
There are Junior, Senior and Junior/Senior team categories. Anyone can participate including non-solo students (you will fly a 2-33 with a safety pilot).
The event finishes with a dinner in the National Soaring museum on the Saturday night. If you haven’t been to the National Soaring Museum you ought to go!
Here’s a video from 2020 (due to the pandemic that year was pretty much just HHSC members).
Talk to Alasdair (me) if you are interested in participating or want to know more. It would be great to be able to field a NESA team. I won’t admit how long I’ve been attending the Snowbird – so please do not read this old article: http://valleysoaring.org/snowarticle/
Mt Washington Wave Camp Report
Several members made the trip up to Gorham over the 9 days of Wave Camp.
Tows were provided by the PMSC bird-dog (Jerry checked out in it and did some of the towing) and by Aerophoto with Walter bringing his Pawnee up from PA.
Larry took the PW-6 up and several flights were made in it – some wave and some Mt. Washington summit ridge soaring. Both Jerry and Walter had some great PW flights this year.
Andy Kozak took his new ASW-27 up for a couple of days mid-week and had some nice flights.
No record altitudes this year and some mixed weather, but a fun time was had.
P.S. Now that i1 is back at Springfield, Larry could use some help to get it re-assembled. Any volunteers for this coming weekend? If you can help out please reach out to Larry. Thanks!
New CFIG!
Congrats to Jim Malecha on adding his CFIG yesterday (Sat 10/15/22) by completing a successful check-ride with DPE Daryl Smith.
