New member: Ananth Racherla

Ananth Racherla is the newest member to join NCSA.

Ananth writes:

I am certainly having a great time flying with NCSA. Flying has been a
lifelong dream for me. Back in India about 10 to 15 years ago it was a
big deal just to fly a commercial airline as a passenger. So I certainly
have come a long way and the romance has only strengthened.

Prior to joining NCSA, I have had a little bit of experience flying
ultralights out of Turlock. I used to live a short distance from Bryon
and would see gliders in the air driving down the Byron highway on my
motorcycle. So I just goOgled for Byron airport and thus found out
about NCSA. There is something very intriguing about being able to soar
without power and thats why I am here.

Besides flying, I am an avid video gamer and work as a software engineer
at a video games company.

Finally, I might be the only vegetarian in the Club :) So just like to
remind everyone, esp the food committee, to keep me in mind when
organizing all future club lunches. :)

New Member: John Scott

John Scott was born and raised in San Francisco, went to UC Davis to become
a Mechanical Engineer and has been working at Lawrence Livermore for the
past 30 years. At present he is the Facility Manager for the Lab's High
Explosives Applications Facility. John originally learned to fly as a
member of the Cal Aggie Flyers while a student at Davis. He resumed the
sport after a 26-year hiatus and purchased a Piper Cherokee 180 as birthday
present to himself. John and his wife (Diane) live in Concord and the plane
at Buchanan Field. This Christmas, while vacationing in Tucson with
relatives, John was able to slip away for 5 days to get his Glider add-on
endorsement at Arizona Soaring (Estrella Sailport). Since then, he has
joined not only NCSA but also NSA (Air Sailing, NV), a location he has yet
to visit in person. He is already signed up for Thermaling Camp in June.
John and Diane enjoy weekend trips in the Cherokee which will now include
Truckee and Air Sailing. "Sorta sounds like I'm hooked, doesn't it?" Yes
John it does. In Byron,John soloed an L-13 and '972'. Welcome to NCSA.

New Members

Tammie Carswell and Paul Searles are the newest members to join NorCal Soaring. Paul looks forward to helping out by instructing when he's not tending to his Silicon Valley law practice. Tammie, also a CFIG, is anxious to receive her tow pilot check out. Tammie and Paul enjoy their dual membership with the Texas Soaring Association and have felt a very warm welcome to their newest club. Paul is the happy owner of a DG-300.

Tammie's little pug is named Pugsy - and is a Certified Therapy Dog for Furry Pets in San Jose, CA.

New Members

Two new NCSA members, who started as Trial members this summer:

Biff Forbush is our most distant club member. He lives in New Haven, CT where he teaches and does research in Cell Physiology at Yale....and commutes to Mountain View (and Byron) to visit Maja. "Flying is something very different for me, and it is fun to have the new challenge"

Maja Djurisic is one of our very few women members. She moved west from the east coast a couple of years ago for a post doc research position in Neurobiology at Stanford. She had a wish to learn to fly and this seemed like a good moment in her life to tackle it. "So, I found NCSA, with very friendly and supportive instructors and members. It turned out that I like flying much more that I ever thought I would. It makes me happy".



On our recent Work Days' struggles to install the control surfaces on our Blanik 53AS, Maja was in great demand, due to her persistence and nimble fingers when attaching cotter pins etc

Thanks,

....Monique

New CFIG in Byron

We have a new CFIG in Byron, a Frenchman called Tristan Duplan. Tristan started his flying dreams as an airplane pilot at the nearby San Jose airports and quickly transitioned to taildraggers at Aerodynamic Aviation, (then Amelia Reid Aviation), where he teaches airplane. He now has an Airline Transport Pilot license with privileges to fly land and sea planes. Born in France, he relocated to California in 2000 as a software engineer working for Cisco Systems. Tristan has always been interested in expanding his horizon in the flying world and as such started developing interest in flying gliders. After being introduced to the soaring basics in the south bay with friends, Tristan decided to start flying gliders at Byron in May 2009, got his commercial glider add-on license 3 months later and his instructor glider add-on license soon after that.


He is also part of the tow pilot crew at Byron. Over the summer 2009, he was able to experience some of the Sierra soaring weather at Minden including wave flying under the watchful eye of Michael Schneider and Michael Voie, got his self-launch endorsement from Rolf Peterson in the Grob 109B at Byron and kept training with Monique Weil at Byron. He looks forward to the 2010 training camps and more safe cross-country flying. He is now part of the CFIG (glider instructor) crew at Byron and looks forward to flying with you.

The Castro Trio

New life for Eric Castro's Diamant: N1795, now THE CASTRO TRIO - Jason Proctor and Sebastien Belanger have joined Eric Castro in THE CASTRO TRIO.

Cirrus Auction Winner

Fritz Henshaw won the Auction for the Standard Cirrus - also he had his first GLIDER SOLO recently.

Progress on the 1-26; Mike Shapira's Schweitzer Limbo

Mark Violet organized a mini-workday to try to get the 1-26 airworthy. It had flunked annual because the total energy tube was dangling where it could jam the control cable and because the elevator central hinge had too much play.

Hero of the day is Mike Shapira who refastened the tube. See how he did it at
http://picasaweb.google.com/ljsuter/MikeSSchweitzerLimbo?authkey=Gv1sRgCMbYpZ67mPWOtQE#

Same link also shows the offending bolt from the elevator hinge that Sam's going to replace.

Larry

New Glider Instructor Mike Voie

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Congratulations to Mike Voie, who became a Flight Instructor Glider today in Byron on Independence Day, a pleasant day, with a cool breeze (17Kt down runway 23, just strong enough that Mike decided agains a crosswind landing!). Here he is before the Checkride




And another photo after he completed the Instructor Glider Practical Test, and a little cool water was poured on his head to wash the perspiration.
Examiner Dan Gudgel and Tow Pilot Boris are congratulating Mike



Mike will now ask for "willing victims" to sample the new CFI-G

Well Done Mike!

I am soo happy to have another instructor to share the load,...

.....Monique

New Member Dhiren Ghandi

Welcome to Dhiren, (pronounced as in "the rain", as in "the rain in Spain"), Gandhi who became a new NCSA member today, a pleasant, quiet Independence Day in Byron!




The above photo was taken last weekend, with MikeVoie and Ray Rauen. Dhiren lives in Danville and works for San Mateo County. His youngest son has just graduated from High School and Dhiren now has time to learn how to fly, which has been his desire for many years

.....Monique