More New Badges for the Club

Congratulations to Phil H., Seth D. and potential member Bert Gillings who all passed their Bronze Badge written exam.

Congratulations to Seth D. who completed the requirements for and earned his SSA B and C badges and Sal L. who completed the requirements for and earned his SSA C badge.

Well done!

Results of the Safety Seminar

Some 59 attendees were present during the recent NCSA 2008 SAFETY SEMINAR at Byron Airport on Saturday, February 23, 2008. They heard the following presentations:

Ramy Yanetz: USE OF RASP & BLIP MAPS as a Planning Tool for Safe XC Soaring from Byron;




Mike Schneider: BYRON AIRPORT OPERATIONS - REVIEW of RECENT INCIDENTS, with focus on Preflight Checks, Canopy!, Spoilers! - Runway Incursions, ATC communications;


Dan Gudgel, Examiner and Meteorologist: WEAK AREAS ON CHECK RIDES, Examiner Lessons Learned, Weather Source Considerations;
Richard Pearl: ACCIDENT REVIEW - COMPLACENCY as a large factor in accidents (presented by Dan);

Thanks to Monique Weil who qualified this seminar for WINGS credit. The presentation materials will be made available on the Internet in the near future.



By Dave Cunningham

Recent Accomplishments

Congratulations to new member Phil Hoyt, who has earned his SSA A and B
badges.

Well done.

--Dave Cunningham

Recent Accomplishments

Congratulations to:

SSA A badge

Seth Dunham

Tom Gilman (potential new club member)

SSA B badge

Tom Gilman (potential new club member)

SSA C badge

Tom Gilman (potential new club member)

WINGS phase

Taylor Nichols (phase I)

John Randazzo (phase III)

--Dave Cunningham

A Nice Day at Soar Truckee

Our flight, July 5: Mike Mayo launched from Truckee about 1:30 carrying us
along in NCSA's Grob 103 N3981C for his WINGS flight. He got off tow at 8400', and he took us to over 16,000' in less than 20 minutes north of Truckee. We then
flew east over the ridge but turned around past Spooner Lake over Highway
50—Mike noted virga ahead. Seems the earlier launches made it past
that area before our arrival.

Returning to the Truckee Valley around 10,000', Mike again brought us up
past 16,000' and
he headed us northwest, running a nice cloud street passing over Sierraville
then Nervino and abeam Quincy almost to Susanville.
Good fun. We could see the cloud street extending up beyond
Ravendale and parts further northwest. Alas, we turned home so I could land
and head home, only to note
that the fun cloud street we had flown in on had begun to overdevelop with
virga. We made our way home via a more northeasterly route from
near Herlong through what
Mike noted as a possible convergence line between the east winds aloft and
what had grown into a squall line of virga to the west. We observed a
single
lightning strike along the path that we had earlier taken and Air Sailing
Gliderport to the northeast.

It sure was fun flying along below 18,000' at 80 to 90 knots indicated with
4 to 6 up and Stead made. We could see Lake Tahoe to the near right and
Pyramid Lake to the left all in their full length with just a turn of our
heads. Beautiful.

We arrived over Truckee at 12,000' and enjoyed the intentional glide down.
As we looked up at the OD in the sky, we both smiled, enjoying our 4 hour
flight. We had
adjusted our route according to the weather for the day, flown always within
glide distance of a paved runway, and landed safely having enjoyed beautiful
country sights along the way.

Mike M. and Dave C.

From the Thermaling Camp

Silver Altitude Claim: Larry Suter, Taylor Nichols

SSA B badge: Taylor Nichols

SSA C badge: Taylor Nichols

SSA Bronze badge: Larry Suter

WINGS phase IV: Peter Kelemen

Congratulations to all!

-- Dave Cunningham