Date
Saturday, May 13th at 7pm
Safety Topic
The main speaker is Gabrielle Chafe and the subject is Sensory Illusions in Aviation.
Reference material
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sensory_illusions_in_aviation
SOSA is having its second Safety seminar of 2017. We'll held the meeting at the club house.
Date Saturday, May 13th at 7pm Safety Topic The main speaker is Gabrielle Chafe and the subject is Sensory Illusions in Aviation. Reference material https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sensory_illusions_in_aviation It is almost mid-May and normally flying season is a t full speed. Unfortunately the weather this year has brought higher volume and frequency of precipitation, and parts of our field is still under water. However, the forecast is improving, and we should re-start the operation on next couple of weeks. Photos by Gino Cavicchioli
The 2017 SOSA Pilot Safety Meeting will be held at the club house on Sunday 23/Apr.
The meeting starts at 1pm and all members are invited. AGENDA 1. Emergency Response Plan – Dale Guenter 2. Changes to spring spin/check flights – Chris Wilson 3. Winch launches - emergency landings – Chris Wilson 4. Flarm and Transponder operating procedures – Hans Juergensen 5. Discussion – for the good of the club – all SOSA will host a Bronze Badge course in May and all SOSA pilots are invited.
Who should attend? Any licensed pilot with 10 or more solo hours. Ideally you should have flown a couple of good soaring flights – two hours minimum, for each flight. However, we are prepared to waive this restriction if you demonstrate adequate soaring skills. Dates:
Course Outline The following items will be covered and tested:
Completion of this course will allow you to start meeting the requirements of the Silver badge. You MUST register in advance to participate in the off field dual landing part of the course. Please contact John Brennan offline to register or sign the pink sheet at the club house. SOSA is proud to continue its support for the Youth Flight Canada (YFC) initiative, providing a pathway into cross-country and competition for young pilots that don't have the opportunity to do so in a club ship or private ship. Getting youth (and any pilot) hooked on cross-country is a critical aspect of retaining them, or getting them back after university.
A SZD-48 Jantar was purchased by YFC after a donation was made to them for this purpose, and is hosted at SOSA. The glider operating costs are supported through donations from SOSA members to YFC that are then flowed back to SOSA for the Youth team account. The annual operating expenses to keep the Jantar flying include the insurance and maintenance of the glider and trailer. Also, over the last couple of years SOSA members have done significant work to the trailer and are in the process of updating the instruments. The glider is always stored in the trailer and they are expected to rig it every day they wish to fly. The purpose here is so they are familiar with the rigging and derigging and trailer characteristics, so that it does not get damaged after landing out and retrieval. For youth to fly the glider they need to be suitably qualified, including meeting SOSA requirements to fly the LS4. Once checked out on the Jantar, it costs them $10 per day to fly it (as many times as they want in one day). During the 2016 season, four SOSA youth members flew the Jantar for just over 100 hrs, and it was also flown at both the Canadian Nationals and Ontario Provincials by two of or youth members. Those flying the glider are expected to care for the glider and keep it washed and waxed and to look after small maintenance items on the trailer and assist with glider maintenance (under supervision) Fund-raising At the up-coming spring work weekend, I'll be collecting donations for the Youth Jantar that is based at SOSA to cover the operating expenses for the 2017 season. All donations to support the program are eligible for a charitable receipt for tax purposes. If members can donate $50 each we can keep the program running for another season. Donations to Youth Flight Canada can be made using one of the following methods: 1. cash or cheque to Dave S. during the work weekend 2. interac email money transfer, (ask Dave S. for details), and 3. online donation through CanadaHelps.org (the lest preferred method since they take a 3% administration fee off the top). https://www.canadahelps.org/dn/15959 On behalf on this year’s Board of Directors, I would like to welcome you to SOSA for the 2017 season. We are very excited about the upcoming flying season and can’t wait for it to get started. I wanted to take this opportunity to communicate with you on several topics.
First off let me introduce you to your Board of Directors and Committees for the 2017 season: Board of Directors
Safety Committee
Flying Committee
Chief Tow Pilot
Dean of Students
Member Orientation
Marketing Committee
While the flying season hasn’t full started just yet, your board has met twice already and are busy working on a number of initiatives and activities. We have agreed that the following are priorities for us in the 2017 season: Safety First and foremost, the board is committed to ensuring that SOSA’s safety focus remains high. 2016 saw a marked improvement in safety incidents over the previous year, which is thanks in part to Bill Vollmar and his safety team for the work they built on top of previous committees. I think it is also important to thank all of you, our members, for your focus and commitment to our improved safety record. Whether it is in the air, on the flight line, moving aircraft in the hangar, or just general activities at the club, safety needs to remain front of mind for all members and in all activities. Let’s keep up the great trends started last year so that we can ensure 2017 is another safe year at SOSA. I would also like to point out that Bill received the 2016 Hank Jansen Award from SAC for his Contributions to Safety. Congratulations Bill!! Membership We all recognize that our membership has been declining over the last few years. This decline in membership has not just been felt in our club but across the soaring community and in many other organizations. The competition for peoples’ time and money has increased and people have many more options and opportunities today. Over the years we have had a great deal of focus on marketing and growing our membership and while this needs to continue, our bigger challenge is in maintaining the membership we have. Sure, we can expect some attrition year over year, but our membership retention rate has been an issue in the last few years. Surely it should be easier to keep members than attract new ones. So, as we organized this year’s Board portfolios, we wanted to start thinking in terms of managing and caring for our existing membership as one thing and address marketing and growing new members as a separate portfolio. This division will allow the marketing team to have an external view in development and execution of our marketing strategies and messages to targeted audiences, while also allowing for a dedicated focus internally on how best to improve the member experience, satisfaction and retention. Operations Thanks to Farid Ibrahim and his team last year, we made tremendous progress in integrating Free Flight at our flight line and into the financial systems of the club. We will look to further train all members on the use of the system and implement other features and capabilities of Free Flight. We are looking to formalize more organized student training program. You will hear more on this from Martin shortly. Here are a few key upcoming dates:
In other news
Well that is it for now. We will publish more information and updates during the season. If you haven’t signed up as a member yet, please do so soon as we would love to see you at the field early this season. Remember that April 22/23 is the spring work weekend and many hands make light work. Once again welcome to SOSA for 2017 and looking forward to seeing everyone at the flight line. Sean Christie Here is a list of recent and future activities at SOSA in 2017. Few dates are still being discussed and will be provided soon, so we can plan ahead and enjoy the season as much as possible
February 25 - Annual General Meeting March 25 - Instructor's meeting 25, 26 - Ground School April 22, 23 - Spring Cleaning weekend 23 - Pilot Safety meeting May 01 - Start of mid-week flying operation 09 - Start of Tuesday evening instruction 12 - Start of Friday evening instruction 13 - New member orientation session 13 - Pilot Safety Seminar 27, 28 - Bronze Badge camp (3, 4/June as rain date) June 03 - Summer Instructor's meeting 17 - Safety seminar and social BBQ 18 - New member orientation session after flying 30 - Deadline to complete the Spin check tbd - Start of Acro training July 01 - Summer Instructor's meeting 03 to 07 - Cross Country camp August 05 - Summer Instructor's meeting 05 to 07 - SOSA Mudbowl 19 - Summer General Meeting 26 Aug to 04 Sep - Acceleration Week September 02 - Summer Instructor's meeting 23 - Precision Landing Contest SOSA pilots Jerzy Szemplinski (XG) and Sergei Morozov (M6 for this contest) are participating at the qualifying grand prix at Seminole Glider Port in Florida. You can follow the race on line:
Sailplane grand prix page: http://www.sgp.aero/usa2017/results-sgp/results.aspx?contestID=28481 Facebook (link here) |
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