Calendar or Events
Safety Meeting – 15 Feb 2013, Chalco Reservoir Community Center
Club Phone Number
Club Phone – 630-9640
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Entrance Code – #6693
Annual Club Meeting Minutes – 19 Dec 2013
OSC held its annual meeting on 19 Dec in the First Unitarian Church near Mid Town Crossing. Members present were Bob Dyer, Jaime Alexander, Bob Craig, Steve Stevens, Bert Aagesen, Perry Mitchel, and Paul Jelinek. If I missed anyone – sorry. Bob Dyer opened the meeting with a reading of the minutes from the September meeting. Minutes were approved as written.
Presidents report:
Bob Dyer went over the various accomplishments of club members in 2013. They are as follows:
Most Tows – Jaime Alexander at 70 followed by Steve Stevens at 68.
Most Glider Flights as PIC – Jaime Alexander at 27 followed by Mike Boska at 21.
Most Instructional Flights – Jaime Alexander at 65 followed by Dan Peterson at 19.
Longest Flights – Bob Craig in Russia for 2 hours and 10 minutes followed by Mike Boska in his Russia for 2 hours and 3 minutes
Sore Butt Award (most total flights) – Jaime Alexander for 162 Sorties
Most Dedicated Volunteer – Jerry Adams
It was discussed that the only way to increase club flying is to have Jaime in the glider flying the Pawnee by remote control. Seriously, it was noted how much the club is depending on Jaime which can’t continue indefinitely.
Bob Dyer also mentioned that it was a good year for ratings with two commercial add-ons (Jim Clark and Steve Stevens) and two privates (Anders Backlund and Mike Boska).
Next we discussed the possibility of combining the next meeting with the safety seminar where the safety seminar would be held from 9-12, pizza at noon, and then have the club meeting after that. Bob was going to ask Mack McKain if we could have the room longer on the 15 Feb.
Vice Presidents Report: Tabled until next meeting where club goals will be discussed.
Treasurers Report:
Club has approximately $4000 in the bank with no outstanding debits. A look at the club budget shows we brought in more money than we spent in 2013 (about $3000). That was a nice change from 2012 were we were in the red about the same amount. The engine fund contribution is caught up to where it should be for the amount of hours on the engine since overhaul ($5700). We ordered 5 FAST kits and 10 soaring manuals. They will be distributed to members who expressed interest at the safety seminar. Let me know if you want one and we can order more.
Flight Officers Report:
Safety seminar will be 15 Feb 2014 at Chalco Reservoir. We will go over the 2013 accidents and other topics. If members would like to see something covered at the meeting, let Jaime know as soon as possible. Jaime is planning to resign as flight officer in September of 2014. We discussed ways to split up the flight officer role into flight officer, safety officer and flight scheduler. Jaime has been doing all these functions at the same time for many years. The flight officer does not have to be an instructor.
Maintenance Officer Report: Maintenance officer was not present but it was mentioned that we are monitoring the tail on the L-23 and will address it at the next annual.
Old Business:
L-13 – Blaniks will be built again by another European manufacturer. No change on L-13 AD status. They are flying in most other countries. If the FAA doesn’t come up with anything than we could donate the plane to an aircraft maintenance school. We will readdress L-13 storage at the next meeting.
New office space – the old pilots lounge was found to have mold problems and is deemed more work than it is worth to fix. Same goes for the room next to the Pawnee.
New Business:
President challenged members to fly more, earn badges, and try some cross country.
We discussed the need for volunteer for several club duties. Web Master – With Tyler Sandberg moving to western Nebraska, we need someone else to take over this duty. Paul Jelnick said we would try. Membership coordinator – this person could handle queries about the club and look for ways to promote the club. Scheduler – this could be handled by club member and/or added to the website. Bylaws and flight rules – last revised in 2002, need to be updated by a bylaws committee as required. Finance committee – audit the books and look at the current and future club budgets.
Need another two place glider – club members are waiting too long to fly. There is a Krosno available in Poland to for shipment to the US for $20000. Instructor sits higher than student in this sailplane. Any idea of a glider purchase must not be considered until all members who contributed to the L-23 purchase are paid back. We have started this process.
We discussed badge flying. The Jantar is all set up for badge flying for interested club members. It is preferred that pilot going cross country have another club member available with the trailer if a retrieve becomes necessary. The L-23 can be used for some badge flying if it is available – not very often.
We discussed how scheduling works in other clubs. Generally as the club gets bigger, scheduling starts to mimic a commercial operation – members schedule aircraft and instructors for specific times. We are not there yet. A scheduling program on the website could be used to schedule a towpilot, instructor, and SOF for several weeks in advance.
We reviewed the available instructors in the club. They are Jaime, Dan Peterson, Bob Craig, Bert Aagesen, Whitt Bonifant. Zack McNiell has moved away and left the club and Ken Costello is living in Wyoming. Possible future instructors are Jim Clark and Allen Short (though Allen will probably be re-assigned to a different base in the near future). We will need new instructors and existing ones to step up as Jaime winds down in this duty. Any instructor can recommend a student for check ride – this was not just Jaime’s task.
Election of Officers: President is Perry Mitchell, Vice President is Jay Buchanan, Secretary is Jim Clark, Treasurer is Bob Craig, Maintenance is Dan Peterson, and Flight Officer is Jaime Alexander.
The Moron (Mormon) Trail Revisited! by Bert Aagsen
This Spring, if I can find a few days off for both me and Tammie, when the weather allows, I would like to attempt a dirty downwind run from western Nebraska back to these parts! Blair Airport would be preferred! Driving out to either Scottsbluff or Chadron, depending on where I can attain the help of a tow pilot and tow plane.
The distances would qualify for a Diamond on the Gold Badge! Either 500km straight out or 300km out and back or triangle would all qualify! Just thought it would be more interesting and/or more romantic to traverse our State in this manner. So far the longest flight recorded for Nebraska is only 64nm, thanks to Tyler who looked it up, only because my previous cross country flights were not recorded as State records. Straight line distance from Scottsbluff to Blair is approximately 611km and Chadron to Blair is 596km!
Do I try to fly a straight line as much as the weather would allow or do I plan a route closer to airports, in other words, along the North Platte and Platte Rivers from Scottsbluff or along the northern tier of Nebraska? Some planning would have to be made, but I think the first thing is to set the goal and then execute the plan in small steps until the weather and time off would coincide and open a window of opportunity! If not this year, maybe next?!
Have a road worthy trailer with enough equipment to take the Jantar apart and put back together after a long road trip. Practiced this last summer with a trip to Wichita, KS.
The trailer also has a spare tire mounted underneath the trailer behind the axle. Have a van that can pull the trailer and with room for extra equipment, camping gear, tie downs and crew radio.
The glider is equipped with oxygen in case I find thermals that would take me higher than ten thousand feet. The airports of Scottsbluff and Chadron have elevations of 3,967′ and 3,297′ respectively. Water could be a problem, easiest would be a camel back dispenser on my back, but then comes the question of a relief tube? I took mine out when I first acquired the Jantar as the tube was old and brittle and probably couldn’t even contain the trickle of an old man!One way to do it is to carry a good ziplock bag with a used but dry sponge inside. Then comes the problem of learning how to urinate in a supine position encumbered by seat belts and parachute harness. Maybe the best solution is to just go before one flies!
Recording the flight is a must if you want to claim a Badge or State Record. Have a NANO just for this purpose and it is certified by the SSA and the international glider association to record flights for both Badge hunting and contests. Before flight it must be programmed and declaration made. The NANO is equipped with Bluetooth so it can be a backup to the GPS in my iPad with the software Foreflight installed, there are programs for the iPad to record flights as well, however not certified.
Will this be the year? Have glider, will travel!
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