Hello, all:
As we move towards the start of the spring soaring season and the Annual Safety meeting, please be reminded to complete your 2022 OSCI Safety Quiz. You’ll want to bring the completed quiz to the Safety Meeting. If you are unable to attend the Safety Meeting, please bring it to BTA before your Annual Safety Flight.
We’ve been shut down for the winter since November, with very few opportunities to fly. When it hasn’t been too cold to fly, it’s been too windy. Worse yet, when the freak December thunderstorm came through, the doors to the Pawnee’s hangar were blown completely off. The Blair Airport Authority temporarily rehung the doors, but they’re nailed shut. As a result, even when there is a day that we could fly, we can’t because the Pawnee is trapped in the hangar. According to the Airport Authority, a contractor has been hired, and the doors are scheduled to be repaired in the next two weeks.
2021 was a very good year for the Omaha Soaring Club. We flew a total of 566 flights during the 45 days we had flying operations. Jim C. earned his CFI-G. Jay B. earned his Silver Soaring Badge. Tom S. and Jake K. passed their FAA Oral exams and FAA Check Rides, earning their Glider Add-ons. John H. and Warren P. soloed, and John H. and Jeff F. passed their FAA written examinations. 2022 looks to be an exciting year, too, with more first solos and more members earning their Glider Add-ons or their Private Pilot License’s.
Our first big event for 2022 is the Quarterly General Meeting, followed immediately by the Annual Safety Meeting. We will be scheduling a general clean-up of the hangars sometime after that (something we can do on a weekend with non-flying weather). We hope to be able to begin work on the Club Office/Lounge sometime this spring.
The Club is in good shape financially. I finally received a check from the SSA for the FAST Kit rebates, so we have no accounts receivable. We are still a few months away from making the payment for our largest annual expense, which is insurance. From a maintenance standpoint, we’ve got the Annual Inspections for the L-23 and L-33 coming up in the next month or two. The new tail wheel for the L-23 is scheduled to be delivered this coming week. All the club aircraft will be in good shape for the coming season. Jeff F’s SGS 1-26B is disassembled and on its trailer, waiting to go to the shop for some work. There’s a panel on the left wing that’s going to be re-riveted. He’s having a crotch-strap added to the harness assembly, plus the brake is going to be adjusted. Bob C. has made repairs to the cracked canopy on his Russia glider, so it’ll be back in the air this spring.
I’ll be modeling a club shirt or two at the upcoming meetings. I think we need club shirts when we attend public functions, like Millard Stem Days or the Indoor Air Show at the Air Museum. I thought we might even want to wear high visibility shirts during flying operations, for safety and so that visitors know who the club members are. As part of this, I spent some time looking at the various websites for other soaring clubs around the country. One of the things I looked at was what their club logos looked like. I don’t know who designed the OSCI logo, but it is unique. However, it doesn’t screen-print onto cloth very well. The clouds on our logo lose some of their definition. The only way to reproduce our logo accurately is to use heat transfer patches. These patches are expensive unless we order at least seventy of them. So, I will bring along a couple of other logo ideas for use on shirts only.
That’s all the news I have. I look forward to seeing everyone at the Quarterly General Meeting and Annual Safety Meetings. Please try to make it. There are a couple of important votes as detailed in the email from Dave L. Until then, be well, and here’s to a safe and successful 2022 soaring season!
Jeff F.
Recent Comments