Skyline: CHGA Meeting Minutes

Ed Reno

New Faces:
Marco Underly, found us on the web. He is a comp paraglider pilot and wanted to know the sites. Steve Parker found us on line, is a parachutist and wants to learn.

Stories:
Matthew related that the last month was quite spectacular, told of five launches from the Pulpit and five subsequent landings at High Rock with heights topping out at '9000! Yeeah Babye! John Dullahan was one of the five with his first crossing.

Mike Chevalier went from Ridgley to the shore, finding the coastal convergence at the cloud line around 3 or 4 pm near Georgetown. He made it to 6000 and got all the way to OC.

Tom McGowan was in LA and rented a Pulse at Sylmar flight Park from Joe Grebo, took a launch from a steep 1000' slope into rowdy air about the same time he was wondering if the glider was trimmed right. It seemed to be and had a good flight. He even remembered that he should pay for it when none of the proprietors did....

Haile Woubou, John's student, was on his second lesson in strong winds at Long's Hill, and related at length and with great enthusiasm his unexpected soaring flight from launch position to maybe 100',... well 50', ... could've been '30 feet,,,,,,,(John: It was probably, maybe ten or fifteen feet) Yeah! and it last for what seemed like an hour!... But was probably only 15 minutes... or, or 10 minutes. (John: I it might have been two or three minutes). Yeah! But it was reeeally amazing! Well at first it was scary, but then it was really amazing! ;-) (We've been there Haile, that's why we like the story so much.)

Ridgely swim-in featured test flights on the new Talon, a comp level glider. John Dullahan found it way too heavy on the round for fun. John Middleton found it, heavy on the ground, skatey on tow, and stiff in the air but liked it and considered getting one.

Business:
Tom McGowan mentioned that the current Hogback LZ is small, with a 15 degree slope, broken up by stone fences, boarded by power lines and populated with rattlesnakes. The slot has grown in and gives a scant one foot of clearance on each side. Oh and by the way, the ridge is tiny and you need 3000 over in order to OTB.... (What's he trying to say?...) He recommended that we not fly it until we, at least, get a better LZ; which he is working on.

Steve Kinsley reports that Anna says we are welcome to improve the road at her gate. It seems that a couple of pipes and a truckload of gravel will do the job. There were some in/outs to the secondary and it was observed that those couple of trips made a noticeable dent in the road. We definitely want to install those improvements if we plan on using it. Even then we will want to keep traffic to a minimum. We should try to shuttle our gliders out en masse whenever possible. Other proposed improvements include the topping of the dead trees on the approaches.

John Dullahan has handed off the Pulpit treasury to MHGA for the year. Total assets are $7419.

We are drumming up volunteers for the Pulpit Fly in on the 15th and 16th of Sept.

Dateline HR: Local Law Enforcement officers, both civilian and military, are watching the rock very closely for post sunset alcohol infractions these days. It is illegal to have alcohol in the park.

The site maintenance fund has $878 and the site acquisition fund has $767. It was generally agreed that this is a shameful quantity of cash for such an important project. It was also agreed that we need to set a concrete goal and start working for it.

MHGA has gone to bi-monthly meetings.

Whee Ha! Fly Safe!