Annual Safety Meeting

The annual mandatory safety meeting is March 19, 2005 starting at 10 AM. Hope for good weather so we can get some BFR's done afterwards.

The Treasurer Speaks

Treasurer Jim White has a few requests for CISS members:

1. Please don't use an old email address list when sending emails to the membership. Get the latest version of the email list from Jim. Old email lists go out of date quickly.

2. SSA Annual dues are $64 this year. Associate members will be billed on February 1, and active members will be billed on March 1 (Jim needs more lead time for the associate members because some folks decide not to renew and it complicates the paperwork). Every CISS member must be a current SSA member because the club gliders are insured through SSA!

3. If you are currently getting your CISS bill by snail mail and Jim has an email address for you, he will start sending your bill by email (only) in February unless you contact him and ask to continue getting your bill by U.S. mail.

Hooray For Our Side!

Nyal Williams reports:

I have just received a letter from Dennis Wright[,] congratulating CISS for granting more A, B, C, Bronze badges than any club in our region. They intend to recognize this fact and give us an award at the general membership meeting at the convention this year[...]
All thanks to our instructors, our membership chair, and our students, as well as to all club members for supporting our activities and our instructional program.
Nyal

I might add: thanks to Chief Instructor Nyal Williams. - DB

BFR Days

CISS will hold BFR days on March 19th and 26th (the last two Saturdays before the regular flying season starts). Members who will need a periodic flight review this year (per FAR §61.56) are encouraged to get it done on one of those days, weather permitting.

The Vision Thing

The CISS board talked about directions for the club at the meeting last night, and decided to make it the central topic for discussion at the February 17th regular club meeting. Here's my vision for the club: More flying for everyone! Now, how do we get there?

Read My Lips

The CISS board of directors met earlier tonight and, among other things, raised all the glider rental fees for club gliders (the Grob, the PW-5, and both Blaniks) by .03 per minute, or $1.80 per hour. The Grob now rents for .29 a minute, the PW-5 for .25 per minute, and the Blaniks for .23 per minute. This winter we've had substantially larger repair bills for the Blaniks than in the past, thanks in part to a recent airworthiness directive on the tailfeathers and partly due to the hard use they get each morning.
The board decided not to raise the tow fees at this time, although the price of avgas has gone up substantially in the past year and if it continues to climb we may have to impose a small surcharge at some point during the season.
Just a few seasons ago, the Grob rented for $12 an hour, the PW-5 for $10 an hour, and the Blaniks for $9. None of the gliders came close to paying for themselves at those rates; now, they do come close to paying for themselves.
Translation: flying with CISS remains a bargain.

Too Cold

The weather forecast is for temperatures well below freezing on Saturday 1/15, so maintenance work is cancelled that day. See you all at the banquet. Hope for better weather on future Saturdays.

No Maintenance Saturday 1/8

Per Ron Clarke, the power is still out at Alexandria Airport. Duane and Marge have obtained a generator for the house, but there is not much point in trying to work on the gliders in a dark freezing hangar. So plan on coming out the following Saturday (before the club banquet) and getting twice as much work done! Suggestion: Instead of working on the gliders, go to the Ground School.

2005 CISS Board Slate

President                Darren Bedwell  

Vice-President           Tom Ruble       

Secretary                Ken Harry       

Treasurer                Jim White       

Dir. of Operations       Pete Detore     

Dir. of Maintenance      Craig Bixby

Chief Instructor         Nyal Williams   

Chief Tow Pilot*         Tom Eaton      

At large board member    Cheryl Beckage

At large board member*   Dave Newill

At large board member*   Mario Lazaga

At large board member*   Chris Carpenter

All terms expire 12/31/05 except those with an asterisk which expire 12/31/06

Update - Tom Ruble reports:

Being the recipient of the ballots, soon to be turned over to the Honorable K. Harry, let it be known that there was not a significant write-in campaign to unseat any of the listed nominees. Thus a series of recounts, or a determination as to who has a hanging chad will not be necessary. . . Thus let the fun begin.

TerraServer-USA

This website will show detailed satellite and aerial photos and topo maps by latitude and longitude in the U.S.A. Here's an example.