HIGHLIGHTS:
 

1. One of the big objectives of the day for Joe Anastasio and Richard Walker was to get the wind-destroyed superstructure down from its precarious position half-way up in the air. They finally accomplished the task with help from Loyal's tractor and heavy chains hooked a portion of the steel. Richard also brought his torch to cut some of the steel beams in order to disassemble it for moving it out of the area. Thanks, guys, for all that help.

2. Jeff Lowe was out again today and is on his way to a license. He's a very determined fellow and I'm sure will be a solo pilot in no time. His rate of progress is excellent and he really understands the maneuver stuff. It's a pleasure teaching him and for the CCSC he'll make a very good club member. We flew twice and he took most of the tow, doing markedly better on tow the second time even though by that time, the bumps had become more numerous.

3. Once Jeff's training ended, we all had lunch at the King's Video store because Debbie's was closed for the weekend. Seems that Avenal was celebrating Old Timers Day and had a parade in the morning. So some of the stores closed because folks couldn't get to their stores until after the parade.

4. After lunch most of the pilots launched. There were no gliders left on the ground, except for the deteriorating Lark. Jerry Badal used the Orange Crush while Carl Kunz used the 1-26. Joe Anastasio and Alex Caldwell used the Blanik, and Richard Walker launched in his Schweizer 1-35.

5. Just about 30 minutes after Jerry Badal launched in the Orange Crush, Andrea and Jennifer Mersino arrived. You may recall that Mother and Daughter soloed together on the same day back on February 24th, 2007. They haven't been out very much since then, but today they arrived and wanted to go flying to renew their solo privileges. Trouble is, the Orange Crush is the only 2-33 we have and it departed shortly before they arrived with Jerry Badal piloting and thinking there was no one behind him waiting for the glider. At first the girls didn't mind waiting but after the HOURS rolled by it was clear that Jerry was having an excellent flight. So, three and one-half hours later Jerry landed and we only had time for Andrea's flight because they had to get back to Fresno. Maybe next time we'll organize a bit better.

6. Next weekend the club needs to take a vote and decide on how to mover forward with the tow plane issue. We need to do something because Loyal plans to move to Hawaii sometime in the next year, according to him. We used to think it was imminent but the last conversation with him led us to believe it may not be so imminent after all. Time will tell.