WEATHER
Visibility: Clear all day, except for the smoke.
Wind: Light and variable.
Altitudes: 5,000+ msl.
Time Aloft: One and one half hours.
Max Lift: 5-6 knots.
Temperature: 96 deg.
Comment: Fire didn't help the thermals.
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. WELCOME NEW MEMBERS !!!!!!!!
DAVE BEZINQUE
MARK NEAL
KEVIN O'SHEA
CURTIS MODIN
I think the new member story is more valuable to the CCSC than the fire. I believe this is the first time we've ever had four new members sign up on the same day. Welcome to all of you and I hope you will enjoy your flying experience at Avenal for many years to come. If you're not necessarily in a training schedule, come out often anyway to interact with other members of our club. We have the best club members of any soaring organization I know about. Come out and enjoy the beauty and serenity of Avenal, especially in the Fall months.
Dave Benzique: Dave is a personal trainer in Hanford, owns a Silent motorglider, and will be basing his glider here at Avenal. Dave achieved his BFR today, and we look forward to seeing him often around here. Dave brought a lovely lady with him, Sylvia Casey, another fitness buff, and mountain bike enthusiast. They plan on exploring the Temblor's via bike during visits to our gliderport. The scenery in our mountains is well worth the effort.
Mark Neal: Mark is from Fresno, flew out with his Dad, Don who himself is an accomplished power pilot and quite involved in aviation activities in the Central Valley. Mark has decided to earn his glider license, perhaps to take Don up in the mountains for soaring days, much like I'm sure Don has taken Mark up over the years. Mark did exceptionally well on his first flight and I would expect him to move quite readily through his training cycle.
Kevin O'Shea: Kevin is starting from scratch on his Glider rating and his first flight was with Alex Caldwell. They were up quite a long time, mostly because Alex is so good at thermalling even the smallest updraft. At least that gave Kevin an idea of how we make use of the forces of nature without destroying the land and air. Kevin seemed quite enthusiastic about his ride today.
Curtis Modin: Curtis recently worked for Roger's Helicopters (coincidentally among those working this fire) but traveled so much he could never accomplish some of his life's goals, one of which was to get a pilot's license. Now, he works steadily in Fresno and has decided it's time to pursue the license. We're happy he's finally settled down and available for training and just being a friendly club member.
2. WELCOME VISITORS !!!!!
STEPHANIE AND BRIAN ANNETT
BILL WOODY
SYLVIA CASEY
Visitors are always an important part of what we do at Avenal. Many of these first time fliers choose to begin working on their Pilot's License and perhaps today is no exception. Regardless of whether one continues training or not, I highly recommend that everyone try a glider ride once in their life. Not too much I can think of will equal a glider flight.
Stephanie and Brian Annett: Stephanie and Brian are Fresno residents, although Brian works at Lemoore NAS. It was Stephanie who decided to see what gliders are all about and so it was Brian helping while Stephanie flew, actually two flights. I was flying both, and each time, we simply didn't find enough lift to remain aloft any length of time. Feeling badly about the shortness of the flight, I took Stephanie up again, but the second time wasn't any better than the first. She is considering earning her Pilot's License and hopefully the brief experience aloft won't discourage her from continuing in that direction.
Bill Woody: Bill is a longtime aviator from Fresno who came out with friend and club member, Dave Johnson. Bill had never gone up in a glider so this was his chance with Dave going flying anyway. Bill did enjoy his flight and although he would likely earn an add-on rating smoothly, he's decided that the time isn't quite right just yet. That's OK, all of us have to create a set of priorities but we hope Bill will decide to visit Avenal again if only to travel with Dave Johnson and use the patio to enjoy the peace and beauty of our Avenal gliderport.
Sylvia Casey: Sylvia, as we discussed earlier, is a fitness and biking enthusiast from Hanford. According to Dave Bezinque, we'll see more of both of them in the future as they take advantage of the Temblor Range for wonderful exercise and beautiful scenery. Of course, that's after they soar in Dave's Silent motorglider.
2. The Mersino family flew out today because Jacob needed a Biennial Flight Review (hard to believe it has been two years since Jacob earned his Pilot's License on his 16th birthday). He did quite well with all three flights, then took his Dad for a ride for the first time since he earned his license. Andrea was with them and she flew one refresher flight with me, then a nice solo flight under the smoke ceiling.
3. Jerry Smeltzer flew a nice 5000 msl flight before he found out that we had agreed with the Fire Dept to restrict our flights to the east of the IP. Most of the best thermals were west of the field early in the day before the smoke ceiling shut most of them off. There were areas of sunshine and some thermals available there, but mostly the remainder of the day had only weak lift to zero sink.
4. I don't believe Dave Johnson flew today since it was pretty busy with new members and visitors, as well as making sure his buddy, Bill Woody, took his first glider ride. They flew out in their Cherokee 180 and left in mid-afternoon but Dave has been doing quite well lately so missing one day of soaring won't hurt his skill development.
5. Loyal finally has a new home on a new concrete pad out where is other trailer home burned down. It looks good from the air and he sure is grateful to get back into something larger than 8 x 15 ft.
6. Richard Walker was there today, but I don't think he flew because of the fire and the busy glider schedule.
7. It was an interesting day, for sure, filled with lots of activity both on our field and in the mountains to the west. Perhaps now that the fire fighters would have used our field to greater advantage had the dust not been such a problem, we might appeal to some official organization for grant money to add sprinklers to the first 1000 ft of our runway in the event another emergency arises in which helicopters need to land and take-off with men and equipment. We could do without our field for a day or two in exchange for money to wet the first 1000 feet. Maybe someone knows how we can go about getting such grant money on the basis of need for a firefighting base.
