RGSA CLUB NEWS

[Bob Kuczewski]

After talking with Bill about the problem he mentioned, I've added a new RGSA User and an RGSA Club Information forum for testing purposes only. For now, that new forum is only visible by Bill, Robin, and myself (I can add other club officers to check it out as needed before making it public).

Here's what it looks like:

Club_Info_Forum.png (116.63 KiB) Viewed 11749 times

You'll notice that the posts in that topic were created by the "RGSA" user which would be used to indicate that they've been approved by the club (that could mean club president or club board or club vote or whatever your club wants it to mean). The RGSA user (whoever has that password) would be the only "person" who could post in that forum and would also be able to edit all posts in that forum indefinitely (getting around the 1 hour time-out).

[Bill Cummings]

Robin,
I can't remember if the city garbage dumpster is still located south of the new road at the Cox LZ.

The RC pilots and RGSA are now congregating at the northwest end of the landing field so I was wondering if we should ask the city to either move the garbage dumpster or add a dumpster to the northwest corner.

I would further recommend that if moved it be placed east of the current shade structure since while anyone would be located at the structure the dumpster would most always be downwind. Same with the Port-a-John.

[RobinHastings]

UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE SOUTHWEST:
The RGSA will put on its annual Columbus Day Gathering over the weekend of October 9-12 this year. And the Arizona Paragliding and Hang-gliding Association (AZPHA) will also be hosting a fly-in, this one at Mingus Mountain in northwest Arizona over Labor Day weekend, Sept. 3 through Sept. 7, 2015. Gingher Leyendecker has given me the particulars. This is a spectacular flying site, that I'd really like to try, and it's a very nice bunch of people, in my experience. (I dropped by the place two years ago.) Here's her information - put it on your calendar!
-Robin

Hi Robin!

The days run from Thursday to Monday, cost is $75, and it includes Saturday
dinner, kegs, a band (hopefully!) t-shirt, raffle ticket, and great
camping! There will also be an xc contest for those who want to participate.

The details and registration are on the homepage at azpha.org.

Jim and I will be out of town, but we'd love to come to the Columbus day
fly-in if it works out!

Best,
Gingher

[RobinHastings]

ANNUAL RGSA MEETING!
FEBRUARY 6, 2016: Annual RGSA meeting, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, at International Delights Restaurant in Las Cruces. Northeast corner of Idaho Avenue and El Paseo Road, next to Albertsons supermarket. Everyone is welcome! We'll discuss events for the year, how to add new pilots to the club, and what to do about national insurance. See you there!
-Robin Hastings, RGSA President
575-541-5744
rnhastings@zianet.com

[RobinHastings]

Our annual RGSA meeting was a fine success this year, at International Delights restaurant in Las Cruces. About a dozen people attended, half of them new pilots. Wyatt, Steve, Ken & Heather, Nathan, Jason - nice new prospective pilots. Plus Lee, Had, Mike, Rod, Jan and myself. Erica had the Boone kids in tow, who got along very well with Jan's two children. All got to introduce themselves to the group. We were, with great effort (at least on my part) able to stay on the agenda, and complete the meeting. It began about 7:40 pm, after everyone had gotten acquainted. I went over the past year's flying events, which turned out pretty well. Hadley Robinson gave us a treasurer's report - we seem to be doing pretty well, with close to $800 in the bank (that's before dues were paid, which started right after Had's report). We voted for club officers, and for 2016 we'll have Mike Ellsworth as president, Robin Hastings (yes, that's me) as Vice President, Hadley Robinson as Secretary/Treasurer and Lee Boone as Safety Officer. However, the last two jobs just might get exchanged between those two individuals. Hadley spoke about how the training of PG pilots is going, and I talked about the mentoring we've been doing for prospective hang glider pilots. Additionally, we decided to have several flying events this year. First, there's the Guadalupes trip next weekend, which a number of pilots around the table plan to attend. We'll try for another camping trip to Gray Hill, west of Magdalena, in April. We'll hold the Dry Canyon Fly-In over Memorial Day weekend in Alamogordo, plus the Columbus Day gathering in October - same venue. A possible PG Fly-In at Agave Hill over Veteran's Day weekend, in November, is also being looked at. Mike Ellsworth also pointed out that the Villa Grove Fly-In, in August, is well worth attending, up in Colorado. It could be a busy year for flying events! We discussed insurance - it looks like the USHPA gathered enough funds to finance a Reduced Risk Group, or RRG, in place of what we have right now. How do we insure sites now? (And which ones do we need to insure?) In miscellaneous topics, Jan Zschenderlein pointed out that we need to start alerting each other when one of us plans to fly or otherwise do interesting things - perhaps a broadcast to everyone's email would do it. We finally decided we'd had all the democracy we could handle, and the meeting adjourned about 9:00 pm. Thanks for being there, everyone!
-Robin

[Bob Kuczewski]

Great report Robin!!

Sorry I couldn't make it this year. It turns out that a bunch of the Tooele Hawks were visiting Salton City today for a flying event, so I joined them there. The drive was just a little shorter.

It sounds like you had a great meeting, and Mike would have gotten .my vote!!

Here's to a great year for the RGSA!!  

[RobinHastings]

THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2016:
This is the day that the United Kingdom votes on whether to leave the European Union or not. Of far greater importance, however, was the meeting that took place with Diane Prather of the Bureau of Land Management. Had & Marilyn Robinson, Heather Colon, and Robin, Nancy and Keighley Hastings all went to the District Office here in Las Cruces, and it was an excellent meeting. Diane was very helpful, very interested in understanding what we do, and willing to listen to why we would like continued, controlled access to the flying sites we use in Southern New Mexico. The idea of a limited use permit for the Matt's Mountain Flying Site was not rejected - but she'll need to talk to the people at the BLM office who do that. She suggested that we speak to the staff of New Mexico Senators Heinrich and Udall, to make sure that we can continue to keep our access despite Wilderness designations. I was glad indeed that all of us went - I think we're getting a fair hearing.
-Robin

[Bob Kuczewski]

If you need any support from the US Hawks, just let us know. This is certainly an area where both of your national associations can work together.

Good work on making the contacts and representing pilot's interests!!!!

[RobinHastings]

JANUARY 30, 2017:
We had an annual RGSA club meeting on Saturday, January 28th, at the Golden Corral restaurant in Las Cruces NM. We had a pretty good turnout, with 8 members attending and former pilot Mike Reedy in attendance. After welcomes, and reports on how the flying events went in 2016 (really well, in summary) and finances (about $1900 in the club account right now) we had club elections. President is Rod Burton of El Paso; Vice President and Safety Coordinator is me, Robin Hastings of Las Cruces; Secretary is Hadley Robinson of El Paso, and Treasurer is Lee Boone of El Paso. We had a report on our flying sites in the area; we've maintained all of the current sites, and have added two new foot-launched sites to our region: Nelson's Launch in the Franklin Mountains of El Paso, and Volcanic Peak, 30 miles west/southwest of Las Cruces. We reported on pilots in training; Hadley has several new pilots doing well, while Bill Cummings and I have mentored several new ones in the past year, and have a good prospective pilot in Las Cruces right now. We didn't have to do anything new about site insurance, despite all the USHPA chaos on that subject in the past 12 months. Sites are doing fine, and several of us made a contribution to Hadley to obtain a gift for the Gardiner Turf Grass people in Santa Teresa, who graciously let us do static winch towing and training there. For the Dry Canyon Fly-In and the Columbus Day Gathering (May 26-29 and October 6-9, respectively) we have volunteers willing to work. I can be the contact for them. Bill Cummings also proposed club campouts at Gray Hill the first weekend in May, and early October (I'd vote for late September, myself). Our first event of the year, the Presidents Day gathering at the Guadalupes, will be February 17th to the 20th. Dues were collected - they are $20 for the year, or $75 for dual membership with the Sandia Soaring Association in Albuquerque. Send in your dues to Lee Boone at 3200 Mesa Verde Lane, El Paso, Texas 79904; checks can be made out to RGSA. We'll soon hope to have PayPal up and running, too. In other items to discuss, it was agreed that the windsock at the Cox Field LZ in Alamogordo (Dry Canyon) needs replacement. I will take the lead on that, having done it before. The use of powered aircraft in the LZ during our fly-ins was a final point brought up - they can be pretty noisy, and swooping in low near people, cars and structures is unsafe. Should they be discouraged, at least during the Fly-In's? That issue was not resolved. We adjourned the two-hour meeting at 8:30 pm, then dispersed to wend our various ways homeward and digest both food and information.
-Robin
575-541-5744
RNHastings@zianet.com

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA/Hawks,
Mike E. and I conferred over the phone about installing the new windsock at the Alamogordo, NM landing zone along Fairgrounds Road.
The City was contacted by Mike and they are scheduled to bring the lift truck to the windsock pole at 10:00 Tuesday April 4, 2017.
One forecast for Tuesday had winds at 40 miles per hour during the night, Monday, into Tuesday and getting as high as 50 miles per hour in Las Cruces. 23 mph seems to be the max in Alamogordo. Mike told me not to show up. Only the City workers can ride the lift basket so I wouldn't be able to do much but cheer.
If it turns out that the City workers have to cancel due to the wind we would have to reschedule.
The plan also included new longer lag bolts and a magnetic level together with washer shims to plum true the sock mast.
Grease for the bearing will be along as well.
Below the camera is not level either.

Windsock.JPG (39.58 KiB) Viewed 10060 times