SEMINAR 2009

By LucyAnne McKosky

Imagine soaring high over mountain ridges, a hawk wheeling on your wingtip, the Alps silhouetted in the distance. Imagine an emerald lake, with a fairytale castle perched high above and a mystical tower on a tiny island. Imagine evenings under a cheery tent, an ample buffet spread with delicious local dishes, wine and good spirits in abundance. Imagine warm and welcoming soaring sisters, going out of their way to make sure we have everything to make our stay complete. Imagine all this – and you’ll have some idea of the magical experience that was our first international seminar hosted by the Slovenian Women Pilots Association at the Alpine Flying Centre in Lesce, Slovenia.

After two years of intense preparations, everything came together beautifully. Irena Gornik, Nataša Marzidovšek, and Dani Volčanšek Černe headed the organizing team, assisted by Jasna Jerman, Boža Martinčič, Marjeta Rigač, Vesna Stergar, and other members of the Slovenian Women Pilots Association, as well as many volunteers from the Aeroclub ALC Lesce.

By Friday evening, July 17th, more than forty WSPA members had gathered, with several more to arrive in the following days. Twenty-one made the trip from the U.S. Saturday morning dawned rainy and overcast. After a briefing on airspace regulations and local flying procedures, the weather had not improved, - but not to worry! A bus arrived and whisked us off to the mammoth Postojna Cave, one of the natural wonders of Slovenia. We returned in the evening for dinner at the airfield and high hopes for the next day.

Sunday morning, we were greeted by blue skies and the kind of white, puffy clouds soaring pilots love to see. After an interesting lecture on Slovenianaviation pioneers by Dr. Branko Brodnik, Chief Medical Officer of the Slovenian Air Authority, we eagerly swarmed onto the field to begin our flying adventures. Dani and Irena performed scheduling wonders, providing opportunities for everyone who wanted to fly. In the evening, we shared stories of awesomeflights over dinner under the tent.

Monday morning we met Andrej Kolar, the developer of the SeeYou flight analysis software, who discussed his experiences developing and using thesoftware. Later,several participants had the opportunity to fly with him, as he is an instructor at the club. After an afternoon of flying, we traveled to thenearby town of Radovljica for a banquet at Gostilna Lectar, an inn with its own living history museum – a gingerbread bakery. Each participant received a personalized gingerbread heart to commemorate the event. As usual, a number of awards were presented at the banquet. The Geusen family swept the field, with Anna Laura (age 18) receiving the Lindbergh Award for best cross-country flight and Nora (age 14) winning the limerick contest. To make the evening even more festive, the organizers had gathered a host of prizes, from gift bags of lotions to plane tickets, and many participants went home winners.

Tuesday and Wednesday followed similar patterns. On Tuesday, we visited a plant that produces composite parts for sailplanes and ultralight aircraft and a shop that repairs and rebuilds sailplanes. Margherita Acquaderni stopped by on her way to the Women’s World Championships in Hungary, and Gill vanden Broek spent two days with us, regaling us with tales of women soaring pioneers and past women’s contests.

Five days flew by, and the seminar was over too soon. We parted company with cameras full of pictures, heads full of memories, and hearts full of gratitude for the hospitality of our Slovenian hosts. Our farewell wish to our European sisters – “See you in Reno!” became a prayer that the bonds we have forged will remain strong and that we will continue to share soaring adventures as women of the sky.

 

 

The 2008 WSPA Seminar

By Frauke Elber

 

The Central Indiana Soaring Society (CISS), was the host club of this year’s seminar. This was the first event CISS sponsored since becoming owner of the airport and its facilities. Organizers were Marty Hudson and Cheryl Beckage, which did an outstanding job.  

The following were this year’s participants: Marty Hudson and Cheryl Beckage, seminar coordinators from Indiana; Neita and Mark Montague from Nevada; Terry Duncan from California, who together with Neita trailered her Libelle halfway across the country; Lucy Anne McKosky and Jamie Morris from Ohio, the latter one chaperoned by her mother Sylvia; Charlotte Taylor (without Her Excellent Crew Roy), Missouri who brought her ASW19; Frauke and Wolf Elber from Virginia (for whom the seminar was just the first stop of an extended Eastern Canada trip); Martie Klemm who had to leave early during the week), Jessica Stearns from Florida, Tabie Thomas from Indiana. Sarah Kelly and Dianne Howell came all the way from Chilhowee, Tennessee in Sarah’s little Piper Vagabond. Amy Guyton traveled from Michigan, Karen Greig from Illinois and Joyce Hilchie from Arizona. Anne Mongiovi and husband Gene Franklin flew in for a day in their Dimona and Annie Moore from Pennsylvania was able to spend the last two days at the seminar.

The daily programs started at 9 AM sharp (Marty and Cheryl made sure of it). Marty must have been a drill sergeant in her former life.

Monday morning was set aside for Operation Orientation and a chance for the participants to get to know each other. Flying commenced at noon. Later in the afternoon several participants got a chance to fly in the open cockpit Fairchild PT 23 (WWII trainer). In the evening many of the participants and CISS members went to the Olive Garden in Muncie.

Tuesday, after a continental breakfast (a better one than you will find in a hotel) started with a brief operation review, followed by a presentation by Sarah Kelly about the joy of country flying. After a short break Mike Rielage CFIG and former FAA employee talked about how the FAA and NTSB handle accident investigations. Again, after the flying rides in the Fairchild were possible. In the evening the participants roasted hot dogs on an bonfire.

Wednesday morning was sign up day for Tandem Parachute Jumps. Four participants got a chance at that part of aviation. The first brave to jump out of a perfectly good airplane was Marty Hudson, followed by Terry Duncan, Mark Montague, and Karen Greig. All reached terra firma safely. The morning program was titled: Soaring around the World, a travelogue. Ron Clarke, a CISS member and who hails from South Africa told about his soaring experiences on several continents, followed by Frauke Elber who reported that when ever she travels to a foreign country –or even within the US- she will contact the national soaring associations or the clubs on her travel route. This practice has led to some long lasting friendships world wide. Frauke also showed the brand new German film “Hexen im Aufwind”(Witches in Updrafts) for which she had put English subtitles on the film to make it understandable for the English speaking viewers. Sadly, because of predicted thunderstorms we did not see the whole film but opted to use the weather window for getting as many flights in as possible. It was a good decision because later in the afternoon all hell broke loose. The day ended with Men Fry Women Fly BBQ hosted by CISS’s Don and Miriam Taylor and following this the general WSPA meeting.

Thursday featured speaker was Michael Smith, Director National Model Aviation Museum. Following his talk followed a demonstration of flying different models with different launch systems. Model sailplanes were represented by a Ka 8 which was launched in aerotow and a Ventus Zcx M self launching model which had technical problems getting off the ground. We learned that even Model sailplane flying is not a cheap sport. For the price of the model Ventus one can buy already a 1-26 or Ka8. Again, the weather cut the flying activities in the afternoon short but one or two aerobatic flights with Dale Ingram from CISS were able to get off the ground. That evening the WSPA banquet was held at the Wilbur Wright Museum and included a tour through the museum. The winners of this year’s scholarships were announced:  

Amy Guyton Mid Kolstad Scholarship

Marti Klemm Maria Faber Scholarship

Eleni Brand Sky Ghost Scholarship

Jamie Morris Flying Montagues Scholarship

Sylvia Szafazcyk Competition Scholarship

Kathleen Winters was the 2007 winner of the Anne Lindbergh Trophy.

 

Wolf Elber was awarded the “Golden Plunger” award. (Neita can tell that story).

 

The winner of this year’s raffle was Karen Greig. This year’s raffle netted $284. (one of the CISS members donated a handmade wooden bowl for a future raffle)

The winner of this year’s Limerick contest was 15 year old Jamie Morris.  

The winning Limerick:

Lost in the thought of the sky

Watching how the birds do fly

Oh how nice to be

So high and so free

How awesome it is to fly.

 

Friday turned also into another abbreviated flying day of flying. Bob Wanderer, who was thanks to the National Safety Foundation, the featured speaker for

the morning agreed to postpone his presentation until the afternoon to give as many eager flyers as possible a chance to fly.

 

Our thanks go to the CISS members who donated their time and expertise to work as tow pilots, instructors and ground crew, especially Dick Hutchison crew chief and Kurt Ristow, airport manager. A very special THANK YOU to Michael Beckage who provided delicious food –some cooked at the spot throughout the days. I am sure all of us left the seminar with a few extra pounds.

Thank you also to John Earlywine who brought his great DG1000 to the seminar from Northern Indiana and gave nine of us –yours truly included– the opportunity to fly a high performance double seater. John donated the rental fee back to WSPA.T hanks go also to jumpmaster Brian J DuBois and his crew and to the owner and pilot, Ed Escallon of the Fairchild PT 23for the thrills they provided.    

Thanks to Marty’s and Cheryl’s organizational skill the 2008 seminar was a great success. We hope many will join us 2009 in Slovenia. Our Slovenian friends are already hard at work.

 

2007 Seminar Report

By Neita Montague (and others)

 

Wish you had been here with us in Avenal, CA at the 29th Annual Women's Soaring Seminar. Weather was in the nineties, sunny and blue and the soaring was fun!

 

19 women and 5 men attended full time. Bertha Ryan and Arleen Coleson stopped by for a few hours and Anna Gunn-Golkin and Cindy Brickner spent a few days with the group. We had a record number of husbands as crew: five! Participants arrived by air (commercial and private planes), by car with sailplane in tow and by motor home (Frauke and Wolf drove across the country from Virginia, Andy, John and Michael Simpkins from Arizona).

Several participants made use of the cheap accommodations at the dorms of the Western Hills Community College in Coalinga (sadly, the State prison, just at the south end of the airport nor the State prison in Coalinga had rooms available). Neita had a rental house which became home for several participants. A few stayed in area motels and in their motor homes.

Kathy Taylor and husband, George trailered their ASW-27 from Moriarity, New Mexico. Charlotte Taylor and husband, Roy trailered her ASW-19 from St.Louis, Missouri. Connie Buenafe, also from Moriarity, brought her lovely Salto.

 A nice variety of planes were available for students and who ever wanted to go up in a double seater: two Grob-103s, (Mary Rust and her husband Michael brought one from Mary’s club), Monique had one trailered in from the Bay area. Mark Montague brought an ASK-21 and Michael Green his Duo Discus. CCSC had two 2-33s and a Blanik available. 

All activities and socials took place on the shade spending porch of the CCSC clubhouse, which had gone through a major clean-up for the occasion. Even a shower and an extra toilet were installed (and probably being enjoyed by all the present and future members). All meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) were provided by the local caterer Mary Landers.

 Dan Gudgel introduced the group to local weather and even send a daily weather forecast while at the Hilton Ranch (wondering if he spread the word about WSPA at the Ranch). Neita talked on the very important issue of hydration and in-flight relief. (A big package of DEPENDS © were available through out the seminar). Dave Cunninham lectured on Badges and Records. Dale masters, SSA master instructor, spoke on cross country flying and common pilot errors. Dale donated a box full of his book “SOARING beyond the Basics”. THANK YOU Dale.

 Dan Johnson (WSPA member) and his wife Isabel flew in from Wisconsin and Dan presented a lecture on “Physiology”. Alan Silver gave a lively presentation on does and don’ts in emergency parachuting and care of this life saving device.

The evening programs were informal. Cindy Brickner, WSPA member from Caracole Soaring, gave a fascinating talk on landing out using her SSTOP mnemonic: Size, Slope, Texture, Obstacles and the Positive Points about the field. She had taken pictures over the San Joaquin Valley and over landing strips on her way into Avenal from California City so that we could discuss the good and bad points of local landing sites. There were also pictures of four actual landouts from overhead so we could discuss the good and bad aspects of the decisions made by the pilots. In addition to her lecture, she took several people up in her Citabria to view the area from the sky to put into practice what they had just learned in her lecture. ( For Wolf Elber and Cindy it was a reunion after 24 years. Both had worked at the Worlds in Hobbs 1983).

Frauke Elber spoke one evening about the History of the International Women Competition, a timely topic since a week later the 4th Women World Championships began in France). At the end of the presentation Frauke showed pictures of the 3rd Women World Championships 2 years ago in Germany, which she had attended as the official interpreter.

 Paul Hanson, who was in charge –beside many other things- for the audio-visual set-up showed the film classic “The Sunship Game” and several old film clips from the 30ies..

Tuesday was the only afternoon where we had blowy conditions that made flying challenging. The ones who did not fly were happy to chat in the clubhouse and under the awning until late afternoon when a bunch of us went swimming.

 On Thursday night of the WSPA Seminar Monique Weil (79) was honored for her generous contribution to soaring and her years of enabling and encouraging women (and men) to fly. Monique has been an inspiration to so many over the years and she never leaves an opportunity to give of herself and her time to the WSPA.

We surprised Monique with a brief series of little stories about her and then gave her a plaque from all of the participants: The plaque reads: Frauke Elber and Joy Pierce were invited to the local community college to give a presentation to visiting high school students on the sport of soaring through the eyes of an experienced pilot and a new solo student.

The annual meeting and award dinner were held on Friday evening in the back yard of the co-chair's rental house. Lucy Anne McKosky, WSPA President presided over the WSPA Annual Meeting. Several prizes were awarded toP

Best dressed man: Mike Green ,AKA Mighty Gorilla, (Most improved wardrobe)

Best documentary production: Frauke Elber

Most enthusiastic participant: Joy Pierce

Most instructional flights: Mark Montague

Most student progress: Marissa Anaya and Amy Guyton

Outstanding CCSC volunteer: Paul Hanson

Spirit of WSPA Award: Andy Simpkins

Mike Green gave a dramatic reading of the limericks. Lucy Anne’s limerick got the most votes. Neva Cole won the raffle for the hand-made ceramic plate.

Mike Green of Air Sailing donated proceeds of his rides in his Duo Discus to the WSPA and Monique donated her instruction. Thank you to both!

In planning the 2007 Seminar we came up with several new ideas: contacting the local college/university for the use of their dorm rooms for our participants and calling the local high school for use of their pool for dunking and lap swimming. The dorm rooms were $15 a night and we used 6 of the available rooms while others either camped on the field or rented motel rooms. I rented the house of a college professor who was on vacation to Italy and we had Mark and me, four participants and one lecturer stay at this house which gave us laundry facilities, a kitchen and proved much less expensive than motels in the end.

I also contacted the local police and fire departments, the Mayor's office and local doctors. The fire department provided us with as much ice as we needed during the week. Through the Mayor's Office we were able to get bags of pistachios and almonds from Paramount Farms, one of the largest local producers of nuts. They also cold-packed and sent from Los Angeles those wonderful tall glasses of POM fruit teas which was a treat late on a hot Wednesday afternoon.

 We developed a WSPA tow card stamp to enhance safety, bookkeeping and smooth operations.

Our special thanks go to the Central California Soaring Club and the volunteers who spent the week with us: Roy Norman, President, Richard Walker who built us a brand new bathroom with shower and toilet, Dennis Mast, John Renfro our Retrieve Officer, who never saw any action, Paul Hanson who was master of all trades. Don VanWyck was the accountant/treasurer for the week. I thank my Co-Chair, Kathleen Morse of the CCSC for taking care of with the meal planning/caterer, lectures, tshirts and registration. Thanks to our tow pilots, Loyal Savaria and Kurt Colvin. Star participant was Isaac, the Raven, who attended many lectures and got his A-badge during the seminar.