The 2007 WSPA Seminar in Avenal, CA form a Man's Eye View
By Bill Levinson (via the BUZZARD, blog of the Northern California Soaring Association

It was not without a little trepidation that I decided to attend and join the Women's Soaring Pilots Seminar in Avenal. Being X chromosome deficient (more about biology later), I didn't know what kind of reception I would get. But the chairwomen, Kathleen Morse and Neita Montague, were the most gracious of hosts and so supportive of women in soaring and men who encourage women to discover thrill of soaring.
NCSA had four members attend. Monique instructed in FB (a Grob 103), Buzz in Avenal club ships, (Central California Soaring Club), and Mighty Gorilla was offering rides is his starship Duo Discus.
Monique and I arrived Sunday afternoon. Originally she had planned to stay in a house in town, but then decided the swinging parties and all-night keggers would be more fun at the West Hills Community College in Coalinga where I was staying. Buzz reserved a motel room, but he also longed for the dorm life, and we ended up rooming together in the women's dorm for $15/night. (Remind you of a old Tom Hanks TV sitcom?)
Although the building was built in the early '80, the style was '50's: one bathroom down the hall with communal showers. (That is probably not much different from the nearby state prisons in Coalinga and Avenal.) A make-shift sign on the bathroom door indicated whether it was occupied by men or women. Luckily glider pilots are much too mature play any practical jokes on occupants by switching the sign on an occupant. The dorm manager was a retired navy radar operator, and the resident manager, Maryan, was a delightful young woman from Uganda via Sweden, to whom Monique gave a ride on Friday.
Dan Gudgel, Avenal instructor and FAA examiner, gave Monique and me area checkouts. Avenal has two dirt strips intersecting in a V much like Byron minus the taxiways. The setup requires a different mindset: manage energy to stop at point of the V where gliders stage or stop quickly if you're landing away from the vertex so you don't end up half a mile from launch area. Without golf carts that's a lot of pushing. Occasionally cars ventured onto the strip to tow when distances became prohibitally long like when Monique and her student had to overfly a 2-33 stopped on the runway which had landed against the launches and prevailing traffic without flying a pattern.
Avenal has no cables to tie down transient airplanes. I purchased a set of three extraordinary tie-down anchors for NCSA and FB from Paul Hanson, a Central California Soaring Club member. I think they will be very useful for securing gliders at Byron in the staging areas in strong winds. Each tied-down anchor has three stakes which can be pulled out by hand, but the tie-down anchor itself requires about 1200 lbs force to pull out. They're in the clubhouse in a carry bag that should be placed in a golf cart when strong winds blow. I think they would be a useful addition to any land out kit.

I appreciated learning to launch without seeing the towplane. Close your vents and windows and follow the tow rope. The tow plane kicks up enough dust to hide itself as good as any WWII smoke screen. The tow pilot, Loyal, had a spate of bad luck. He lives on the field in a trailer which caught fire before we arrived. Ex-social worker Monique took up a collection to get him back on his feet. On day three of the seminar morning talks were interrupted by fire trucks turning onto the field. Loyal's Cessna 152 tow plane engine had caught on fire. The fire truck arrived before local members could find their only fire extinguisher, which was locked in a hangar. I thought how smart we were to have Burt Compton, SSA safety consultant, evaluate our operations at Byron.
Loyal had a back-up Cessna 150 that was sufficient for all but two place glass ships. Kurt, who teaches aeronautical engineering at California Polytechnic University at San Louis Obispo flew in his Husky tow plane who turned out to tow all week. Winds picked up to create a dust storm worthy of the Great Plains Dust Bowl on Wednesday. You really miss paved runways and weed covered fields when blowing sand begins to sting. Buzz tried to launch his DG 800 in the afternoon, but the combination of dirt strip and strong crosswind weather-cocked him twice.
Two close misses with the tow rope impressed on me the added safety created by retractable tow lines. On one occasion the released rope landed about 15 yards from assembled gliders and ground crew. Near the end of the day, the crosswind became so strong that the tow line snagged a car parked at the edge of the runway.
The other MOE (moment of excitement) was provided by Mighty Gorilla when his canopy opened on takeoff. He ended up landing out in Coalinga and discovered that a piece of canopy latching rope had prevented proper latching of the canopy. THL (take home lesson): don't trust latch position; always push up on the canopy when doing checklist.
On Thursday Monique was honored with a surprise award because of her contribution and encouragement to women in soaring. NCSA members were put on the spot at the last moment to make glowing remarks about Monique. Buzz recalled his NCSA instructor checkride with Monique, "Give me a loop, spin to the right, spin to the left and a no spoiler landing." I recounted her expletives - actually quotes from a farmer - when she landed out near what is now Los Vaqueros Reservoir, and the volume of work she does for NCSA.

Mike Green also won an award - Most Improved Fashion - for keeping his shirt on through-out the whole week, at least in the presence of the ladies. Mike also had the honor of reading the entries in the limerick contest at the banquet. I think the fix was in because my entry was inexplicably lost until the last moment. The winning entry--like so many other discussions about gliding--had to do with bodily functions.
However, I did win a prize. I was first runner-up in maximum altitude on Tuesday, winning a nice parasol which I'm happy to share with other NCSAers. BTW it's the first time I've used a parasol--actually an umbrella--and I was thoroughly impressed by how effective they are in cooling the user. I thought they were just sun protection.
Mornings were predominately seminars with occasional flight instruction. Dave Cunningham flew down and talked about badge flights and Kathleen found time for me to explain my innovative chart marking method.
When thermals grew strong in the afternoon, instructors, students, and private pilots set off. Avenal is far enough away from the coast to avoid the marine influence and has numerous safe land-out sites. More than once Monique and student ended soaring away when initially taking a pattern tow.

The incongruity of Avenal bracketed by two state prisons couldn't escape me. Structures containing imprisoned men creating the best thermals to set soaring pilots free was too ironic. Is there a prison escape screenplay plot here?
Our mascot was Isaac, a Raven who survived a crash when as a chick her nest got blown out of a tree near the clubhouse. Her siblings died immediately and its biological parents couldn't care for her without a nest, so Paul Hanson became her surrogate mom. Although she earned an "A" badge during the seminar, she was unconcerned with controlling bodily functions in flight or on the ground to the consternation of attendees.
The Avenal newspaper reporters arrived on Friday to report on the gathering when Monique was instructing Marissa, a 16 year-oldscholarship student from Reno. The experience of age passing on her wisdom to the exuberance of youth -- what a heartwarming story!
The next Women's Soaring Seminar will be held on the East Coast and then in Slovenia in 2009. Next time it's held locally, I would recommend all our members and especially our instructors to participate to encourage more women soar and join our club.
PS: Note from Monique:
I agree with Bill that it was a successful and fun week in Avenal--20+ participants. We couldn't have done it without Bill as he did all the work leading the crews--Byron and Avenal--to de-rig, rig, and de-rig and rig, load the glider on its trailer; unload the trailer; load it again etc. Bill had to stop at every Rest stop to make adjustments to the glider on the trailer. Thanks, Bill. --Bill Levinson