January 2010 Club Meeting

Main Menu

Resources

Written by Philip Patten

Thursday, 14 January 2010 13:29

After the official meeting, at the pub, Rick Helgeson, who at the meeting was pretending to be Dave Bear, who apparently is the new SASS president, asked me if I'd be willing to write up meetings. Well, he'd had part of a pitcher, but only out of responsibility, as, since Dave Bear was absent, Rick had to pretend to be Dave Bear, which explains why he (Rick) chaired Tuesday night's meeting, I think. I said, "No." Which is often what I say before I do something. That's psychology, which means it doesn't make any sense, which is the sort of meeting report you'd get from me, if I made one, which, as I have said, I'm not going to do....

Besides, I'm an outsider. I'm not even an official representative to SASS from Chris Erikson's Wild Arsed Mountain Slopers, CEWAMS, because that's not an official organization, and so can't have official representatives. So since I haven't flown at a field for a number of years, and when I do fly it's sloping, well, I'm not a SASS member. So I can't be an official meeting note-taker. For which you are all lucky.

Uh, right, Sherman, the Nachos were exceptional. (Now I'm talking about at the post-meeting pub, which is where the real meeting takes place.) Sherman also shared chicken barbeque pizza. Which sounds, but was actually, very good. Post meeting watering hole gets a big plus. Which exemplifies the rebirth of SASS as a fun thing, rather than just a fight the crooked soccer mafiosa borg, with the goofy sports guys who think toy glider guys would be happier if they played soccer. Sports fundamentalism, except for the fun. So we got the fun back.

And not just after the meeting. As Gina Kalaman said, after Bill Parry's excellent presentation of his various Eagle Tree systems, "I don't even fly those things. Where was my book?" Meaning that not everyone is into geeky glider stuff, but, as Lincoln said, roughly paraphrased, though he was talking about some religious treatise some religious guy thought he should be very excited about, "I'm sure that them what likes this sort of thing would like this sort of thing." Meaning that we fundamentalist zealot geeks who just happen to be zealots about fleugel toys like this sort of thing (geeky stuff). Bill had a great assortment of way cool gizmos, from flight data recorders, telemetry with battery monitors and variometers that talk to you from afar, and FPV stuff. So that was fun. The soccer guys would be happier if they gave up soccer and played with toy gliders.

Rick, pretending to be Dave Bear, spent a while announcing how great Camp Korey is, with photos and diagrams of how the dual webcam system Rick not pretending to be Dave set up, along with the weather station, and how he as David B. wants SASS to be a World Class Club. To which there was a bunch of funny comments. But the three US. Junior competitors to the international F3J are all from, yep, SASS. Brendon Beardsley, Connor Laurel, and Mikey Knight. Whoopie. Red projected a picture on the hangy-down screen of these three teenage guys with seven gliders with wingspans double their height.

Link to Rick's notes on the new Board and other club information

In contrast, Richard Schiller showed off an Allula. For those what don't, that's a molded foamie glider (34.4" wingspan). It's almost an instant build, relatively inexpensive. It's a wing-fling, so it doesn't require bungee or winch. Great starter plane. They could be a real draw for young people--Rick Como also has one. Speaking of which, someone mentioned revving up the attract new members geek evangalism circus. First year, $50. Normal people, $75. Bring someone in, get $25 off next year's membership. $5 off if you pay for your membership this month.

Rick also said something about 'togetherness.' He did. But he was probably pretending to be Dave Bear. President. You know.

FPV means, "First Person Video." Bill Parry showed a video of a guy flying FPV with virtual reality goggles. Eagle tree makes some of the stuff that goes with a camera and receiver. In the video we could see heads up display of all sorts of telemetry, and even a little chevron marker that shows where your plane is in relation to where you are sitting. Way cool.

Paul Measel talked about his survey, to figure out what makes some 2.4 receivers dependable, under what conditions. Check it out, on the new web site.

Red showed off the new web site, including the live webcams of the field, with not-live photos of the field in various weather conditions, like frosty, fogged in, raining like hell, and also those, 'the weather is great, wish you were here,' shots. And he showed the live weather station, plus its associated graph of whatever they call the graphs that show the adiabatic atmosphere cooling by altitude (it varies from about 3� drop dry per thousand feet to almost 6�/1000' in 100% humidity) versus actual temperatures by altitude. Red explained that if thermals rise into air that is cooler than adiabatic expansion would dictate, they keep going, but if they rise into a warm layer, they peter out. Meaning there is a good tool on the website for figuring out which days are likely to be great for thermaling.

Link to RED's presentaition on the new webcams and weather station... and other SASS website goodies

Yeah, there was show and tell, with stuff. And then we drank beer.

Philip Patten, last I checked.