Evergreen Soaring

Minutes

General Meeting

May 12, 1997

The meeting was called to order in the Aeroclub Room of the Museum of Flight at 7:30PM by President Chris Chantrill. Everyone was reminded that the club Encampment at Ephrata starts this upcoming Saturday, June 14. Since several members are approaching the threshold of instructordom, Chief CFIG Keith Turner has put together a syllabus for training the would-be initiates. The training for new CFIG’s will begin during the upcoming encampment. Keith also briefly reviewed the written tests on the Fundamentals of Instruction and Flight Instructor, Glider, that must be taken prior to flight testing. Designated Pilot Examiner Carl Niedermeyer can give renewal and add-on checkrides, but not initial CFI flight tests. Those are only given by the FAA. Since Don Hamilton, former FAA glider pilot Examiner has left the area, there is some confusion about who/how checkrides will be given in the future. It was suggested that Carl might be induced into giving “mock” or “practice” checkrides to help prepare those who need to ride with the Feds.

The Ephrata clubhouse is owned and operated by “SGC”, the Seattle Glider Council, under a lease arrangement with the Port of Ephrata. Everyone who flies gliders at Ephrata has to become a member of SGC ($15/year, billed automatically to everyone who flies there) and pays SGC a small fee for using their facilities. Because of financial difficulties, SGC has recently begun collecting a surcharge of $5 per tow from pilots availing themselves of the SGC towplanes at Ephrata. How does that affect Evergreen Soaring members? Are we obligated to pay SGC if we use our own towplane? Some were in favor of paying the fee, some were not. Then there is the question of collecting the fee if we did collect it. Would we get any acknowledgment for helping SGC, particularly if we’re not obligated? Should we have our own tow line, like Boeing? Should we change our tow fee to match SGC’s? The discussion was interesting, but the questions unresolved.

The meeting adjourned at 9:30PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Jerry Painter, Secretary