EVERGREEN SOARING

 

Minutes of a Meeting of the

Board of Directors

 

April 6, 2002

 

 

Evergreen Soaring President Keith Turner called the meeting to order at 9:20AM.  The meeting was held at the Evergreen Soaring clubhouse at Arlington Airport.  Those present were Keith Turner, President; Mike Delaney, Treasurer; Mark Nyberg, Secretary; Keith McLean, Operations Director; Roy Parzyk, Equipment Director; Howard Glover, Scheduler; Gary Thayer, GlidePath Editor; Ron Mehelich, Membership Chairman; Dennis Eckert, Meteorologist and Member at Large; William Burhen, Brad Hill, Brooks Johnson, Joe Patton, Eric Shahan, Craig Kramer, John Peck, Winfried Feifel and Fred Hermanspann.

 

Old business opened with a discussion of our next trip to Darrington to be held on the weekend of April 20/21.  Keith McLean has gotten commitments for some of the key duties (e.g. instructors, towpilots, FOOs) but there still jobs to fill and commitments to secure (i.e. who will fly the gliders at Darrington?).  Feedback and commitments by members will be use to determine which aircraft to bring.  Mark Nyberg will be arranging for our use of the Darrington Airport and will collect information on restaurants, hotels, campgrounds and B&Bs.

 

Evergreen’s Ephrata Encampment is scheduled for the third week of June (June 16 through June 23) that ends the weekend that Boeing Employee’s Soaring Club (BESC) encampment begins.  The spring trip to Wenatchee (wave camp) has been cancelled due to lack of interest.

 

It was agreed that with 3 two-place ships and 2 single-place ships in Arlington we have excess glider capacity here.  The overall plan for the Lark is to trailer it to Ephrata in mid May.  The trailer is structurally and electrically sound but needs paint.  Willy Burhen volunteered to help Roy Parzyk organize the painting effort and deal with surface rust.  Roy is also planning on attaching a box to the Lark trailer to hold tools and miscellaneous glider stuff.

 

Keith Turner is pursuing the possibility of purchasing a Blanik L-13 trailer from BESC.  The decision was made not to upgrade the Russia’s trailer but to sell it with the Russia “as is.”

 

The Blanik 029 rudder is still in Chris Klix shop.  It was discovered that the rudder cables were showing some wear so Chris will be making and installing new ones.  The work should be completed in a week or two.  The bellcrank and other parts are in to repair the 1-36 but the decision was made to wait until after Darrington to do the work.  We will also seal the canopy better tat that time.  The annual for Blanik 14J is scheduled for May.

 

Mike Delaney reported that we haven’t done the March billing yet.  Poor weekend weather so far this year has resulted in lower than average revenues.  We are in good shape in putting away money to replace the towplane engine when it is time.  We currently have about 1400 hours on the engine and expect it to run to about 2000 hours before it needs replacement.  Until then, the fabric on the towplane is nearing the end of its useful life and is due for replacement this winter at an expected cost of $7,000 to $8,000 dollars.  Brooks Johnson recently put new wheels and brakes on the towplane.

 

It was agreed to have both club parachutes repacked soon.

 

The instructors haven’t met as a group since January.  Keith Turner will look into getting an instructor’s meeting scheduled.

 

The Russia has been listed for sale at $17,500.  It is believed that the canopy frame has been repaired already.  The subject of selling the Russia precipitated considerable discussion on what kind of glider fleet we should have, including mention of an L-33, Grob 102, Grob 103 and ASK 21.  More input is required from the membership on this issue.  No decisions will be made until the Russia is sold.

 

The project of putting boom mikes into the gliders has been put on hold until later this year.

 

Dennis Eckert has agreed to put on a weather clinic.  It will be open to everyone.  May 11th was suggested for a date and there was some discussion about whether to hold it at Arlington Airport or the Yacht Club.  The time and place are yet to be determined.

 

Moving on to new business, our hotline is down and our current cell phone (field phone) technology is reaching the end of its life.  The decision was made to go to a single cell phone for everything.  Mike Delaney agreed to dump our current hotline phone and talk with Verizon about getting new digital service.  With Verizon there may be a chance for us to keep our current field telephone number.  Digital cell phone service will get us a phone with better battery life, messaging, etc.

 

Fred Hermanspann is interested using one of our club’s Blaniks as part of a team entry in this summer’s regional sports class contest at Ephrata.   He has found several people interested in co-flying on various days.  A unanimous decision was made to allow this.

 

Glider operations will not be allowed at Arlington during the EAA Fly-in on July 10 through 14.  What should we do?  There is considerable interest in moving the operation to Darrington during that time.

 

Ron Mehelich proposed getting signs made to promote the club and promote demo rides.  As part of the discussion it was agreed that we have the glider capacity and often have towplane capacity but need commercial pilots to handle the volume.  However we could use at least a sign on our FOO cart.  Ron Mehelich is pursuing this.

 

A club member suggested that we contribute some money to the SGC Soaring Foundation (i.e. the 501(c)3 institution that built the new building at Ephrata).  The decision was made to find out more about the new foundation and their training agenda.

 

 

There was no further business and the meeting was adjourned at 11:45 AM.

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Mark Nyberg-

Secretary