March SDHGPA Club Meeting - Zoom (Thursday, March 17⋅7:30 – 9:00pm)
​April SDHGPA meeting was during the Fly-in (April 9th 2022) (58 Annual members present/ signed in for the day. 62 total pilots with 10 non flying guests)

The following notes have been updated with info from both meetings.​

 March General Meeting & Meeting content at the Fly-in:
1. Club Info & Updates:

• 2022 Membership reminder if you have not already renewed for the 2022 annual year.  Current status: https://www.sdhgpa.com/current-membership-status.html
• Site info Updates:
• WX Station updates - What are we doing about the 3G sunset. Lots of activity and testing of alt solutions
• Laguna WX station Mast Rebuild post wind/ Vandalism damage
• Fly-in Planning: April 9th @ Palomar    See: Fly-in Info Page
• 2022-2023 Election Nominations Opened and updated at the Fly-in​
• 2021 XC Awards Presented at the Fly-in

Club Officers 2022 Nominations Opened and Updated at the Fly-in:
​(Nominations will remain open until election in May. If interested in a Nomination or volunteering for a position, please email SDHGPA@gmail.com)

Current nominations with seconds:

President:             Steve Rohrbaugh    (Incumbent)
VP:                          Jeff Brown                (Incumbent)
Treasurer:             Bill Helliwell              (Incumbent)
Secretary:              Russ Gibfried          (Nominated and seconded)  
Safety Officer:       Rob Eschbach         (Appointed replacement  Mid Year)
Safety Officer:        Alex Gray                (Nominated and seconded)
Member at Large:     Josef De Beer     (Appointed replacement Mid Year)
Member at Large:     Robb Milley​        (Appointed replacement Mid Year)
Member at Large:     Ron Davis​           (Appointed replacement Mid Year)
​

Also need help in the following Appointed / Committee Chair positions:

Appointed Non-Voting Extended Board Positions (could be part of a Board position):

• Social Committee: ___________ (Lead), Josh Gelb, Sharon Tang?, 
• Website:  Steve Rohrbaugh, ____________, ____________, 
• Blog Article Content creators: _____________, ____________
• Meeting and other Video post editing & content creators: Neil Karstetter & Jeremy Graham ???
• XC Competition:      Bill Helliwell / Jeff Brown / 
• (New) Palomar Point Series Competition:  Robb Milley, _________

​Pilots in Command:
Coordination point for site information, Site Intro, and stewardship of Sites (need two per Site)

• Palomar  (PG)         Jeff Brown, Ron Davis, _______
• Big Black                  Bill Helliwell , Paul Markham ???
• Horse Canyon        Bill Helliwell , ______________
• Laguna                     Bill Helliwell , _____________
• Anza-Borrego SP   Bill Helliwell 
• Little Black              Jeff Brown , James Acres
• Blossom Valley       Nik Hawks , Josh Gelb, Art ???
• Otay                          Bill Helliwell , ______________
• Elsinore Liaison: Bill Soderquist ???,  _____________

Advisory Board Representatives:
Black Mt Open Space Citizens Advisory Council:

• Jeff Brown
  
• James Acres
  
• Dave Metzgar
• Anto Metzga  

2. March Meeting Topics: - with Open Q&A:

• Open Q&A
• Palomar Flight XC Route to the South Reviews from this past Saturday March 12th flights
  • Pilot Tails - Viewpoint Perspectives from those that flew
  • Know the deep Long Hike out zones:
  •     Guejito
  •     Sections of Mesa Grande

• Tips - for each level of pilot - 

1. Aggressive launches in typical thermal blocked light winds
2. Wait for cycle with windsocks to be in ~agreement
3. Where to go & when (what altitude required (how much gas in the tank is needed) / What to try next)
4. Keeping landable options in reach
5. Staying out of Rotor zones: Fly effective faces & stay out of canyons / veturi locations (these all change based on prevalent winds & thermal activity)
6. Typical Micro climate winds for Palomar South to Santa Ysabel/ Julian 

A small turnout for a big discussion.  A "Learn & Fly" event was proposed, where the intent is to provide structure for the transfer of knowledge.  Scroll down for more.

PRE-MEETING
David Norgren: Is Elsinore good to fly at this time of year?
Steve talks about typical seasonal conditions there and how it’s not a great place to fly at this time of year and in Santa Ana Conditions. The Site typicaly starts to work well starting in May and on when the flats start getting into the 90s. Typicaly is best Spring & Fall.

Check the 2 Holfuy stations up there

Site updates
Bill Helliwell is working on Laguna permit updates
Special Event (not Special Use) permit.  Special Use gives us more ability to do maintenance to the site.  Laguna hasn’t had a full time staff member and it’s easier for them to have us fill out Event forms.

Still looking for meeting locations:  Any volunteers or venues?
A meeting room is fine, many restaurants/breweries have these for rent/free.
-Society Brewery in Kearny Mesa?
    -James A volunteers to check it out
    -third Thursday at 7:30 pm, 14-40 people show up
-community center in Scripps Ranch or Poway Community Center?

Weather Station Updates
-In Feb of next year, AT&T will drop 3G support
    -Holfuy has a new modem board, being tested in Phoenix AZ
    -a pilot (who?) in Bishop has set up LoRa weather stations, he may help guide us or help with programming
    -T-mobile might have a later sunset date in June
    -Anacapa anemometers?
    -Robb Milley has built an APRS solar powered weather station, volunteered to help.

Robb M, Nik H, and Jeff Brown volunteered to work together to find and implement a solution for this.

When do we want to have our first quarter Fly In & awards?
Proposed month of March, once local pilots have returned from their annual sojourn south to fly the fairer weather. 

Should this be a multi day event?  Proposals included a "week before" thermal clinic, followed by the event the following weekend.  

One issue brought up was that senior/junior pilots might not click, so having a rotating set of partners gives us all a chance to fly with more people and learn more.  Perhaps 4 events a year allow for us to do this?

6-17-2021 update
​For Palomar Palomar Main LZ gate, we have been asked to return the gate to the state if was in when passing through for the next few months:

• If the Main LZ gate is Locked when you arrive or leave: open and lock the gate behind us as we pass through the gate like we do at Launch  .
  
• If the Main LZ gate is Open when you arrive or leave: leave the gate open.

Great News!  The Laguna Upper Launch in the Anza Borrego State Park is back open, with our Permit for launching and landing within the State Park being renewed for 2021!

The Laguna Site Guide and Permits pages have been updated with the latest protocols and Permit information. Please read through the complete site guide before heading out to Laguna, as things have changed in the past year. Also, be sure to print out the Permit and COVID-19 Safe Reopening Plan along with your Membership cards to have on hand for the rangers. 

Proposal to change bylaws in order to un sync chapter elections with chapter renewal paperwork timing.  USHPA Chapter Renewals are typicaly due Dec - Feb.

Figure out better onboard process for new board members

Need Volunteer Help:

• Would be great to have help with membership processing. Candidate should have good Excel / Google Sheets & Google Forms knowledge. 

Next weather station?

• -Vulcan
• -Blossom if we can figure out a location?
• -where current streamers are?  Is that in Open space area?
• -Brad, where is open space?
• -mobile station to test potential sites
• -Kestrel
• -Holfuy

-expand capabilities of Palomar (and other) WX stations

• -solar radiation
• -barometer

​Phil Russman suggestion: on all site guides, Pilots should use flight tracker (Implemented: Not is on all Site Guides)

Tracking Conversations:

• -LiveTrack 24 still merging cell data & satellite track? Need to test. Worst case is that multiple tracks are listed.
• -what’s the cheapest hardware you can buy to be on XCFind?  (Spot)
• -If running Cell Tracker App, run cell with battery backup (Anker brand recommended)
• -run 2 phones
• -does XCFind charge money for cell phone tracking? (suggested Donation)
• -XCFind doesn’t use cell phone tracking
• -use LiveTrack24 (free)
• -look on club page under Whats Happening “Tracking Maps”
• -inReach mini, $100 off at REI
• -older Spots don’t have altitude
• -syncing Sat & Cell GPS to LiveTrack 24 see SDHGPA Live Track24 Group page under more

-meshtastic talk lead by Nik

-suggestion to hear about their notable flights

• -Brad’s notable flight from Blossom past Dudley’s

-what type of shirt do we want to do for flight distance shirts?

• -collared shirts
• -Patagonia t-shirt
• -Patagonia fleece
• -Randy to print shirts?

-how to get awards out?

• -have shirts for past 2 years

-work party at Palomar and Horse?

• -need to mow bailout
• -need to mow Horse

-Wild Bill weather flow at Karnezis house

 Kiwi SAR - As of 9/17/20  
Kiwi was found the next day.  The latest hypothesis is that he went unconscious during a spin, the wing ripped away from his harness and he hit the ground hard enough to render his GPS tracker inoperable.

Telegram evolution and management for a SAR.   
Multiple threads, including Ground Search, Air Search, General, Satellite Imagery, Machine Learning, Logistics, Fundraising.

David Hunt & Nik Hawks flew up to assist in the air search on August 26/27th

Recommendations for all pilots:
Passive Safety
Make sure your wing & reserve are super bright colors and will contrast with the ground.
You may not be able to activate any of your rescue tools.  Make sure you can be found even if you're unconscious.

Active safety
Radio and GPS tracker are mandatory but didn't function in this case because Kiwi was unable to deploy them in time.
​PLB406 beacon, $400
Carry a strobe or light

Rene Falquier
Briefed satellite imagery and resolution.  Keep in mind that satellite resolution is pretty low, on the order of a 1 meter grid
Shoutouts to Chris Galli for tremendous effort and to David Wheeler of XC Find

Brad Stevenson
Don’t clog up the comms 
If something looks funny, look into it. (Kiwi’s position stopped)
Set up Livetrack24 to ping off cell phone, not inReach

Zach Armstrong
-active vs passive comms
-satellite comms
-ham
-APRS, every 2 minutes it sends out GPS data, programmable
-APRS.fi
-radios (VHF) talking to buddies & other pilots, voice com
-bluetooth headset (handsfree)
-LoRa: open dev, open software, 4 km - 100 km depending on antenna/transmission power
-meshtastic.org
-comms, distance & bearing to other nodes
-Gotenna
-there is a national distress freq but it can also vary state to state

Phil Russman
-keep your radio on until everyone is in the car
-don’t wait to start the search.  Better to start and quickly call it off than to start late.

Lessons Learned G-doc

Steve Rohrbaugh
Use Livetrack24 & SDHGPA LIvetrack24 group
Connect & Feed both devices (GPS & cell) into Livetrack24


Wing Choice & Weather Calls - Elsinore
-flying Elsinore on a Santa Ana day.  Santa Ana days are wild, and even the tamest SA day can kill you.
-There isn’t a good AND easy AND safe test to assess pilot skills; P3 can mean lots of things
-Ron Davis; the nice thing about waiting at Palomar is it usually gets better
-Steve R: The uncomfortable choice of the experienced pilots.  Take new pilots under your wing or ignore them.  When you’re new, ask to tag along on big days.
-when to learn (shoulder seasons, with your crew)
-Wing choice is NOT formulaic
-Phil volunteered to take someone through their next wing choice so we see the process


Club Business & Announcements
Site Status - Check for updates
All National Forests closed due to high fire hazard
-Marshall, Crestline, Elsinore
-Elsinore used to require an Adventure Pass
Horse (Cleveland National Forest)
Big Black (CNF)

Laguna (HG launch is open, BLM land, but upper launch is closed)

Other:
Laguna : ABSP has not renewed event/special event permit for us
Other PG clubs also have closed sites, check before you go to fly
Phil R points out that air authority rests in the FAA, when you touch the ground the law reverts to the landowner
Fines in the region of $150-250

Once it cools off, we need to schedule another work party to clean out the brush in the Palomar bailout as part of our use agreement with Pala

2. Blossom Ownership Change:  Much Ado About Nothing.
Nik thought Blossom had been sold, but it turned out that only a small chunk of the property on the south side of Quail Canyon road had been sold.  ​

3. Dusting off the idea of Adding in Waypoint buoy races for our sites: 
Examples:

• -Point Rat Series in UT: http://www.uhgpga.org/event/point-rat-series/
• -http://freeflightcomp.appspot.com/comps/pointratseries2020/ 
• -Other series using the same SW: http://freeflightcomp.appspot.com/

1. -Santa Barbara Free Flight Hoe Down
2. -CSS Cross Country Rodeo (Just starting but they need to reformat/ scale back to comply with the guidance along with submitting Risk Management and other)

Butch suggested we hold a "Rookie meet".  Experienced pilots are paired with rookies, the mission is to get your rookie to a specific goal.  This got lots of thumbs up!

Actions:

1. Need some members to volunteer to organize & run the activity
2. Lay out the Comp and select scoring platform
3. Waypoints for each site, keeping in mind safety factors for intended pilot base
4. Risk Management for the Waypoint Comp activity
5. Update the Site Risk Management Documents in the RRRG system with a Change request. 
6. If we did things right, it could be accepted, could be included as a normal day of flying activities. (better and more flexibility)
7. If activity gets pushed out of a normal day of flying, would need to apply for ACE coverage for the activity. (like the NorCal XC League)

4. Weather Forecasting
a. Bill’s forecasting and recent forecasting updates have been awesome, thanks Bill!
b. Some great videos on the subject added to the SDHGPA YouTube playlist
i. Lisa Verzella Explains XC Skies (NOAA Pilot) on Cloudbase Mayhem / Gavin's
ii. Top 10 Wind Forecast Models
iii. SD Weather Overview, V1

5. Site guide updates (SDHGPA Site Guides)
-syncing data with USHPA/RRRG data
-goal is to produce a template for any club to use
-site guide for Blossom will be the first one
-raw video has been shot and is being edited and worked on
Bill Helliwell recommends we submit that video for a “best USHPA video” award

6. Blossom Safety and Landowner relations at the Base of El Cap
a. landing north of the power lines on El Cap, where to navigate to and where to hit the road

7. July Meeting: Q&A with USHPA Executive Director Martin Palmaz July 16 2020

8. Nik's advice:  Keep the banter a little friendlier.  My personal guidance on this: aim for fun, joy, and building things up.  Stay away from controversial non-flying issues.  BUILD the community wherever we can.


Next club meeting suggested topics:

• -USHPA Exec Director Martin Palmaz Q & A
• ​-how to use websites to understand weather and how to use all the latest gear.  
• -Butch asked for help using all the sites and geeking out on his gear.  Maybe hook him up with Connor?
• -Brad updated property knowledge on Blossom.  We’re safe for now.

Chat Text:
19:38:49 From  Jeff Brown : http://www.tasma.org/repeaters/2m-repeaters/
19:38:56 From  Jeff Brown : http://www.tasma.org/TASMA-2m-Band-Plan.pdf
19:42:17 From  Jeff Brown : Maybe try 145.525 or 145.600
20:00:48 From  tom zylak : Blossom sign-in book, with a space for USHPA#?
20:01:36 From  Nik H : Interesting idea Tom.
20:06:18 From  Nik H : Love the Rookie Meet idea.
20:07:32 From  Scott Larson : as a rookie, that sounds very cool!
20:16:25 From  Jason Virskus : There's a free app called Drone Deploy that you can use for creating 3D models also. Very cool
20:16:57 From  Jason Virskus : https://www.dronedeploy.com/



__________________________________________________

Notes taken:

Elsinore Site Guide, Bill Soderquist
-About a dozen locals fly it
-Been landing over by O’Hara’s (terrible place to land if it starts to blow down)
-Mostly top land in cleared areas (via chop and controlled burns)
-The bank may own it, caretaker usually is the only one to come out and interact.

Sites we know are open:

• Palomar - watch out for drilling rigs, look for new parking lot area, walk Palomar before you fly the site.: via Bill H: well pipe, about a 1’ in diameter and 4’ high, requesting that we land to the NW side of the building where HG typically land.  Need to update site guide regarding LZs
• Blossom  - keep it Chill
• Laguna is open if flying the Cliff Launch, but we do not have an Active permit for the State Park and the Upper Launch being in the State Park is technically Closed due to COVID-19 .  The ABSP haven’t cashed the check paying for our permit. The Earthquake Valley LZ is also closed (being in the State Park. All entrances to Anza-Borrego (Earthquake Valley) have been fenced off with tape.  Nothing has been put on our gate at the upper launch.  Rangers unlikely to be cool about us going to the upper launch.
• Otay is probably open

Site that we know are Closed:

• Horse closed
• Little Black closed die to being in a City Park
• Big Black closed

In San Diego, the situation for impacted hospitals and service workers is just starting to ramp up and we can expect hospitals to be triaging similar to what was experienced in Colorado this past weekend.

There was an incident in Colorado this past weekend where a snowboarder ended up with a broken clavicle (collarbone) and at the ER, he was turned away from treatment at triage with the explanation that collarbone surgery is elective. They were an impacted hospital and not doing any elective procedures . . . that are not life-threatening. At Tiger (WA Site), there were also two separate incidents requiring ER and hospitalization in an impacted area this past week. 

Hoping we get through this and back in the air without complex social health concerns.

Regards and Safe Flights!

Steve Rohrbaugh  (SDHGPA President) and the SDHGPA Board