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Meeting Minutes, News, & Articles

SDHGPA NOVEMBER 17TH 2022 MEETING

11/21/2022

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7:30 General Meeting via Zoom:
1. Club Info & Updates:
  • 2023 Membership Renewal is now open.  Don't let your membership lapse!  
           Current status: https://www.sdhgpa.com/current-membership-status.html

  • Site info Updates: 
    1. Palomar:  Reminder from Steve to always have your parking pass displayed.
    2. Blossom:  No new updates from Brad on the development.  Map finalization still in process but development seems to be a 'done-deal'
  • WX Station updates : https://www.sdhgpa.com/weather-stations.htm 
    1. Holfuy stations  - Horse, Laguna and Little Black all working.   El Cap and Palomar seems to have intermittent connectivity issues w/ 2G after 3G tower retirements.  Per Jeff, TMobile will also sunset 2G  at end of the year but not 100% sure.  For example, AT&T 3G sunset didn't happen until ~6 weeks after their end date.
    2. Two Prototype stations are up and running at Palomar and Little Black running on 5G.  LB had a small glitch but reset itself.  Palomar station seems to read high on high winds days.  Overall the stations are working fine.  Josef needs to contact Nik to install 3rd station at El Cap.  Holding off on 4th prototype station until more testing  to assure the prototype stations prove to be stable and reliable. We will re evaluate after January to see what happens with 2G end-of-life and if our confidence in the prototype stations continue.
    3. Next Steps
    • We want to develop a mobile app (similar to Holfuy app) so you can pull up favorite weather stations and view individual readings without having to navigate the SDHGPA web page.
    • We also need help getting the data feeds to other networks (eg. Mesa West, Weather Underground, etc).  With Holfuy, we are feeding about 5 different networks.  Want to feed Josef's information to at least the 3 main networks.
    • Volunteer Coding Opportunity in Typescript:  Josef needs programming help with the data feeds. Specifically, help w/ Typescript from backend Google Firebase.  Anyone with a development background want to help out?
  • USHPA Chapter Renews open December 1st.
    1. Time of year that USHPA needs clubs to gather-up and make sure we have all Accident Reports accounted for (Refer to Members Only section on website for Accident/Incident Reports).  These get feed into annual safety officer reviews and reporting, and also help update Site Guides. 
    2. The due date for USHPA renewal is late January; therefore, we want to submit early and not wait to until last minute.
    3. We are looking for member feedback on site guides to keep these current and relevant.  Any feedback?
PictureDo you have your Ham, Sam?
  • Setting Calendar for 2023 Meeting Topics  to dates 
  1. Greg Hunter suggested that someone from local Ham radio club come out and talk about legal use of Ham radio and how to license. Steve said that a long time ago (2004), Mark Weber did a "Ham and Eggs" series to prep people to get Ham radio licenses. Was a series of breakfast study sessions before heading out to fly.  Greg volunteered to take lead on this putting together the meeting topic and/or training series.
  2. 2023 Fly-Ins Dates:
    • Tentative March/April 2023 for Fly-in and awards
    • Fall Fly-in ~October 2023

  • Awards and Contest Rules  Refer to  https://www.sdhgpa.com/xc-contest---sdhgpa.htmlJeff  said there were two contest categories - 1 for Hang Gliding and 1 for paragliding.
  1. PG: 9 sites to fly from.  Best flight counts as longs as you don't break airspace.  The 9 Sites in San Diego County or Southern California Basin are: Laguna, Horse, Blossom, Little Black, Big Black, Palomar, Elsinore, Soboba, Crestline/Marshall. (Note that Otay was removed from the list of sites starting in 2017 due to complications of Boarder activity, Airspace, and no place to go except over tiger country to avoid airspace). We can reevaluate Otay if pilots want to argue a case for adding it back in due to changes.
  2. Contest Nov. 1st to Oct. 31st from Leonardo.  30 Days after Oct. 31st to get your flights in.
  3. Shirt awards and based on passing the following milestones for your furthest flight of the year (Based on Maximum straight line distance between two points in Leonardo.)
  • 10 miles - From one of the 9 sites for your first year achieving
  • 25 miles - From one of the 9 sites
  • 50 miles  - launching anywhere
  • 75 miles    - launching anywhere
  • 100 miles  - launching anywhere
Please check the Score sheets to make sure we have correctly captured scoring for all of your flights. If not, please contact Jeff Brown.
2. Topics: - with Open Q&A: 

  • Travel and Fly Safety Information:   Working on a refresh of the 2019 "Travel to Fly" safety information and what insurance and services are available for rescue, transport of medical attention.  More to come but excellent links to information and context:
    1. https://www.sdhgpa.com/minutes-news--articles/travel-to-fly-march-meeting 
    2. https://www.cloudbasemayhem.com/unscrambling-insurance-are-you-covered/
  • Telegram Question:  Why we don't fly in Santa Anas?  
Palomar and Elsinore can be an option for 'mild' Santa Ana if gust factors within .  Gust factors should not be more than 2x base winds. Anything with an East component, the base winds should be less than 5 mph.  Hazard is the upper sheer winds
  1. Ex) 5mph West meets 5 mph from East = 10 mph sheer.  This is doable.
  2.  5 mph West meets a 15 mph from East = 20 mph and will turn your wing inside out.
Ref article on flying in Santa Ana conditions
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Laguna WX Station is down

4/14/2021

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Our SDHGPA Laguna WX Station is down and we are working on trying to diagnose the problems and bring it back on line as soon as possible.

In talking with Holfuy, it looks like there might have been been a water ingress that has shorted out the electronics or lightning strike near by?  The Station started to experience solar charging system started to have problems on March 26th and the system stopped transmitting packet data on April 11th.

Our Laguna Launch station has been recording some of the most extreme weather in San Diego and Sothern California as recently noted by NOAA reaching out to us asking about this station.

We will need to schedule a recon trip out to the station to retrieve the main unit to know what to fix or repair. Unfortunately, the Station may be down for several weeks due to logistics and depending on repairs needed.

​We will post updates as we know more.


https://holfuy.com/en/weather/580
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Weather station on Little Black

1/14/2020

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This past Sunday (January 12th, 2020) we got the year off to a fine start with another Holfuy weather station installation, this time at Little Black.  After about a year and half of working with the park rangers there (well done Jeff Brown!) we agreed on a spot, set up a date, and rallied the troops.


Read More
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Weather Station On El Cap

11/27/2019

6 Comments

 
So you found the SDHGPA weather station on El Cajon mountain, eh?  Maybe you hiked out there and saw the QR code link on the mast*.  Maybe you heard about it from a fellow paraglider or hang glider pilot.  Perhaps you’re a supporter of the San Diego River Park Foundation, or a biologist over at the US Forest Service.  However you found it, there’s a pretty rad story behind how it got there, who the players were, and just how much effort and expense we went to in order to plant that mast and gather weather data.
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Like any good story, this one starts in a few different places.

Read More
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EL CAP WEATHER STATION

4/25/2019

2 Comments

 
Many of us who fly the San Diego area could use a weather station at "The Cap".  The Cap sticks up higher into the airflow than launch at Blossom, and a weather station there would help us make better calls on XC days as well as safety calls on those North-y days.  Here's what you can do to help make an El Cap Weather Station a reality...
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Read More
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Laguna WX Station  DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE

4/30/2018

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The SDHGPA Laguna WX Station has been having issues and may be reporting incorrect or sporadic data for the next few weeks as we pull it down for maintenance, install new firmware and testing back in town. Will put out a notice when it is back up.
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New Laguna WX Station

12/18/2017

1 Comment

 
​The 3rd SDHGPA weather station of three planned for 2017 was installed at Laguna on 12-16-17 and is up and running! 
​ 
A Big Thank You!, Goes out to efforts of those that braved the elements for the installation work over two days. When the station went Live, it was reporting 37 F with gusting winds to 17 mph. On the 16th, it started to snow in the Lagunas shortly after installation.
Expected Readings & Location: The Laguna station location was chosen to represent the general base wind at the Upper Launch and indicate West blow down and shear that would result when the Face may still be blowing up. This location will under report the vertical component of actual winds coming up the Face at the Cliff Launch and house thermal out in front of the Upper launch.  
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Laguna WX Station looking North to Granite Mountain

Data from the Laguna station is live and is working well


About the SDHGPA Laguna Weather Station
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​For this 3rd station, we chose the Ultrasonic wind sensor like at Palomar for less maintenance and more obscurity due to no moving parts. The rest of the system is similar to the Palomar and Horse stations that are also solar powered and send data over a cellular network connection. Data is then sent to the Holfuy Data hosting site and WEB based data visualization. ​
  • Data Sheet for the Palomar & Laguna LCJ CV7 Ultrasonic Wind Sensor
  • Data Sheet for the Horse Davis 6410 Anemometer Wind Sensor
  • How are the Holfuy weather stations measuring and processing the wind speed
The Weather Station data can be viewed in several ways:
  • On our SDHGPA Weather Station page under Whats Happening menu.  
  • On the Laguna Site Guide Page
  • On Several Holfuy.com Station interface pages : SDHGPA Laguna Station Data Page, Map Page . . .
  • Using the Holfuy App that is available for iOS & Android 

1 Comment

December 2017 Santa Ana Winds

12/15/2017

1 Comment

 
Both the Palomar and Horse Weather Stations withstood the strong sustained winds all week Dec 4th through the 9th. This is the 1st time the stations have displayed magenta, beyond red, wind speed shadings.
PicturePalomar 5 day graph Dec 3rd - 8th (1hr Average with peak)

​

Here are some data snapshots from the Week. The above Palomar graph represents 1 hour average base wind with peak gust. You know the wind was strong from the reported 47.7 mph 1hr averaged base wind on the 7th at 10:30am.
The Palomar Station reported 50.8 mph Base Wind (15 min average) ​ with gusts to 69.4 mph at 10:18 am on 12-7-17. 

The Horse Station reported 39.7 mph Base Wind (15 min average) ​then gusts to 60.8 mph 15 min later at 8:26 am on 12-7-17. 
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Palomar max reported Base Wind 50.8 & Gusting to 69.4 (15 min Average) (1 day graph zoom on 12-7-17).
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Horse max reported Base Wind 39.7 & Gusting to 60.8 (15 min Average) (1 day graph zoom on 12-7-17).
Note that some of the variation between the two stations is due to placement locations and less than ideal locations for reading NE winds due to being in the lee and rotor conditions. Although the sensors are different, the wind speeds were well within the operating specifications for the sensors.

Data Sheet for the Palomar LCJ CV7 Ultrasonic Wind Sensor
Data Sheet for the Horse Davis 6410 Anemometer Wind Sensor
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New SDHGPA Horse Weather Station

10/18/2017

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The 2nd SDHGPA weather station of three that we have have planned this year was installed today at Horse Launch and is up and running!  
A big thank you to the efforts of Jeff Brown, David Whitehall, & Bob Barry for the Station installation!
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​They fortified the old windsock mast foundation out on the front cliff line in front of launch. Then tied in the weather station mast and grounding rods to protect the station from lightning strikes.

Data from the Palomar Launch station is live and is working well!


About the SDHGPA Horse Weather Station
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For this 2nd station, we chose a more traditional Davis anemometer wind sensor to save on costs in that it is a bit hard to get to. The rest of the system is similar to the Palomar station. The Horse Station is also solar powered with an appropriately sized battery pack and sends data over a cellular network connection. Data is then sent to the Holfuy Data hosting site and WEB based data visualization. ​

Data Sheet for the Horse Davis 6410 Anemometer Wind Sensor
Data Sheet for the Palomar LCJ CV7 Ultrasonic Wind Sensor

How are the Holfuy weather stations measuring and processing the wind speed
The Weather Station data can be viewed in several ways:
  • On our SDHGPA Weather Station page under Whats Happening menu.  
  • On the Horse Site Guide Page
  • On Several Holfuy.com Station interface pages : SDHGPA Horse Station Data Page, Map Page . . .
  • Using the Holfuy App that is available for iOS & Android 

The next weather station to be installed this year is planed for a Laguna install mid November.
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Palomar WX Station - Standing Strong

10/9/2017

2 Comments

 

Palomar Launch Wind values are reporting correctly again!!!

Thanks to the efforts of many, the Palomar WX station mast has been rebuilt out of metal and planted deeper.
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Big thank you to Chris Cote, Bob Barry, and Jeff Brown for the primary pre work & coordination efforts along with all the crew that helped get the station back to standing tall!
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SDHGPA is a local chapter of 
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USHPA 
(United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association)
SDHGPA, PO Box 720895, SAN DIEGO, CA 92172
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