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Meeting Minutes, News, & Articles

Palomar New Year Fly-in Report

1/21/2016

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What a great way to start off the 2016 new year with yet another great fly-in at Palomar!
A BIG THANK YOU!!!  to ALL of the  FLY-IN VOLUNTEERS!
First off, I would like to extend a big thanks to all those that pitched in to make the SDHGPA New-Year Fly-in an enjoyable event and a huge success. There were too many to name, but your contributions were noticed. We were very appreciative of even visiting pilots pitching in to help with what ever was needed.

We would like to especially thank Bill Davis, Angela A, Anto Z, Dave Metzgar, and Bob Barry  for tacking a lion share of the Prep and execution of the work event with other conflicting events on the day.
A Big thank you also goes out to The Pala Tribe and Roberts Ranch for letting use the LZ for our Fly-in BBQ for the extended hours and all those that helped to make this such a great event.

Bill Helliwell's account of the Fly-in
Weekend Mountain Flying Report

Palomar is an amazing site. On Saturday, the day of the fly-in and BBQ, the forecast was poor. But Palomar ignored the forecast. Wind indeed was light, around 5 mph, and coming from all directions, occasionally puffing down. The launch thermal was sometimes right at launch, sometimes a hundred yards out. Where it was determined which way the breeze was blowing.

Several PG pilots took off around 12:30 and climbed a few hundred feet. All together I think 40 PG pilots took off, as late as 4:00. It looked like all but the later launchers got above launch and had good flights in the super smooth air. A few of them were able to get 2,000' higher than take off altitude.

Five HG pilots from Sylmar and Greg F flew hang gliders. The first HG pilot took off and went straight out for a hundred yards or more, circled in light lift, and climbed a few hundred feet higher than launch. The second pilot allowed his nose to rise a bit, he could not get sufficient air speed, and mushed into the brush. He was ok, but chose to pack up and not fly. The other three Sylamr pilots and Greg had good strong take-offs. Two of the Sylmar pilots made it at least 1,000' above take off level. All of them had plenty of air time.

​A forecast is just that, a forecast. It is not necessarily reality.

Bill H.
Member Photos Posted on FB

 John Gallagher's Fly-in Perspective
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My wife and I had a great time at the fly-in and BBQ!
​
Here's a short video of yesterday's flying and landings. 

SDHGPA 2016 Fly-In and BBQ from John Gallagher on Vimeo.


The Rich Matros Memorial X-C Contest 2015:
HG Division:
1st Place & Grand Champion:     Bill Helliwell
2nd Place:                                       Jeff Brown
3rd Place:                                        Mike Branger​

PG Division:
1st Place & Grand Champion:     Russ Detwiler
2nd Place:                                       Dmitri Soloviev
3rd Place:                                        Jason Kinch
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SDHGPA Rich Matros Memorial X-C Contest 2015 Champions
2015 Final XC Score Sheet Page: 
2015 XC Contest Final Standings
Milestone Shirt Awards:
One shirt is awarded to each pilot for his/her longest straight line XC distance passing the following Mile Marks:
A pilot's first flight over 10 miles (1st year achieving).
Flight over 25 miles.
Flight over 50 miles.
Flight over 75 miles
Flight over 100 miles, miles listed
For the XC Contest Rules and How to Join:
SDHGPA XC Contest Info

Martin Palmaz on State of USHPA Insurance
Martin Palmaz (USHPA Executive Director) spoke with us and answered many questions regarding USHPA's insurance issues and what USHPA is working towards.

​Some of his key points in his address are outlined in this video:

Free Flight Forever!-HD 1080p from Eric Blum on Vimeo.

Please consider increasing your donation, or If you have not already done so, Please Donate to The Free Flight Forever Fund. ​
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Donation Link
When Making your Donation, add SDHGPA as your Chapter Affiliation!
If you have questions and want more information on the Insurance Issues See:
freeflightforever.org

SDHGPA on State of USHPA Insurance
Yes, this is a big deal. If we do not reach the , Free Flight Forever self insurance fund raising goals, and if USHPA is not able to reestablish insurance policies. We , SDHGPA members, will likely lose our ability to fly as we do today at all but two of our San Diego Mountain sites.
Without Site Insurance Palomar, Big Black, Little Black, Laguna Upper Launch, Laguna Earthquake Valley LZ, Horse Anderson Field LZ will all likely be closed starting March 1st of this year.
If you need More convincing on why this is such a big deal to us as local San Diego pilots, see Bill Helliwell's article on our SDHGPA Donation Matching fundraising page. 
SDHGPA Free Flight Forever Donation Matching?  ​
Yes - Martin had just come from a Meeting with the CSS. They were feeling their oats pledging 7K as a club and challenged us as SDHGPA to raise 5K as a club. The SDHGPA Board has since met and and we think we can do better that that by raising at least $20K in total as a Club in whole with SDHGPA kicking in $10K from our reserves. 
For more information see:
SDHGPA Free Flight Forever Matching
When Making your Donation, add SDHGPA as your Chapter Affiliation!

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