COMMERCIAL PASSED AT ESTRELLA

My trip to Arizona was great. I flew at Arizona Soaring at the Estrella Airport. My instructors were Judd and Jason, both very good instructors and very concerned with making my training go as smooth as possible. I arrived there on 10/22 to do field check and to check out in the SGS-233.

During those 4 days I flew 5 dual flights and 12 solos, plus 2 flights for the checkride. I also checked out in the SGS-126 for some of my solo work.

The soaring was very good on thermals for 2 of the days. One I had a tow to 2500 agl and was able to easily reach 6200 agl in the -126. It was even an effort to get down during that flight.

I took and passed my Commercial Glider checkride on 10/26 with Terry Brandt. Terry is a pilot full time for Groen Brothers Aviation (they build a turbine powered gyro-copter).

I would highly recommend that anyone looking for some off season flying make the trip to Arizona Soaring. The people there are very helpful and very nice to be around.

John Cotter


NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS
John Masella has a new e-mail address at johnmasella@comcast.net. Please make a note of the change.
UPCOMING EVENTS
November
14

Board Meeting

21

Club Meeting

Be sure to click on the calendar button to see the entire 2002 schedule.

GPS 101

For those of you who, like myself, are GPS neophytes - have I got a web site for you! There is a downloadable guide in PDF format for handheld GPS receivers used in the cockpit written by John Bell. It is a free download, however he would like some kind of compensation if you find it useful - even if it just means signing his guest book. It is extremely comprehensive with the information well laid out and easy to understand. He specifically outlines the advantages of using less expensive, non - aviaion related GPS receivers and how that should not be a deterent to purchasing a GPS. His intent is to provide information and tips on how to "use" your GPS as opposed to the manual's dreary explanation of only how it operates. You can visit the site at www.cockpitgps.com. He also gives great references to other GPS web sites, books, etc. If you haven't already been to this site, I highly recommend it. By the way, if you are a boating fan, he has a separate document that relates to this use as well.

Keith Marshall

FUN IN ARIZONA

Adele and I spent a few days this past October in Tucson Arizona.

While we were there we visited the Tucson Glider Club at their field just North of Mariana.The field is located about 11 miles off of I-10. I was lucky enough to find a school bus driver that knew where it was located and gave very good directions.

Their club has about 70 active members with about 30 that fly regularly. They have six club ships that include 2 L23’s , a Grob 103, and two flyable Pawnees, and one non-flyable basket case Pawnee.

Their field has 2 runways, clubhouse, and Quonset hangar, open T hangars, on site security person and on site mechanic. I was able to hitch a couple of flights with Bill in the Grob.

There was no lift due to the cloud cover and rain, but the scenery was superb. Try as I might, I could not get Bill to let me share the cost of the flight or pay his tow fee.

Adele and I were treated like old friends while we were there. I hope we do as well by our visiting glider pilots.

Bill Carr

Click on the photos to enlarge

Clubhouse

The field

Their Grob

On tow
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