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New OCSA web site |
News
| 5/12/08 |
|
Here's a video of the recent trip to Coyote Dry
Lake.
|
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| 3/1/08 |
| There will be a memorial service for Joe Stasnek at one of
the Hemet-Ryan gliderport hangars on April 5 at 5:00 p.m. Among
other remembrances, the video "An Evening with Joe" will be
shown. |
| 1/17/08 |
 |
In January,
OCSA again participated in the SSA Region 12's booth at the
Academy of Model Aeronautics convention.
(click for full size) |
| 1/9/08 |
| Welcome Dave Raspet to the ranks of the OCSA instructors! Dave recently acquired his CFI-G rating and
will be working with OCSA pilots and students soon. Congratulations! |
| 11/17/07 |
 |
Congratulations to Jeff Donoho on earning his Private Pilot
Certificate today! After completing his final checkride with
Larry Howell, Jeff was duly doused. Click on the pics for the
full-size view of the soaking. |
|
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Tony Davis and Sam Brown both earned their Private Pilot ratings
in the last week! |
|
8/20/2007 |
|
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That big smile belongs to Irv Powalka who got checked out in the
PW5. Way to go! |
|
8/4/2007 |
|
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Larry Torres joined OCSA after
achieving his PPG from Sailplane Enterprises. Now he's working
on getting checked out in the Blanik L13. |
|
7/4/2007 |
|
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Congratulations to Ray Forsyth who
soloed in the Blanik L13 today! |
|
6/23/2007 |
|
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Congratulations to Sam Brown who
soloed in the Blanik L13 today! |
|
6/16/2007 |
|
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Tony Davis soloed in the PW-5. Click
on the pic for the full-size picture. |
|
6/9/2007 |
|
  |
Marc Forsyth soloed in the PW-5.
Click on the pics for the full-size pictures. |
|
5/29/2007 |
|
Wild West
Winchfest - Part 1
 |
OCSA, AGCSC, and 29 Palms Soaring
conducted joint winch operations. Read the early reports and see
pictures from the first weekend
here. Watch the
video. |
|
4/12/2007 |
|
Mary Rust Honored by SSA
 |
Congratuations! Mary Rust, OCSA's Chief Flight Instructor, has
been awarded the Soaring Society of America's Region 12 award
for "Most Active Instructor" for giving out the most ABC badges
during 2007. This is quite an achievement as the award counts
both commercial and club instructors. Mary has always been
"tops" with OCSA, it's now great to see her efforts recognized
by the SSA, our national organization. |
|
3/14/2007 |
|
Rob Morgan Joins OCSA Instructors
 |
Rob Morgan came to
OCSA just a few months ago, and now he's joined our team of
instructors. He has lots of experience instructing in Blanik
L-13's and Grob 103's, so he'll be on board right away. Rob
will help out with the other instructors on Saturdays for a
while, and then will work into the instruction rotation.
Rob is the proud owner of a motorglider,
too! |
3/2/07 |
Zero Sink U.S.
Mail opt-out |
To get you your
quarterly Zero Sink newsletter faster, and to save printing
and postage costs, we're going on-line. We already publish ZS
on the Publications
web page in .PDF format the day it's mailed. We will send a
notice to the 'all' email list when ZS is posted.
If you no longer wish to receive Zero
Sink in the U.S. Mail, please send an email saying so to Roger
Worden at webmaster@ocsoaring.org.
If you do not "opt out" we will continue to mail you
a copy.
The on-line PDF version omits the two pages
containing the Membership Roster, since it's in the
"public" area and we want to avoid making
members' personal information available on the Web. The
Roster pages will now be posted at the same time as a separate
PDF on the Roster
page which is password-protected. Members who know the
password can download and print the complete roster.
|
3/2/07 |
|
Board Meeting minutes |
OCSA Board Meeting minutes are
now posted on the private Members page. |
|
12/22/06 |
David Kasprzyk Achieves
Private Pilot Certificate |
David joined the club about 4 months ago. He
worked very hard at studying, flying and working with
instructor Mary Rust. David is an engineer at Boeing and
works in the robotics department. He has also recently
achieved his license in scuba diving. He loves both of his
hobbies, flying and scuba diving, and now wants to go to the
next level in both.
David's father, Stan Kasprzyk, also works for Boeing and is
a CFIG in the Seattle Soaring Club. Some of you might
remember meeting him when he came down for a visit last
March and flew in the Grob 103.
|
|
10/25/06 - First trial of
OCSA's winch |
|
The Ocotillo Winch weekend
definitely moved OCSA forward in developing its winch program
and was a lot of fun. Attending were Lynn Ericksen,
Larry and Swantje Tuohino, Harry Irvine, Pete Foley, Tony and
Billy Davis, and Nick Ounanian. High rates of climb were
seen on every flight. Hats off to Lynn Ericksen in going
solo on on a winch tow for the first time, and for
being the first OCSA member to be slung aloft by our new
winch. Longest duration was 44 minutes by Harry in the
Ericksen 2-22 known as Buttercup. Hats off to Larry
Touhino as our first OCSA winch driver. |
|
9/26/06 |
|
OCSA Family Soaring Contest |
Results from the Fall contest day are
posted here.
Results from the Spring contest days need to be added in to
show the final results for the Spot Landing, Timed Flight, and
Altitude Gain contests.
The Lone Eagle and Dual Eagle contests won't
be final until December 1. Results so far are posted here too. |
|
9/19/06 |
|
OCSA
Aeronauts Taste Adventure at
Dust Devil Dash
 |
The results of the 2006 Dust Devil Dash are in and the club
had two members participate. In his first DDD
appearance, Jerry Snedden warmed up this year to 10th place,
landing the PW-5 near a tree "marking the middle of
nowhere". At the OCSA club meeting, reflecting on
his first attempt to cross the Kelso Valley Jerry
stated, "I learned a lot".
Larry Tuohino and his Pik20D also participated and
ended up in 4th place after missing a thermal north of
Little Lake and losing an hour digging themselves
out. He and HoUdini ended up in Bishop. His flight
is on the OLC 9/9/06 scoreboard.
Harry Irvine and Swantje Tuohino crewed for the OCSA pilots.
Congrats to all!
|
|
9/5/06 |
|
OCSA Family Soaring Contest
and
Après Soaring Pool Party
Sept 16, 2006 |
Contest starts at 9am at Hemet-Ryan
Pool Party Begins at 4pm at Tony and Billy Davis’ home.
Directions are on the Member
Page.
Bring the family, bring the friends, contest scoring is increased by 5% if a non-pilot passenger is on board.
Bring refreshments, something to grill and a side dish to the Pool party. |
|
9/5/06 |
|
Tehachapi Campout a Huge Success
 |
The club trip to Mountain Valley Airport over
the Labor Day weekend saw tremendous soaring conditions, great
fun, learning opportunities, and some awesome flights. All
three days had excellent lift with wonderful clouds to mark
the way to the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Some members got "signed off" for their first solo
flights away from home turf...
Some made their first cross-country journeys...
Some earned parts of their Silver badges...
Some headed north and landed out!
All in all, a terrific trip! |
|
07/09/06 |
|
Jerry Snedden flew a flight which should earn him his
Silver and Gold distances, his 5 hour flight, his Gold
Altitude, and his Diamond O&R!
Launching from Bishop (4,200msl) on a semi-blue day, Jerry
worked for over an hour to get up onto the White Mt ridge,
one time sinking to a low of 2189 agl before finally
recovering and getting underway. Turning the PW-5
north he flew 40 miles to his start point
passing White Mt at 16,940 before reaching his start gate at
Boundary Peak 10 mins later (at 17,700 ft!), then pinched
his way south to Cerro Gordo crossing the Westgard Pass
twice, and finally barreling back again to Boundary. Landing
after flying 6 hrs 15 min, much of the time at over 14,000
ft, his feet were numb but his feeling of accomplishment was
high.
|
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03/19/06 |
|
OCSA's Family
Soaring Contest was a big hit though the weather was
cold. Check out the whole story.
|
03/04/06
|
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Steve Watkins is the
latest OCSA member to solo in the Blanik. He had a nice long
solo flight... and eventually had to come down to face the
bucket!
|
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02/18/06
|
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OCSA, other local clubs, and Sailplane
Enterprises joined forces to conduct a Cross-Country Bronze Badge
Ground School for 25 local pilots. |
|
10/01/05
|
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Jeff Donoho soloed
in the Blanik L13... then got a dousing!
|
09/21/05
|
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A new flight report from this years Dust Devil Dash is now available for
download. Please click here
to download the report.
|
09/07/05
|
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See
pictures from Jerry Snedden's
run on Mount Whitney. Click here for the pictures.
|
05/09/05
|
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Roger
Worden checked out in the OCSA PW-5. Way to go!
|
02/21/05
|
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Read Dan Rihn's flight report Silver Badge flight from Mt Valley.
Click here
to
download the report.
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