Spring Flying May 20th

Hello Everyone

Recently, I have been reading a lot of correspondence from other clubs busy flying and enjoying their soaring season.  It is sure good to hear about all the activity and latest news from the Alberta Soaring Group.  The past week had some pretty spectacular soaring conditions especially around Grande Prairie.  On Monday a group of us finally were able to get together to launch some gliders.  Unfortunately the soaring conditions didn’t look like earlier in the week with the strong cu’s so we thought we would make the best of the day and just fly locally.  There seemed to be two air masses converging on the Grande Prairie area with overcast conditions.  Too my amazement there was lots of lift/sink.  We think there must have been some type of convergence.  Anyhow, it was sure lots of fun and a welcome site seeing sailplanes flying and getting some activity up here. We even drew some attention as there was a reporter that came to the field to write about our activities while we were putting our sailplanes together.

If you know anyone in the Grande Prairie area that may be interest in our club tell them to contact us.

Happy Soaring

Chics Take Flight

Hello Everyone

I thought that I should let you know about a great event that is taking place this summer.  It is called “Chics Take Flight”.  This event is to celebrate women flying.  This event was held last year and was a huge success.  If you know someone that may be interested in participating in this event, please let them know.  And for you “Guys”, you do not need to wear a wig to participate.  You can come and volunteer your time and maybe bring your significant other so they can have an enjoyable time flying.

2013 Soaring Season Starts

Hello Everyone

Last weekend a couple of us from the Grande Prairie Club went down to Innisfail and joined the Central Alberta Gliding Club (CAGC) to get the 2013 soaring season started.  We started our adventure by getting up at 4:00am to start our 6+ hour drive down to their club.  Arriving at around 11:00am we witnessed quite a busy activity of glider pilots getting things ready for the start of the flying season.  It was a pleasure to be able to see some of our old friends and be able to meet some new glider pilots from their club.  Soon afterwards, we all got busy assembling there “Berkfalk” two-seat training glider.  In no time everything was ready to go and we all went flying for the day.  Everyone there was able to get two training flights in. Thanks to John Mulder and Drew Hammond!  Later in the evening a group of us were quite hungry (and sun burnt) went out on the town for supper. I have to admit by the end of the evening I was quite tired and welcomed my bed at our hotel.

Here are some photos of Saturdays flying and on the field

Sunday was another great day!  At the Red Deer airport we went to a fly-in breakfast hosted by the Red Deer Flying Club.  We saw many different types of aircraft flying in for the event.  I even saw Buffalo Joe and his son participating there.  Later in the day we all gathered at the flying field and got things ready for some winch flying.

Here is photos of the day events

I want to express our thanks to the folks at the Central Alberta Gliding Club for their wonderful hospitality and for being so accommodating to help us with our spring check flights.  Les and myself got in 4 flights each for the weekend and talked about how much fun we had all the way home!

If you are interested in learning to soar or are interested in maybe getting a ride in a sailplane I highly recommend you check out the CAGC club  Here is a link to their website for more information   http://www.cagcsoaring.ca/  

Happy Soaring,

Dwayne

GPSS Meeting April 25th

AGM Meeting Reminder February 28th

Hello Everyone

Just a reminder of the Grande Prairie Soaring Society AGM  meeting on Thursday, February 28th  at  19:00hrs

The venue for this meeting is at

Lion’s Learning Center
9625 Prairie Rd
(On the west side of the Dave Barr Arena parking lot)

We have two presentations at the meeting

Lloyd has put together a presentation on using the “Environment Canada Aviation Weather” website and other apps.

And I will demonstrate a soaring forecasting program for gliding called X.C. Skies

If there is still time available near the end of the meeting we could watch a video on Soaring called  “Gladiators of the Sky”

******If there is anyone that you may think that would like to attend please invite them******

Hope to see you there!

Dwayne

Tim Wood – Canadian Soaring Record Holder

Hello Everyone

This fall I had the privilege to meet a fellow Canadian Glider Pilot at the Fall Cowley Wave Camp. His name is Tim Wood from the York Soaring Club, Arthur, Ontario. He should have been on the front page of Maclean’s Magazine for Glider Pilot of The Year, but they never ran that issue. Lol

Anyhow, when I met Tim it is evident that he is an enthusiastic pilot with lots of experience. This year he broke some Canadian Gliding 100 km Records at Cowley and wrote an article on this feat in the Soaring Association “Free Flight”.

Recently I came upon soaring videos on the internet that he has posted on Vimeo that should get some exposure. If you are interested in soaring, Tim has an assorment of videos that show some of his flights and have an instructional component to them. Very entertaining and worthwhile watching.

Check them out

His Videos are here on Vimeo

www.vimeo.com/user8207973

Dwayne

GP Soaring Society Meeting January 24

Hello Soaring Enthusiasts

GPSS is having a planning meeting on January 24th at 19:00 hrs at:

Lions Learning Center

9625 Prairie Road in Grande Prairie

(On the west side of the Dave Barr Arena parking lot)

We are having a presentation on PowerFlarm and other Collision Avoidance Systems

If you are interest in soaring and meeting fellow local pilots please join us.

Happy Soaring

Dwayne Doll