Newcastle Hang Gliding Club Meeting Minutes 27/10/2021, commenced 7:40pm.
Zoom Attendees: Jamie Oorschot, Craig Hand, Royce Allenson, Kyle Boyd, Ian Ladyman, Andres, Ken Harris, Brad Patfield.
Apologies: Adriaan Mulder (on another holiday!)
Last Minutes Accepted: 1st Ken Harris, 2nd Royce Allenson.
Flying
Summer coastal breezes have finally turned on! Lots of coastal flying over the last month by local pilots as lockdown restrictions eased. Ian described some magic lift flights from Dudley into town and back by Conrad and Paul. Some awesome days where the skies were full of hangies and panties alike. This summer is gonna be epic!
Pretty much no flying inland because of travel restrictions.
Safety/Incidents
John Dingle had a minor turtle in the bushes at Dixon Park. John over-reacted a bit avoiding a couple of kites in the park. The Gecko has a lot more energy retention than the Fun! He and glider are fine, just a bit of a bruised pride. All good John, we have all been there at some time or another.
General Business
Watagans – Royce and Jamie are still looking at various types of towers/poles suitable for the weather stations in the Watagans. We considered a telescoping truss Gary Herman has for sale for $1100. Whilst the price is ok for what it is unfortunately this structure is too easy to climb and vandalize. Royce is still waiting to hear back from Mike at Forestry about the concept of attaching weather stations to trees instead of using a tower/pole. A working bee is likely to be organized for late Nov or early Dec to finish the Astro turf and do some brush cutting. In the meantime, if anybody goes up there, please take a rubbish bin/bag. It is our obligation to Forestry to keep those sites clean.
New Business
Ian Ladyman and Tony Holgate have asked for permission to do non-commercial tandem flights from our local sites in their paragliders. Both have their tandem endorsements and are getting check flights through Tony Barton. There were no objections and we thankyou for your courtesy to ask.
Andres had his car stolen from his home in Elenore Bay. Unfortunately all of his flying gear was inside which included a Susie 18m^2 paraglider. If anybody sees any suspicious paragliding gear come up for sale please give him a call (0410117977). Also if anybody has any cheap flying gear he can buy or borrow it would be greatly appreciated.
Comps
Barraba Big Tow is going ahead. 20 pilots so far have registered. No doubt more will do the same. Karl Kindle will be attending as Meathead and Comp Director (Yay Jamie and Rory can now relax! 😊). Karl managed to find an NDIS carer (Luke) who is keen to come out and support him. So hopefully if Luke has a good time he might want to do the same for Manilla. This would be great for Karl’s mental health and he can keep doing what he loves and we love him for it!
Treasurers Report
Some extra money has come in from BBT.
Cash reserve $19,938.94
Solutions account $717.98
PayPal $451.55
Meeting closed 8:30pm.
