The Arizona Soaring Association is a group of about 50 pilots who fly sailplanes at all levels of the sport; some pilots are
new to soaring and just learning to fly, while others compete in national and regional competitions, in addition to the ASA's
own well-known contest series that runs from March to September each year.
We fly from several locations across the state. These include commercial operations at
Pleasant Valley Airport (P48 - currently not operational),
Arizona Soaring at Estrella Sailport (E68),
private clubs like Tucson Soaring Club at El Tiro (AZ67) and
Prescott Soaring Society at A.C. Goodwin Memorial (AZ86),
as well as airports in Sedona (SEZ) and Sun Valley (A20). During our race schedule, we also fly
from Cochise County Airport in Willcox (P33) and Sampley's (28AZ) in Aguila.
Come out and see what the excitment's all about !
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Something new has been added !by Joe Silvasi
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Working with Brian Labord, we (mostly Brian) have set up a Google Group for the ASA and I have made changes to the home page in order
to be able to access it. This may not be in it's final form, but we
are playing with it and trying to figure out how to make it work best for ASA. No doubt many of you already participate in one or
more Google Groups; they have pretty much replaced Yahoo Groups. Many of the type specific Yahoo groups have migrated over to a
Goolg Group: ASW20, ASW27, Ventus, ASW27, Mini Nimbus, etc.
So please bear with us as we work thru "the bugs" and get this thing working. Admittedly, we don;t know what all the issues are
or will be or how we will manage it yet, but it's new technology and we'll have to work thru the kinks. Ultimately, our vision is that
the Google Group will replace the Discussion Forum as the active messageing vehicle. The current content of the messaging forum will
remain as an archive at least until we find out just how much it is being used.
if you have any issues or questions, please send an e-mail (I know, old technology!) to Brian or myself and let us know about your
experience.
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2018 Holiday Party and General Membership Meeing by Lee Murray
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The annual General Membership Meeting and Christmas Party tradition was revived on December 1st at the home of Lee and Bobbie Murray in Maricopa.
Twenty people enjoyed an evening of pleasant conversation, renewing friendships and making new ones ensued. Members and guests enjoyed appetizers
followed by a dinner of Greek chicken, Greek pasta salad and white rice followed by desserts provided by the attendees. An ongoing slide show of
ASA cross country scenes provided by Cliff Hilty was shown on the flat screen. Ed Kilbourne's collection of soaring songs and Manheim Steamroller
Christmas music was played on the stereo. Two SSA 2019 Calendars were given away as door prizes.
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Some of the cool news heard included:
- Steve Koerner is about to take delivery of a JS-3 sailplane,
- Nigel Cripps has a BG-15 electric self-launching motor glider on order but is being frustrated with extended delivery dates.
- Bob Hurni is running a 1-26 regional fun fly at Aguila.
- An early April ASA contest is being planned for Estrella Sailport.
- Cliff and Steve are both anxious to fly in regional and national contests.
- There were great stories of long XC flights near the border with Mexico. Some of us wonder if it would be helpful to drop Randy Acree's name if
someone has some explaining to do about flying close to the border. Randy is a helicopter pilot for the Border Patrol.
- The Tucson Soaring Club will have another OLC clinic in late May. Word is this often delivers some of the best soaring conditions of the year.
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A group picture was taken of the twenty attendees prior to the business meeting run by President Joe Silvasi. Cliff Hilty was re-elected as a director
and treasurer. Another board position is to be filled later. The business meeting minutes will be issued shortly. Those attending included: Randy
and Holli Acree, Nigel and Lan Cripps, Frank Eckert, Bob Hurni, Cliff and Rose Hilty, Steve and Lancette Koerner, James Lyne, Lee and Bobbie Murray,
Joe and Theresa Silvasi, Michael and Anne Stringfellow, Bob Thompson, Martin and Judith Umberger.
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Decency Guidelines by Joe Silvasi
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Over the years, there have been instances where posts to the Discussion Forum have swayed from topics promoting soaring and
ASA activities and have instead degraded to places we don't really want to go.
While there has been a sort of implicit guideline that has been followed with regard to content and the occasional moderated
reminder, the last several years have shown the Board that something more formal needs to be
in place so that the "ground rules" are known to everyone so there are no surprises.
The advent of social media on the world wide web has made this needed even more.
To that end, the Board has recently posted Decency Guidelines under the Documents tab above which are meant to provide a solid
foundation as to what content is and is not appropriate for both the ASA Discussion Forum and ASA Facebook group.
The Board expects everyone who posts messages to be aware of and follow these guidelines in the interest of fairness to all and
decency to anyone who might stumble upon our Discussion Forum and/or Facebook group posts.
Your cooperation would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or comments, please address them to any member of the Board.
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The OFFICIAL Facebook page of the Arizona Soaring Association.
