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. These include commercial operations
Northwest Sky Sports (formerly Turf) and
Estrella Sailport,
private clubs Tucson Soaring Club and
Prescott Soaring,
as well as airports in Sedona and Sun Valley. During our active race schedule, we also fly
from Willcox and Sampley's in Aguila.
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ASA Contingent travels to Nephi OLC/XC Camp to Soar The Great Basin
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An intrepid group of seven ASA members traveled some 600 miles to Nephi, Utah about 75 miles south of Salt Lake City to attend the 2nd iteration
of the Nephi OLC and cross country encampment in the shadow of Mt Nebo, a monolith towering some 11,800+ feet into the sky. See more photos and
read the full report by Bob Thompson here.
Clockwise from the left are: Bob Thompson(19), Nigel(48) and Lan Cripps, Joe Silvasi(QRP), Tom(OD2) and Jodi Dukerich,
and Paul Cordell(MM Co-Pilot). Missing from the photo are John Weber(MM) and Dennis Haley(DH).
Here is the view of the Nephi Valley with the airport just off the nose of QRP. Note the wide valleys with many landout options and beautiful Cu
extending to the horizon. It's easy to see why an adventure such as Nephi is the stuff that dreams are made of ! And, if the appropriate precautions
are not taken, dreams can and often do, come apart at the seams. Every morning at Nephi, there was a safety brief by one or more of the attendees.
Read about how one brief became a personal sideline adventure for Joe Silvasi (QRP) here.
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ASA Members Convene at PVA for Inspections, Transponder Recerts and Chute Repacks
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report by ASA Secretary Bob Thompson March 29, 2014
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Saturday March 29th, 2014 was a very good day for ASA members who came out to Pleasant Valley
Airport. Harry Smith came out and performed annual inspections on 11 gliders, Warren from Express
Avionics came over and performed recertification for 5 transponders, and Mike Moore picked up over
a dozen parachutes for repacking. It was a busy and successful morning, and ASA provided the lunch
(huge hamburgers and hot dogs and chips) for those in attendance. Bob T. arranged for Harry to come
out and Mike to pack all the parachutes. Joe Silvasi arranged for Warren to come out to check the
transponders. This worked out as a 3-fer for many pilots and a 2-fer for most others getting numerous
required tasks taken care of ahead of the upcoming soaring season. And, thanks go to Bob Kellner for
picking them up for us from the Wildhorse just across the highway. Today’s activities were just another
benefit provided by the Arizona Soaring Association for its members.
It was really great to see all the gliders lined up on the north side of the airport again. Not only
were there a lot of glass and carbon gliders in attendance, Richard Roth brought his 50+ year old wooden
Slingsby Swallow T-45 up from Tucson to the event. It appeared to be in very good shape for an old timer!
Conditions for flying were ok, but not really great looking, so none of us chose to fly, just saving our
$$ for the first contest day of the 2014 ASA Contest Series next weekend at PVA. However, Gary Boggs
seemed to have no problems staying aloft with tourists in his 2-32. He was busy most of the day, and
the tow plane was even busier, as the CAP 2-33 was making a number of flights.
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