With just three weeks left to the end of the summer 2022 it is time to take stock and give you an update.

What a Great Season!

So far, we have been blessed with a great soaring season this year. It was rare that a weekend day was rained out. In July we had many opportunities for long cross-country flights. July 10th and 14th were exceptional days with over 9,700km posted to the OLC by SOSA pilots. On July 14th Jerzy flew 962km which yielded 1,010.43 OLC points. This is the first and only flight over 1,000 points that has been posted in the Ontario / Quebec Region since the inception of the OLC Canada. Another, perhaps even more outstanding flight was Adam Zieba’s 642km flight in a Junior, achieving a score of 927.9 OLC points. It took Adam 7 hours and 44 minutes to complete the flight. I remember a discussion a few days earlier among our up-and-coming aces, about whether it was possible to fly a gold distance (300k) with a Junior. The consensus was that it was not possible. Well, Adam certainly proved them wrong.

Some pilots said July 14th was the best soaring day they had ever experienced at SOSA.

August started a bit slower with soaring conditions during the XC Training Week not being great. We still managed to complete some meaningful flights and other XC exercises. Thanks to Rafael Bravo for organizing the XC Training Week. The participants’ entry fees will be donated to Youth Flight Canada to keep the Youth Jantar insured and flying.

We still had a number of strong soaring and cross-country days in August, and we should have a few more before the season ends.

A good number of our pilots achieved their Silver distances (50km), some completing all requirements for the Silver Badge. Several pilots achieved Gold Distances (300km), two Diamond Goal flights, one Diamond Distance (500km) and a Canadian Record (200km Speed to Goal). Congratulations on these achievements.

In the Online Contest (OLC) Canada, SOSA is currently leading in the Club category with 82,614km, ahead of Montreal Soaring Council with 66,160km. In the Airfield category, Rockton is leading with 80,484km over Chipman AB with 73,152km. SOSA pilots are also leading in the categories OLC-Plus Champion and Speed-OLC Champion – check it out here.

The OLC season ends on September 19, so let’s keep our fingers crossed that we carry our leads over the finish line.

Flight Training

With so many new members joining at the start of this year, we had reached our training capacity and had to put a hold on accepting more students in July. Fortunately Sean Christie, a newly-trained instructor, hit the ground running and committed to instruct regularly on Saturday mornings, which made a big difference – thanks Sean. That and a number of first solos and completed flight tests have allowed us to admit more students from the waiting list of currently 26 prospective members.

I also want to recognize Tom Coulson, Pat O’Donnell and the group of instructors who are running the Tuesday evening training as well as Rafael Bravo for spearheading Friday evening winching.

By my count so far, we have achieved 5 first solos and 6 Glider Pilot Licenses this year – congratulations to all.

Currently we have 34 active students. While I expect some of them will complete their flight tests soon, we still have a need for instructors to commit time more regularly, and to declare their availability on Click N Glide ahead of time so that students are informed.

Several of our new members have asked me when our flying season ends. The season for meaningful cross-country flights will end around mid to late September. A few years ago, I had a 400k flight on Sept 30th, but that was exceptionally late for a longer flight.

Training, however, will continue as long as the weather allows. In some years we have flown well into November. In 2020, we were winching all day on November 29 – it was a wonderful late fall Sunday. In winter, once the ground is frozen, we will continue winching on weekends, as long as there is not too much snow to move the gliders around. This year, we started the season on Sunday, January 16th with 22 winch launches. During spring check flights, I see a significant difference between pilots who stopped flying in October and pilots who flew a few times throughout the winter. Therefore, even if you are not a winch pilot, come out to fly with us. An instructor will help you with the launch and pass control to you after release to fly the circuit, approach, and landing.

How are we doing financially?

Thirty-six new members joined us this year, 30 of whom were not licensed. In total we currently have 138 members, 129 of whom are flying members, and 27 junior members. This is slightly above our 10-year average for flying members.

As of Aug 31 we have had 2,423 flights flown at SOSA this season.

We have also processed a total of $44,000 in intro sales via the website so far this year and have flown more than 180 intros since late May. A huge thanks to Michael Chazot for managing the scheduling of all intro flights and making sure they are captured in Click N Glide. Thank you also to Greg Pattinson our midweek intro pilot, Reza, Farid, and Sahil who have regularly flown intros on the weekends, Poul Hansen for coordinating and flying aerobatic intros, and to Duncan & Lexie for the midweek tows.

With a high level of training activity, and intro flights back in full swing, our finances are tracking favourably against pre-COVID levels. If we don’t run into any major bumps on the road ahead, we should have a good year which will allow us to add to our reserves for the future purchase of gliders to keep our fleet up to date.

Thanks to our entire Membership & Marketing team for such a stellar job.

Fleet Renewal

As you may know, we have a brand-new DG-1001 Club on order, which is on track for delivery early next year. It is a very versatile glider which can be used for basic training, aerobatics and cross-country training. If you want to learn more about this glider and how it fits into a club environment, watch a brief 5-minute video from Pureglide in New Zealand.

On the single-seat side, we recently came across a used Discus 2 with relatively low hours. After having lost a similar opportunity last year, we acted quickly on this one to secure it. The glider will be on its way from California shortly and should arrive at SOSA around mid-September. Thanks to Dave Springford who spearheaded the transaction and organized the transport to Ontario. We are planning to complete the certification and registration formalities over the fall and winter to have the plane ready to fly in spring. The new D2 will replace the LS-4 (DW).

Looking ahead

Hoping that the good weather will continue into the fall, we should strive (we need all hands on deck!) to get all our solo students to flight test standard and all our dual students to solo.

We used to hold a friendly Precision Landing Contest every September which was very popular. Like so many things, we had to cancel this event for the last two years. This year we want to bring this tradition back and plan to hold the contest on Saturday, September 24 (rain date Sept 25). You can sign up for the event on Click N Glide.

On September 24 we will also have our last BBQ for the season. Thanks to the Social Committee, particularly Kathy, Reza, and John, who have put a lot of hard work into creating these opportunities for us to get together as a community. It’s been fun to be able to get together regularly again, building relationships outside of the cockpit and meeting each other’s friends and family.

We will have a question-and-answer session with the Board during the Sept 24 BBQ. If you have any questions, please send them to Dale in advance.

In closing, I want to thank my colleagues on the board for being such a great team – it is a joy working with you!

Joerg

The 2022 SOSA cross-country clinic took place August 1- 5. We had a large cohort of 16 participants, seven instructors and three tow pilots. As usual, the clinic is mostly geared to licensed pilots with a Bronze Badge wanting to go for their Silver Badge flights, but some participants are much more experienced (Gold Badge and up) while a few had yet to complete all the Bronze Badge requirements. The purpose of the clinic is to provide pilots with the tools to confidently fly away from final gliding distance of the home field. This is achieved by providing dual XC flights if the weather permits, as well as carrying out training flights to improve thermalling skills, discuss land-out options and techniques, etc. In addition, “shepherded” flights are done, in which an instructor and a clinic participant fly in separate gliders, while the instructor tries to avoid making a fool of himself by landing out while the student completes the task… (I am sure this has happened).

This year the weather was mixed. We were able to fly four out of five days, but flights were mostly local due to marginal soaring conditions. The only day with (marginal) XC conditions was Tuesday August 2nd, but even then the conditions were tough, with high winds, low cloud bases and weak thermals. We had a few achievements for the day, with participant Jesse Miller (XC) and shepherd Sergei Morozov (MS) flying close to 240 km, and Michael Chazot attempting his first cross-country flight in his new (to him) LS-8, as well as experiencing his first out-landing near Woodstock due to the abject failure of his shepherd (who shall remain nameless…).

On the other days, we had some soaring weather that allowed for thermalling practice under tough conditions. Monday was a typical day, with 20+ knots of wind and cloud bases at 3000 ft MSL. Even then the group made the most of the day, with Sergei and Michael Soh flying for 3+ hrs in difficult conditions. We also had briefing and classroom sessions and extensive discussions on varied topics.

All in all a good week of flying and learning for all, even if the conditions were not ideal – and it's useful to remember that in most cross-country flying days, at some point the conditions will not be ideal.

Thanks to all the instructors and tow pilots who gave a week of their valuable time (Rafael N/Hans/Malcolm/Joerg/Ray/Chris/Rafael B/Poul and Duncan/Lexie) as well as the Arcus owners and Hans for providing their beautiful machines for part of the week.

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