Welcome to 2002 - Dale Taylor
I’m looking forward to a wonderful soaring year!

As a board, we’ve met and are working on several things for this year. One of my goals is to keep you well informed on club and soaring things. We’ll use the newsletter and the website to do that. Occasional emails may also be sent since most have email addresses now.

In our first board meeting we elected a VP to replace Parke who has married and moved to the east coast. Paul Schneider is now our VP. This means we have an opening for a safety officer. If anyone is interested in working with the board, in learning more about the club and how things work, we encourage you to contact us. Even if not for this position, since there’s always things that need to be done.

Concerning the club and our assets, we’re all equity partners in these gliders. We own them as a group and really need to work together to take care of them. As you’re going flying and around the gliders, please treat them just as you would your own expensive personal property. Be careful and notice things that need attention. Some of the problems we’ve seen have been due to misplaced feet or other items hitting the panels and breaking knobs off of expensive instruments. It’s a sad but true state, that the board has to spend most of their time concerned with repairs and maintenance of our gliders. Some of the things in process include a new altimeter (broken knob) for the 1-34, recovered seats in the Grob, repaired radio face in the Grob and a 1-34 trailer overhaul. Not all of these are being done by board members, but interested club members with desire and time, I thank all of you who have helped in years past to make this club what it is.

In my travels I’ve been visiting glider clubs around the west. I’ve noticed that others make it more of a day of flying and they have quite an attendance at the glider field on weekend days where much more socializing happens than with our club. I realize we’re all very busy with life and family, but take the time to know those at the field flying when you’re there. Arrive early enough to help others and with time to do a thorough pre-flight. These aren’t rental gliders waiting for a driver like a Hertz rental car. I don’t really want to lecture or feel I should tell others how to act, but I for one want to know the people who I fly with because I realize my life is literally in my own hands every time I fly and I want to feel good knowing those I share the gliders with also understand this and will take care of them too. I’m not sure how much the social aspect has to do with the overall club picture for others, but it’s an aspect I enjoy. I like learning from the more experienced members and look forward to flying with more of them. Concerning this, we need enough club members to share the financial expenses. If you have pilot friends interested in soaring, talk about the club to them.

Please note the calendar items in the newsletter and on the web site. We’ve got the assembly day and club BBQ’s planned and hope for good attendance by announcing the dates well in advance. We’ll start soaring at Morgan this year as we did last year. Thanks for your friendship and I look forward to seeing you at the field.

Downtown Salt Lake City as seen from the airport tower.

Greetings from the VP - Paul Schneider
This winter will be a busy one for me but I have undertaken a few things for the club prior to next soaring season:

I am also working on a USA Soaring Manual. Other than that, Think Safe. Upwards!

Morgan Valley Soaring - David Lane
I spoke with Janet on the phone the other day and wanted to pass along some of the topics we covered in a quick bullet list...

1) Morgan Valley Soaring will be opening the last Saturday of March.
2) Jay is scheduling private ship annuals and would like to get a 30 day in advance list going to make things run smoothly.
3) Jay is interested in hosting a spring weekend somewhere. Last year's outing was a big success though he was barely able to make ends meet so perhaps he'll need help with the food end of things. Suggestions are welcome as to where and when.
4) Morgan Valley Soaring email is morganvalleysoaring@juno.com
5) Morgan Valley Soaring office phone is: 801-876-3069 and home is: 801-876-3342.

Odds and Ends - David Lane
The USA web site is getting a make over. Jim Krog has been putting in a lot of work which can be seen at www.utahsoaring.org/new/index.html.

The list of Duty Officers is waiting for volunteers. Please contact Ned Dolan if you've got a preference.
May 4 Dave Lane
May 11 Chris Steinman
July 13 Gary Peterson

Feel free to contact me with suggestions, articles or pictures for the newsletter or web site. - David Lane 801-561-0954 - davelane@lucent.com