RGSA CLUB NEWS

[Bill Cummings]

Thanks Robin. I always check your forecast.

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA Club Meeting Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015

Postby RobinHastings » Wed Jan 07, 2015 11:48 am
Hi, everyone! I'd like to invite all current and potential pilots in our area to the RGSA Annual Meeting. Date will be Saturday, January 17, 2015. Location will be in Las Cruces, at the International Delights restaurant at 6:00 pm. This restaurant is in the northeast corner of a large shopping plaza (just north of the Albertson's supermarket) which is on the northeast corner of Idaho Avenue and El Paseo Blvd. in Las Cruces. If the winds are good, we can go flying prior to the meeting at any of our local sites, such as Magdalena Rim or Agave Hill (down in El Paso). Everyone is welcome - we need your ideas! I'll hope to see you then and there.
-Robin Hastings
RGSA President
575-541-5744

[RobinHastings]

RGSA CLUB MEETING, JANUARY 17:
We held our annual RGSA meeting this year in Las Cruces, at the International Delights restaurant on El Paseo Blvd. We had pretty good attendance: Hadley Robinson, Mike Ellsworth, Bill Cummings, Lee Boone, Jan Zschenderlein, Robin Hastings, Matt Hayes and his guest Greg Harrison, who is learning to paraglide. We began the meeting a little after 6:00 pm. I (Robin) gave a report on our flying activities through the year; we had two fly-ins, a gathering at the Guadalupes at Presidents Day, and a good deal of weekend flying throughout the year. It wasn't the best year for weather, though, as our usual southwest winds were in shorter supply than we're accustomed to. Hadley (Secretary/Treasurer) gave us a report on our current funds. We have $801.00 in the bank, and our insurance expenses are usually about $785.00, so collecting dues is a high priority. I'll send out letters to RGSA members and ask for dues in response (send them to Hadley Robinson at 5134 Thornton St., El Paso, Texas 79932. $25.00 this year, or $50.00 for dual membership in RGSA and Sandia Soaring Association.) Elections were held for club officers. Elected: Robin Hastings, President. Matt Hayes, Vice President. Hadley Robinson, Secretary/Treasurer. Lee Boone, Safety Officer. We followed this up with a report on new pilots; Hadley has about 7 or 8 new pilots enthused about free flying. I have a couple that have shown an interest in hang gliding. The RGSA Club Training Glider (a UP Gemini 134) has been useful, but a bigger training glider, like a 195 Falcon, would certainly be welcome. Still, the place for students is in Albuquerque or in Tucson, where USHPA certified instructors are operating. Other items discussed included gift certificates to the Sod Farm in Santa Teresa (where so many new PG pilots are being trained) status of our various flying sites, and details on upcoming events. For flying sites, we're doing pretty well, and inquiries were made about using Twin Peaks again (just north of Hwy 70, on the East Mesa of Las Cruces), Tanuco (about 5 miles SE of Hatch, NM) Lookout Mountain (looms above Fort Selden, 15 miles north of Las Cruces) and a new site that Hadley has pioneered off Transmountain Hwy in El Paso. For details on upcoming events, we had several. There will be a fly-in at Oatman Mountain near Gila Bend, Arizona over St. Patrick's Day (mid-March), the annual Presidents Day gathering at the Guadalupes (February 13-16) an SIV Clinic for parachutes at Elephant Butte Lake Feb. 18-23, and our annual Dry Canyon Memorial Day Fly-In May 22-25 in Alamogordo. For that last event, Matt Hayes volunteered to be the Meet Head, with Mike Ellsworth, myself, and probably every other RGSA pilot assisting in various capacities. Price for entry is $25.00, and I will do the announcement for the USHPA magazine. We also discussed what a ride up to the launch site should cost - with inflation over the years, probably $10 to the vehicle owner should be the customary amount. That way it covers gas, wear and tear, and taking the driver out to dinner. One last item of discussion was a rumor that someone might be taking pilots on safaris at RGSA flying sites (especially Dry Canyon) without informing us; if true, this is not illegal, but it certainly is discourteous and possibly dangerous. We need to find out more, it was decided. The meeting adjourned about 8:40 pm, with the feeling that a good deal was accomplished. Call me for any further details you might want to know about - or if you want to do some flying!
-Robin Hastings
575-541-5744

[Bill Cummings]

Thanks for the news Robin.
RGSA/ Hawks,
I was checking out Tonuco MT ( 4,949’ with 860' down to the LZ) both of which are located north of Las Cruces NM (USA).
Google Earth paints a difficult access to and from every where around the mountain.

I did notice that down on the East Potrillo (po Tree oh { Spanish }) Mountains there is a road up from the east side retrieve road.

That turn to drive (4 wheel drive) is three miles north off of the black top road (HWY #9). The road may be as new as the tower is.

The road goes to the top and ends just one tenth of a mile north of the new communication tower that is now at the end of the old road that goes up the south end of the mountain chain.

The take off elevation is about the same as near the tower but it is farther away from the south end of the mountain. This should have us in less of a left crosswind that the end of the range produces.

No pilots that I know of have mentioned this road up to the top before.
The closest I’ve seen this new road is by way of Google Earth.

The road follows a spine up and I’m thinking that some “Water Bars” should be graded into each side to shed water that would normally run down the road and erode it into oblivion. ---Something to check out. (BLM land.)

[Bill Cummings]

Thanks for the news Robin.
RGSA/ Hawks,
I was checking out Tonuco MT ( 4,949’ with 860' down to the LZ) both of which are located north of Las Cruces NM (USA).
Google Earth paints a difficult access to and from every where around the mountain.

I did notice that down on the East Potrillo (po Tree oh { Spanish }) Mountains there is a road up from the east side retrieve road.

That turn to drive (4 wheel drive) is three miles north off of the black top road (HWY #9). The road may be as new as the tower is.

The road goes to the top and ends just one tenth of a mile north of the new communication tower that is now at the end of the old road that goes up the south end of the mountain chain.

The take off elevation is about the same as near the tower but it is farther away from the south end of the mountain. This should have us in less of a left crosswind that the end of the range produces.

No pilots that I know of have mentioned this road up to the top before.
The closest I’ve seen this new road is by way of Google Earth.

The road follows a spine up and I’m thinking that some “Water Bars” should be graded into each side to shed water that would normally run down the road and erode it into oblivion. ---Something to check out. (BLM land.)

Rd up.JPG (42.44 KiB) Viewed 11096 times

[Bob Kuczewski]

Elections were held for club officers. Elected: Robin Hastings, President. Matt Hayes, Vice President. Hadley Robinson, Secretary/Treasurer. Lee Boone, Safety Officer.

Thanks to all RGSA officers for serving a great club!!!

[Bill Cummings]

Robin, What do you think of this idea?
Call the forestry service and ask them to lock the gate until the road firms up.

[Bill Cummings]

Of the first 9 links on the RGSA home page only two are working a the moment. I'll let Hadley know when he is not so busy.
Some of our weather links are no longer up so we will have to select newer weather links.
We will have to get the membership link up first.
Right now only the Forum and Weather link feature takes you anywhere.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Of the first 9 links on the RGSA home page only two are working a the moment. I'll let Hadley know when he is not so busy.
Some of our weather links are no longer up so we will have to select newer weather links.
We will have to get the membership link up first.
Right now only the Forum and Weather link feature takes you anywhere.

I have been wanting to test out the ability to give limited moderation privileges to a few people for special purposes. I suggested this to Rick, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

I'd be happy to set up an RGSA sub-forum where one RGSA member could have unlimited editing rights. This would let you create topics that basically function like pages of your web site. So you could have a weather "page" (that might only contain one post) that gets changed to whatever the current links are. You could do the same for events and other special items. You would also be able to lock different topics so people wouldn't be adding their posts (you might include a note to hold discussions in the main forum).

Because this is an experiment, I'd like to ask ask the same two conditions that I asked of Rick:

1. I will want to include some kind of notice on the subforum that all content is controlled by whoever is designated and that they have the power to alter posts in that forum (unless we lock the entire subforum so no one else can post anyway).
   
2. I will want your word that if you find any security loop holes (like me accidentally giving similar permissions in other forums) that you'll both let me know and not exploit them.

If that sounds good, please let me know and I can set it up. Eventually I would like to move toward a system where local clubs designate moderators for their entire forum and this is a "baby step" in that direction. I hope you'll consider trying it out.  

[Bill Cummings]

I figured out that my computer was returning me to my cache when I clicked on the RGSA and when I refreshed (mistake) I no longer was able to access the weather links. I was at http://www.rgsa.info/ which brings up Southwest Airsports, paragliding training center.

If anyone wants to try http://www.rgsa.info/ you will see the message from Hadley that his website has been hacked. Hadley also put up our RGSA home page like everyone has been seeing for years.

Hadley may not be able to attend to the hacking problem until the tenth of February.
Bob K. has offered a fix for us to restore some of our lost capabilities. Our photo link and some other links may have to wait until after the 10th of the month to be restored.

I will volunteer for the local monitor position due to me being retired and available but this decision will have to be made by the club President Robin Hastings.
Today (2-6-15) Robin may be flying with Mike if his plans came together and he found a driver. (I begged off).

For now I will communicate with Bob to see if we can put up some weather links, Pin them to the top and lock them down to outside posting.
Once the RGSA/Hawks local site monitor has been assigned and given password access to make updates we eventually should end up with the RGSA home page that everyone has in their favorites and a back up at the RGSA/Hawks forum.

So there hackers. Not only will we get back on our feet and dust ourselves off we will be backed up. ----NEENER ---NEENER NEENER!