Crestline Soaring Society

The Hang Gliding & Paragliding Club for San Bernardino, CA, USA

The CSS is a non-profit organization (501(c)(3)) which exists to serve the foot-launched flying community in the San Bernardino Mountains - Crestline & Marshall Peak in particular - and Southern California and beyond in general.

Our club maintains launches in the San Bernardino National Forest and leases a landing zone, Andy Jackson Airpark, in the valley to ensure that our right to fly is not infringed. As a chapter of the United States Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association (USHPA) we play a part in furthering HG & PG nationwide. The club also sponsors fun events a few times a year which attract pilots from far and wide.

We have decided, with Juanita Jackson's blessing, to honor Rob Kells at this year's Andy Jackson Memorial Fly-In, Saturday September 6, 2008. Trish Kells has planned a church service for Rob that morning and all are invited to attend the church service or come to the fly-in, or both. Please see the announcement on the Wills Wing website for details.

After years of working with the developer, and some helpful modifications along the way, the Draft Environmental Impact Review is out for the proposed development next door. There are still houses planned right in the approach. According to the review that would have "no significant impact". I suppose that's correct if you don't count hitting a house on your downwind.

Public comment runs through Sept 15 and we would like to ask each of you to write a letter of comment and help preserve our site. We've drafted some sample letters, but they're just a start point. Write of how the site affects you; your first flight, the times you've spent here, the international reputation of Andy Jackson. Please ask the city to keep homes out of the approach and have the airspace dedicated to the Department of Water Resources. They own the land we lease for the LZ and are tied to us through the licensing of the Devil's Canyon project.

The proximate cause of the webserver overload seems to have been some kind of fruitless but resource hogging spam bot attack, which I think we've dealt with. A couple of other minor issues, which have been dealt with by the webhost, may have been contributing factors.

I know everyone's post-fly-in enthusiasm may have waned a bit by now, but it would be great to have reports and pictures of that great event.

I have it on good authority that Mike Z and Joel were the weed whacking party and that each worked for many, many hours to clear the site.
Give them a hand and a big THANK YOU next time you see them.


- Alan

CSS Volunteers rebuilt the stairs at Crestline launch today (6/21), and replaced the sign posts and a couple of timbers in the wall for good measure!

Big "Thank you"s to the work party crew: Rob (who also donated rides to Crestline), Rebar Dan (who also donated rebar :-), Kenny & Megret (who brought along tools, snacks and water, and little helpers), Dusty (more tools and a trusty new post), Mike B (who single-handedly cleared all the weeds from launch), Ken H, Tom S and Chris VV, and Mike Z (who did most of the organizing, preparing, rounding up materials and trucking for this event).

Wills Wing is going to be featured on The Discovery Channel's 'Factory Made' program with a segment showing how a Wills Wing T2C hang glider is made.

Factory Made - Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 8:30 pm The Discovery Channel

The video segment will show CAD design tools, the automated sail cutter in action, sewing, sawing, drilling - all the steps that go into making a hang glider. A highlight should be the stop-motion sequence of the final assembly of a glider from all of the component parts. The camera crew set up a camera in the shop and left it running while Peter Swanson did the final assembly.

Our first fly-in of the summer is scheduled for July 12, 2008.

Contests will be spot landing, bomb drop, and glide (from training hill). Pilots can enter one, two, or all three. Activities Director John Wright has some twists in store for the bomb drop competition and will be at the LZ all day, starting from about Noon.

Contests:
5 dollars per contest, winners of each get half the pot. Trophies for top 3 in each class (plus best whack!).