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  • September 14, 2020 at 9:31 PM in reply to: National Forest Closure – Cancelled! #10237
    David Webb
    General Member

    Thanks for posting that, Jonathan.

    September 14, 2020 at 12:08 PM in reply to: New wing ! #10229
    David Webb
    General Member

    If you’re in the Interlaken/Lauterbrunnen area, that’s (in my opinion) just about the most beautiful place on planet earth. Can’t wait to go back and fly this time!

    September 13, 2020 at 4:34 PM in reply to: National Forest Closure – Cancelled! #10223
    David Webb
    General Member

    Lame-o alert.

    September 13, 2020 at 8:22 AM in reply to: New wing ! #10219
    David Webb
    General Member

    Living the dream, Nacho!

    September 11, 2020 at 5:07 PM in reply to: National Forest Closure – Cancelled! #10214
    David Webb
    General Member

    That looks like it wants to stab me in a dark alley :)

    September 11, 2020 at 9:05 AM in reply to: National Forest Closure – Cancelled! #10208
    David Webb
    General Member

    Or for those that like to live dangerously, what about good ol’ fashioned, banned-because-kids-hurt-themselves, lawn darts?

    September 10, 2020 at 5:05 PM in reply to: National Forest Closure – Cancelled! #10206
    David Webb
    General Member

    Update: ALL national forests in CA are now closed until further notice.

    https://abc7.com/california-fires-map-wildfires-in-fire-near-me-gender-reveal/6415907/

    September 10, 2020 at 8:50 AM in reply to: National Forest Closure – Cancelled! #10201
    David Webb
    General Member

    Hi Tom,

    We don’t want to be heavy-handed about shutting the site down (I want to go flying too), but should be clear about a few points:

    The US Forest Service has been pretty clear about the closures and the reasons behind them:

    As of 5:00 PM on Monday, September 7, the Regional Forester is closing 8 National Forests in Southern California, including the San Bernardino National Forest.  This means the National Forest is temporarily closed to ALL public use due to the threat from high fire danger and firefighting resources being spread stretched to the limit.  This includes driving Forest Roads, Hiking on Forest Trails, and being in any Forest Service Developed Recreation Areas.

    As of now, the order by the regional forester is in effect from September 7 through the 14th (unless things develop differently). We only miss a weekend of flying if the restrictions get lifted at the end of that.

    Sylmar has completely shut down their site as well (they are in the Angeles National Forest), so we’re not doing something crazy or unique: shga.com.

    Whether we like it or not, crashes and land-outs happen. Helicopters get called. Dirt roads get driven on to help extract pilots. None of that is something that should be an option at the moment, and unfortunately, it’s always an option in our sport.

    I’d suggest that everyone read the various pieces of information that are out now regarding the fires and forest closures, as they provide a lot of detail about the when and why:

    September 8, 2020 at 9:18 AM in reply to: Crestline Webcams #10189
    David Webb
    General Member

    Crestline Regionals webcam has been pointed back to its normal position.

    September 8, 2020 at 9:15 AM in reply to: National Forest Closure – Cancelled! #10188
    David Webb
    General Member

    Club’s position is that we all should respect the closures that the forest service laid down. I don’t know if any of the gates are physically locked or if any of the roads are blocked, but they are all on forest service land as far as I can tell (correct me if I’m wrong) – that includes the roads, Marshall, Crestline, the 750, and the Devil’s Canyon Bailout.

    AJX is not on forest service land, so if people want to use the training hills or kite, I don’t see any issue with that.

    Hopefully this will be winding down by the weekend – I haven’t seen a blanket closure like this before, so who knows how long it will be. Everyone be sure to thank Mr. and Mrs. Gender Reveal for their hardwork. I hope they got lots of Instagram likes.

    September 1, 2020 at 1:09 PM in reply to: Oh Baby, you look so Hot ! #10130
    David Webb
    General Member

    That looks like it’s above my personal autoignition temperature. Might need to take the weekend off to prevent this:

    Screen Shot 2020-09-01 at 1.07.57 PM

    August 31, 2020 at 10:11 AM in reply to: Kiting is for Kids #10121
    David Webb
    General Member

    Looks like the song is in need of a little re-writing:

    Mr. Banks:
    With tuppence for paper and strings
    You can have your own set of wings
    With your feet on the ground (nope)
    You’re a bird in flight (whether you like it or not)
    With your fist holding tight (really tight)
    To the string (tail) of your kite

    Oh, oh, oh!
    Let’s go fly a kite (or the kite flies you)
    Up to the highest height!
    Let’s go fly a kite and send it (ourselves) soaring
    Up through the atmosphere
    Up where the air is clear
    Oh, let’s go fly a kite! (or the kite flies you)

    Bert:
    When you send it flyin’ up there
    All at once you’re lighter than air
    You can dance (flail) on the breeze
    Over ‘ouses and trees (and spectators)
    With your fist ‘olding tight (death grip)
    To the string (tail) of your kite

    Londoners:
    Oh, oh, oh!
    Let’s go fly a kite (or the kite flies you)
    Up to the highest height!
    Let’s go fly a kite and send it (ourselves) soaring
    Up through the atmosphere
    Up where the air is clear
    Let’s go fly a kite! (or the kite flies you)

    Jokes aside – hope that kid was unharmed. Pretty scary.

    August 29, 2020 at 8:03 PM in reply to: Saturday 29 Aug 2020 M750 #10103
    David Webb
    General Member

    I wasn’t in the area, but happened to peek at the Crestline cam and saw the smoke. Also peeked at AJX a short time later and saw the big white X:

    C9A4B26D-42FB-4257-B32A-364AF908DBDAF818A7F4-D42E-4E9D-8DE7-410E4153FFA9

    August 20, 2020 at 3:03 PM in reply to: Andy Jackson Helmet Stickers #10033
    David Webb
    General Member

    In the past month (ish), we’ve had at least one crash (with serious injury) and an approach pattern issue from non-local, non-student pilots, so that number is significant.

    In the past couple of months, we have had other P2s who have broken the rules (launching unsupervised without a sign off or launching from Crestline unsupervised) – locals.

    To me, that pretty clearly says that relaxing the rules even more is a horrible idea.

    August 19, 2020 at 4:44 PM in reply to: Andy Jackson Helmet Stickers #10026
    David Webb
    General Member

    Bo,

    I appreciate your position, and willingness to help out inexperienced pilots, but the incident rate at our site (including pilots of many different levels) would suggest that relaxing the current protocols any more is asking for trouble. Since volunteering for the board, I can’t recall a single 2 week stretch without hearing about something.

    I want the instructors to agree on terms for the site sign offs because they are the ones that are going to be issuing them. The terms in the sign off are a bare minimum for the club to get behind, and they should be encouraged to add their own standards on top of that, since they are allowing those novice pilots to fly without supervision.

    I just don’t see how the site would survive if any pilot could show up and put novices into the air. There would be absolutely no enforceable standard that we could maintain.

    This is, at the end of the day, a P3 site. I considered it a privilege to fly here as a P2 on my own and jumping through the necessary hoops is just part of the gig – we have to do that with the other aspects of our flying (getting rated, maintaining our ushpa membership, repacking our reserves, etc), and following a few safety protocols to fly an intermediate site is no different. P2 flying options down here in San Diego are not great, but that didn’t mean I ran out to Blossom as a beginner just to get flights in since I could have.

    Ultimately the end result, if we can’t all play by the rules, is that we’re going to get told new rules. That’s going to mean no unsupervised P2 flying at all, and I think that would suck.

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