Flyfunston

Here in the Reno/Carson/Tahoe area the ski season is winding down and the flying season is getting going. We’ve already had good soaring flights from Slide, Duck, Rainbow, Hot Springs and Palomino. So I think it's a good time to bring fellow pilots up to speed on our local club activities.

We formed a club a year ago in conjunction with a project to modify the guard rail at Slide. After getting everybody’s input we found that the guard rail project needed to be re-thought and the project was subsequently shelved. After several years of no local club, and no place to voice concerns, we had quite a few issues to work through. That was last year.

Early this year we had elections and now have a new set of officers. Our intent for this year is to concentrate more on flying and social activities. We still have site preservation and improvement projects too, but one of our goals is to have a fly-in. We still have a few details to sort out but we plan to have it June 12/13th. We hope to have a fun “mini” XC comp within Washoe valley an Saturday, a BBQ that evening, and then free-flying on Sunday hopefully with some long XC flights (weather dependent!). As well as having fun, our goal is to educate pilots on our flying sites and on the great XC potential of this area. More details will be posted as available.

You can also follow progress on our web-site http://www.nvwings.com This web site has recently been improved and now contains detailed guides of our 8 most popular flying sites. As you would expect, each guide indicates the required pilot rating. These ratings have been developed over 20+ years of flying in this area and we hope you will respect them. Of particular note, Slide is an H3/H4 site. During the last few years while there was no club to enforce these rating there have been H2’s flying Slide. This must cease. While it could be argued that at certain times it is safe for an H2 to fly Slide (just as it could be argued that H2’s could fly Funston and H3’s could fly Mission), it will inevitably get some student pilot in trouble. If any instructor has strong feelings contrary to this, please contact me directly at [email protected] and we can discuss it.

Currently there is no Paragliding launch at Slide. The Mount Rose ski resort has built a new lodge over the old paragliding ramp. Our vice-president Stephan Haase is working with local agencies to try to open a new launch on the knoll above the HG launch.

We hope and expect to see many of you before the fly-in. If you have any questions about where to stay, weather, soaring forecasts, or site introductions please go to our forums and we will do our best to answer your questions and set up site introductions.

We have some great flying sites, spectacular mountain flying and XC potential galore. We also have many enthusiastic pilots who would love to share these sites with fellow pilots. We hope to see you soon.

Bruce Bousfield
President of Nevada Wings
[email protected]
HG Forum http://www.aeroforum.us/forumdisplay.php.html?f=168
PG Forum http://www.aeroforum.us/forumdisplay.php.html?f=169