Canada, Club Instances
Mix of 1 club glider (PW-5) and 6 privately owned gliders flying from the Alberni Valley Regional Airport on beautiful Vancouver Island.
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Club Instances, Netherlands
Aero Club Salland is one of the largest clubs in The Netherlands with almost 200 members, our own field with campsite, hangar, and bar/restaurant/canteen.
We have a fleet of 10 gliders and one TMG that can also be used for aerotows.
keep readingClub Instances, USA
Caesar Creek Soaring Club (CCSC) is one of the largest clubs in the county and is located in South-Western Ohio. Our membership has remained around 200 members for the last 30+ years. The club hosts many events which include National and Regional competitions, an annual XC Camp, and Youth Camp.
The club is all volunteer and focuses on training which leads to flying in an XC-friendly environment.
keep readingClub Instances, Netherlands
The Twentsche Zweefvlieg Club is a club in the eastern part of the Netherlands, located between the cities of Enschede, Hengelo, and Oldenzaal.
Our club has about 80 members, we own and operate a fleet of 8 gliders including 3 two-seaters and 5 single-seaters operating out of the Enschede Twente Airport.
Our goal with Proving Grounds is to introduce more club members into the fun of cross country flying, in an easy and fun way!
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Club Instances, USA
The Refugio Soaring Circle is based at Rooke Field, Refugio, TX.
The Club is a nonprofit and the CFIG’s as well as the Tow Pilots are all volunteers.
Club aircraft include a 2-33, a 1-34, and an IS28B2 Lark. We tow with a Super Cub.
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Support
The Proving Grounds team is pleased to announce an agreement with the Soaring Society of America to support the adoption of the task flying and automated scoring platform to interested SSA chapters and commercial operators across America.
The Proving Grounds is an automated task scoring platform specifically designed with the recently solo or novice pilot in mind. Chapters configure 3 tasks from a local task around the home airfield (keeping the pilot within gliding range at all times), a task which requires a few climbs beyond final glide, then a sufficiently challenging ~100 sm task that includes a leg to satisfy FAI Silver. Or, another combination that makes sense for their operation – of course.
Times are recorded on magnetic strips of ‘whiteboard’ material and applied to beautiful stainless steel trophy boards – arranged from fastest to slowest by handicapped average speed. To confirm success and identify the speed, pilots simply email their .igc trace to the scoring bot for the club which will process the file against the tasks and reply with the result within 30 seconds.
Once configured, the platform requires only encouragement from tenured members – evaluation is automatic and scoring is do-it-yourself by the pilots. Overburdened senior members might mentor, shepherd, or cheerlead, but this should not to increase their workload!
SSA’s Growth and Retention Committee identified the value the Proving Grounds platform offers chapters as a ‘turn-key’, low administration solution to help support the transition of glider pilots to soaring pilots. The SSA has allocated funds to support a limited number of chapters to adopt the platform and will reimburse costs associated with configuration and shipping for any chapter that commits to the platform for three years ($35USD/year * 3-years = $105).
The Proving Grounds team would like to express sincere thanks to the SSA, and to interested chapters for their support of this platform, designed to strengthen the sport, the organization, and participating pilots.
Thank you to the SSA for supporting the sport of soaring and the chapters who make the theory of flight real across America!
Experiences
Creating a safe and sustainable XC culture takes more than the Proving Grounds, but it helps.
Of course, Proving Grounds provides an easy to administer, strategic development path for pilots interested in flying XC to identify the steps toward success and confidence. Confidence both for the pilot and for the club – especially if at least the first few flights away from home will be completed in club aircraft.
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Netherlands
GLC Illustrious is a gliding club in the south of The Netherlands. With about 150 members, 10 club gliders, 2x 6 drum MEL winches, and a Super Dimona as a towplane.
Experiences
I’m in a DG-1000S, outside of gliding range to the home field for the first time, I’m getting low, but I’m with the club CFI and XC virtuoso Chris Gough. All of my brainpower is consumed to make decisions based on very little experience in this situation, but I’m working through the issues and figuring it out with expert guidance.