The Arizona Soaring Association is a group of about 50 pilots who fly sailplanes at all levels of the sport; some pilots are
new to soaring and just learning to fly, while others compete in national and regional competitions, in addition to the ASA's
own well-known contest series that runs from March to September each year.
We fly from several locations. These include commercial operations
Northwest Sky Sports (formerly Turf) and
Estrella Sailport,
private clubs Tucson Soaring Club and
Prescott Soaring,
as well as airports in Sedona and Sun Valley. During our active race schedule, we also fly
from Willcox and Sampley's in Aguila.
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Decency Guidelines by Joe Silvasi
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Over the years, there have been instances where posts to the Discussion Forum have swayed from topics promoting soaring and
ASA activities and have instead degraded to places we don't really want to go.
While there has been a sort of implicit guideline that has been followed with regard to content and the occasional moderated
reminder, the last several years have shown the Board that something more formal needs to be
in place so that the "ground rules" are known to everyone so there are no surprises.
The advent of social media on the world wide web has made this needed even more.
To that end, the Board has recently posted Decency Guidelines under the Documents tab above which are meant to provide a solid
foundation as to what content is and is not appropriate for both the ASA Discussion Forum and ASA Facebook group.
The Board expects everyone who posts messages to be aware of and follow these guidelines in the interest of fairness to all and
decency to anyone who might stumble upon our Discussion Forum and/or Facebook group posts.
Your cooperation would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or comments, please address them to any member of the Board.
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2016 Season to be a "Grand Prix" of events ! by Joe Silvasi
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After many comments on the Discssion Forum and conversation during the 2015 Annual General Membership Meeting and Holiday Banquet, the Board
has accepted a proposal by Steve Koerner for a dramatically modified soarding calendar for 2016. ASA "Racing" participation has been in a steady
decline since 2009 and observed to lowest participation levels in 2015. There are many reasons for the decline, but no single "smoking gun" can
be identified as the cause. It is also a phenomenon affecting soaring clubs and organized events around the country and is not unique to the ASA.
The heart of Steve's proposal was to dramatically reduce the number of ""Racing" events - in essence creating demand by reducing supply. While past
years have seen perhaps as many as 24 or 25 scheduled soaring dates, this years calendar will will see only 4 weekends with 9 soaring days. Those
dates will include 2 weekends in April and 2 weekends in September. Rationale behihd the choice of these dates this centers around the simple fact
that many pilots have other soaring activities out of the area, vacations or simply don't want to come out during June, July and August because it's
just too hot. Since there have been issues with reliably scheduling tow planes and interfacing a contest with existing operations at other gliderports,
all 4 events will be held at Pleasant Valley Airport (P48).
Each of the "Races' will also use a handicapped Grand Prix format which offers several advantages over traditional TAT/MAT formats.
1. Scoring will be greatly simplified since you do not need to use WinScore or enlist someone who has worked with WinScore to score.
2. Turnpoint cylinder size will be unique for each participant based on their aircraft performance rating: High performance - smaller cylinders, lower
performance - larger cylinders.
Participants will not be limited to having to fly the Grand Prix format; if you are uncompfatable with it after you set out, you can just swtch over to
OLC or return to P48. Likewise, if you complete the task and conditions are still good, just keep going ! All participants will have to post his
flight log to OnLine Contest which will be the tool used to confirm having flown the task approprietly.
During 2015, there was no contest fee collected from participants. The $20 contest fee will return this year and will be used to fund daily recognition
awards for the participants, so be sure to include it with your membership application or renewal.
Steve expects to have a draft of rules and procedures for the new season done soon - watch for an announcement here.
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