4 Soaring • August 2019 • http://www.ssa.orgSSA 2020 Convention
The 2020 SSA Convention will be
in Little Rock, AR, so start making
plans. The Convention will run from
February 20-22, with a FIRC on Feb-
ruary 18 & 19. There will be more
information on the venue, agenda,
speakers, and registration in future is-
sues of Soaring magazine and eNews,
and on the SSA website.
SSA Region 12 Director
A Special Election was recently held
in Region 12 to fill the position vacat-
ed by Sean Franke, due to his reloca-
tion to another region. It was a close
race between two worthy candidates.
Effective immediately, Cindy Brick-
ner is your Regional Director for Re-
gion 12. You may email her with any
questions or concerns at: Cindyb@
caracole-soaring.com.
Kolstad Scholarship Time
It’s time to start preparing your
applications for the $5,000 Kols-
tad Scholarship for soaring pilots,
due September 30th. Full informa-
tion is at: https://www.ssa.org/
Youth?show=blog&id=
A summary of the application
schedule is:
June
• Collect references – names and
addresses of three people who have
known the applicant for a reasonably
long time.
• Gather letters of recommenda-
tion from soaring acquaintances (three
is good).July/August
Statement by applicant to include:
• Involvement in soaring club,
school, community
• Present plans for further educa-
tion and eventual vocation
• Soaring achievements
• Sailplanes flown, awards won,
SSA badges, FAI, FAA licensesSeptember
• Review and submit your applica-
tion by September 30th.Chilly in Chile?
Jean-Marie Clément is launching a
2019-2020 gliding expedition in the
Chilean Andes using Chilean gliders- a Stemme and probably an Arcus M
and/or a Nimbus 4DM. For the first
part, from November to mid-Decem-
ber, the base will be in Calama (1,
km north of Santiago) and will allow
thermal and wave flying above the vol-
canoes of Atacama. It will be the first
time that gliders overfly these mythi-
cal volcanoes, which reach up to 6,
m, and whose cumulus bases rise up to
2,000 m above the peaks. The photo
shows Miñiques volcano (5,910 m).
There are also extraordinary tourism
opportunities for nonflying time.
The second part, from the end of
December to the end of January, could
be used to make long wave flights from
the legendary site of Lake General
Carrera, 1,500 km south of Santiago,
named Lake Buenos Aires by the Ar-
gentineans, flying in the Argentinean
waves in the lee of the Cordillera.
The team will be coached by expe-
rienced pilots from Santiago and Val-
paraiso. The costs of flying are not yet
determined, but will be in the lower
range of the usual rentals, and cer-
tainly lower than the previous expedi-
tions. Interested pilots and accompa-
nying persons are invited to contact
us through the website http://www.topfly.
aero to better coordinate this activity.Russian FAI Proposal for Primary-
Type Glider Youth Competition
(Note: David Newill, who provided
this input, wrote an article in the July
2016 issue of Soaring magazine about
the Modern American Primary Glider
(MAP-G). Since that article, the pro-
gram name has been changed to Ameri-
can Ground Effect Machine (American
GEM). This is a status update on that
program, and recent developments with
FAI. – Editor)Firstly, an update on the American
GEM Youth Flight Training Program
and its status: Frankly, we are a bit be-
hind where we thought we would be
at this point due to a “discovery” about
today’s youth and their parents – they
are really busy! And have so manySOarING NEWS
INFORMATION,
ANNOUNCEMENTS, and EVENTSCAP student Wind-Jamming: The P-O-P will
do a full 360º rotation and ~20º of roll, and 15º
of pitch in 8-10 kt of wind.