Thanks for the encouragement! I’m just a simple soaring enthusiast and thought our community could benefit from some good training other than primary. The hypothesis is that far too many pilots leave our sport prematurely because they can’t quite “crack the code” of thermaling efficiently and going cross country.

There is so much knowledge within our ranks and I was just looking for a platform to share some of it with as wide an audience as possible!

I called the SSA to ask for their support and they jumped in with both feet! One of the board members, Mitch Hudson, helped get this off the ground along with a young man named JP Stewart. Ken Sorenson, the SSA Chairman, has given us great latitude to execute this vision.

Please help spread the word with all your individual clubs and organizations. Our next webinar is 5/15 at 7 pm CENTRAL and is titled: THERMALING 101: The Easy As 1-2-3 method

This series of “how to” training webinars occurs every THIRD Tuesday of the month and Eric Carden is the presenter (he has developed an excellent curriculum starting from basic thermal skills to advanced x/c and racing) each and every month.

We also have a concurrent series of webinars that are scheduled the FIRST Tuesday of every month at 7 pm CENTRAL. This series covers a wide range of soaring topics from Safety, technology, interviews with top world soaring champions, and SO MUCH more! These 1st Tuesday webinars will be presented by a different soaring expert each month.

For now, I am the primary “host” for both these webinar series and I’ve enlisted the help of Bruno Vassel to be a co-host. HOWEVER, my vision is to train as many folks who are willing, and have have as many hosts and co-hosts as we have presenters.

SO I’M THROWING DOWN THE CHALLENGE: if you would like to be a presenter, host, or co-host, or want to “nominate” someone to be so - reach out to me directly (Ramy - I’m talking to you

David Lessnick: