New CFI today..congratulations

On Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 12:04:26 PM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Steve is a bald headed, white bearded, tattooed biker who's
pushing 60 years old (if not already there).* I like what you said
about bringing up the youngsters through the ranks but, this time,
it was different.

So a 50+ year old 'line boy'?

On Thu, 05 May 2016 11:05:56 -0700, son_of_flubber wrote:

On Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 12:04:26 PM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Steve is a bald headed, white bearded, tattooed biker who's
pushing 60 years old (if not already there).Â* I like what you
said about bringing up the youngsters through the ranks but, this
time, it was different.

So a 50+ year old 'line boy'?

What's unusual about that? At most UK clubs the ab initios are encouraged
to help out round the launch point regardless of how old or young they
are. The benefits in terms of launch rate, and hence more flying for
students, may be more apparent at a winching operation site: yes, the
winch driver *can* hop out of his cab, pull the cables out, drive back,
climb back in and launch the next two gliders (two drum winch), but even
one extra person driving the cable truck make a huge difference to the
launch rate, especially at times when there's a launch line and someone
is prepared to stay with the truck and chase the second glider up the
field until the line has been launched.

18 launches an hour is quite possible, and fun to achieve, with a
dedicated truck driver, and a good launch marshal. Add a couple more
people to help getting glider on line and running a golf cart or two to
collect landed gliders and you can keep this rate up as long as needed -
very useful for group trial flights evenings.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 2:52:33 PM UTC-4, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Thu, 05 May 2016 11:05:56 -0700, son_of_flubber wrote:

So a 50+ year old 'line boy'?

What's unusual about that?

Nothing. Calling Steve a 'Line boy' just made me think he was a young person. Confusion resolved.

On Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 12:05:57 PM UTC-6, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 12:04:26 PM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Steve is a bald headed, white bearded, tattooed biker who's
pushing 60 years old (if not already there).* I like what you said
about bringing up the youngsters through the ranks but, this time,
it was different.

So a 50+ year old 'line boy'?

It is actually a fine inspirational story of desire and hard work to become a soaring pilot.

Steve got involved later in life, and ran the line and did other general duties for Rick in order to support and advance his soaring interests, while working another job.

Mike

Yup, and we love. I believe he'll be transitioning to our main duty
instructor in coming months and what a great upgrade it is for him!
BTW, the "boy" in line boy is a figure of speech. It's too bad that we
don't have any youngsters around, but that seems to be the nature of a
commercial operation. The young folks we see at the airport tend to go
to the ABQ Soaring Club, as they should.


On 5/5/2016 12:05 PM, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 12:04:26 PM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Steve is a bald headed, white bearded, tattooed biker who's
pushing 60 years old (if not already there). I like what you said
about bringing up the youngsters through the ranks but, this time,
it was different.
So a 50+ year old 'line boy'?

--
Dan, 5J

On Friday, May 6, 2016 at 11:08:07 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Yup, and we love.* I believe he'll be transitioning to our main
duty instructor in coming months and what a great upgrade it is
for him!* BTW, the "boy" in line boy is a figure of speech.* It's
too bad that we don't have any youngsters around, but that seems
to be the nature of a commercial operation.* The young folks we
see at the airport tend to go to the ABQ Soaring Club, as they
should.

I'm curious as to why you say young people should not fly at your operation, but instead go somewhere else.
Care to explain?
Thx
UH

I didn't say they shouldn't fly at Sundance, only that they tend to go
to the club which is also on the field.


On 5/6/2016 3:30 PM, wrote:
On Friday, May 6, 2016 at 11:08:07 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Yup, and we love. I believe he'll be transitioning to our main
duty instructor in coming months and what a great upgrade it is
for him! BTW, the "boy" in line boy is a figure of speech. It's
too bad that we don't have any youngsters around, but that seems
to be the nature of a commercial operation. The young folks we
see at the airport tend to go to the ABQ Soaring Club, as they
should.

I'm curious as to why you say young people should not fly at your operation, but instead go somewhere else.
Care to explain?
Thx
UH




--
Dan, 5J