Jim Payne's Notes from the Spring 1998 SSA Board of Directors meeting

Jim Payne's Notes from the Spring 1998 SSA Board of Directors meeting, Portland, Oregon

The rules changes proposed by the Rules Sub-Committee were adopted as proposed. The most significant change is that GNSS Flight Recorders are mandatory at the 1998 Open Nationals.

Carl Herold is doing a major update of the handicaps. He has added weight to most of the sailplanes on his list.

Hobbs and Euphrata presented bids for the 2003 World Championships. The Board chose to endorse the Euphrata bid which will be presented to the IGC in the Spring of 1999. Hobbs had a good bid but the IGC is unlikely to repeat a venue in the near future.

The 1999 Open Nationals will be at Mifflin, PA.

The 2000 convention will be in Albuquerque, NM. The 2001 convention is set for Indianapolis, 2002 in Southern CA, and 2003 in Dayton, OH. The SSA selected Dayton so far ahead of time because it wanted the convention to be part of the celebration of the centennial of powered flight.

Other convention notes:

The US Hang Gliding Association had its annual meeting in conjunction with the convention. In the future they will be having their annual meeting/convention in conjunction with the SSA convention. The reason for doing this is to encourage interaction and cross-over from one sport to another.

We had the usual crowd of great speakers and a busy exhibit hall.

Dick Van Grunsven and the folks from Van's Aircraft had an RV-8 QuickBuild kit on display and gave tours on Friday evening. It was a worthwhile visit. Click for detailed report.

See you next year in Knoxville,
JP