(Zoom meeting)
34 Attendees:
Wayne Neckles (President), Ken Foldvary, Shani Schechter, Brian Vant Hull, Brian Herbert, Tom Galvin, Michael Strother, Pete Geoghegan, Kim Gee, Paul Voight, Cathleen O’Connell, Griffin Johnston, Ricardo dual pilot, Ricardo Costa, Susan, Lindsey Chew, Dave Koehn, Jim Donovan, Jane Lenard, Brian Engleheart, Tim Curran, Ivan Duma, Paco Carr, Juan Martinez, Gatto, Martin, Kim Thompson, Martin, Jamie Hall, Igor Brodetskiy, Rolan, Zoe Sheehan Saldana, Dan Guido, Ben, Juan Martinez, Dan Guido, Scott, Carlos, Richard Gillespie, Andrew Shebins,
- Wayne will be scheduling meetings for the rest of 2024
- Treasurers Report:
- Checking $7,472.67
- Ellenville Flight Park Fundraiser Refunds: 15 refunds so far (large), 12 responses keep the money (split between land acquisition and general use)
- Keep 2 accounts as is:
- Checking: for general purpose
- Savings: for land acquisition
- Will continue to pursue future flying sites:
- Other options in the Ellenville Area
- General Hudson Valley Prospective Site
- Hosner Mountain- Wayne showed pictures
- 900ft elevation drop, NW site, above Appalachian trail, has its own parking lot, bigger than Ellenville NW launch
- Brian Vant-Hull has experience working with Appalachian trail; understaffed so they don’t reply; best to contact a local hiking club who have relationship with local forest service – that’s the way to go
- Bear Mountain & Iona Island – 2 really good sites. Cliff launch, 1 to 1 glide, soccer fields, Easterly direction. Island can’t be used anymore because of bird sanctuary.
- Overlook in Woodstock – 3000ft elevation differential. Has 2 launches. One east, one south. Some may be tree-d over. Landfill LZs that are grassed over. Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) at the time wasn’t against reopening the site, but didn’t want to allow driving in given popularity of hiking. If want to remove trees, need to get approval but not impossible. Was looking for HVFF to send a proposal.
- Mt Beacon: Wayne has relationship with Scenic Hudson organization. Scenic Hudson wasn’t opposed to opening back up. For a long time, there wasn’t a decent LZ option to land in – but Wayne may have found an LZ: Columbia University has a large field that they cleared, albeit with some trees (may be hard for hang gliders). There is a road up there – could ask for permission to drive. In Stewart Airport – so has ceiling.
- Greg’s launch and training hill – would need to invest in parking
- “Arden House” – Rt 87 and Rt 11 – Paul Voight mentions Columbia owns the top of it – so if find someone to talk to at Columbia, could lump in; Griffin says Open Space Institute may have acquired it.
- Hosner Mountain- Wayne showed pictures
- Wayne proposed creating committees for each potential site so that can pursue in parallel. Wayne invited people to volunteer to help with these efforts.
- Paco asked what community numbers are like with no schools – Wayne didn’t have – Griffin/Shani thought having more sites closer to the city would be good for community even if have to go out West to learn to fly
- Griffin asked about OSI’s stance towards flying; Wayne said that they seemed more open once they realized HVFF is a 501c3
- Zoe asked what is mood of club on the site purchase developments, given the club had developed the road and been mowing the lawn
- Lindsey Chew suggested that Tony should maintain the site going forward; shouldn’t use club funds for mowing, shouldn’t organize work parties, shouldn’t keep negotiating with him
- Wayne says don’t plan to maintain this season – let Tony do the maintenance he ought to have been doing all along to keep the site flyable
- Next month, will meet in person
