By Jerry Rosie (USUA #A86096)

Fellow Ultralighters and Light Sports Plane Enthusiasts!

It has become very obvious to me that the winter months are not kind to ultralighters and, therefore, we all tend to go into hiding when the days are short and the nights are long. There is very little to report this month as USUA received only six newsletters. However, some things are being scheduled. So you can all make plans to attend some of the functions, the "Events" section of this website will report events and fly-ins about two months in advance of their scheduled date.

To start this month's column, I would like to congratulate the Valley Ultralights (Club # 59) of Fresno, California. According to their newsletter, they are now publishing it on the Internet at http://www.ultralights.net and it is worth a 'looksee'. Seventeen pages of technical articles (Density Altitude), Safety Articles (Checking the Bird), Club News, pictures and classified ads make it an interesting, very readable newsletter. The Editor in Chief, Jerry "Rocket" Jones has done a great job on their newsletter. (Ooops - just went to their web page and the newsletter is not available there. Lots of other interesting stuff, but not the newsletter. Sorry. Maybe they will make it available to us sometime in the future.)

USUA Club #1, from Leesburg, Virginia now publishes their newsletter in PDF format. Their latest offering includes an informative article on "How Do I Learn to Fly Under Sport Pilot" and their classified ads section lists a number of "great buys". I will try to get an address for you by next month so you can access this newsletter on line also.

The Plane Paper (Capital Area Light Flyers USUA Club #4) from Bethesda, Maryland also distributes its newsletter via the Internet (http://www.usua4.org) and, in addition to club news, it mentioned an Ultralight Ground School to be conducted at the Frederick Community College. This 8-week course is scheduled to begin on Tuesday 13 April, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Reservations may be made, or additional information obtained, by calling Greg or Ron at Frederick Community College (301)846-2426 or by eMail to:gwarner@frederick.edu.

Steve Clements, of the Top Fun Flyers of Boise, Idaho shares a hairy experience with us. Seems he and a friend took off one day last month with a bit of fog in the area, with the idea that the fog would clear, and they'd have a great day of flying. This was partly true, and they both enjoyed "delicious baconburgers" at Murphy. It was on the way back that things got a little tense, resulting in Steve having to make, not one, but two, off runway landings before he was able to "close the hanger doors on a good plane" the next day.

Steve said afterwards, "This episode will not repeat, believe me". He leaves us with some parting wisdom: don't climb through fog in hopes of coming out on top quickly and seeing again. If you lose sight of the ground and other references for longer than 10-20 seconds, you WILL get vertigo and auger in.

We are all glad that Steve's "adventure" turned out alright, but we should all take his advice and recognize that our aircraft are not IFR vehicles. We NEED to be able to see in order to fly - and land - safely. No flight is so important as to risk not completing it successfully.

In closing, this month, please fly safely - USUA and the USUA Clubs need all the members we can get.

Blue sky....Favorable winds....Soft landings