Soaring Club Culture

Our club provides a scheduled instructor, tow pilot and duty manager every Saturday and Sunday during the regular season. When joining we stress that in addition to serving as manager periodically, there is a degree of "sweat equity" input that is expected (periodic work parties, waxing, washing, etc). Club plane usage/receiving instruction is on a first come, first served basis; there is no extra fee for either of these. However, there are clear expectations that members should plan on spending half the day at the airport; either arriving early and help set up/start operations, or arrive midday and stick around until everything is put away at the end of the day. It is also expected that people using club ships will spend at least an hour post flight at the flight line, helping with launch and retireval operations, etc. This is in addition to general club members (private pilots, private ships) being expected to help as well. If there are extenuating circumstances and someone can't operate within these expectations on a consistant basis, we offer a variety of other tasks that need to be, and can be done, outside of normal club operating hours (stop by on a weekday afternoon and wash/wax a plane, mow the grass, clean out the hanger, etc). These guidelines have been fairly effective and in many ways, self reinforcing. Overall, there seems to be a very cohesive cooperative effort within the club.