New Website - Touring Motor Glider Association

[Admin]

Colleagues

I have been working with the organizers of the West Coast Touring Motorglider Fly In to develop the Touring Motor Glider Association (TMGA). Since we had one of the best websites for pilot organizations, I was drafted to put together the website. It is based upon the work on this site, but extended in several ways. It is located at Touring Motor Glider Association | TMGA - or at this link.

You will find that the new site is somewhat familiar (knowledgebase, forums, photo gallery, classifieds, etc.), but I started with updated versions of the tools. Additionally, my programming skills have improved so this site should be more robust and easier to update.

It turns out that most touring motorglider users that have a website, including ours, averages a few messages each month. If we pool onto a single site we can increase the overall activity and interest warranting the effort to maintain and enhance the website. Certainly fly-ins, soaring operations, and training are somewhat similar across TMG models. Many of us share engines.

I realize that we are all busy and what we don't need is yet another website to regularly check. So I have been and will be working hard to duplicate the data and information in this website so that it is available in the TMGA website. For example all of the knowledgebase has been moved as well as archives for the XOG list_server, XOG website, and the XOPA website. I have yet to move the photos and the recent forums, but hope to get those done in the coming week or two.

My goal is to have a very strong and complete 'Ximango channel' within the new website so that perhaps we will decide to only use the TMGA domain for our interactions and sharing of data. To that end, please send our comments and suggestions.

Steve Sliwa
Volunteer Webmaster

[Admin]

I am posting this for Richard Pearl the organizing chairman of the TMGA. This is the e-mail he sent to his colleagues in the Grob G109 Pilots Group:

New Touring Motor Glider Association (TMGA) and Web Site formed.

To the members of the G109_Pilots Yahoo group:

This group has been in existence for four years and has over 150 members worldwide. There has been a tremendous amount of incredibly valuable information distributed (1,042 postings to date) over the years, and many of us have formed new friendships both in the USA and around the world.

Two years ago, at the (Minden, Nevada) Touring Motor Glider Fly-In, I was struck by the incredible diversity of our fleet and how much we all benefited by the exchange of information and ideas. I thought that we were stronger together than standing separately, and that an organization promoting touring motor gliders would be helpful for us all – both individually and as a group. In discussions with some of the Fly-In participants we started brainstorming ideas and the outcome is now coming to fruition, specifically to:

1. Develop a new "confederation" of touring motor glider pilots and user groups under a unified organization; the new confederation would be additive to existing user groups.
2. Develop a new web site devoted exclusively to touring motor gliders but with specific subsections for each particular TMG model, and
3. Seek recognition by the Soaring Society of America, Inc. as the point-group for TMGs within the U.S.

An association that includes all TMGs would provide:

1. Mutual exchange of servicing, repair, and maintenance information (many of us share common engines, for example, or use similar instruments);
2. Mutual exchange of safe flying procedures and flying techniques;
3. Coordination of local and nationwide fly-in meets;
4. A platform to disseminate personal achievements and experiences; and
5. An effective way to promote TMGs as a flying experience.

All of the above goals are now in the process of being accomplished. We have established a Touring Motor Glider Association (a separate, volunteer, non-profit organization); a new web site is up and running; and a proposal has been made to the SSA for designation of the TMGA as a separate division within the SSA for U.S. operations. Note: the TMGA is intended as a worldwide organization, and we see separate groupings and links established by country or region.

The unifying component of the TMGA is the web site: Touring Motor Glider Association | TMGA -. It's beautifully designed and extremely versatile; moreover, it's our site and we can build and modify it to meet our objectives. It has, and will continue to build, information on each TMG model, general soaring and aviation material, pilot rosters, event notifications, photo galleries, classified ads, places to fly, etc. One thing you will immediately see is the visual map (U.S. only at this point, but worldwide to follow as pilots sign up) of where all 600+ TMGs, per the FAA roster, are located in the U.S. We have defined a TMG as a `self-launch aircraft in the category of glider designed for long-range flight under power'.

We hope you will like the web site and most importantly, sign up for the TMGA (hopefully Right Now) via the web site. We also ask you to fill in the pilot data, which will be the start of our membership roster. Security will be accomplished through the web site approval process.

We will be moving all technical files in the G109_Pilots site over to the new TMGA site – Grob 109 subsection so in this regard the new site will function similarly as the Yahoo site, e.g. discussions and technical information, but with the opportunity to provide so much more. In the new site you will be able to access or disable information from the other model group's as you desire. For instance, as a Grob owner I would want to receive information from any other model "forum" that uses the Limbach engine, i.e. Taifun. I certainly also would want to receive information about the annual TMGA Fly-In; I may not be interested in the goings-on of the Carat group but would like to know about their planned Fly-In, etc.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please let me know. The five of us (two from the Grob group, two from the Ximango group, and one from the Fournier group) involved in this effort are tremendously excited by this opportunity to expand and promote our favorite sport, Touring Motor Gliders, and hope that you will join us.

We also urge you to consider coming to the 4th Annual Touring Motor Glider Fly-In, scheduled for July 12-15, 2012 in Minden, Nevada. Last year we had 25 ships and 35 overall participants. Five of the group came from the East coast (that's why they call it a touring motor glider). Several of us also took the opportunity to fly to Parowan, Utah to link up with the Auxiliary-powered Sailplane Association's (ASA) annual meet. There will be a separate forum and sign-up pages for this and other upcoming events on the website to facilitate coordination. The TMGA event is one example where a consolidated Association really pays off. If you are not in the immediate California/Nevada area you might be interested in contacting other TMG'ers in your part of the country and `buddy' fly to the event; a simple scan of the roster and map will tell you who is in your part of the world.

Finally, if you have the opportunity, please come to the SSA annual convention in Reno, Nevada February 2-4. I'll be speaking about TMGs on Friday and we will have a booth in the Exhibit Hall (sponsored by some of the major TMG manufacturers/distributors).

This is a totally volunteer undertaking. We invite you to become a contributing member of the TMGA, sharing your experiences and knowledge in the world of Touring Motor Gliders. Please contact me if you have any questions or comments, and please sign up at the new site.

Best Regards, and safe flying,

Richard Pearl -- N909G
Moderator: G109_Pilots
pennyrich@aol.com
916.715.9666 (PST)

[Admin]

The organizers of the TMGA pulled together a database of TMGs from the FAA Registry database. Below is a copy of the letter that was mailed out to each to try and kick-start the TMGA.

Dear Touring Motor Glider Owner,

You are receiving this letter because you own, per the FAA registry, a Touring Motor Glider (TMG).

Many of us belong to individual TMG-type websites: Grob (my ship), Ximango, Taifun, Fournier, Stemme, etc. The entire U.S. fleet numbers 615 aircraft, spread among 30+ types. I believe we all own this type of aircraft because of their unique qualities: the ability to fly when and where we want, and the ability to soar when the conditions are favorable. We have defined a TMG as a ‘self-launch aircraft in the category of glider designed for long-range flight under power’.

Several of us have been thinking that a consolidated, not-for-profit ‘association’ would be beneficial to all of us. If you’re a member of a ‘model’ group already you know that the ability to share information about our aircraft can be invaluable. Many of us have also made friends across the country and around the world. An association that includes all TMGs would provide:

1. Mutual exchange of servicing, repair, and maintenance information (many of us share common engines, for example, or use similar instruments);
2. Mutual exchange of safe flying procedures and flying techniques;
3. Coordination of local and nationwide fly-in meets;
4. A platform to disseminate personal achievements and experiences; and
5. An effective way to promote TMGs as a flying experience.

Our goal is a separate TMG identity with the following major components:

• A new website to (a) host forums for issues and topics of interest to all TMG’e
  rs, e.g. general knowledge, stories, picture galleries, classifieds; and (b) specific forums and knowledgebase data for each TMG ‘type’. Please visit: Touring Motor Glider Association | TMGA -. We hope you will like the web site and most importantly, sign up. We also ask you to fill in the pilot data, which will be the start of our membership roster. Security will be accomplished through the web site approval process. We have already loaded a map (based on FAA data) showing the placement of all TMGs in the U.S. Check it out!
• Designation of the Touring Motor Glider Association (TMGA) as a formal Division within the Soaring Society of America. The SSA is important because it provides a vehicle to protect our vital flying interests, e.g. airspace, airports, licensing, etc. as well as the promotion of soaring.
• We also urge you to consider coming to the 4th Annual Touring Motor Glider Fly-In, scheduled for July 12-15, 2012 in Minden, Nevada. Last year we had 25 ships and 35 overall participants. Five of the group came from the East coast (that’s why they call it a touring motor glider). Several of us also took the opportunity to fly to Parowan, Utah to link up with the Auxiliary-powered Sailplane Association’s (ASA) annual meet. There will be a separate forum and sign-up pages for this and other upcoming events on the website to facilitate coordination.

Finally, if you have the opportunity, please come to the SSA annual convention in Reno, Nevada February 2-4. I’ll be speaking about TMGs on Friday and we will have a booth in the Exhibit Hall (sponsored by some of the major TMG manufacturers/distributors).

This is a totally volunteer undertaking. We invite you to become a contributing member of the TMGA, sharing your experiences and knowledge in the world of Touring Motor Gliders. Please contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Richard Pearl -- N909G
pennyrich@aol.com
916.715.9666 (PST)

[bruceschimmel]

Steve -- I know I speak for everyone in saying how grateful we are for your work. With this expansion, I think it'll be more successful, cause you may have a big enough number of users to generate info/interest. (My guess would be about 500 as minimum)
This is great stuff....I'd even pay a nominal fee, like $5 a year, for access to certain info.
Let me know how it goes...thanks for provide this safety net of smart people.
Bruce

[Admin]

Hi Bruce

Thanks for the comments. Current vision for the TMGA is to make all of the base information and data free. We will, of course, encourage contributions and are studying if it makes sense to provide any premiums in exchange. But as you surmise, the costs for running the association are expected to be low and we will start assuming that it will be covered.

The main contributions people can make, however, are by participating in the forums, exchanging information in the knowledgebase, posting pictures, or otherwise helping us to achieve our goals by fueling a thriving community of touring motor glider enthusiasts.

Regards,

Steve