Friday morning, June 30, we held our annual Membership Meeting, probably the best run in the history of the IDPA. Officers presented their reports, followed by Jeff Willoughby, who outlined preliminary plans for the 2001 U.S. fly-in at Lee's Summit, Mo., and Kent and Morna Power, who did the same for the 2001 International fly-in in Australia.

Alec Naiman makes a point at the Membership Meeting.

Afterward most of us departed for Hollister Airport 15 nm southeast of South County for burgers and fries at the Ding-a-Ling Café on the airport, followed by an afternoon of sailplaning and skydiving. Despite being in recovery from a broken collarbone suffered in a recent motorcycle accident, Alec Naiman took a jump, and John Yeh enjoyed his first jump so much he did it again the same afternoon. Denise Kowalczyk, Sigmund Loza and Jerri Willoughby also skydived.

Skydivers land at Tres Piños, about 12 miles south of Hollister Airport.		Jerri Willoughby rates her skydive a "thumbs-up," while Sigmund Loza tries walking on terra firma again. John Yeh is in the far background.

Among those who soared in sailplanes were Alexandre Baker, Eric Debieuvre, Dave and Joan Hartley, Jean Hauser, Xavier Hinard, Jay Kowalcyzk, Bud Northington, Pat Schwartzmann, Clyde Smith, Maralee Hankins-Smith, Mike Tyacke, Mary Yeh and Ming Yeh.

Kent Power missed the events, thanks to losing an exhaust tailpipe from his Cessna 210 somewhere over Santa Clara County on Thursday. He stayed back at South County Friday to supervise repairs at the FBO.

That evening was devoted to an elegant banquet on the terrace at Guglielmo Winery in Morgan Hill, replete with Guglielmo's red and white wines.

Banquet at Guglielmo Winery.

Good conversation at the banquet. From left to right: Eric Debieuvre (with camera), Ming Yeh, John Yeh, Mary Yeh, and Bobby Sogolow. The hands breaking bread in the lower-left corner are those of Sherif Fathy.

Everybody--pilots and a host of supporters--was dressed up in their best casual finery, and this added a note of dignity to the evening. Some 30 people came early for the interpreted winery tour before the banquet.

One of the many group photos taken just before dinner. (Photo courtesy of Tom Rule.)

At the end of the evening, Mark and Clyde Smith honored the winners of the flying contest. We counted the best two scores from four landing attempts by each of four pilots, two power-on, and two power-off. Mark had a combined score of 44 feet, Alec, 95, Henri, 113, and Tim, 148. The best landing was only 7 feet away from the spot, by Mark. He, as the host, forfeited the winning prize; Alec got a one-year subscription to Pilot Getaways magazine, as well as all the back issues; Henri got a copy of Henry Kisor's book Flight of the Gin Fizz as well as a journal, Fun Places to Fly in the West, and Tim Coffman won The Pilot's Guide to Southwestern Airports.

Dessert!!! This wonderful chocolate cake decorated with chocolate airplanes was made by Celeste Cademartori, a deaf pastry chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America.

After the banquet, everybody repaired to the bar at the Golden Oak Restaurant next to the motel for late-night hangar flying.