About SOGGI
What We Do
SOGGI is a Charter Club of the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada (MAAC). We fly radio controlled model sailplanes in the Hamilton, Ontario region. We welcome visitors and new members.
Some SOGGI Facts
The Southern Ontario Glider Group (“SOGG”) was formed in 1984. Later, SOGG was incorporated as the not-for-profit organization now known as “SOGGI”. SOGGI currently has about 35 adult members. Junior members are more than welcome.
Visitors are welcome at our flying sites, but we do ask that you first Contact one of our members to make the necessary arrangements. Guests are also welcome at our Membership Meetings held at Rockton’s Beverly Hall from October through May. Meetings consist of project-show-and-tell, social time, and club business segments.
Existing land-use agreements allow our membership to fly at sod farms and at a slope soaring site. There are few restrictions on when we can fly, other than restrictions imposed by the weather. During spring, summer and fall seasons our fun-fly sessions are well attended and typically occur several times per week. But because the weather is increasingly fickle, we do not try to pre-schedule casual flying sessions very far into the future. Instead, we use SOGGI’s Message Board to coordinate fun-fly sessions on very short notice, based on highly accurate 24 hour Weather Forecasts that are specific to our flying sites.
Also each year, we do pre-schedule five or six Soaring Contests that are open to any member of MAAC or the AMA. Upcoming contests can be found on our Calendar, after we schedule them.
Club social activities typically include our annual Christmas Party, technical tours, attendance at public lectures, swap-shop and hobby-show attendance. We also like to showcase our hobby and our club at various public outreach events. SOGGI’s Photo Gallery illustrates some of this activity.
Back-issues of “TASK” (our newsletter) can be viewed on this website.
What SOGGI Asks of Its’ Members
We’ve described a few of the benefits of becoming a member of SOGGI. But we’d also like to say a few words about what SOGGI asks of its members.
Good flying sites are difficult to find, and even harder to keep. We appreciate the support shown to us by the landowners, the sod farm staff, and our residential neighbours. At all times, we treat those folks with the same courtesy, cooperation and respect that we would like to receive ourselves.
SOGGI is a club, whose members have organized themselves for the purpose of flying R/C model sailplanes. If you join SOGGI, in addition to gaining the use of the club’s facilities, you are also indicating your intention to participate in the social, and organizational aspects of the club. We invite you to attend our Membership Meetings where you can make some new friends, and become an integral part of our club.
R/C Soaring is the central purpose of our club. We anticipate that anyone joining SOGGI will participate in at least some aspect of R/C soaring. Not every type of aeromodelling activity is compatible with R/C Soaring and vice-versa, so there are some restrictions on the types of models that may be flown at our sites. See the Our Model Aircraft page for examples of what works well.
To-date, SOGGI has had an excellent field safety-record. We maintain an ongoing focus on flying safely. As a condition of membership, we require that our members have a working familiarity with our Club Flying Field Guidelines. On the flying field, every pilot is required to set a good example for others to follow.
We will gladly provide Flight Instruction to beginners wishing to learn to fly. In fact, if you intend to fly at SOGGI, we insist on it.
We are always pleased to receive new members who have already attained Pilot status at another other club. But please be aware that flying sailplanes on a sod farm or at a slope site, is a very different air-traffic-control experience than flying powered models from a marked runway with a marked pit-area. For that reason, to receive flying privileges at SOGGI’s sites we require that every new member first perform a check-out flight with one of our instructors. A checkout flight will ensure that the new member has a practical grasp of SOGGI’s field operations, safety provisions, and field etiquette.
Visit SOGGI
Visitors are welcome at our flying sites, but we ask that you first Contact one of our members to make the necessary arrangements.
Guests are also welcome at our Membership Meetings which are held at Rockton’s Beverly Hall from October thru May. Meetings consist of project-show-and-tell, social time, and club business segments.
Constitution & Bylaws
SOGGI is an Incorporated Not For Profit organization. The Constitution can be viewed here.
