Board of Directors
As a 501c3 non-profit corporation, the dedicated members of the Board of Directors serve without compensation.
Karol Hines, President
Karol lives in Reno and began her soaring career in 1982 at Sky Sailing in Fremont, California.
She was a nationally ranked competition glider pilot for 10 years flying a Schleicher ASW-24. In
addition to flying, Karol supported the sport of soaring as a PASCO (Pacific Soaring Council)
Board member, President and Treasurer; SSA (Soaring Society of America) Regional Director for
Region 11 and Competition Manager for numerous regional and national Soaring competitions
in Region 11. The majority of Karol’s professional career was in executive and technical
leadership in computer software firms in the San Francisco Bay Area. More recently she has
served as a Board member and Executive Director of several non-profits in Nevada that support
entrepreneurs and startup companies.
Alex Neigher, Vice President
Alex started his aviation career flying paragliders in 2013, and has traveled around the world flying them. This led to his transition into sailplanes in 2018, and has hundreds of hours logged since. He alternates flying in Truckee, CA and Williams, CA depending on the time of year. Alex is an avid outdoorsman, spending his time biking, climbing, skiing, and generally avoiding anything indoors whenever possible. He resides in South Lake Tahoe, CA and works in the software industry.
Evan Simmons, Treasurer
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Evan is an outdoor enthusiast and has been participating in and teaching outdoor sports since 2007. When he began flying paragliders in 2016, he was immediately hooked. Since then his interest in aviation has expanded to include ASEL and Glider certificates. Evan lives in Reno, Nevada.
Mike Mayo, Secretary
Mike is a 42-year glider pilot and a 40-year SEL pilot who has been flying from TTSA since 1989. He owns a house in Truckee and Palo Alto and spends most weekends at TTSA flying his LAK17, E5. Mike has been Involved with the SSA Region 11 Contest for four years, both as a contestant and as the director. He is a robotic engineer by trade and is frequently seen fixing something electronic on the property or designing and building something practical like the crane to lift the oxygen bottles off and onto the cart or a simulator to assist in training. Mike brings to the board experience to assist in Contest related issues, relationships with associations, and equipment development.
Debbie Cohen
Debbie joined the TTSA Board to drive the fundraising activities necessary to expand and
enhance TTSA’s youth focused programs to develop more STEM interest and skills in our area
youth. In her 30+ year information technology career with both large and small companies,
Debbie held management roles in marketing, sales, alliances and business development.
Debbie has a long term interest in aviation, having grown up in an aviation family, and a post-
university first job with Northwest Airlines. Debbie is a regular vistor to the North Tahoe region
since moving to California in 1991.
Peter Deane
Peter has been flying sailplanes since 1986 and has over 3300hrs in gliders. He took his private glider check ride at Truckee in 1987 and Truckee has been his summer soaring base for 35yrs. He has many Regional and National contest wins and podiums and represented the USA in 2 Standard Class World Championships.
Peter has been heavily involved in promoting cross country and fun weekend racing in Region 11 (Pasco League), and served on the Pacific Soaring Council board for over 15 yrs in a variety of roles including President, as well as the US Team committee. He was awarded the Les Arnold Award for service to Soaring in 2008. Peter is retired from a career as a technologist, inventor and engineering director in the semiconductor industry.
Mike Johnson
Mike lives in Reno, is a multi-rated pilot including that of ATP, a multi-rated CFI, a CFIG of 23 years, and a former DPE for gliders, airplane, private, commercial and instrument. He has been associated with TTSA since 1995 and served as the general manager from 2000-2001. Last season, Mike volunteered over 400 hours working on the line with the line crew, as a ride pilot, and as the line chief for the SSA Region 11 Contest. Mike is significantly knowledgeable in aviation, the operations of TTSA, and the history of TTSA. He will bring a wealth of expertise to the board, most significantly that of operations.
Paul Loewenstein
Paul's first glider flight was at the age of 14 in his school’s Slingsby T21 glider with his physics teacher, John Simpson, as instructor. He continued flying gliders in the UK and then France until coming to the US in 1981. Then followed a 36 year hiatus from gliding, spent first flying power and then raising a family. Paul restarted gliding in 2017 with the Northern California Soaring Association and flies primarily his ASW-20 PL. He also flies West Valley Flying Club Citabrias from Palo Alto.
Richard Pearl
Richard learned to fly gliders in Toronto, Canada and, after returning to the USA, earned his commercial and CFI-G license at the old Vacaville glider port in 1985. Over the years he has been president of Northern California Soaring Association and Soar Truckee, Inc./Truckee Tahoe Soaring Association, where he is currently on the board of directors. Richard has 2,600 total glider hours, including 995 hours in touring motor gliders. His pure glider time includes more than 1,000 hours of student instruction. At TTSA he created the highly successful Youth Intensive Soaring Camp. He is also the founder of the international Touring Motor Glider Association and has flown TMG’s in several overseas countries. Richard lives in Lincoln, Ca with his wife Penny.
Hans Van Weersch
Hans is a Dutch native and started flying gliders at the Eindhoven Aero Club in 1992. Originating from the FlatLands, Hans finds it a special experience to fly the Big Air of the Sierras. He also enjoys introducing and mentoring new pilots into this magical environment with Lead and Follow flights in his Ventus-2C 3U. Hans holds a commercial glider pilot rating and has been flying at Truckee since 2000.
After obtaining his MSEE from Eindhoven University of Technology, Hans spent his 30+ year career in management roles at Semiconductor High Tech companies Philips, Micron, STM and Seoul Semi.