2000 / 2001 / 2002 / 2003 / 2004 / 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009
The January 2000 issue of Skylines opens with the club's annual meeting set for January 29 at Front Royal Airport, where members will elect a new Board of Directors and wrestle with a succession of open positions, including the scheduler role vacated by Tony Bigbee. The issue's most vivid story recounts how Greg Ellis and George Hazelrigg, left as the last two pilots with a flyable glider on a rare wave day in December, co-piloted the club's venerable old ship "Miss Daisy" through a two-hour wave ride at four knots forward speed, serving as radio relay for a stranded K-21 and watching the recovery crew pull in below. Also on the docket: a parachute safety seminar and repack clinic with USPA Director of Safety and Training Glenn Bangs, a report on Bob Michael's well-attended wave-weather seminar (spiced by George Hazelrigg's surprise Antarctic slide show and a visit from SSA Region IV Director Bob Ball), and a call for volunteers to help foreign guests at the second International Vintage Sailplane Meet at Harris Hill in July. On the business side, Jan Scott's purchase of a Scheibe SF-25 Rotax Falke motorglider raises the prospect of the club's Scout towplane becoming available, while Shane Neitzey solicits partners to form an LLC around a $36,500 Grob Twin Acro. The issue closes with a round of personal congratulations—two new babies, a new PPL glider pilot, a solo, badge awards, a Christmas Eve wedding in South Carolina, and an engagement—along with the arrival of a fifth 1-26 for the club and a wry Y2K sign-off from the editor.
New president Joe Parrish takes the gavel from Joe Rees and looks back on a remarkable 1999 season at the club's new Front Royal home: a 40 percent jump in aircraft movements, more than $60,000 in revenue, a fully repaid charter-member loan, and over 6,000 accident-free flights. The season's crowning achievement was Dave Brunner's FAI Diamond altitude flight in a 081 at Petersburg, climbing from pattern altitude all the way toward the Flight Levels. Ten pilots earned their first solo and SSA 'A' badge, two took FAI Silver, and one claimed FAI Gold. Looking ahead, Greg Ellis proposes the 'Sharing the Dream' project to sponsor two local teenagers each year through to solo, the club ferries its K-21 and Sprite to the Petersburg Wave Camp (March 3–12) under new Chief Wave Weenie Shane Neitzey, and the SSA Convention convenes in Albuquerque the following week. A detailed ten-year Strategic Plan covering fleet expansion and airfield ownership is put to the membership, tow-pilot and instructor staffing is flagged as a growing concern, and the club welcomes a 1955 1-26 (reg. 038) into its fleet. Longtime member Bob Michael bids farewell as he relocates to Chicago, and the season officially opens at FRR on March 18.
President Joe Parrish lays out an ambitious Strategic Plan for the roughly 60-member club, proposing the purchase of an additional towplane and a two-seat glider, the construction of a hangar, and the formation of an Aircraft Acquisition Committee (Jim Garrison, Shane Neitzey, Bill Vickland) to guide those decisions. The 2000 season runs March 18 through December 10, with a new monthly staffing system introduced by Rosterführer Bob Collier to manage the club's thin bench of seven tow pilots and four instructors. Chief Instructor Jim Kellett issues pointed reminders about a confusing new sectional-chart annotation that may draw power traffic into the glider pattern, and delivers a stern but fair account of two skilled members who, in the K-21, succumbed to the 'siren song' of a ridge run and landed out in violation of the Operations Manual—prompting the Board to issue Letters of Reprimand and a club-wide safety-culture discussion. The issue also reports on Rosalind McCulley's recovery from a shattered leg, Bob Michael's upcoming SSA award for his work on the ABC badge program, the club's newly posted online history, detailed tow-rope procedure changes from Bill Bently, and a sobering roundup of three midair collisions in powered aircraft as a reminder to keep one eye outside and one ear on the frequency.
Skyline Soaring Club's April 2000 issue captures a club at a crossroads of rapid expansion. President Joe Parrish lays out the next phase of the Strategic Plan: after Charter Loan payoffs (projected for late April or early May), the club will move to acquire a towplane and possibly a two-seat fiberglass training glider, each in the neighborhood of $40,000. Members are asked to commit to an aircraft acquisition fund at a comfortable level—$1,000 to $2,000 is suggested—with money-market rates on idle funds and a five-year, 5% repayment schedule. The excitement is palpable: the club's wave contingent at Petersburg, Virginia, logged eight days of wave flying with more than 40 pilots and 20 ships, producing diamond-altitude flights and one pilot topping out near 20,000 feet. On the safety front, Chief Tow Pilot Bill Bentley issues a pointed warning about gliders ballooning above the towplane, and Shane Neitzey recounts two rope breaks in a single week (one caused by an untied Tost adapter knot, the other by a release malfunction), bringing his personal rate to one break per 733 tows. The Board overhauled the temporary membership program to a $40/30-day fee, revised field-check currency rules to separate type currency from field familiarity, and solicited CPL-rated pilots to cover temporary-member flights. Other items include Fred Mueller's 98% score on his Fundamentals of Instruction exam, Kevin Fleet's advertisement for half-ownership of the club's Sprite at $6,500, a water-in-the-spoiler-boxsafety alert on the K-21, the mandatory Spring Safety Meeting on April 22, and news from the record-attended SSA LIFT 2000 convention in Albuquerque, where SSA President Frank Reid announced new SSA Instructor ranks and a 50-to-100% dues rebate for certified instructors.
The May 2000 issue of Skylines opens with a sobering account of a near mid-air collision between a Lufthansa 747 and a Pik-20 glider over Frederick, Maryland, prompting a detailed discussion of transponder technology, Class Bravo airspace exemptions, and the Soaring Society of America's push for voluntary Mode C installation in gliders. The issue also features a gripping first-person narrative from instructor Shane Neitzey describing a terrifying “sink hole” encounter on final approach to Runway 27, a lighthearted (if lengthy) account of a black snake that burrowed into a glider's fuselage and stymied the crew for an hour and a half, and a rich biography of member David Weaver—from his first glider flight at thirteen in the Florida Everglades to flying the U-2 at Beale AFB. Rounding out the issue are reports from the club's Spring Safety Meeting, a new self-reporting policy for rule infractions, a PP-G ground school announcement, congratulations to Fred Muller (300 km) and Greg Ellis (50 km), and the welcome of two new members, Frank Banas and Lewis Martin.
This issue of Skylines captures the full emotional range of a soaring club's life in the summer of 2000. Dave Brunner delivers a vivid, almost spiritual account of his first flight in Bela's ASW-20 “Hotel 3,” from the nervous cockpit briefing to the “valley of doom” on final approach, and dedicates the piece to Bela as “an inspiration to us all.” Bob Collier's “BOOMERANG” cross-country attempt ends in a freshly plowed field near Mt. Jackson, where a kind stranger drives him to a 7-Eleven, an ambulance rolls up with sirens blaring, and a passing couple insists on giving him a ride all the way back to Front Royal. New member Tom Garner—a former Marine jet pilot who flew FJ-4Bs and A-4s before a thirty-year career at American Airlines—shares his path from carrier decks to watching gliders drift over Warrenton, and earns his “A” badge in near-record time. The issue also recounts a near-miss spoiler linkage failure caught during a routine positive control check on the club's 1-26, announces a PP-G ground school in Tyson's Corner, welcomes the triumphant return of Tim James and Lisa Sergent with their Blue Angels-painted 1-26, Blanik L-33, and Cessna 172, and introduces the club's new 1984 BMW 318i “Club Car,” complete with a sunroof that must absolutely not be opened.
In a July 2000 issue brimming with club life, Bob Collier recounts his 31-mile cross-country flight from FRR to the Mayor of Winchester's annual fly-in picnic, a hot, sticky day that tested his patience as he hunted for lift among scattered cumulus before finally settling onto the mayor's handsomely mowed turf strip. The issue also marks a somber milestone: the passing of Ernie Schweizer, designer of the Schweizer line of sailplanes and motorgliders, and the fatal crash of 90-year-old Stewart Aleshire in a 1-26 near Tehachapi, California. On the brighter side, the Civil Air Patrol's L-23 Super Blanik received its airworthiness certificate and completed its first U.S. flight at FRR, opening the door to cadet orientation flights. President Joe Parrish urges members to keep club grievances in perspective—"little problems" versus the "big problems" other clubs face—while new member Chris Williams, a former Wall Street municipal-bond broker, delivers a pointed financial argument for purchasing a second towplane. Judah Milgram contributes a candid "Tow Fu" safety column from the towpilot's seat, and the club celebrates improved turn-around procedures, a new video library addition, and the warm hospitality that visiting pilots keep praising.
The August 2000 issue of Skylines reports the exciting maturation of the club's Civil Air Patrol partnership, culminating in the delivery of a brand-new Blanik L-23 to Front Royal and orientation flights for international air cadets from Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The newsletter also covers results from the 1-26 Championships in Texas, where Pat Tuckey won with task speeds of 45 to 50 mph; a detailed discussion of instructor scheduling priorities as 28 members pursue ratings with only five volunteer instructors; the solo flight of new member Tim England, a commercial jet pilot with 5,300 hours; Erich Carter's "B" badge earned below 4,000 feet; a humorous account of a passenger falling asleep mid-flight; and a 169-mile hang-glider record flight that beat interstate traffic. The issue closes with notes on a FLYING magazine feature praising soaring, a planned Cass Aviation fly-in, and a fondly remembered July 4th cookout at the field.
September 2000's issue of Skylines is dominated by two gripping cross-country narratives from the Shenandoah Valley. Dave Weaver recounts a 300-kilometer round trip in an LS-4 that ends at an uncharted grass strip where a local couple offers him Virginia Riesling while his son, receiving dual instruction in the tow van, navigates by GPS coordinates to find him. Bill Vickland tells of a 141-mile attempt at the Boomerang Trophy that ends in a freshly cut hay field near Churchville, with the aftertaste of a forgotten cap left in a farmer's grandmother's car. Beyond the flight line, the board reports it has passed on a Scout towplane purchase citing financial risk, yet 39 members have pledged $45,200 toward a future second towplane. New tow fees take effect September 1, the club mourns the passing of Ernest Schweizer (designer of the 1-26) at age 88, and a string of personnel changes sees Bob Collier assume the Treasurer role and Fred Mueller take over as Rostermeister. President Joe Parrish closes with a rousing defense of the club's 65-member camaraderie and a pointed safety reminder, while John Lewis shares a steady stream of glowing testimonials from visitor pilots who keep asking, 'How soon can I schedule another?'
The October issue of Skylines opens with President Joe Parrish defending the club's controversial rule requiring every visiting pilot—even World Champions—to complete a field orientation before towing, a policy that reignited heated debate when four experienced cross-country pilots arrived heading to a contest. The month's most colorful tale comes from Chief Towpilot Bill Bentley, who recounts his Caesar Creek competition landing on a residential road, where a giant yellow fire hydrant—rendered invisible by his orange-tinted sunglasses—ripped a two-inch strip of metal from the glider's right wing. Elsewhere, Parrish announces his selection as NASA Program Executive for a Mars precision-landing mission; the club welcomes new member Warren Smith, a Fletcher School PhD who built an airstrip near Everest and later authored a book on Tibetan nationalism; the board approves new tow and glider rental fees; and the club announces its first-ever Fall Wave Camp at Petersburg, complete with a pig roast. The issue also features the board's decision to replace the officers' humorous titles with more formal ones, a lighthearted roundup of actual newspaper headlines, and congratulations to Parrish on his wedding to Stephanie Wilsen.
President Joe Parrish opens the November issue with a candid call to action: with 29 students competing for just five instructors, the club must either graduate more pilots or recruit new instructors, and members are urged to step up. The board is deep in a spirited (and politically quipped) debate over whether the next major purchase should be a two-seat tow plane or a two-seat trainer glider, with over $40,000 already pledged and a strategic plan calling for both. In the meantime, Glen Baumgartner has leased his Ka-7 to the club at $24 per hour, a welcome addition with stall characteristics more typical of a true glider than the K-21. The issue also celebrates a string of new certifications—Bob Downin's Commercial Glider Pilot rating, George Hazelrigg III's B badge, and Dick Otis's Commercial Multi-engine tow rating—along with the return of Lisa Sergent and Tim James with two additional sailplanes and the joining of 4,000-hour veteran Stan Pawlowski, bringing the active roster to 70. Between the flying news, members are invited to a November 10 dinner party at the Hazelrigg home in Vienna (complete with a modulo-3 puzzle to decide who brings dessert), a B&B offer in Winchester from Jim and Pat Kellett, Bob Collier's vivid 1976 1-26 Nationals mud-wrestling tale, and a MPTV 'River of Air' segment airing in early November, the newsletter captures a small club in full, joyful motion.
December 2000 brings a newsletter brimming with altitude and drama. Dave Brunner and Shane Neitzey each log extraordinary wave flights off the Front Royal ridge—Brunner to just over 13,000 feet in the club's 081 (a four-hour, twelve-minute ride with 55-knot winds and a Lear Jet roaring past 500 feet below), and Neitzey to 14,000 feet in the LAK-12 in what he calls the warmest wave day of his life, spotting a 757 three thousand feet above him. Beyond the cockpit, the Board announces a sweeping fleet overhaul: the beloved Schweizer 2-33 'Miss Daisy' will be sold to fund a modern two-seat trainer, and a member syndicate is being explored to acquire a C-182 towplane. The issue also carries a sobering report of an F-16/Cessna mid-air collision in Florida, a thorough ground-safety briefing on runway incursions and glider assembly procedures, the call for Board Director nominations ahead of the January 2001 Annual Meeting, and the annual Christmas party hosted by Tracy and Bob Collier in Winchester. A brief farewell is offered to Gary Shepherd, who returns to England, and a grateful note from Rusty Lowry recounts how the club's trailer helped him haul his own newly purchased 2-33 home from Vermont.
The January 2001 issue of Skylines opens with President Joe Parrish celebrating the club's ninth consecutive year without a reportable accident, tempered by two near-misses that reminded members the streak could end any day. The centerpiece is a vivid two-part account of a December wave-flying expedition to Petersburg, West Virginia, where pilots Shane Neitzey and Dave Weaver chased the “Great Monster Allegheny Mountain Wave,” battling rotor, a 4,500-foot ceiling, and a washed-out ridge before finally threading into the primary wave and climbing to 8,000 feet. The issue also features an enthusiastic review of Robert Whelan's “Exploring the Monster Mountain Lee Waves,” a proposal to form a member syndicate for a backup towplane, a humorous landout story involving a hat-snatching airport dog, and the arrival of the “M-ASA Challenge Chicken”—a rubber chicken that allegedly flew into Front Royal from a rival club, sparking an inter-club rivalry. Club business includes board elections, a mandatory safety meeting, dues collection, and updates on the aging Pawnee towplane.
Skyline Soaring Club kicks off the 2001 season with a new leadership team at the helm—Joe Parrish as President and David Weaver stepping into the newly created Operations Officer role—while celebrating a safe, accident-free 2000 season that produced first solos, FAA ratings, and SSA/FAI badge legs. The issue's most stirring story belongs to Greg Ellis, whose long-held dream of owning a personal glider came true on his birthday when Ernst Schneider of the Invermere Soaring Center in British Columbia drove three and a half days to deliver a brand-new PW5 and trailer, spending over twelve hours rigging, derigging, and coaching Ellis through every detail before heading back to the Rockies. The newsletter also announces a comprehensive four-session cross-country course taught by veteran instructor Jim Garrison covering soaring weather, lift sources, navigation, landouts, physiology, and FAI badge requirements; a new seniority-based hangar slot allocation policy for private owners; a mandatory safety meeting on February 17 featuring briefings from Dulles ATC staff and the club's new Emergency Response Plan; and the club's migration to a new website at skylinesoaring.org. A Rolladen-Schneider LS-4a (1981, 1,370 hours) is offered for sale within the club at $34,000, and members are reminded of the SSA Annual Convention in Indianapolis the first week of February.
Skyline Soaring Club's March 2001 issue opens with President Joe Parrish's impassioned call for members to volunteer their skills to club operations, followed by a delightful historical dig into the 1930 San Diego soaring days when Charles and Anne Lindbergh learned to fly gliders from Hawley Bowlus, with Anne becoming the first American woman to earn a First Class Glider license. The issue covers the February 17 Annual Safety Meeting, where a Dulles ATC controller's remark that stealth fighters are more visible to radar than gliders set the tone, and a spirited multi-part debate over short tow ropes and aerial retrieves from non-airport fields. Jim Garrison solicits interest in a four-session Cross-Country Course to begin after the Petersburg Wave Camp in mid-March, while Gary Nabler announces the inaugural Fun Meet and Racing Camp at Blue Ridge Soaring Society in New Castle, Virginia, May 4-6. The issue's standout narrative is Bob Collier's vivid account of a cross-country flight that ended with glider 289 touching down on the 7th fairway of a golf course south of Frederick, Maryland, where the course owner, his granddaughter, and a fellow pilot battled a gusty wind to derig the ship before dinner. Rounding out the issue: a 1939 Orville Wright quote explaining why he returned to gliders after 1903, a CAP tow-pilot's tribute to the club, and Piet Barber's update on the club's new website and Palm Pilot channel.
Skyline Soaring Club's April 2001 issue is dominated by two extraordinary flights from the Petersburg, Virginia wave camp. In the standout account, Shane Neitzey and student Frank Banas launched into a towering lenticular cloud at first light and climbed at 300 to 500 feet per minute into 50-knot winds, reaching FL210 (21,000 feet) in an L-23 before turning for home with 700 pounds of oxygen still in the tank and ice thick enough to scrape off the canopy with a credit card. Rookie Stan Pawlowski, meanwhile, soaked up every facet of camp operations—from recharging golf carts to watching frost creep across a glass ship's wing moments before an aborted launch—and called it one of the better learning experiences of his life. The issue also features Neitzey's 17-nautical-mile cross-country in a LAK-12 to Fairfield, West Virginia to claim the Boomerang trophy, a flight that left him stranded at 5,000 feet until 8 p.m. when Dave Weaver drove through four states to retrieve him, and a memorable precautionary landout by Bill Bentley in a Schweizer 2-33 with his daughter in the front seat. Rounding out the newsletter are a reflective essay on goose-flying formations as a metaphor for club camaraderie, a clip on NASA's 'Highway in the Sky' concept, and the usual mix of club housekeeping, humor, and member news from Front Royal.
Bill Vickland's gripping account of a six-hour cross-country flight dominates this issue. Aiming for New Castle, he instead found himself 20 miles short, clearing Purgatory Mountain at 4,000 feet and landing at the Springwood gliderport near Buchanan, Virginia, where the runway turned out to be upslope and his 1-26 rolled backward down the hill while he called for help one-handed. The newsletter also introduces a charming inter-club cross-country incentive game—passing along a teddy bear named Sam, a Boomerang Trophy, and an "ugly rubber chicken" between Skyline, Fairfield, New Castle, and Frederick—to coax members into their first XC flights. On the operational side, Operations Chief Dave Weaver issues pointed reminders about radio discipline on 123.3 MHz ahead of three upcoming contests and on runway incursion procedures. The Board formalizes a permanent Safety Committee and tightens the dues delinquency policy. In a lighter vein, President Jim Kellett reports breaking all five toes when a 200-pound Cirrus wing dropped on his foot, canceling Thursday dual instruction for the month. The issue also notes the U.S. general-aviation accident rate fell to an all-time low in 2000, celebrates new pilot achievements including Stan Pawlowski's first solo flights and a 21,000-foot wave-camp flight, and announces plans for a joint cookout at Front Royal on May 12 and a tenth-anniversary celebration of the club's first flight in November.
Skyline's June 2001 issue captures a month of hard-won lessons and clubhouse camaraderie. At the Region 4 North contest at M-ASA, Fairfield, Fred Mueller and Dave Weaver faced a field of 40 ships where only about 14 finished the course, and one pilot ended up 70 miles out in two-and-a-half feet of clover, requiring a three-hour retrieve. Back home, a student pilot's first off-field landing—triggered by a misread towplane wing-rock—became a vivid case study in vigilance, while the Pawnee's fuel-mixture problem grounded the tow plane and prompted a heartfelt president's note on member commitment. The issue also features a detailed fleet census (24 gliders for 63 members), practical advice on buying used Schweizer gliders, a humorous three-day weather lament from the Front Royal porch, badge congratulations for Fred Mueller (Gold) and Richard Freytag (Silver), and an open discussion about whether club funds should go toward parachutes or transponders.
This July 2001 issue of Skylines captures the Skyline Soaring Club at a moment of growing ambition, with several members pushing into cross-country and competition soaring. President Joe Parrish celebrates the club's expanding cadre of XC pilots while issuing a lighthearted warning about deer that keep jumping the fence at Front Royal and challenging tow planes on the runway. The issue's centerpiece is George Hazelrigg Jr.'s vivid account of a family Father's Day flight that spirals into a 2:30 a.m. retrieve to New Castle, Pennsylvania, when pilot Shane Neitzey is still battling 20-30 knot winds aloft. Richard Freytag recounts Fred Mueller's five-hour gold distance effort along the Shenandoah ridge, a flight that fell tantalizingly short of its goal at Signal Knob but delivered what Mueller called his most satisfying flying experience. Dave Weaver reports on his Region 4 North Championship at MASA in Fairfield, PA, including a 120-knot ridge run past 37 oncoming sailplanes and a thermal located by its unmistakable dairy-farm aroma. John Lewis contributes a tongue-in-cheek restaurant-style review of North Mountain Winery near Maurertown as a landout site, praising the '99 Cabernet and the staff's hospitality. Rounding out the issue are a reminder to duty officers about notifying Dulles TRACON, a new cross-country course at the Front Royal Public Library, and a note that tow pilot Dick Otis scouted the Paris Airshow for Pawnee replacements.
Skyline Soaring Club's August 2001 issue is anchored by Jim Garrison's gripping, hour-by-hour account of his successful 500-kilometre Diamond Distance badge flight on July 14, a 327-mile, 7-hour-20-minute cross-country in an Alpha Echo out of Eagles Nest, Virginia, completed entirely in thermals along the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah Valley. The issue also carries two vivid reports from the 37th annual 1-26 Association Championships at Ionia, Michigan, where Bill Vickland won the speed trophy at 38 mph but finished 10th after a nerve-wracking final glide that ended in a cornfield, and Bill Bentley logged a series of memorable landouts including one on a Mennonite church lawn and another sideways in waist-high wheat that bent his glider's aft fuselage. The Safety Review Committee addresses the club's first NTSB-reportable incident, an off-airport landing by member Fred Mueller on July 5 that caused severe glider damage but no injury, and outlines new training and emergency-response measures. The newsletter also announces the club's 10th-anniversary gala at the Dulles Airport Marriott on November 10, tracks the Boomerang Trophy's return from the Blue Ridge Soaring Society, welcomes new member Gregory Phillips, and records the birth of twins James Anthony and Meredith Lee.
The September 2001 issue of Skylines is headlined by the Hazelrigg family's triumphant transition from the club's Schweizer 2-33 trainer to a German-registered LS-1f sailplane. George Jr., George III, and Geoff Hazelrigg recount their two-year odyssey: soloing in the 2-33 under instructor Bob Michaels, a memorable two-hour wave flight over Signal Knob, and the bureaucratic maze of importing a 1974 LS-1f from German registry—complete with a rudder-cable redesign and five months of paperwork at the Dulles FSDO. Their first LS-1 flights, including a 2:35 thermal climb and a 1:26 cross-valley sortie, mark the beginning of a new era for the family. Elsewhere, President Joe Parrish bids a fond farewell to the club's beloved N2743H "Miss Daisy," now transferred to M-ASA, and reports the Aircraft Acquisition Fund has reached $25,000 toward a replacement two-seater. The issue also announces the club's first formal gathering—a 10th Anniversary Gala on November 10th featuring speaker Bela Gogos, dancing, and a children's menu—alongside the M-ASA's 22nd Annual Oktoberfest at Fairfield, PA, Jim Kellett's vivid dispatch from a week of Civil Air Patrol glider instruction in Anchorage, Alaska, a safety reminder about high-density-altitude tailwind takeoffs, and the welcome of new member Stephen Peterson, a former U-2 driver with 4,000+ hours.
Published in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, this October 2001 issue of Skylines carries the weight of a nation in mourning while the club presses forward into its tenth year. President Joe Parrish urges members to hold fast to their diversity and their freedoms as general aviation faces uncertain new security restrictions, and notes that some Skyliners have already been called to military reserve duty. Against that somber backdrop, the newsletter brims with the club's enduring spirit: Fred Daams recounts a thrilling 260-mile cross-country in his LS8-18 through the Colorado Rockies, threading between 14,000-foot peaks and executing a nerve-wracking 60-mile final glide home over the Royal Gorge. The Board of Directors approved a dozen new full members, set a goal to acquire a new glider before January 2002, explored an affiliation with M-ASA, and began planning a Land's End club-logo apparel line. Byron Lowry relives his long-awaited Private Pilot checkride, complete with a 200-foot rope break that startled even the examiner, while Jim Kellett delivers his trademark curmudgeonly tirade on why the glider industry must stop blaming pilots and start investing in safety technology. The issue closes with a rousing invitation to the Skyline Soaring Club's Tenth Anniversary Extravaganza on November 10, headlined by legendary pilot Bela Gogos, who will share his remarkable life story of courage and perseverance in the air.
Marking its tenth anniversary, the Skyline Soaring Club issues a milestone newsletter anchored by President Joe Parrish's heartfelt reflection on a decade without a single member hospitalization, the intangible memories that outshine any badge or rating, and the club spirit that still prompts a fistfight over who gets to greet new prospects at the ops tent. The issue also sends readers to Warrenton, where Ken Hyde's volunteer team at The Wright Experience is painstakingly rebuilding a flyable 1903 Wright Flyer replica with period-correct materials, including ALCOA aluminum and hand-carved propellers, for a 2003 First Flight celebration. A thorough safety column urges pilots to think beyond the canonical 200-foot rope break and rehearse every conceivable premature tow termination, from a Pawnee that won't climb to a downwind launch on a high-density-altitude day. Fred Winter reports 103 miles in 2 hours 47 minutes at the M-ASA Octoberfest fun-fly, Eric Litt is named Assistant Deputy for Operations in the Virginia Civil Air Patrol Wing, and three new members—Sami Mina, Mark Ballinger, and Raul Fumagali—join the roster. Rounding out the issue: a Christmas potluck at Rob Mordhorst's Fairfax home, a Pawnee wing-recovery work party, annual-inspection services from Eric Litt, and a featured appearance by club soaring veteran Bela Gogos at the anniversary gala.
Skyline Soaring Club's tenth-anniversary season closes in a blaze of celebration and firsts. Members from California to Virginia flocked to the club's gala dinner, where Jim Kellett received the inaugural Skyline Service Award, Bela delivered an inspiring speech, and George's slide show took the room on a visual tour of a decade of soaring. Testimonials from Byron Lowry, Dick Otis, and President Joe Parrish all agree the evening was a "class act." The club's big-ticket news is the arrival of a G-103 glider at Gehrlein's for pre-purchase inspection, with delivery to FRR expected just after the new year. On the flight line, Carlos Roberts earned his first solo on November 15 after months of patient instruction from Jim Kellett and towing by Bill Bentley, while Dave Dawood made a textbook emergency landing after an unexplained PT3 release actuated at 100 feet in turbulent conditions. Greg Ellis recounts a passenger's tearful, awe-struck ride in the K-21 that left him with a renewed sense of purpose. The issue also covers a hard-won lesson in tool accountability after a tire-pressure gauge was discovered wedged in the Sprite's tail control linkages, a review of the My-Cast.com weather service, the December 15 potluck Christmas party at Rob Mordhorst's home, and a batch of personal news including a premature baby's safe arrival and a member's offer of a decade's worth of Soaring magazine for the club library.
Outgoing President Joe Parrish bids farewell after two rewarding years, announcing his move to Boston and urging members to fill the urgent gaps in the club's instructor and tow-pilot ranks. His year-in-review celebrates the 10th Anniversary Gala, the sale of the long-serving Miss Daisy, the ASK-21 facelift, and a new crop of 1-26 competitors, while also acknowledging Fred Mueller's July landout as a sobering reminder of the sport's risks. A gripping account from Tidewater Soaring describes a battery charger that broke loose during a spin in an L-33, struck the canopy, and lodged in the rudder mechanism—a vivid FOD cautionary tale that resonated across the club. The issue also carries a spirited call-to-action from Piet Barber and Dave Weaver to recruit new CFI-G candidates before the season, details on the upcoming SSA Convention in Ontario, California (featuring a rare screening of the 1968 film *The Boy Who Flew with the Condors*), a lighthearted
George Hazelrigg Jr. steps into the presidency of Skyline Soaring Club with a candid 'Headwinds' address, thanking outgoing directors Joe Parrish and Dave Brunner for years of service as both prepare to leave the area. The club enters its second decade buoyed by the imminent arrival of a Grob 103 two-seater—its first major capital purchase in ten years—while confronting a pressing instructor shortage of just four teachers for twenty-two students working toward ratings. The issue also carries a moving tribute to Dudley Matson, the cross-country pioneer and 1-26 Association member who died in January at nearly ninety, remembered for discovering a new form of ridge lift along the Blue Ridge and for his legendary desert retrieves in Nevada. A cautionary tale from Tidewater Soaring about a Blanik L-33 that flew fourteen more sorties after a foreign-object incident buckled its wings serves as a sharp reminder of the cost of a lazy preflight, and Bill Vickland reports on the Pawnee towplane's ongoing battle with peeling fabric, a stubborn left tilt, and a radio that refuses to cooperate. Round out the issue with the Civil Air Patrol glider program's rapid growth in Virginia, a new Land's End club-logo apparel line, and the announcement of the 2002 WSPA Seminar at Caesar Creek.
The Grob glider has finally landed back at the field after an 850-mile retrieval from Erie, Pennsylvania, with a work crew spending two days compounding and waxing it to flight-ready condition. The March issue is packed with early-season action: a February 17 flying day that delivered rain, sleet, snow, and 20-knot winds yet produced nine flights including a 100-minute ridge run, and a remarkable first K-21 solo by Joe Lingevitch that stretched to two hours and twelve minutes at 9,000 feet on a nearly cloudless day, earning B and C badges. The newsletter also details a hands-on winter project in which three members fabricated a fiberglass LS-1 backrest for roughly $200 (versus an estimated $2,200 from the factory), welcomes new member Scott E. Kinsey, congratulates Mark Ballinger on his tow-pilot qualification, and features an extended safety discussion on Grob pitch oscillations, canopy-latch failures, and ground-crew procedures around the Pawnee tow plane. President George Hazelrigg Jr. closes with reminders about thorough first-of-the-year preflights, currency checks, and the club's tradition of welcoming newcomers.
April's Skylines opens with President George Hazelrigg Jr. addressing a recent glider damage incident and issuing a pointed call to preserve the club's safety culture, invoking Murphy's Law and urging every pilot to honestly assess personal limits before launching. The issue's centerpiece is Geoff Hazelrigg's gripping first-person account of a five-hour cross-country flight in an LS-1, from a terrifying low-altitude ridge passage over Signal Knob to a triumphant arrival over Winchester and a long, steep-turning descent back to Front Royal. Board member Dave Weaver sounds the alarm on no-show tow pilots and duty officers, while Jim Kellett contrasts the communal labor of soaring with the solitary ease of powered flight and champions the old-timers' dinner-table storytelling as a vital training tool. The newsletter also announces a unique advanced cross-country program at the Flying Cow Farm in Lovettsville, where retired American Airlines pilot Jan Scott uses a Scheibe SF-25C motorglider to let students practice off-airport field selection and approaches at a simulated 30:1 glide ratio, and lists a Schleicher Ka-7 two-place glider for sale to club members. A Memorial Day picnic is set for May 26–27, rounding out a busy early-season issue.
In a May 2002 issue rich with personal reflection and soaring milestones, the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with a stirring first-person account by Richmond Times-Dispatch writer Peter Bacque of his return to the tow plane three weeks after the September 11 attacks, describing the Virginia Tidewater landscape and the quiet restoration of trust in the aviation community. The issue also chronicles Fred Winter's hard-won Silver badge and a thrilling 196.4-nautical-mile Gold distance flight from Signal Knob through Harrisonburg, Strasburg, Massanutten, and Winchester back to Front Royal, complete with a tense final approach over I-66. Bob Collier recounts a reconnaissance 200 km triangle around Front Royal, Harrisonburg, and Petersburg in a Cirrus, navigating massive sink over the George Washington National Forest and a looming snow cloud. Additional highlights include an off-field landing training session in a Scheibe SF-25C Motor Falke, a welcome to a new crop of members ranging from airline pilots to novices, a Memorial Day picnic invitation, the appointment of Kolie Lombard as the club's Airspace Chairman, and farewell notes from departing members Dave Brunner and Gerhard Braun as they head back to the UK and Germany, respectively.
The June 2002 issue of Skylines is dominated by the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association's 50th Anniversary "Ten-Day Weekend" at Frederick, Maryland (June 28 – July 7), featuring free soaring classes, a July 4th feast with fireworks, an awards dinner, and a visit from SSA Badge Lady Arleen Coleson. Equally gripping is Fred Mueller's dispatch from the Mifflin, PA regional contests, where he describes cruising at 85 knots and spotting two-time open-class world champion George Moffat below him on a tow, only to be corkscrewed into a genuine 11-knot thermal that gained 600 feet per turn. President George Hazelrigg reports on the successful integration of the club's Grob 103A, upcoming airfield paving of the taxiway and ramp, and a committee working on a new hangar proposal. The issue also carries a frank safety discussion on runway-clearing procedures and tow-car radio coverage, Stan Pawlowski's reorganization of the Grob's FAA documentation, congratulations to new badge earners and newlyweds Jonathan and Deborah Kans, an NTSB fire-safety recommendation for Stemme S10 powered gliders, and a gaggle of new members joining from across Northern Virginia and Maryland.
On July 16, 2002, the Skyline Soaring Club's ASK-21 glider (341KS) crashed into the trees on the Massanutten Ridge, killing the aircraft but not its two occupants. Pilot Fred Winter and passenger Dan Liebermann were rescued from rugged terrain in a dramatic operation that hinged on a hand-held radio and a Pawnee pilot circling overhead to guide ground crews to the site. The newsletter details the harrowing search, the club's recovery plan—including applying insurance proceeds toward a replacement ASK-21, a Safety Board review, and a mandatory mid-year safety meeting—and carries a pointed safety essay urging members to respect the ridge's demands. Other items include a feature on NTSB investigator Greg Phillips, whose work on the USAir Flight 427 investigation was profiled in *Air & Space*, a humorous account of a picnic-flight gone awry, the passing of member Al Dresner, and farewells from pilots relocating out of the area.
The August 2002 issue of Skylines is dominated by the bittersweet news that Bela, a naturally gifted pilot who soared for 63 years and endured a decade of abuse under a vengeful regime, has decided to step down from active command, earning a newly created "Member Emeritus" status that lets him still ride along as a passenger and student. The issue also carries the full drama of the 2002 1-26 Championships at the Air Force Academy in eastern Colorado, where Bill Vickland describes a nail-biting final day that left him within 120 points of the lead after a tow-pilot misrelease nearly cost him the task, and Bill Bentley recounts the quiet triumph of finally landing his repaired glider undamaged. Dave Weaver walks readers through the entire odyssey of ordering, customizing, and collecting a brand-new ASW-27b from Alexander Schleicher in Germany, from RAL color codes to wrestling a European 7-pin trailer plug at the Port of Baltimore. Jim Kellett delivers a hard-hitting safety seminar on why experienced pilots are the ones most at risk, offers his historic Cirrus S/N 67 (the 1970 Nationals winner) to club members before listing it publicly, and closes the issue with a mock Navy mishap report about a squadron of Canadian geese that flew into Building 2187 at Patuxent River.
President George Hazelrigg Jr. opens the September issue with a spirited lecture on the three laws of thermodynamics, deploying entropy as a rallying cry for volunteers to clean the tow car, tidy the hangar, and wax the Grob and Sprite before the mess becomes permanent. Elsewhere, Bob Michael reports from Silvercreek Glider Port in St. Louis on X-Country training weekends, a Pawnee-based cross-country tow program out of Greenville, Illinois, and the club's role as a relay point for the upcoming Return to Kitty Hawk Transcontinental Glider Race. A barroom tale about the Pawnee taildragger spirals into a remarkable biography of designer Fred Weick, from the NACA cowl and the Ercoupe's first JATO flight to the story of paraplegic pilot Alverna Williams. A sobering safety note draws a parallel between a 1.5 mm scratch that grew into a fatal helicopter tail-rotor crack and the K 7's right-wing discussion. The issue also carries a youth-program name contest, congratulations to Geoff Hazelrigg on his CPL-G check ride, Jim Kellett's listing for his Cirrus sailplane, the official rules for the new hangar fridge, and a round-up of vintage-sailplane book recommendations and aviation curiosities.
The October 2002 issue of Skylines opens with President George Hazelrigg, Jr. announcing the arrival of a replacement ASK-21 glider (to be registered N341KS) expected by late November, alongside a call for members to prepare for the January board election in which Malcolm Gardner will take over as Club Secretary from the long-serving Jim Kellett. The season's most dramatic moment came on September 29, when a transient Aeronca nosed over near runway 09, leaving the pilot with a head gash and a poodle in his lap; Tim and Lisa graciously agreed to house the lucky dog until its owner could reclaim it. Elsewhere, member Joe Parrish reports from his new Cambridge, Massachusetts home, comparing the Greater Boston Soaring Club's operations—golf-cart towing, electronic billing, and a vigorous juniors program—with Skyline's own culture. The issue also carries a safety digest on the limits of do-it-yourself aircraft maintenance under FAR Part 43, a report on a Jet-A-fueled Cessna 182 that crossed the continent in 16 hours on a 230-hp turbodiesel, a thank-you for the tow car's return to all eight cylinders, and a year-end party set for December 7 at the President's house in Vienna, complete with turkey, ham, the SSC Band, and a screening of Dr. Strangelove.
November 2002 brings a thrilling first-flight report from a member who imported a high-performance LS3-A glider from Switzerland and flew it for the first time over the Shenandoah Valley on October 14, logging more than three hours in the flapped, retractable-gear ship. The arrival of the new ASK-21 (expected before year's end) and a major overhaul of the Pawnee towplane set the stage for what President George Hazelrigg calls a "pretty classy" 2003 season. Meanwhile, construction of new runway 27R/09L and an expanded ramp at Front Royal is redrawing the operational "fences" between glider and powered-traffic operations, prompting a club-wide call for patience and vigilance. Other highlights include the Virginia Civil Air Patrol's first cadet solo flight (14-year-old Timothy Genda, October 1), a heartwarming update on Bisbee the poodle who survived an Aeronca Chief crash unscathed, the FAA's new photo-ID requirement for general-aviation pilots, a member's intensive training week at Turf Soaring in Phoenix, and plans for the annual year-end party at the Hazelrigg residence on December 6, complete with the SSC Band and a screening of Dr. Strangelove.
The December 2002 issue of Skylines captures a club in transition. President George Hazelrigg, Jr. lays out a packed January calendar—board elections (with Malcolm Gardner stepping down), the SSA Convention in Dayton, Ohio, and the annual safety meeting—while the Pawnee tow plane heads in for a major inspection, wing recovery, and repaint, and the K-21 glider, damaged in an accident, ships out for repair. The most vivid dispatch comes from towpilot Steve Wallace, whose November 23 shift turned into a field-landing rescue in a neighbor's pasture, a close encounter with a cow about to give birth, a gate guarded by a trotting herd of donkeys, and a blind, flashlight-guided taxi back to the darkened airport. On the forward-looking side, Dick Otis previews the Soaring Youth Fund, a proposed national scholarship program that Skyline Soaring Club would anchor as its first chapter, while Tony Bigbee nears completion of the club's Tenth Anniversary DVD featuring Bela Gogos's speech. Phil Jordan closes his multi-part series on the 100th-anniversary powered-flight stamp by producing NOAA's original weather report proving the sky over Kill Devil Hills was crystal clear on December 17, 1903. Rounding out the issue: a year-end party at the Hazelrigg residence in Vienna (complete with a screening of Dr. Strangelove), the Women Soaring Pilots Association's 'Paper Gliders' commemorative project, congratulations to Raul Fumagali on his PPL-G, and a reminder that the tow car's radiator is leaking.
Skyline Soaring Club wraps up a solid 2002 season with a new Ask-21 on the horizon and the Pawnee in recovery, but the real headline is soaring's post-9/11 fight for survival: a detailed, impassive call to arms against the P-40 airspace expansion threatening Region IV glider operations, with M-ASA, SSA, and AOPA all weighing in. On the flying front, two members deliver thrilling wave-soaring dispatches—George Hazelrigg's eight-day, 16.9-hour odyssey at Omarama, New Zealand, where he climbed to 15,000 feet in a Janus, logged 80-mile sorties in an ASH-25, and found the whole experience cost roughly $75 USD per hour; and Dave Weaver's 'proof of concept' Saturday at Front Royal, where he spent nearly four and a half hours above 10,000 feet riding the Eastern wave system from Signal Knob toward Petersburg, WV, and declared a 500-kilometer cross-country 'definitely attainable' and a 1,000-kilometer Diploma 'a clear possibility.' Rounding out the issue: Greg Ellis earns his 2nd Lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol's Virginia Wing glider program, Bill Malick steps back to inactive status, Commander Aircraft files for Chapter 11, the TSA accepts an invitation to speak at the January SSA Convention in Dayton, and the club schedules its Annual Meeting for January 19 and a Safety Meeting with parachute repacking demonstrations for February 8 at Warren County Airport.
The February 2003 issue of Skylines opens the new soaring season with a safety meeting, the arrival of a $75,000 ASK-21, and updates on the Pawnee tow plane's long-awaited repair. The star of the issue is Chris Williams' breathless account of driving 2,200 miles in 48 hours to pick up a used LS-4 in Orlando—complete with a suspiciously cheap price, a questionable Comfort Inn, and a 3 a.m. doughnut stop. Carlos Roberts and Greg Phillips recount their first SSA Convention in Dayton, where they marveled at the actual Wright Brothers Flyer III, met a 15-year-old who had just inherited Roberts' first glider, and sat through a TSA briefing that left them less than reassured. From the Antarctic Peninsula, Piet Barber reports albatrosses riding the ship's wake in what appears to be dynamic soaring, while Glenn Collins details M-ASA's hard-won waiver to operate under a 10-nautical-mile Temporary Flight Restriction. The annual meeting brought a Sustained Service Award to founding member Jim McCulley, news of a planned youth scholarship program, and the airport commission's green light on 16 new hangars. Rounding out the issue: a Hawaiian glider that missed the field from 7,200 feet and ended up on a beach, Greg Phillips' behind-the-scenes role in the long-awaited 737 rudder fix, and a moving tribute by Phil Jordan that weaves John Gillespie Magee's 'High Flight' through the bond shared by all who fly.
The March 2003 issue of Skylines opens with the club's beloved Pawnee tow plane locked in a full overhaul after a brutal winter, its ailerons, flaps, and canopy freshly painted by work parties led by Shane while the fuselage awaits recovery. The detailed inspection uncovered a litany of hidden defects—broken aileron hinges, a crimped fuel line, rotted wooden wing-tip bows, frayed cables, and a broken static system—that could have become serious failures in the air. The club sits grounded, and the newsletter's tone is one of patient, slightly antsy waiting. The issue is steeped in the shadow of the Columbia disaster: new Safety Officer Stan Pawlowski launches a recurring 'Safety Net(work)' column that meditates on the shuttle loss and the interdependence of every person in the flight chain, while club member Steve Wallace reports from Houston, locked into the Columbia Accident Investigation Board for an estimated 60 to 90 days, and recounts a surreal session flying the shuttle's motion simulator down from 200,000 feet. The broader soaring community is in its own bind—M-ASA's three Pawnees are all grounded, the organization is still absorbing the post-9/11 expansion of P-40 and the traffic surge into Dulles, and a new TSA 'pilot insecurity' rule has drawn a blistering letter from Congressman Don Young. Against that backdrop, the newsletter carries a gripping first-person safety essay, 'Grow Old With Me,' in which a retired military pilot distills a career of near-misses into a single rule—'Never take anything for granted'—and recounts the deaths of two friends whose overconfidence cost them their lives. Other pages report an Aeronca flat-spin crash at Front Royal witnessed from the air, three Skyliners' evening at the M-ASA banquet where Steve Fossett's high-altitude Perlan project was presented, a book review of a Hungarian glider pilot's eleven years in the Soviet Gulag, and a call from the membership to finally discuss acquiring a second tow plane so the club is never again one broken Pawnee away from silence.
This April 2003 issue of Skylines captures a season of contrasts at the Skyline Soaring Club in Front Royal, Virginia. The club mourns the March 1 passing of member Dick Feierabend, a retired Navy commander and longtime friend of the flight line, while simultaneously publishing a detailed joint SSC/SVS safety report on the March 8 incident in which the SVS Pawnee N7298Z departed the runway, struck a concrete drainage ditch, and lost its landing gear and a propeller blade. On the other end of the spectrum, Brigadier General David E. Clary, the United States Air Force Director of Homeland Security, visited the region and experienced both a glider ride and a Maule tow with Skyline CFI Jim Kellett, an event covered in the Winchester Star and the Washington Post. The issue also features a passionate defense of the 1-26 sailplane as the ideal cross-country training aircraft (with Jo Shaw and Bill Vickland weighing in), a safety column on situational awareness coining the memorable term "NAFOD," a thorough discussion of Pawnee approach and landing energy management, a charming account of hiking Bull Run Mountain's ridge to watch thirty vultures and a red-tailed hawk, and an ongoing club debate over whether a second towplane should be a motorglider tug.
After a long, hard winter, the Skyline Soaring Club's beloved Pawnee 90866 tow plane is back in service and the flying season is officially underway, with multi-hour flights already in the books and the spring check-out list dwindling. President George Hazelrigg Jr. reports the fleet is in its best shape ever—praising the new K-21 and the Grob (fresh canopy seals and seatbelts)—and offers hard-won advice on choosing between the two trainers versus the more economical 2-33, urging students to master one ship before jumping to the next and to consider the Sprite or a personal single-place glider like the 1-26 as they advance. Safety officer Stan Pawlowski delivers a memorable reminder that the 's' in SKILL stands for SAFETY, while tow pilot Bill Bentley gives a rare behind-the-windshield view of what happens during a rope hookup. A particularly pointed Part 43 article by mechanic Eric Litt warns that several club gliders may have been technically 'out of license' due to missing annual-inspection language in their logbooks. The issue also features Jenn Player's announcement of a flight-simulation game built around the 1903 Wright Flyer and 1911 Model B, complete with ridge-soaring wind models and the Wrights' twin-joystick controls; a lively email debate over a new runway-light circuit-breaker procedure and the human-factors hazards it might create; a report on Time Pieces, a startup offering 50-hour shares in classic Piper J-3 Cubs; and a pair of competing 'snake sighting' reports from the field that prompt an official proclamation subjecting all serpents in Class E airspace to the club's Operations Manual.
President George Hazelrigg Jr. opens this issue by rallying members for a three-day fly-in weekend at Eagle's Nest, Virginia, hosted by the Shenandoah Valley Soaring Club, and urging students to practice landings at a field other than home. Safety Officer Stan Pawlowski rejects the club's long-vaunted “safety culture” as empty lip service and launches a loud, anonymous “Dufus Personal Safety Report” program built on the idea that quiet safety officers are ineffective ones. The issue's most vivid personal account belongs to Kevin Fleet, who, after a ten-year hiatus, launched his hang glider at Nags Head, North Carolina, in 40-mph winds and logged a 3½-hour flight along the dunes, pushing his career total past 1,000 hours. Steve Wallace recounts a two-day seaplane rating course in Winter Haven, Florida, complete with 55 water landings in a J-3 Cub and a musing about the club collectively buying one. The newsletter also carries Centennial of Powered Flight dispatches—including a Wright Model B crash and ticket sales for the Kitty Hawk commemoration—profiles the newly opened Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, Texas, notes the Soaring Society of America's search for a new executive director, and closes with a batch of aviation humor ranging from a crying toddler broadcasting on London's ATC frequency to NORAD F-16s chasing a fox over Washington, D.C.
The July 2003 issue of Skylines is anchored by a gripping first-person account of an aerospace engineer and his two sons, George and Geoff Hazelrigg, racing each other toward the FAI Silver Badge at FRR. After a six-year flying hiatus broken by a stroke, a divorce, and a move to Korea, the father relives his passion for flight alongside his teenage sons, culminating in a 3-hour-37-minute cross-country from FRR to Winchester to Luray—188 circles, a closed-field detour, a 5-knot sink over a blue hole, and a triumphant landing at a field he'd never touched before. The issue also features Chief Flight Instructor Jim Kellett's incisive breakdown of FAR 91.113 right-of-way rules as they apply to gliders sharing pattern work with power aircraft, new operational procedures at FRR following the opening of a taxiway and ramp area, the Virginia Wing of the Civil Air Patrol's acquisition of a surplused USAFA 1-26 glider, and a wry dispatch on Chicago's Meigs Field being converted into a ping-pong emporium. Rounding out the newsletter are safety bulletins from the Dufus Report program, a welcome to new member Rear Admiral Craig Steidle (retired, former Director of the Joint Strike Fighter Program), and a recommendation to see the film *Winged Migration* before it leaves Fairfax's Cinema Arts Theatre.
This September 2003 issue of Skylines leads with a remarkable "Meet the Member" profile of Rear Admiral (Ret.) Craig Steidle, former head of the Navy Test Pilot School and director of the Joint Strike Fighter program, who has recently taken up glider flying at Skyline Soaring Club and earned his "B" badge in the Sprite. The issue also documents a pulled-tow-tow incident on August 23 and the student pilot's detailed lessons learned, a first-flight transition report in the Cirrus glider praising its 44:1 glide ratio, and a thorough review of the newly released FAA Glider Flying Handbook. President George Hazelrigg reports on a rewarding weekend of soaring after a difficult weather season, welcomes ten new members, and outlines plans for additional hangar space. A safety article by Stan Pawlowski reviews ridge-soaring hazards along the Massanutten Range as fall winds approach, and the issue closes with aviation news items, a soaring poem by Susan Gogos, and a Washington Post quote praising a member's "legendary backyard landing."
When Hurricane Isabel barreled toward the coast, Skyline Soaring Club members scrambled to cram roughly nineteen aircraft into five hangars in a single day, then reassembled the fleet the following Saturday in what President George Hazelrigg called "two days of the fine cooperation that has come to distinguish our operations." The October issue also details the upcoming M-ASA Oktoberfest (October 11–13 at Fairfield, PA), where pilots may need a Secret Service TFR waiver if President Bush is at Camp David; announces the release of the Wright Experience's aerodynamically accurate flight simulator covering the 1902 Glider, 1903 Flyer, and 1911 Model B; and outlines the club's push to formalize a dedicated Safety Officer position. Other highlights include Skyliner Dave Dawood's deployment as a tow pilot and CFI(G) near Bagram, Afghanistan; Joe Lingevitch earning his PPG and Raul Fumagali logging three solo flights in a Cessna; the club's Grob loan dropping below $10,000 with a stated goal of 80 members; and SSA news on the Young Eagles 10,000-ride campaign and efforts to preserve the M-ASA Fairfield soaring site against expanding Camp David restricted airspace.
Skyline opens 2004 with Kolie Lombard’s account of a demanding first landout, Greg Ellis’s climb to 14,000 feet near Signal Knob, and a spirited tale of four club members driving through a snowstorm to inspect the LS-4 Juliet Sierra. The issue also previews the annual meeting, debates proposed changes to club governance, considers the Schweizer 1-26 as an affordable cross-country trainer, reviews recent glider accidents, and remembers longtime aviator Chuck Beatley.
Skyline reports rising membership, improving finances, new board members Chris Williams and Frank Banas, construction of additional hangar space, and the addition of the Sprite to the club fleet. Members revisit proposed governance reforms ahead of the annual safety meeting, complete Bill Vickland’s case for the Schweizer 1-26, introduce a former Air Force Academy 1-26E to Virginia’s Civil Air Patrol program, examine three glider accidents, and recount efforts to fly an authentic Wright Flyer reproduction.
The 2004 flying season opens with a bang as the Skyline Soaring Club moves to purchase the Schweitzer 1-36 Sprite from members Piet Barber and Joe Rees for $12,000 on a three-year interest-free plan, giving the club a dedicated single-seat glider for cross-country training and badge work. President George Hazelrigg reports early-season flights to 12,300 feet and a smoking ridge on February 22, while the Board sets a membership target of 80 and expands its cadre of CFI-Gs to make 2004 a strong training year. Carlos Roberts files a vivid report from the SSA Convention, covering the new Diana 2 sailplane, Klaus Ohlman's world-record talks, Juan Mandelbaum's Mifflin Regional video, a tour of the Lockheed F/A-22 assembly line, and Steve Wallace's encore presentation on the Columbia accident. The issue also carries a sobering NTSB summary of a fatal Standard Cirrus collision with a transmission guy wire near Lone Pine, California; minutes from the January 24 Annual Meeting, where members voted on by-law changes and elected new directors; a Service Award to founding member Shane Neitzey; new discounted soaring titles in the club bookshop; and the addition of Dr. Jack Glendening's daily BLIPSPOT forecasts for Front Royal. The season, the club declares, is officially under way.
The April 2004 issue marks a turning point for Skyline Soaring Club as the BIG (Build Instructors from within the Group) program, proposed by Piet Barber and taught by Spencer Annear, finally bears fruit: Geoff Hazelrigg, Piet Barber, and Fred Mueller earn their commercial ratings, President George Hazelrigg completes his CFI-G, and Fred LaSor and Brian Collins join the instructor ranks, restoring the club to a full cadre after a two-year period with only four active instructors. The issue also carries Frank Banas's vivid account of a two-day pilgrimage through the five hangars at Wright-Patterson AFB's National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (including a B-2 repaired in a record two months and the Presidential 707), Dick Otis's hard-won lessons on towing and landing in 30-knot crosswinds out of Front Royal, and Dave Weaver's delight at an unannounced winch-launch ride in a DG-505 along the cliff face near Portmoak Airfield in Scotland. Rounding out the issue are Bill Vickland's 1973 wind-shear landing-out in a 1-26, Bob Collier's Massanutten ridge run, the Board's unanimous approval to purchase the club's SGS-136 Sprite for $12,000, a review of the 'Redline Sky' gliding DVD, and the news that NASA's X-43A became the first air-breathing scramjet aircraft to fly freely at Mach 7.
This issue of Skylines opens with a sobering and deeply personal account from Paul Adriance, the surviving pilot of a fatal glider-glider mid-air collision in the Seattle area, who details the split-second assumptions that led to the crash and urges fellow pilots to abandon the dangerous habit of 'assumptive flying.' Jim Kellett amplifies the warning with statistics showing a troubling rise in glider-glider mid-air collisions, while Bill Vickland contributes a hard-hitting series on the terrain and power-line hazards that have claimed pilots in the Shenandoah Valley. On a lighter note, President George Hazelrigg recounts a harrowing double land-out of the club's Grob and LS-1, complete with a torn calf muscle, a confused retrieval crew, and a cracked canopy discovered back at the hangar. Fred Winter and Fred Mueller share vivid dispatches from the Region 5 North Contest in Perry, South Carolina, where 67 gliders launched in under an hour and a 61-year-old acro pilot stunned the crowd with a six-turn inverted flat spin. The issue also carries the thrilling news that hundreds of wreckage fragments on the Mediterranean seabed have been positively identified as Antoine de Saint-Exupery's missing P-38 Lightning from 1944, a discovery that has electrified aviation historians. Rounding out the newsletter: a raffle for a rare 1949 1-23 sailplane, a farewell to retiring members Tim and Lisa Neitzey, the wedding of Geoffrey and Melanie on the soaring ridge near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and a reminder to catch the History Channel's 'Silent Wings' documentary on the evolution of gliding.
The June 2004 issue of Skylines opens with a somber tribute to Peter Carl Masak (1957–2004), the Canadian-born engineer whose winglet designs and the celebrated ASW20C wing cross-section reshaped competition soaring for decades. Masak, a national champion and international competitor, was killed on May 22 while flying cross-country in Pennsylvania, and the club community rallied to honor a man who, as one member recalled,
This July 2004 issue is dominated by two stories that pull in opposite directions. President George Hazelrigg delivers a frank, sometimes exasperated account of the Skyline Soaring Club's ongoing standoff with the Warren County Airport Commission over its future at Front Royal (KFRR), including a contentious WCAC meeting where a $52 monthly Based-Aircraft Fee was voted in, a heated exchange with the so-called
President George Hazelrigg reports the resolution of months of uncertainty as Skyline Soaring Club finalizes a one-year lease with the Warren County Airport Commission, keeping the club at Front Royal Airport while absorbing a new $52 monthly Based-Aircraft Fee and the loss of Hangar 5. The issue also carries two hair-raising near-midair accounts: tow pilot Dick Otis describes a head-on encounter with a Sprite during a hazy release, and an airline pilot reports spotting a glider just 300 feet below on final approach to Dulles, prompting discussion of transponder use and Potomac TRACON coordination. Beyond the safety stories, the newsletter features Fred LaSor's vivid dispatch from the CAP National Glider Camp in Matoon, Illinois, where SSC member A.J. Dunn earned his first solo; Frauke Elber's history of the Women Soaring Pilots Association and its scholarship programs; Wolf Elber's proposal for a region-wide Superior Gliding Certificate aimed at reducing insurance costs; and a profile of Slovenian photographer Matevz Lenarcic's solo round-the-world attempt in a Pipistrel Sinus motorglider. Rounding out the issue are technical articles on steep-turn aerodynamics and tow-pilot control-failure procedures, a partnership wanted ad for a VRollanden-Schneider LS-6a, and an invitation to the First Annual Hobbs Fly-In on August 21–22.
The September 2004 issue of Skyline Soaring Club's newsletter carries the somber news that Paul Schweizer, the 91-year-old founder of Schweizer Aircraft and a driving force behind the 1-26 Association and one-design soaring competition, passed away on August 18. The obituary, penned by 1-26 Association President Bill Vickland, recalls Schweizer's authorship of *Sailplanes by Schweizer* and *Soaring with Eagles*, his Tuesday-and-Thursday devotion to the Schweizer Gallery at the National Soaring Museum, and his warm, garden-tending personality. Compounding the loss, the issue reports that Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has agreed to acquire Schweizer Aircraft—the oldest privately owned aircraft manufacturer in the United States, producer of 2,160 sailplanes and 900-plus helicopters—deal expected to close by year's end. President George Hazelrigg delivers a stirring call to arms, warning that soaring faces a
This issue is anchored by Dave Weaver's vivid, day-by-day account of the 2004 18M National Soaring Championship at Uvalde, Texas, where a six-pilot Mid-Atlantic team (including Fred Mueller and Weaver himself) logged 38 hours of contest flying, five gold-distance flights, and four five-hour sorties against the nation's top glider pilots, including world champion Doug Jacobs. Weaver's narrative captures the full texture of a national contest: a rain-soaked practice-day landout at an exotic game ranch, a 265-mile assigned task shadowed by Jacobs, a three-turn task along the Rio Grande, and the ritual of loading 350 pounds of water ballast before a 10 a.m. grid. Back home, the club weathered a full-fledged tornado that tore through the OKV field at Winchester on September 17, ripping hangar panels and uprooting trees while the gliders inside survived intact. President George Hazelrigg reports Jim Kellett's election to the SSA Board of Directors as Region 4 Director, a clean safety audit by Burt Compton of the Soaring Safety Foundation, and a wave of young pilots—Matt Brewer, Danny Noonan, Loring Ross, and new student Joe Clark—approaching their first solos. A tribute to founding members Leo and Linda Meacher, a WWII Navy carrier pilot who helped move the club to 8W2, closes with Phil Jordan's 1979 first-ride memory. Rounding out the issue: Geoff Hazelrigg's Silver Badge flight and its bureaucratic twist, Piet Barber's Silver, a Curmudgeon's Corner grammar lesson, and a Baltimore County Waterfront Airfest announcement.
This November 2004 issue captures the Skyline Soaring Club at a moment of youthful renewal, with record membership, four high-school-age students working toward ratings, and two of them already soloed. The standout story is 14-year-old Daniel Noonan, who joined the club in May with his father and has already claimed first prize in the Soaring Society of America's CADET Scholarship, his essay weaving soaring, freedom, and a dream of the U.S. Air Force Academy into a moving coming-of-age narrative. The issue also announces Piet Barber's appointment as Chief Flight Instructor, succeeding Jim Kellett, who is set to become SSA Region IV Director; a tongue-in-cheek 'glider battle' challenge pitting Bill Vickland's LS-8/18 against Fred Mueller's 1-26 to be settled by OLC points over the 2005 season, with a $250 charity donation riding on the result; the club's December 11 holiday party at the Canary Cottage in Clifton, Virginia; and the first Region IV Soaring Safety Foundation Flight Instructors' Revalidation Clinic, to be taught by Bob Wander at Dulles in January 2005.
Skyline Soaring Club wraps up 2004 with a bumper crop of club news: Joe Clark nails a picture-perfect solo in the Grob, Steve Wegner earns his PPL-G, and the Board scrambles to fill four open director seats ahead of the January 15 annual meeting. The issue's centerpiece is George Hazelrigg's vividly told account of a ridge day at Massanutten that goes sideways when a K lands in a second cow pasture, a protective cow and calf stage a Mexican standoff at the gate, and a shiny new Yukon gets stuck axle-deep in what the author insists is only half mud. The retrieve crew spends two hours wrestling a two-place glider onto a trailer in undulating, mine-dotted grass before the left fender falls off on the drive home. Also in this issue: details on an affordable independent ground school, a winter wave-soaring window at Petersburg, West Virginia, the SSA's hard-won TSA exemption keeping gliders out of new security rules, a University of Florida team of 25,000 rat neurons learning to fly a simulated F-22, and the club's holiday party at the Canary Cottage in Clifton, Virginia.
Skyline Soaring Club wraps up a spotless flying season—no accidents, no injuries—with a January issue that reads like a highlight reel of the sport at its best. Brian Collins delivers a gripping first-person account of a 6½-hour ridge-and-wave flight out of Julian, Pennsylvania, climbing to nearly 18,000 feet in a 100-knot jet stream, executing a 120-mile final glide at an average 110 mph, and learning the hard way that wave clouds are not as stationary as they appear. The club's members also lent their expertise to the Space Shuttle Columbia accident investigation team, four teenagers who started soaring at 14 all found their way to solo (including Dan Noonan's crosswind solo in the ASK-21), and Steve Wegner finally tamed a LAK-12 that had been waiting for him two years. Carlos Roberts offers a thorough winter-reading guide to PC-based soaring simulators, from Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons to the then-new Sailors of the Sky and the beta-version Silent Wings. The National Soaring Museum reports progress on a motion-platform Schweizer 1-26B simulator, and the issue closes with Jim Kellett's trademark Curmudgeon's Corner, a welcome for new member Craig Sutherland, and a reminder that the club's annual party at the Canary House in Clifton was, in the president's words, the kind of event you simply have to be there for.
This February 2005 issue of Skylines leads with a detailed technical analysis by Judah Milgram comparing the climb performance of the SGS 1-26E, LS-8A, and Schleicher K-8b across four Horstmann thermal models, challenging conventional glider handicapping indices and suggesting that lighter, slower gliders can outperform the LS-8 in narrow thermals. President George Hazelrigg introduces the new Board of Directors—Shane Neitzey, Kolie Lombard, Chris Groshel, Rick Harris, and Fred Winter—and announces it will be his final year at the helm, outlining a seven-point legacy plan that includes establishing a stable base at Front Royal, launching a youth program, and formalizing ground operations training. The issue also covers the club's annual safety meeting on February 19, a flight instructor recertification class held at MCI's Dulles hangar, a review of Charlie Spratt's memoir *See ya' at the airport!*, a look at rare Italian WWII glider pilot badges, and a humorous side-by-side comparison of soaring and automotive safety rhetoric by Jim Kellett.
The March 2005 issue of Skylines kicks off the new soaring season at Front Royal with President George Hazelrigg's call for better relations with power pilots, a revived social program, and a reminder of the club's ongoing political work with the Warren County Board of Supervisors. Steve Wallace reports back from a self-initiated checkout flight in a Schweizer 2-32 at Dillingham Airport, Oahu, complete with spins over the Pacific, a simulated rope break at 300 feet, and a closing martini on the veranda of the Moana Hotel where, he claims, he was conceived. Judah Milgram issues a blunt propeller-safety bulletin, while Jim Kellett marvels at the glass-cockpit, motorglider, and computer-driven world he encountered at a winter soaring convention. The issue's most sobering piece, Ron Hansen's 'Four First's and a Funeral,' recounts a fatal winch-launch accident at a German soaring club that killed a young, experienced pilot on his first tow in a newly purchased high-performance glider. Rounding out the newsletter are humorous safety-meeting photographs by Dick Otis, a birth announcement, an obituary for aviation writer Ted Park, and word that Fred LaSor will be managing operations at Soar Minden beginning in April.
This April 2005 issue of Skylines is anchored by a remarkable dual-life story: Skyline tow pilot Steve Wallace, who also served on the 13-member Columbia Accident Investigation Board, presented the shuttle's fatal foam-strike sequence to two separate gatherings of local pilots, walking them through the data that revealed how a two-pound piece of insulation doomed seven astronauts. The newsletter also reports a major political victory at Front Royal–Warren County Airport, where the entire Airport Commission resigned amid a bitter standoff with airport users, leaving manager Reggie Cassagnol to report directly to the County Board of Supervisors while the club navigates a new self-sufficiency mandate and the contentious Based-Aircraft Fee. Other highlights include a Warren Sentinel reporter's first glider ride (and her dog Sasha's ground-level tow), a donated LS-4 display and auction at the Trinity Stars Gala benefiting a Falls Church school, news that the FAA has finally approved restricted Pawnees for tow duty, and word that Minden Soaring's Gordon Boettger may have set a new U.S. distance record with an estimated 1,130-mile Easter flight. The issue closes with the club's social season launching at an open cookout and a friendly plea from the editor for members to share their stories, photos, and plane-for-sale listings with the newsletter.
May 2005 brings a full slate of activity to Skyline Soaring Club. The centerpiece is Dave Weaver's vivid report from a two-day soaring seminar at the Penn State Conference Center, where two-time World Champion George Moffat urged pilots to make a decision every two minutes or be 'loafing,' 17-time National Champion Karl Striediek revealed his habit of flying a constant airspeed rather than chasing the McCready indicator, and Michael Bird—better known to SSA Convention regulars as 'Platypus'—compared improving one's flying to learning the cello. The seminar also covered Gel Cell battery care, composite sailplane repair via the German glider repair school, ELT and survival equipment requirements, and a Reynolds-number aerodynamics lecture that concluded with the memorable fact that the Reynolds number for sperm is 1. On the club front, President George Hazelrigg issues a pointed call for roster discipline as summer training ramps up, and longtime Treasurer Bob Collier hands the keys to Dan Noonan, a retired Merchant Marine master with 27 years at sea. Richard Freytag organizes a rare off-field landing training day at Craig Hageman's High View strip, and the club points members toward a free public tour of NOAA's P-3 Orion 'Hurricane Hunter' at Richmond International Airport on May 4. The issue closes with notices of the Vintage Sailplane Association rally in Manning, South Carolina, and the International Vintage Sailplane Meet at Harris Hill, Elmira, in August.
This issue of Skyline Soaring Club's newsletter delivers a remarkable spread of aviation storytelling. President George Hazelrigg recounts a nail-biting May 14 session in which the crew sealed the hangar doors a mere five seconds before 80-mph winds, hail, and near-zero visibility tore through the field, and urges members to join newly formed Warren County airport management committees. Fred LaSor, flying in Minden, Nevada, describes a harrowing wave flight in which he and a student were blown into a dense rotor cloud at 23,000 feet and survived by executing a benign spiral, emerging at 12,000 feet after being carried six miles off course. George Hazelrigg Jr. contributes a vivid, long-form account of his 1996 stint as Station Science Leader at the South Pole, detailing LC-130 crossings over the Transantarctic Mountains, the quirks of life at 90 degrees south, and the neutrino-detection project buried five thousand feet in the ice. The issue also reports Minden Soaring Club member Gordon Boettger's declared 2,056-kilometre three-turn wave flight, one of the three longest soaring flights ever recorded in North America; a successful instructional fly-in to the Hageman family's High View Farms strip, where a nine-year-old nearly claimed flight of the day; Dave Weaver's humorous tale of an accidentally activated ELT that summoned a multi-jurisdiction police response on a Pennsylvania highway; and the obituary of longtime aviation figure Pete Bryce, who died in May at age 77.
The July 2005 issue of Skylines is a busy summer dispatch from the Skyline Soaring Club. Editor Phil Jordan, who also serves as Art Director at the U.S. Postal Service Stamp Development Office, details the upcoming dedication of the American Advances in Aviation commemorative stamp sheet at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh on July 29, featuring ten classic aircraft from the 1930s through the 1950s—including the B-29 Superfortress, P-47 Thunderbolt, and Beechcraft 35 Bonanza—painted by artist William S. Phillips. The issue also carries a dramatic notice that Mars will make its closest approach to Earth in recorded history on August 27, a sight no living person will likely see again. Club life fills the remaining pages: President George Hazelrigg reports from Chengdu, China, where 90-degree heat, heavy smog, and a lack of suitable landout sites have made soaring a distant dream; a black bear makes an uninvited appearance on Runway 9 during the Father's Day crowd; and the editor declares it the club's first annual photo issue, showcasing members in Citabrias, Grobs, and a K-14 over the Chesapeake and the Colorado high country. Phil Jordan also shares a nostalgic personal essay tracing his path from a wide-eyed eleven-year-old on a DC-3 to an amateur pilot finally strapped into an AT-6 Texan for an aerobatics flight, and the club welcomes two new members while bidding farewell to Bob Critchlow, who is relocating to Florida.
President George Hazelrigg sounds the alarm in a forceful 'Freedom to Fly' editorial, warning that a proposed expansion of the Washington, D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone would place the boundary a mere 0.2 miles from the Front Royal runway—effectively declaring gliders a national-security threat. He urges members to contact their Congressional representatives, arguing that post-9/11 restrictions have already shuttered area airports and that the terrorists 'win if they succeed, and they win if they lose.' The issue also features Piet E. Barber's lengthy, mathematically rigorous dissection of two competing aerotow turn techniques, concluding that the standard 'wings parallel' method is overwhelmingly supported by the soaring literature and that the alternative 'straight towline' technique actually increases drag and reduces climb rate. In lighter fare, Bill Wark takes his 84-year-old mother-in-law Marion Garvey for a 30-minute ride over the Shenandoah Valley, and veteran pilot Bob Collier recounts his routine hayfield out-landing that sent Warren County deputies and a State Trooper scrambling. The newsletter also records Eric Litt's CPL(G) rating, Bob Gould's solo, Bill Vickland's third-place finish at the 1-26 Championships in Moriarty, New Mexico, a new zero-balance payment policy from the Board, and Joe Parrish's rejoining of the club from Boston.
This September 2005 issue of *Skylines* is anchored by Dave Weaver's gripping account of the 15-Meter National Soaring Championship at Uvalde, Texas, where a routine cross-country task turned into a survival ordeal. Running low on altitude over some of the most desolate terrain in the contest area, Weaver was forced to land on an unmarked ranch road, where his ASW-27b ground-looped into a barbed-wire fence, shearing off control surfaces and snapping the boom. What followed was a long vigil among seven-foot thorn bushes and a pack of large dogs, a cell-phone relay to his crew chief Byron, and a 2230-hour rescue by two US Border Patrol agents who later revealed he had landed on a primary smuggling route north of the border. The issue also carries Kit Carson's heartfelt resignation from the club after 33 years of soaring, a detailed technical walkthrough of the Tost tow-reel system by George Hazelrigg, Ron Hansen's pointed dispatch from a German gliderport about an airport that refused to send its rescue truck to a burning tractor, and the announcement of the Warrenton-Fauquier Grand Opening Fly-In on the new 5,000-foot runway 14/32.
Judah Milgram's vivid dispatch from the International Vintage Glider Meet at Harris Hill puts readers on the flight line alongside a Sisu that nearly won the 1963 World Gliding Championships in Argentina, a Morelli M-200 two-seater, a Bowlus Baby, a Kirby Kite, and a beautifully restored Frankfort glider—all of them flying, not museum pieces. The issue also carries the invitation to the October 8 dedication of Mount Washington, New Hampshire as the 14th National Landmark of Soaring, honoring Lewin Barringer's pioneering 1938 wave flight. Elsewhere, Chief Tow Pilot Dick Otis lays out the twelve-step gauntlet for minting a new Pawnee tow pilot, President George Hazelrigg wrestles with a $20,000 engine-overhaul decision and a tangle of hangar-fee restructuring, and a letter from the Cape Gliding Club in Worcester, South Africa reminds readers that the soaring community stretches across oceans. A spirited exchange with Rusty Lowry at St. Mary's, Virginia, reveals a small but thriving glider operation on the Chesapeake, while the editor's 'Copy That' column rounds out the issue with a square-dance plug, Katrina volunteer calls, and congratulations to the Freytag family on the arrival of baby Henry Christopher James.
This November 2005 issue of Skylines is anchored by a heartfelt tribute to Captain George C. Watkins, U.S. Navy (ret.), the three-war fighter and experimental test pilot who became a fixture at Warrenton Soaring Center and a champion of glider aerobatics in his Fox glider. Fellow pilots recall towing him to 4,000 feet only to watch him roll his Kilo Serria onto its back in mid-air, and a former NAS Patuxent River operations officer shares the story of how the handsome young officer earned his nickname. The issue also reports the Warren County Airport Commission's successful campaign to eliminate the Based-Aircraft Fee and the club's pending recovery of Hangar 5 for five additional trailers. President George Hazelrigg, stepping down after four years, urges members to volunteer for the January board elections. The Soaring Safety Foundation's new 'First Flight' program—requiring every pilot's first flight of 2006 to be with a CFI-G—receives broad endorsement from SSA leadership. In a lighter note, a CBS 60 Minutes crew filmed a 'Mystery Man' glider check-out at Seminole-Lake Gliderport that turned out to be astronaut Neil Armstrong, a competitive glider pilot in the 1960s, for a television special airing November 6. The issue closes with details of the club's December 17 holiday party at the Canary Cottage B&B in Clifton, Virginia, and news of the 14th National Landmark of Soaring dedication at Mount Washington, New Hampshire.
The December 2005 issue closes out the flying season with a blend of celebration, caution, and remembrance. President George Hazelrigg wraps up a successful year at Front Royal, Virginia, celebrating the elimination of the Based-Aircraft Fee and a $3,000 refund, while laying out plans for the Pawnee's engine and calling on members to volunteer for the Board of Directors. The issue's most gripping piece is a first-person accident report from SSA Region XII Director Jim Skydell, who recounts how a single misgrabbed handle—retracting the landing gear instead of deploying spoilers—turned a routine high-drag approach at Cal City into a 70-knot impact that shattered his DG-300 and left him with a fractured lumbar vertebra. A deeply personal tribute from Captain Richard Otis honors his late father, Commander Gordon Otis (USN, Ret.), a WWII antisubmarine pilot, Navy Test Pilot School graduate, and lifelong flight instructor who passed in November 2005. The issue also carries SSA news on the new D.C. ADIZ training requirement, word that Apollo 8 Lunar Module Pilot William Anders will headline the 2006 SSA convention in Arlington, Texas, and details for the club's holiday party at the Warks' Canary Cottage in Clifton, Virginia.
President George Hazelrigg, after four years at the helm, calls on members to step forward as candidates for two open Board seats ahead of the January 21 annual meeting, while the Soaring Safety Foundation launches its 2006 Accident Reduction Program, urging every pilot to make the first flight of the new year with a CFI-G instructor and inviting the community to share near-miss stories in a new 'Accidents That Almost Happened' series. The issue also carries a warm dispatch from Tucson, where member Vern Kline and his children enjoyed guest flights in a Grob 103 off an abandoned WWII airfield west of Marana, and longtime member Mark Ballinger reports his new role as Chief Pilot for Raytheon's Unmanned Aircraft Directorate. The club welcomes new members Craig and Zachary Bendorf, celebrates the birth of Caroline Alexandra Sutherland, and rallies behind a volunteer effort to put a glider on display at the 2006 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, all while the editor defends the beloved Massanutten masthead photo with a 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' philosophy.
This issue carries the final President's Prerogative from George Hazelrigg, who looks back on a four-year tenure marked by paying off the Grob and Sprite, refurbishing the Pawnee, surviving a hostile Warren County Airport Commission that tried to drive the club out with a Based-Aircraft Fee, and building what he calls the best glider-pilot training program anywhere. The January 21 annual meeting elected new directors Robert Link, Rob Creedon, and Joe Rees, handed Bill Vickland a Sustained Service Award to a prolonged standing ovation, and confirmed the Pawnee is ready to fly. Piet Barber details the club's new computerized instruction syllabus, which lets students track their progress online between flights. Beyond the field, the newsletter reports on New Zealand's first televised Gliding Grand Prix in the Omarama mountains—won by Ben Flewett in a finish decided by four points, with helicopter air-to-air footage and 3D graphics that director Peter Newport called a new spectator sport—and announces a revamped Region IV North Contest at the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Center, now featuring a cross-country school, mentoring for new XC pilots, and a special two-place award. A Flight Instructor Renewal Clinic with Bob Wander is set for late March at Virginia Tech, and the FAA's latest registry counts 30,176 glider-rated pilots in the United States.
Skyline Soaring Club's March 2006 issue marks a fresh start on multiple fronts. Joe Rees steps in as President, replacing George Hazelrigg, who guided the club through a turbulent standoff with the Front Royal Airport Board of Airport Commissioners — a conflict now resolved, with the BAF dissolved and member fees refunded. The new Board of Directors and officer slate is introduced, and the club welcomes retired Lt. Col. Paul Seketa as its newest tow pilot. The SSA Region IV Director's Report delivers the issue's most star-studded tidbit: Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, speaking at the Arlington convention, revealed he had recently earned a glider rating and recounted his very first glider flight in December 1969 at the Capital Area Soaring School in Warrenton, Virginia. The newsletter also covers the mandatory February Safety Meeting, Craig Rodarmel's appointment to the Warren County Airport Commission, upcoming OLC cross-country camps in Virginia and North Carolina, the revamped fall Region IV North contest, and a heartfelt letter from a longtime member reflecting on 63 years of flight and fond memories of soaring above the Massanutten Mountains.
April 2006's issue of *Skylines* captures a remarkably full month for the Front Royal, Virginia, soaring community. The standout event is Bob Collier's extraordinary March 20 flight in a CAP 1-26: releasing at a mere 900 feet AGL, he climbed to over 9,000 feet and logged more than four hours in the air, a performance that left even veteran towpilots and club members stunned. The issue also records Rick Harris's hard-won solo after eighteen months of training, Greg Ellis's hands-on experiment confirming that the Grob's benign-spiral spoiler system genuinely arrests a developing graveyard spiral at altitude, and George Ross's thorough guide to web-based weather resources for planning ridge, thermal, and wave flights off the Massanutten. Captain Richard Otis, on Navy orders in Hawaii, squeezes in a 30-minute ridge run at Dillingham Airfield between monsoon squalls. On the club-governance side, returning president Joe Rees outlines a new prepayment plan for flight dues, flags the still-unsigned Front Royal airport lease as his top priority, and announces a late-April board retreat to refresh the club's strategic plan. The issue also carries the sad news of Steve Harvey's death in a March car crash, the birth of Adelyne Gera Hazelrigg, and a brief note on a fatal Cessna 182 accident near Weyers Cave. Together the pages paint a vivid snapshot of a small club balancing record flights, new pilots, administrative wrangling, and the quiet camaraderie of a shared hillside.
As spring winds and snow squalls test the pilots of KFRR, Joe Parrish delivers a practical, experience-based briefing on safe operations in gusty crosswinds—covering tree-shadow turbulence, premature tow termination, and the hard lessons of a downwind landing gone wrong. The issue also marks a significant loss to the national soaring community with the passing of Floyd Sweet, 91, a longtime SSA Director, WWII glider-training pioneer at Twentynine Palms, and stalwart of the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association. On the brighter side, Chief Flight Instructor Piet Barber earns his Gold Altitude badge, Craig Bendorf logs a 50-minute solo in the K, and Dan Noonan passes his checkride after a twenty-year hiatus. The club's community outreach continues with a Soaring Cadet appearance at Randolph-Macon Academy—where a lucky student pilot logged 56 minutes aloft—and a multi-month ride program for Boy Scouts. A High Desert Soaring Club quilt raffle, a mice-infested glider in Bob Collier's garage, and a wry note about Piet's newly certified altitude round out a rich and varied issue.
Editor Phil Jordan opens with a self-deprecating plea for member contributions before the issue dives into its richest feature: Jim Kellett's meandering 'Connections' column, which traces a personal chain from a soaring demo flight in 1979 through the Flying Cow Farm gliderport, a Junkyard Wars airplane builder, the Fantasy of Flight Museum's Nieuport 17 restoration for the film *Flyboys*, and all the way to Kellett's own fifteen-year career designing Air & Space magazine and USPS aviation stamps. The issue also carries a gripping first-person account by Rick Harris of his Grob canopy popping open mid-pattern in wind and rain, and his improvised stall-and-reach maneuver to close it, followed by commentary from Kellett and a parallel canopy saga from Phil Jordan in a 1-26. SSA Region IV Director Jim Kellett weighs in on the Group Insurance Program, a TSA compliance letter that missed the glider-training exemption, and a visit by SSA Executive Director Dennis Wright to the Atlantic Soaring Club. A brief news round-up covers a fatal Schweizer crash near Pittsburgh and a Category A airprox in the Scottish Highlands in which a glider passed within fifty feet of a Tornado fighter jet at 450 knots.
In the club's longest and most personal dispatch of the year, Chief Flight Instructor Piet Barber recounts his six-year odyssey to earn the US Silver Badge—a saga of torn claim forms, expired submission windows, undeclared tasks, a dead Volkslogger battery, and one memorable lesson in supine urination. His perseverance paid off on May 6, 2006, when a 5-hour-23-minute wave-and-thermal flight from Front Royal to Luray to Winchester finally earned him Silver Badge #6857, confirmed by the SSA in June. Barber closes with eleven hard-won tips for fellow badge chasers. The issue also carries a gripping memoir from Member Emeritus Bela Gogos, who in 1942 flew his glider under a high-voltage power line to avoid a fatal collision, survived a blinding fireball, and went on to endure WWII, a Soviet Gulag, and a 39-year flying hiatus before returning to the sport in 1978 and logging 2,440 hours. Other highlights include the White House nomination of club member William B. Wark to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, a sobering report of a fatal stall-spin at a Pennsylvania soaring club, a TSA search of a pilot's reserve parachute at Anchorage, and a round of new-member welcomes and badge congratulations that underscore the club's steady growth.
The August 2006 issue of Skyline Soaring Club's newsletter, *Skylines*, is anchored by a remarkable account from instructor George Hazelrigg Jr. of a lesson given to Rebecca Pickrell, a totally blind young engineer at Northrop Grumman TASC who had never been in a glider before. Despite her blindness, Rebecca demonstrated exceptional pitch, roll, and yaw control, tracked thermals by audio vario, and flew a confident 25-minute circuit to 5,300 MSL—performance Hazelrigg noted surpassed that of many students after ten flights. Her seeing-eye dog, Jersey, wagged her tail for every landing plane but grew anxious when Rebecca didn't get out. The issue also celebrates club milestones: Danny Noonan's Private Glider Rating, Craig Bendorf's Commercial rating, Vern Kline's solo, and Bill Vickland's second-place finish (and Old Toad Trophy win) at the 1-26 Championships in Parowan, Utah. Hazelrigg contributes a travelogue from a soaring trip to Moriarty, New Mexico, while Ricardo Pradella and his two sons send a warm thank-you from Spain. The newsletter also announces the club's 15th Anniversary Gala for November 4 at the Heritage Hunt Golf & Country Club in Gainesville, Virginia, features a technical advisory on IGC-approved data downloads for FAI badge claims, and carries a brief but poignant obituary for founding member Ralph Wentzel, who passed in April at age 67.
The September 2006 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is anchored by Susan Gogos's sweeping memoir, "Reflections of the Crew," in which she recounts years of ground-crew life alongside her husband Bela at soaring sites from Wurtsboro, New York, to Keystone Gliderport and Sugarbush, Vermont. Her stories range from the lighthearted—sharing a hangar with actor Chris Reeve, watching Cliff Robertson earn his glider certificate, and Bela's improbable landing in a village cemetery at Bellwood—to the deeply tragic, including a fatal crash at Keystone caused by an unhooked elevator and a mountain collision at Sugarbush that left a pilot and his stepson injured. The issue also features Piet Barber's vivid account of a two-hour cross-country flight at Warner Springs, California, with former Skyline member Byron Lowry, in which a single thermal carried them from 6,000 to 13,000 feet beneath cloud streets stretching to the horizon near the Palomar Observatory. Club news includes Craig Bendorf's Bronze Badge (August 27), Dan Noonan earning his Private Pilot Glider license on his 16th birthday, a grateful shout-out to out-of-town pilots who rescued the club when its tow-plane went down, and details for the 15th Anniversary Gala on November 4 at the Heritage Hunt Golf & Country Club in Gainesville, Virginia, featuring nationally known speaker Doug Jacobs.
The October 2006 issue of Skylines is dominated by a major financial crisis at the Soaring Society of America, where a former employee's misappropriation of withheld payroll taxes left the 13,000-member organization owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to New Mexico and the IRS. The SSA's CFO was fired, the Executive Committee moved swiftly to contain the damage, and a member Town Hall Meeting was set for November 5 at the Udvar-Hazy Center. Back at the club's home field in Front Royal, instructor Gordon Roesler recounts a remarkable September 23 session in which two pilots executed downwind landings amid severe sink and gusty crosswinds, one involving a high-speed 90-knot approach that required the full 3,000 feet of runway. The issue also announces the Club's 15th Anniversary Gala on November 4 at the Heritage Hunt Golf & Country Club, featuring 1985 World Champion and seven-time U.S. National Champion Doug Jacobs as keynote speaker; celebrates new badge achievements by Mike Ash and Mark Witte; and includes editor Phil Jordan's serendipitous discovery of the Library of Congress's 'Bound for Glory' exhibition of rare 1940s color glider photography, including a striking image of a Marine glider at Parris Island, South Carolina.
The November 2006 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is anchored by the club's 15th Anniversary Gala on November 4 at the Heritage Hunt Golf & Country Club in Gainesville, Virginia, where 1985 World Champion and seven-time U.S. National Champion Doug Jacobs is the after-dinner speaker. SSA Region IV Director Jim Kellett issues a major fundraising appeal to put a volunteer-staffed soaring presence back at the 2007 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where the prior summer's experiment had been a spectacular success; the goal is $8,000, with $2,622 already pledged. Chief Duty Officer George Hazelrigg follows an unnamed field incident with a pointed safety alert laying out mandatory radio, runway-clearance, and chain-of-command procedures for all club operations. A 'Meet the Member' profile introduces Bob Sallada, a former Naval Test Pilot School instructor and T-45 Goshawk flight-test program manager who first touched a glider by accident in the early 1970s and who, among a long list of aviation firsts, was one of twenty finalists in the last Apollo astronaut selection. Rounding out the issue are a call for a November–December wave camp, a NASA student aeronautics competition announcement, and word that Dr. John H. Campbell received the 2006 Mervin K. Strickler Aerospace Education Leadership Award in Arlington, Virginia, with Buzz Aldrin in attendance.
Skyline Soaring Club's 15th Anniversary Gala on November 4, 2006, drew more than 75 members and guests to the Heritage Hunt Club House in Gainesville, Virginia, for an evening of dancing, trivia, and a riveting presentation by National Glider Champion Doug Jacobs. Jacobs recounted the 2003 'Return to Kitty Hawk' expedition—a 12-stage, 2,500-mile cross-country glider flight from Los Angeles to the birthplace of powered flight, completed by over 50 pilots from eight countries—and shared details of the grueling 2006 International Glider Championship in Sweden. The issue also carries a gripping first-person account from emeritus member Bela Gogos of stealing a Bucker Jungman from Heroes Square in Budapest on Christmas morning 1944 and flying 120 miles west through Russian lines to escape the encirclement. New members Verne Kline, Sobek Dziadek, and Curtiss Wheeler earned their pilot and instructor certificates; Steve Rockwood steps in as Membership Officer; and Miriam Ellis proposes a standing social calendar to keep spouses and families at the field. The newsletter closes with details of the December 16 holiday party at the Canary Cottage in Clifton, a Region 4 town hall covering the SSA's financial scandal and a tour of Horten flying-wing sailplanes at the Udvar-Hazy Museum, and an announcement of a cross-country racing camp at Perry, South Carolina, in April 2007 mentored by Jacobs and the U.S. Soaring Team.
This January 2007 issue of Skylines captures a club in a moment of both celebration and urgency. The centerpiece is Craig Sutherland's account of holiday training operations at W99, where newcomers Matt Putz and Bruce Codwise earned their first glider solos—Matt connecting with light wave to 8,000 feet and receiving a Sport Pilot endorsement, while Bruce completed crosswind training and set his sights on commercial and instructor ratings. Chief Tow Pilot Dick Otis, marking eight years with the club, delivers a pointed warning that Skyline Soaring's very survival depends on recruiting and training more tow pilots and acquiring a second tow plane, noting that on a recent good soaring day more than 25 members sat on a waiting list for tows. The issue also carries President Joe Rees's call for greater member involvement and an early flying season enabled by a joint operating agreement with the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association, Fred LaSor's cautionary tale of a violent ground loop in a Grob during a Nevada wave flight that left a student with a cracked vertebra, a free DVD of the club's 15th Anniversary Gala, a rich exchange of Warrenton Soaring Center history from retired Navy fighter pilot Ron C. Miller, and updates on the SSA's ongoing recovery from the Alan Gleason theft scandal.
Skyline's February 2007 issue packs a full month of club life into its pages. President Joe Rees lays out the aftermath of a tense annual meeting in which Eric Litt was elected to the board as chief tow pilot, dues crept up to $25 a month, and the ASK-21 and tow rates were adjusted to keep the club solvent while remaining the valley's most affordable operation. In a deeply personal sidebar, member Shane Neitzey recounts the moment his doctors told him his Hepatitis C virus was undetectable—six months after a second treatment that had less than a ten percent chance of working—and admits to crying uncontrollably over good news for the first time in his life. Fellow member Jim Kellett brings readers along on a 50th-anniversary trip to New Zealand's South Island, where he and his wife Pat flew a Duo out of the tiny village of Omarama, got towed behind a vintage Archer, and marveled at a rural community where gliding is, in the locals' words, the only show in town. The issue also features Michael Ash's hands-on review of the X-Plane flight simulator as a winter soaring substitute, a report on the Flight Instructor Recertification Clinic held at M-ASA with Dean Carswell and Bob Wander, Richard Freytag's hard-nosed safety corner on turbulence training at Petersburg, and Dick Otis's continued push for a second tow plane. Rounding out the newsletter: a reminder of the mandatory February 17 safety seminar at Front Royal, a photo of a lenticular over Carson Valley, a warning about rats in the hangar trash cans, and the joyful announcement that Rebecca Pickrell is expecting a daughter due on February 12—Shawn's birthday.
President Joe Rees delivers a vivid, self-deprecating account of his first SSA Annual Convention in Memphis in over twenty years, from gawking at a carbon-fiber Antares 20E and a quarter-million-dollar LS-10 to sending his wife Sherry off to Graceland ("Elvis was a better singer than an interior decorator") and defending his choice to attend a sailplane battery session. The issue also features a pointed open forum on whether gliders should install transponders, with SSA Region IV Director Jim Kellett weighing the safety case against fears of draconian FAA mandates, and member Frank Banas reporting on a $439 PCAS unit he purchased at the convention. New members Chris Woodham and the Hatfield family join the club ahead of the 2007 season, a mandatory safety seminar is held at Front Royal, and the board announces improved communication protocols including hangar dry-erase boards and director-to-chief liaison assignments. Roundout items include a recommendation for Dale Masters' new book Soaring Beyond the Basics, the SSA's "Adopt-a-Library" program, the Pathfinder-Plus solar flying wing entering the Smithsonian collection, and the unfortunate news that Grob Systems in Bluffton, Ohio is ceasing U.S. operations after 24 years.
Skyline Soaring Club's April 2007 issue is dominated by a major community-relations push: after more than $20,000 in planning and research, the club installed a new German-made Hoffmann four-blade propeller on its PA-25 tow plane and began testing on March 26, with early results showing dramatically reduced noise at no loss of climb performance. President Joe Rees frames the effort as part of a broader strategy to be good neighbors in a rapidly developing Front Royal, Virginia, complete with a noise-abatement flight-path plan, a goodwill glider ride for county administrator Doug Stanley, and preliminary talks toward a long-term airport lease. The issue also sends member George Hazelrigg to Dillingham, Oahu, for a vivid account of ridge soaring on a 9,000-foot runway shared with skydivers, turboprops, and a military target range just over the hills. New member Tom Park—former Piper Aircraft designer who once nearly died in severe icing on a North Atlantic ocean crossing—shares his story of rediscovering flight through gliders. Rounding out the newsletter are equipment-care reminders, a member weight survey, and a full calendar of spring events including an away-day fly-in at High View, West Virginia, the Vintage Sailplane Association Nationals in South Carolina, and a Virginia–Carolinas sport-soaring tour hosted by the Tidewater Soaring Society.
The May 2007 issue of Skylines carries the club's most consequential news in years: the airport commission and the Skyline board have entered discussions to secure a 25- to 30-year lease at Front Royal, with glider hangars to be added to the Airport Layout Plan west of Front Royal Aero Services. Alongside that landmark, the newsletter brims with the small, human moments that make a flying club a community. Vern Kline recounts the day his son Richard, on a 2,000-foot tow, found a column of 8-knot lift and climbed past 5,000 feet over the Shenandoah Valley. At Randolph-Macon Academy's Springfest, dozens of middle-schoolers crammed into the ASW-20C, and a Suffolk boarding student lingered long enough to look up and ask, "Will you adopt me?" The club also planned its second Away Day at Craig Hageman's grass-strip High View Farm Airport near Summit Point, welcomed new PPL holder Mike Ash, mourned the death of Blue Angels pilot Lt. Kevin Davis in a Beaufort air-show crash, and issued an urgent call for members to step up as Hangarmeister and Tow Car Meister. It is a newsletter that looks simultaneously at the next three decades of the club and the next generation of pilots who will fill its hangars.
Skyline Soaring Club members marked a memorable June with a cross-country away day at High View, a rural grass strip 25 miles northeast of Front Royal, where 15 flights were logged under challenging crosswinds and Piet Barber claimed flight of the day with a 3-hour-45-minute tour of the Massanutten ridge and Harrisonburg. The outing, hosted by field owner Craig Hageman and powered by tow pilot Steve Wallace's enthusiastic aero-towing, gave pilots a hands-on lesson in landing at an unfamiliar field with trees at the threshold. The issue also carries Piet Barber's farewell note as he relocates to Fribourg, Switzerland for two years, his Memorial Day picnic report featuring Lynne Wark's hand-stamped club-logo pies, SSA Region IV Director Jim Kellett's urgent call for a successor amid the Society's restructuring, and Phil Jordan's spirited defense of the WWII glider program's overlooked legacy, including the release of the 'Silent Wings' documentary. Club business items include the search for a replacement Chief Flight Instructor, the adoption of a Honda trike ATV for ground operations, and the sad passing of aviation author and weather consultant Robert N. Buck at age 93.
The July 2007 issue of Skyline Soaring Club's newsletter is headlined by Michael Ash's dramatic account of a June 20th flight in Bob Collier's 1-26 (N289) out of Front Royal. After catching a 6-knot thermal to 4,200 feet AGL, Ash rode the Massanutten ridge at speeds up to 95 MPH with zero sink, covering 45 miles in roughly half an hour down to the Massanutten resort. The return trip, however, required a risky gap-jump between ridge segments that cost him critical altitude, forcing his first-ever off-airport landing in a hilly hay field bordered by trees. The glider rolled up a slope and came to rest in a hollow, where Ash enjoyed a nap under the wing, an amazed roofing crew, a nonchalant farmer, and a heroic recovery effort. The issue also features Jim Kellett's report on the third annual Family Day at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center, where Skyliners Richard Freytag and Frank Banas displayed gliders to over 17,000 visitors, including a visit from the Virginia Department of Aviation's chief. An 18-year-old exchange student from Warsaw, Poland, Blanca Abramek, contributes a vivid first-ride account with George Hazelrigg, while the editor's column rounds out the issue with used-glider buying advice, a note on the Perlan glider's 50,699-foot record, and details on the upcoming NAS Oceana Air Show featuring aerobatic champion Manfred Radius.
The August 2007 issue of Skylines arrives packed with transition and turbulence—both literal and figurative. The FAA announces a major overhaul of the Washington ADIZ, slashing 1,800 square miles and 33 airports from the zone and replacing the infamous 'Mickey Mouse ears' with a clean 30-nautical-mile circle effective August 30, a change that will reshape how Skyline pilots manage their approaches to the Dulles corridor. On the club side, the Board and instructor cadre elect Bob Sallada—veteran of the Naval Test Pilot School, Vietnam combat tours in the A-7, and the T-45 Goshawk flight-test program—as the new Chief Flight Instructor, while longtime CFI Piet Barber and his wife Stacy bid a fond farewell before a two-year posting in Fribourg, Switzerland. The issue also carries Bob Gould's vivid account of his first cross-country flight in a Capstan, which included a hair-raising passage through the Dulles approach where heavy jets crossed his glidepath one after another, and Jim Kellett's confirmation of a TCAS Resolution Advisory with a United Express jet over Front Royal, underscoring why the new transponder-equipped airspace rules matter. Rounding out the newsletter: Gordon Roesler's three-and-a-half-hour ridge-and-thermal endurance flight, Mike Ash's harrowing (and slightly messy) emergency landing in a Woodstock, Virginia school parking lot, Mike Hatfield's acrobatic ridge-soaring days at Dillingham Field in Hawaii, the NAS Oceana Air Show featuring glider aerobaticist Manfred Radius, and a welcome to a fresh crop of new members joining the Skyline family.
This September 2007 issue of Skyline Soaring Club's newsletter opens with a practical deep-dive on glider-trailer towing safety, drawing on the 850,000-mile experience of a former long-haul truck driver to put glider pilots' minds at ease. The club celebrates 17-year-old Matt Brewer, who earned his Private Pilot Glider certificate after beginning his soaring journey at age 13 in Las Vegas, and welcomes a wave of new probationary and temporary members. Guest flights delighted visitors from Paris and New York, while the club's most stirring story belongs to Bob Jones, an 84-year-old WWII Navy seaplane pilot who, after a chance visit to Front Royal, went from a wandering first-tow to a confident 3,000-foot release in a single flight. The issue also carries the sad news of Paul MacCready's passing on August 28, a personal update from Susan Gogos on her cancer treatment, a call for a new SSA representative to the National Coalition for Aviation Education, and a reminder that several Skyliners fly with the Civil Air Patrol, offering cadets essentially free glider time.
The October 2007 issue of *Skylines* is bookended by farewells and fresh starts. Longtime editor and pilot Phil Jordan pens a heartfelt retirement letter, explaining that progressive medical issues and a two-year gap in flying have made it time to step down as pilot-in-command and, after the December issue, hand the newsletter to a younger steward. His parting line—borrowing Kit Carson's famous quip that soaring is like sex, and he'd rather not watch others enjoy it—sets a wry, personal tone. Elsewhere, Regional Director Jim Kellett paints a vivid portrait of the Region IV South contest at Newcastle International Airport, where forty-plus gliders, Canadian and New Mexican visitors, a fleet of RVs with pop-out satellite TVs, families with babies ten days old, a cannon-blasting morning meeting, and an army of friendly dogs turned a competitive event into a celebration of soaring's social soul. The Board of Directors, reporting through Secretary Craig Bendorf, announces the appointment of new Chief Tow Pilot David Dawood and Roster Meister Michael Ash, the generous donation of a new tow car by Steve Landers, plans for a second tow plane, and a Regional Club Meeting set for October 20 at Front Royal Airport. SSA news confirms that Albuquerque, New Mexico in February 2008 will be the last annual convention before the organization shifts to a biennial schedule, and a brief obituary honors aviation innovator Paul MacCready, designer of the Gossamer Condor and the record-setting Helios solar aircraft, who passed away at 81.
The November 2007 issue of Skylines leads with Dick Otis's gripping two-day account of in-flight distractions during FAST student rides at Front Royal: first, discovering his Grob canopy was unlatched just after rotation and recovering in four seconds; then, the following day, being hit by a blood-curdling 80-decibel screech from a hairline crack in the ASK-21's wing tape that left him unable to hear his vario, radio, or passenger for ten agonizing minutes before a hard but safe landing. The issue also announces the club's December 8 Holiday Party at Bill and Lynne Wark's Canary Cottage in Clifton, Virginia; details Bob Sallada's new mentoring program pairing incoming students with club CFIs; reports the Board's deliberations on procuring a second tow plane and its call for volunteers to fill the Skyline Editor, Board, and Sprite Meister roles; welcomes a roster of new probationary and introductory members bringing the club to 89 active flyers; and features Chris Groshel's vivid memoir of growing up beneath the TWA flight pattern at Forty-Fort, Pennsylvania, and his decades-long odyssey from a one-member glider club at Sylvania Plantation Airport to the Skyline Soaring family.
Club webmaster Piet Barber, newly transplanted to Bern, Switzerland, signs on with the Segelfluggruppe Bern and reports on a glider club that suffers from the enviable problem of too many aircraft and not enough pilots. His dispatch covers the DG-300s, Duo-Discus X, and a vintage Rhönlerche; a mandatory noon-to-one curfew enforced by local ordinance; a control tower that speaks in feet and knots while the gliders read in meters and kph; and a Swiss-German dialect that leaves him comprehending barely five percent of the lunchtable chatter. Back at Front Royal, Spencer Annear lays out a detailed financial case for a second tow plane to relieve the congestion that has left nearly ninety members waiting on a single aging Pawnee that has logged some 18,000 tows. Mike Ash logs a thrilling 100-plus-mile cross-country along the Massanutten ridge in a leaky 1-26, battling sub-freezing temperatures and the very gap at Mount Jackson that had forced his first-ever hay-field landout the previous summer. The club also welcomes its newest second-generation Skyliner, David Collier, celebrates a membership of 93, hosts a holiday party at the Canary Cottage in Clifton, and points glider instructors toward a January refresher clinic in Charlottesville.
As the Skyline Soaring Club hunkers down for winter at Front Royal, this February 2008 issue of *Skylines* packs a surprising amount of motion into a quiet season. The headline adventure is the annual Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association trek to Hobbs, New Mexico—roughly 1,700 miles of highway, a WWII-era B-17 airfield with a two-mile ramp, dorm-room lodging at $14 a night, and the promise of pegged variometers climbing past 18,000 feet. In the meantime, the club's winter calendar is full: the SSA Annual Convention convenes in Albuquerque the first week of the month, a mandatory safety seminar kicks off the 2008 flying season on February 23, and the Petersburg, West Virginia wave camp follows immediately after. The issue also carries a lively internal debate over runway-change radio calls at the uncontrolled Front Royal field, a detailed cold-weather flying guide from resident curmudgeon Jim Kellett (complete with frostbite warnings and Moon Boot recommendations).
This March 2008 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is dominated by the romance of wave soaring. Mike Ash recounts a two-day January trip to Minden, Nevada, where he and instructor Mike Moore rode a Sierra-generated wave to 18,000 feet in a Grob 103, covering roughly 275 kilometers over Reno, Topaz Lake, and the town of Walker in three hours and twelve minutes. The issue also captures a wave camp over Petersburg, West Virginia, where pilots from four states logged a dozen launches and reached flight level 127, and offers Jim Kellett's hard-won observations on reading cloud-deck holes and wisp drift to find wave in the Shenandoah Valley. On the club front, President Shane Neitzey launches a $40,000 member-loan campaign for a second tow plane, the board approves a Warrior Program to fly recovering disabled servicemen, and the annual safety meeting features two pilots walking the audience through the decisions that led to their 2002 accidents. The newsletter also carries notes from the Soaring Society of America's Albuquerque convention, including a $25,000 matched challenge grant and the announcement of a PBS documentary called *Cloudstreet*, and advertises two glider ground-school courses scheduled for March.
Gordon Roesler's gripping account of his first solo wave flight—reaching 13,900 feet in a Sprite glider off the Great North Mountain ridge near Front Royal—anchors this issue, detailing a harrowing February day of sub-zero temperatures, a frozen barograph, and a close encounter with a regional jet on approach to Dulles. The club also celebrates the arrival of its second tow plane, flown directly from the Berlin Segelflugverein in Germany by Captain Clarence Oveur and copilot Roger Murdock, and welcomes new member Bill Burner, a former competitive skydiver who test-jumped the first ram-air parachute for Notre Dame's John D. Nicolaides. Board notes cover Region IV interclub agreements, the $40,000 second-tow-plane pledge drive, and a proposed program to bring glider flights to wounded veterans at local military medical facilities, while a report from the SSA convention in Albuquerque highlights crashworthiness research and Jim Kellett's Exceptional Achievement Award.
This issue reads like a small world tour of the soaring fraternity. Greg Ellis reports on a February–March trip to New Zealand's South Island, where he flew a Duo-Discus in the 'Lord of the Rings' country around Omarama and stumbled upon the Nelson Lakes Gliding Club, complete with a winch so far away it was invisible from the takeoff point. Piet Barber, meanwhile, endured a Swiss Spring Field Check at Segelfluggruppe Bern and emerged with a vivid, sometimes exasperated comparison of Alpine and American flying doctrine—from wake-boxing so low the tow rope nearly whips the tail, to a full-spoiler 'get rid of altitude' dive that no American student would attempt. Back home, the club marked a milestone with the signing of a letter of agreement with the Potomac Consolidated TRACON (effective March 14), the second such arrangement in the United States, assigning discrete transponder codes to M-ASA gliders and tow planes operating near Front Royal and Fairfield. A detailed, multi-perspective account of an April 12 Sprite landout three miles north of the Shenandoah River yields ten hard-won retrieve lessons, including the discovery that the correct trailer hitch ball was missing. Other items include Dave Weaver's well-attended three-weekend spring training course, the grounding of the club's Sprite over a structural concern, Dick Otis's encouraging post-surgery update from the Navy Medical Center, and a second-tow-plane fundraising update standing at $33,200 of a $39,100 goal.
The June 2008 issue of Skylines captures a club in active growth mode. The board has authorized up to $75,000 (with member loans of $40,000) to acquire a second tow plane, with the committee eyeing Scouts, Super Cubs, or Maules, while a lease on Dan Noonan's single-seat Cirrus is expected to be operational by mid-June. Bill Vickland floats the idea of a 1974 Bellanca Citabria—currently for sale at $55,000—as a versatile backup tow and tail-dragger trainer, offering to run free tow tests at Petersburg. On the maintenance front, the Pawnee's VHF radio was replaced, the Sprite was grounded in late April for fuselage buckling, and the Grob was cleared as flyable after minor stabilizer damage. Community highlights include Dick Otis's encouraging post-heart-surgery update, retired anesthesiologist George Phillips building a GeeBee replica from scratch on his Virginia farm, and the launch of SoaringNV, a new Sierra wave soaring outfit in Minden, Nevada run by former Skyline member Fred LaSor. The issue also promotes the June 14 Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Family Day fly-in, the Women's Soaring Society Seminar in Indiana, and Gordon Roesler's officially acknowledged gold altitude record.
The July 2008 issue of Skylines opens with Gordon Roesler's gripping first-person account of an April 12 landout in a Sprite, triggered by a deceptively calm morning that gave way to 15-knot southwesterly winds and a violent turbulence corridor in the gap between Massanutten Ridge and Signal Knob. Roesler credits the club's recent safety meeting with steering his decisions toward a safe cornfield touchdown, and George Hazelrigg Jr. follows with a ten-lesson debrief of the harrowing four-hour retrieve, in which six men carried the disassembled glider over a fence, a stuck trailer was pulled from a mud hole, and the wrong hitch ball nearly derailed the whole operation. The issue also reports Kevin Fleet's 6/29 emergency landing after severe turbulence shattered his canopy, a detailed technical walkthrough of the club's Tost tow-reel system (including why the rope always breaks at the knot rather than the weak link), a 97-member roster update welcoming a Hungarian soloist and a Vermont pilot, a sailplane display at the NASM Udvar-Hazy Family Day, and a sidebar on Eric Rupp's record-shattering 444-mile thermal flight from Hollister to Calexico.
In a safety article that reads like a thriller set in the sky above Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, Curtis Wheeler walks members through the four Standard Terminal Arrival Routes that funnel jet traffic over and around Front Royal, explaining Minimum Enroute Altitudes, Victor airways, and the vectors that can swing a 15,000-foot airliner down to 7,000 feet MSL over the local VOR—all in the shadow of the Reno midair collision and the NTSB's push for sailplane transponders. The rest of the issue buzzes with club life: the long-awaited Cirrus is cleared for member flights at $24 an hour, with Gordon Roesler named Cirrusmeister; a Bulgarian visitor named Ertan, initially unsure whether to fly gliders or powered planes, spends an hour above 4,000 feet in a two-seater and lands declaring, "I want to start instruction tomorrow!"; the Pawnee towplane gets a full radio overhaul; the Grob sits on the ramp with a dinged aileron after a July 30 runway-light strike; the Tost rope guide is sawn through and under reconstruction; and a lead shot bag bursts across the taxiway, leaving Spencer Annear to sweep up a scatter of pellets. Rounding out the issue are a Tidewater Soaring Society letter-of-agreement with Norfolk Tower granting gliders discrete transponder codes, a call for a second towplane, a 1968 Slingby Capstan up for sale, and a gentle but pointed reminder from Resident Curmudgeon Jim Kellett to clean the hangar.
Skyline Soaring Club's September 2008 issue opens with SSC webmaster Piet Barber's vivid week-long account of chasing Alpine lift in Saanen, Switzerland, where he camped through rain, navigated Bärndütsch banter at a Lagerfest dinner, and squeezed three familiarization flights in a DG-300 around a restaurant perched atop a ski lift. Back at Front Royal, the club announced the purchase of a second tow plane—an Aviat Husky acquired in Cary, North Carolina on August 16—and celebrated two Silver Distance badges earned by Frank Banas and Craig Bendorf within days of each other. The issue also carries Mike Ash's report on spin training in a Blanik L-23 over the flat, thermally active Everglades, a reminder of the club's new Dr. Jack limited-weather service, membership and FAST-voucher procedures from Membership Officer Steve Rockwood, an SSA notice on the upcoming transition to plastic pilot certificates, and a brief look at Roke Manor Research's work on autonomous gliders that seek their own lift.
October 2008 marks what Secretary Craig Bendorf calls an "historical month" for Skyline Soaring Club: the fleet has grown to two tow planes and four gliders with the addition of a Husky and a Cirrus, the Grob and Sprite have both returned to service after repairs, and a $2 tow-fee increase takes effect. The issue's lead story sends readers into the cockpit of a Blanik L-23 at Shenandoah Valley Soaring Club, where Rob Creedon, Craig Bendorf, David Collier, and Ryan Hatfield deliberately spun the glider under the watchful eye of instructor Bob Sallada—five revolutions, a 100-knot recovery dive, and a 3-G pullout that left the author convinced he would "be a better pilot because" of the experience. Elsewhere, the newsletter points members toward the Chilhowee Oktoberfest (Oct. 10–12) in the Tennessee Appalachians, a potential five-to-six-pilot syndicate purchase of a nearly new Duo Discus with just ten hours on the airframe, winter wave-soaring camps at Petersburg, West Virginia, and a reassuring word from broker Pat Costello that AIG's financial troubles are unlikely to disrupt the SSA's group glider-insurance program. New private-pilot certificates for Rob Creedon and Tom Park round out a busy month at Front Royal.
Skyline Soaring Club's biggest news this month is the arrival of an 18-meter Open Cirrus, now under lease and ready for proficient pilots. New Cirrus pilot Mike Ash delivers a vivid first-flight report covering everything from the quirky gear-retraction lock to the surprisingly twitchy post-tow handling, and notes the club's requirements: a private glider certificate, 75 PIC flights, and 12 in the past year, with rental at $24 per hour. The month was equally busy on the solo front, as Matt Jackson earned his first solo on his fourth flight, Bulgarian-born Ertan Tete soloed in the ASK-21, and professional jet pilot Rick Regan made his first glider solo. Fifteen-year-old John Kouris made his first three flights on November 1, and the club welcomed three more introductory members. In a lighter vein, resident curmudgeon Jim Kellett recounts a back-seat ride in flight instructor Joe Parrish's 200-knot Berkut canard pusher over the Shenandoah Valley, and a rare mass migration of flying spiders. Elsewhere, the SSA announced new board leadership, opened a design contest for a traveling 18-meter nationals trophy, and the SSC board outlined 2009 plans including a student training kit program, a search for a new Grobmeister, and a West Virginia Wave Camp in late February.
The December 2008 issue of Skyline Soaring Club's newsletter leads with the story of Charlie Brown, a 90-year-old former P-38 Lightning and P-40 Warhawk pilot who, after his original Silent Wings glider training was canceled during World War II, finally experienced his first glider flight with SSC instructor Andy Gerner at Front Royal on October 11. The issue also chronicles a spectacular November 16 wave-flying day that produced 22 launches, ten gliders airborne in the first hour, altitudes above 11,000 feet, and half a dozen or so pilots collectively covering over 1,000 kilometers. Board candidates Jim Kellett and Joe Parrish have announced their candidacies for the 2009 elections, and the newsletter covers new introductory and visiting membership policies, tow-plane and glider operational status, the SSA's completed annual audit, the FAA's extension of parachute packing intervals to 180 days, a look at New Zealand's AirSportsLive virtual-flying coverage, and a full calendar of upcoming events including the January 2009 annual membership meeting and winter wave camps at Grant County Airport.
The January 2009 issue of Skylines is dominated by the sudden death of Bela Gogos, a founding board member of Skyline Soaring Club, who passed away of a heart attack on December 18 at his Gainesville, Virginia home. Born in Pápa, Hungary in 1924, Gogos flew gliders as a teenager, served as a fighter pilot in the Hungarian Air Force during World War II, was captured by the Soviets, and endured years in Russian prisons and Arctic Gulags before fleeing Hungary during the 1956 revolution. He eventually settled in America, worked at IBM, and became a beloved mentor and philanthropist in the Virginia soaring community, donating $50,000 to the SSA for youth soaring scholarships. The issue features multiple heartfelt tributes from club members—including a fond memory of his perpetually overripe in-flight banana and his legendary long-distance flights through what pilots affectionately called
The February 2009 issue of Skylines is anchored by a detailed report from the club's January 17 annual membership meeting at Shane Neitzey's home in Broad Run, Virginia, where roughly 40 members and family gathered to review a strong 2008: the club posted a profit despite purchasing a Husky tow plane, logged 1,275 tows and 479 glider hours, and held steady at 85 active members. The meeting also carried a somber note with the first presentation of the newly renamed Bela Gogos Club Service Award, given to Chris Groshel in honor of the founding member who passed in December, and a memorial service held in Manassas on January 9 drew current and former members to share fond recollections. A member survey revealed a clear preference to retain Dan's Cirrus as the next club acquisition (28 votes to 8 for a different glider), and the board elected Craig Bendorf as president and Jim Kellett as secretary. The issue also flags the February 17 deadline for the FAA's new DC ADIZ/SFRA rules requiring online training for any flight within 60 nautical miles of the Washington, D.C. VOR, and features a compelling AOPA/SSA article drawing a direct line from glider-pilot training to Captain Chesley Sullenberger's legendary Hudson River ditching, with F-16 instructor and glider pilot Danny Sorenson calling dead-stick landings 'instinctive.' Upcoming items include the mandatory annual safety meeting on February 7, a cross-country ground school with Jim Garrison on March 28, and a call for volunteers to build a Grob tail dolly and ASK-21 ballast weights.
March 2009 brings a landmark moment for the soaring community: at the SSA Regional Leadership Conference held at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center, the FAA announced it would establish a national glider-unique transponder code (0000), a change the Soaring Society of America has sought since 1995. The announcement came just days after a San Francisco Examiner editorial reignited the long-running debate over transponderless gliders in commercial airspace, prompting a fact-based rebuttal from SSA Region IV director Jim Kellett that put actual midair-collision statistics to rest. The issue of glider identification dominated the newsletter, with the club also urging members to complete the newly mandated Washington, D.C. ADIZ training. On the home front, Skyline Soaring Club launched a member pledge drive to purchase a Cirrus single-seat glider for $16,000, a cross-country course was scheduled in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and a deeply personal letter from Susan Gogos honored the memory of her late husband Bela, a lifelong member of the club's flying family.
April's Skylines delivers a month packed with soaring news, headlined by the International Gliding Commission's confirmation that Uvalde, Texas will host the 2012 World Soaring Championship in Open, 18-meter, and 15-meter classes. The club's Cirrus pledge drive has reached $14,400 of its $16,000 goal, with the board committing club funds to close the gap. Rostermeister Mike Ash offers a thorough review of XC Skies, a web-based cross-country forecasting tool he has used for nine months, praising its accuracy over the more optimistic BLIP-MAPs. In the Doofus Report, Chief Flight Instructor Jim Kellett recounts a cross-country flight that included weak wave soaring above 13,000 feet, a frozen drain tube, and—after ignoring repeated radio warnings—a gear-up landing that left a new centerline on the runway. The issue also covers a 30-pilot cross-country course taught by Jim Garrison in Harrisonburg, Va., new board initiatives including SSA 'Fly a Sailplane Today' packages and a Potomac Consolidated TRACON letter of agreement, and Joe Parrish's monthly airspace thought experiment on legally gliding to Dulles International.
The May 2009 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter carries a season of bittersweet news from the Front Royal–Warren County, Virginia field. The most moving piece is a tribute to Charlie Spratt, the legendary contest director and self-described "soaring vagabond" who passed away after a long struggle with kidney disease and a failed third transplant; memorial services were planned at the 15-meter Nationals in Cordelle, Georgia, and the Region 2 contest, with Karl and Iris Striedieck hoping to plant a tree in his memory using some of his ashes. The club also reported a glider crash near Fairfield, Pennsylvania, in which Frederick Mueller, 41, of Stephens City, Virginia, was injured and later moved from serious to satisfactory condition at York Hospital. On the growth front, Craig Rodarmel and Dave Collier earned their private pilot certificates in challenging conditions, the club announced the purchase of a high-performance Cirrus glider funded by member loans, and a new safety officer, John Noss, was appointed after revalidating his CFI(G) with Burt Compton in Marfa, Texas. President Craig Bendorf recounted a spectacular late-April soaring day that included a shared climb to 10,000 feet with an Osprey, while Robert Creedon's "Creative Daily Reports" told the fairy-tale of the Three Little Pilot Piggies and the Big Bad Wind Wolf. The issue also featured a profile of record-setting pilot Karl Striedieck of Bald Eagle Mountain, a summer intensive-instruction week planned for July 20–24, and Joe Parrish's monthly cross-country thought experiment on towrope tension.
This issue of Skylines opens with Piet Barber's vivid dispatch from Switzerland, where a five-hour Discus B flight over the hills near Bern turned into a crowded, FLARM-buzzing, metric-altimeter-baffling adventure that he likens to a child's crayon scribble on a map. The club also announces its second "Away Day" on June 6, splitting the fleet to a private grass strip at High View Farm in Berryville, Virginia, for a day of relaxed cross-country flying far from the concrete of Front Royal. Perhaps the most remarkable item is an invitation from Karl Striedieck, the 1968 world distance record holder and U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame inductee who flies from his ridge-top strip on Bald Eagle Mountain, Pennsylvania: for a $200 donation to the U.S. Soaring Team Fund, Skyliners can spend a day in his Duo Discus and, as Jim Kellett puts it, "learn more about real soaring in one day than in any other six months of your life." Rounding out the issue are a new probationary member (Elaine Chou, close to her checkride), a Capstan partnership sought by Shane Neitzey, a towing-tension physics puzzle from Joe Parrish, and a note that Boy's Life magazine ran a six-page gliding feature in its spring issue.
The July 2009 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is headlined by George Hazelrigg's vivid, photo-illustrated account of catching a mountain wave above Front Royal on May 31, climbing to 10,600 feet MSL in laminar air above the clouds. Hazelrigg walks readers through the physics of the Dolly Sods wave, the turbulent rotor below it, and the practical techniques—figure-eight turns, GPS tracking, benign spirals—for staying in the lift and reaching the flight levels. The issue also reports a successful Away Day at Craig Hageman's High View field in Utah, where twelve flights were logged and David Collier set the Flight of the Day with three hours in an SGS 1-26; President Craig Bendorf's update on a healthy mid-year (500+ tows, twelve qualified tow pilots, all four gliders and two tow planes flying); a rare opportunity to spend a day soaring with Hall of Fame pilot Karl Striedieck in his Duo Discus; the club's hard-won Grob-103 airworthiness-directive bolt replacement; a new transponder-code agreement with Potomac TRACON; and plans for a first-ever Week of Soaring, July 20–24, with weekday operations and priority student training.
Skyline Soaring Club's nine-day intensive training camp (July 18–26) produced 86 tows, 29.6 hours of glider time, and a first solo for club member Hugh McElrath, while John Noss wrestled his newly reassembled Ventus into a 3:17 flight of the week. The issue also carries Shane Neitzey's vivid account of the International Vintage Sailplane Meet at Harris Hill, where more than 40 wooden gliders—some dating to the 1920s—launched off a 1,100-foot runway that ends at a 700-foot cliff. In a touching intergenerational story, 16-year-old Zachary Vickland soloed in the SGS 1-26 his grandfather Bill built as a kit in 1966, completing the feat at the Caesar Creek Youth Summer Camp. Rounding out the issue are a review of Rinker Buck's *Flight of Passage*, a call for a public-relations officer, and the first Husky loan repayments to members.
Skyline Soaring Club's September 2009 issue opens with a gripping first-person account from webmaster Piet Barber, who spent his final three months in Switzerland living in a tent in the Saanen valley, flying Discus B and DG-300 gliders seven days a week, chasing ridge lift and wave over the Swiss Alps before his family's return to the United States. The issue also carries a pointed safety analysis by tow pilot Bill Burner, who pushes back on a widely read Soaring article to argue that altitude separation between a Pawnee towplane and a just-released glider is far from automatic and that both pilots bear a mandatory clearing responsibility. Club webmaster Barber details the launch of SPR 2.0, a new web-based training-progress system that links flight logs, instructor reports, and syllabus sign-offs into a single grid view. Interim Chief Flight Instructor Jim Kellett publishes a close reading of FAR 91.113 to correct the common assumption that gliders always hold the right of way over airplanes. Rounding out the issue: a call for volunteers for the Warren County Balloon and Airstravaganza, a stern duty-attendance notice from Chief Duty Officer George Hazelrigg, the announcement of a new scholarship-charity committee, a brief obituary for probationary member Ted Toth, and a membership roll that now stands at 106 active members.
In the issue's most stirring account, Rob Creedon recounts how, on a gray August day with a broken overcast at 700 feet and a solid layer at 2,500, duty instructor Joe Parrish and tow pilot Martin Gomez threaded their way through eerily dark clouds to give Eryn Creedon—his sister, then undergoing chemotherapy in Washington, D.C.—an eight-minute glider flight that she will never forget. The October issue also celebrates the Cumberland Soaring Group's 50th anniversary, where Soaring Hall of Fame members Bill Holbrook, Ed Byars, and Lanier Frantz gathered (and where a nostalgic photo slideshow revealed the youthful face of rocket pioneer Werner von Braun, an enthusiastic glider pilot). An 88-year-old first-time passenger logged a hour-and-seven-minute ride in booming September lift; the club board green-lit a new charity committee to explore glider-flying scholarships for young people; and the SSA reported that its Chapter Rebate Program would return in January, that a searchable electronic archive of SOARING magazine dating to 1932 was in the works, and that the 2012 World Soaring Championship would be held in Uvalde, Texas. Round out the issue with a TRACON open house invitation, a CFI revalidation clinic at the Udvar-Hazy Museum, a for-sale listing for a 68-acre grass-strip airport in Woodstock, Virginia, and the club's 960-plus tows and 673 soaring hours through the fall season.
The November 2009 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with a heartwarming account of 92-year-old Dorothy Orr, who, after watching gliders being towed at Front Royal, declared "How I'd love to go up" and took her first soaring flight in a Grob with her son George Hazelrigg. The issue also details plans for the 2009–2010 winter wave-soaring season at Grant County Airport in Petersburg, West Virginia, with volunteer-run camps scheduled in November, December, and early March, and features a first-hand report from Vern Kline on the thrill of winter wave flying. Club members recount their appearance at the Aviation Education Exposition at Winchester Regional Airport, where they displayed a Schleicher ASW-20 glider and a soaring video to several hundred teens and over 50 sponsors. Rounding out the issue: the annual Christmas potluck party on December 5 in Gainesville, Virginia, with live music from the band "Blues On The Side"; an introduction to the Aerokurier Online Contest (OLC) for worldwide glider competition; the SSA's new Sailplane Tracker List for locating pilots equipped with satellite beacons; and a photo gallery by Martin Gomez capturing David Collier's 3:58 flight in his father's vintage Schweizer SGS 1-26 and tow operations with the club's Husky.
As the 2009 soaring season winds down at Front Royal-Warren County Airport, Skyline Soaring Club President Craig Bendorf reports a record-breaking year with over 1,209 flights and announces that the club will keep 2010 dues flat. The issue's centerpiece is a detailed guide to the club's winter ad hoc operations (Dec. 20, 2009 – Feb. 20, 2010), explaining how members organize spontaneous mountain-wave and ridge-soaring days around Front Royal, including staffing rules, visiting-pilot procedures, and oxygen requirements. Other highlights include a glider display at the Potomac Consolidated TRACON open house in Vint Hill, Va., where Skyline members answered questions from more than 100 general-aviation pilots; the formation of the Skyline Soaring Foundation as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization; a winch-launch clinic trip to Bermuda High Soaring in South Carolina; and a sobering report on the fatal mid-air collision of a Piper PA-25 Pawnee tow plane and a Schleicher ASW-27 sailplane at Crazy Creek Air Adventures in Middletown, Calif., on November 28. The issue also carries the 2009–2010 club calendar, a holiday-party invitation for December 5, and a leadership transition as Phil Jordan steps in as Skylines editor.
| Title ▲▼ | Items ▲▼ | Last updated ▲▼ | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newsletter Archive 2000 | 0 |
(1 week ago) |
Public |
| Newsletter Archive 2001 | 0 |
(1 week ago) |
Public |
| Newsletter Archive 2002 | 0 |
(5 days, 17 hours ago) |
Public |
| Newsletter Archive 2003 | 0 |
(5 days, 16 hours ago) |
Public |
| Newsletter Archive 2004 | 10 |
(5 days, 15 hours ago) |
Public |
| Newsletter Archive 2005 | 12 |
(5 days, 14 hours ago) |
Public |
| Newsletter Archive 2006 | 12 |
(5 days, 13 hours ago) |
Public |
| Newsletter Archive 2007 | 12 |
(5 days, 9 hours ago) |
Public |
| Newsletter Archive 2008 | 11 |
(5 days, 8 hours ago) |
Public |
| Newsletter Archive 2009 | 12 |
(5 days, 8 hours ago) |
Public |