Skyline Soaring Club closes out a remarkable 2014 with 1,832 glider flights—just shy of the all-time record—and a December so warm that members flew jacketless on the 27th. The month's headline moment belongs to Andy Delgado, who, days after turning 14, logged a stunning 46-minute first solo. The club also celebrated a deeply moving 'Soaring Beyond Limitations' event in which spinal-cord-injured youngsters, guided by quadriplegic pilot and Determined2heal Foundation director Josh Basile, experienced the thrill of gliding for the first time. Other highlights include Chief Flight Instructor Piet Barber earning his Gold Badge, Chris Zaboji receiving the Soaring Society of America's Kolstad Scholarship, Josh Morgan winning the Skyline Soaring Educational Foundation Flight Scholarship, and the engagement of Magan Patch and Reggie Cassagnol. The club mourns the loss of member Bob Collier. Looking ahead, Michael Bishton proposes adding ultralight and motorglider options to broaden access for members constrained by hanger space and weekend-only operations, while the annual membership meeting (January 24), the Virginia Soaring Association conference (January 17), and the mandatory safety meeting (February 21) set the stage for the 2015 season.
The July–August 2015 issue captures a remarkably productive summer at Skyline Soaring Club despite one of the wettest Julys on record. Three members earned major ratings in a single month—Kaye Ebelt (Private Pilot-Glider), Piet Barber (Designated Pilot Examiner), and Chris Zaboji (Commercial Pilot, examined by Piet in his first DPE session)—while Charles Norman completed his Silver Badge with a five-hour endurance flight. Piet's newly acquired Duo Discus made its maiden cross-country at 305 kilometers and 5 hours 32 minutes, and the club shattered its own single-day launch record twice, finishing Week of Training with 40 flights on July 31. The issue also follows Bill Vickland and his grandson Zach through the storm-plagued 2015 1-26 Championships at Minden, Nevada, where a shoulder injury ended Bill's 40th-plus contest and the crew spent downtime exploring the ghost town of Bodie, California. A STEM outreach day at the National Air and Space Museum drew NASA astronaut Patrick Forrester to the club's glider simulator, and Kaye Ebelt bids a warm farewell as she heads back to Montana, leaving behind a self-published pilot's notebook she hopes will guide future checkride candidates.
The February 2015 issue captures a remarkably active month for Skyline Soaring Club, anchored by the annual membership meeting, board elections, and a January that saw 40 flights—the club's best since 2008—despite repeated snow. President John Noss welcomes new board members Ertan Tete and Dan Ernst and bids a fond farewell to outgoing Secretary Jim Kellett after eleven years of service, with Keith Hilton stepping into the role. The educational pipeline is in full swing: aerospace engineer George Hazelrigg hosts an intensive CFI course in his home, John Noss leads student pilots through Skew-T chart analysis and weather-briefing drills ahead of checkrides, and six Skyline representatives attend the Virginia Soaring Association instructor summit in Charlottesville. Members also tour the Potomac TRACON, the third-busiest approach control facility in the country, spending time in its ATC traffic simulation room. Robert Gray contributes a practical, good-humored protocol for what to do if a hang glider, paraglider, or hot air balloon drops into the Front Royal safety area, prompted by Hugh McElrath's 24-mile hang-glider flight that ended in a farmer's pasture near Waynesboro. A reprinted 1949 SOARING guest editorial by Ted Nelson on powered sailplanes closes the issue with a historical nod to the sport's early ambitions.
The March 2015 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with a heartfelt tribute to Joan Vickland, the beloved crew chief who supported Bill Vickland through 40 contests on the 1-26 circuit and soloed in the 1-26 #238 the couple built from a kit, before her passing in late February. President John Noss reports on a brutal February that included chipping ice off the hangar ramp with mauls and sledgehammers, and celebrates the long-gestating installation of a live ramp-and-runway webcam by club member Ertan Tete. The rescheduled annual safety meeting at Aurora Flight Sciences drew a standing-room-only crowd for discussions on helicopter rotorwash, hypoxia, and new tow ropes. The issue also announces a Warrenton Soaring Center reunion for May 16 to mark the club's 24-year heritage, welcomes new members Mike Heinz (first solo in the Grob) and Tom Ward, congratulates Carlos Troncoso on his Commercial Glider rating, and notes the death of Fitz Fulton, the legendary test pilot known as the "Dean of Test Flight."
April 2015 at Skyline Soaring Club is a month of milestones and farewells. Young member Chris Zaboji collects the SSA's 2014 Kolstad Award in Greenville, S.C., with the $5,000 scholarship directed to his incoming class at Virginia Tech's School of Engineering. Piet Barber chronicles his long, winding road to becoming the only glider-capable Designated Pilot Examiner in the Washington Dulles FSDO region, complete with a mock practical in which a UPS pilot stumbles over the word "variometer." Ertan Tete and Shane Neitzey report a ridge flight down Massanutten Mountain at 70 to 90 knots, calling it a "high-speed highway" that left them back at Signal Knob in just over an hour. The issue also carries a deeply moving tribute to Joan Vickland, who bucked every rivet on the club's 1-26 #238, soloed it more than sixty times, and then spent decades crewing her husband Bill through 38 championships and 260 landouts in his pursuit of three diamonds. A memorial for Peter Bacque, a Warrenton Soaring Center towpilot and instructor, recalls a "very talented, kind and warm friend." Rounding out the issue: a reminder of the May 16 Warrenton Soaring Center reunion, a 70-aircraft WWII flyover over Washington, D.C. on May 8, and Phil Jordan's reflection on the 100th anniversary of NACA's founding.
The May 2015 issue celebrates a spectacular spring soaring season at Front Royal, Virginia, where nine flights exceeded 200 OLC points in April alone, including 710-kilometer flights by new member Karsten Petzold and Shane Neitzey and a 500-kilometer diamond by Chuck Stover out of Julian, Pennsylvania. President John Noss announces the installation of new LXNAV S3 variometers in the club's two-seaters and urges members to coordinate weekday flying days more effectively. The issue features detailed driving and landing directions for the Woodstock Fly-In Family Day at Burner Field on May 17, a reminder of the Warrenton Soaring Center reunion on May 16, and coverage of the 70th-anniversary WWII Victory Capitol Flyover over Washington, D.C. on May 8, featuring more than 70 historic military aircraft in 15 sequenced formations. In the 'Around the Field' section, Kaye Ebelt earns her B badge, Ellie Renshaw and her 81-year-old grandfather enjoy a biplane tour over the Piedmont with Blue Ridge Biplane Rides, and two Randolph-Macon Academy students receive FAST certificates following a Skyline Soaring Educational Foundation briefing.
Skyline Soaring Club's June 2015 issue leads with the remarkable cross-country flight of 17-year-old Chris Zaboji, who piloted a Musketeer from Leesburg, Virginia to Essex, New Jersey and, with passengers, circled the Statue of Liberty counterclockwise along the Hudson River corridor. The issue also recounts the club's Family Day at Bill and Sharon Burner's Soar-Inn in the Shenandoah Valley, where Charles Norman earned his silver distance badge, a two-seat Bergfalke gave rides to non-pilot family members, and Chris Carswell executed a dramatic off-field Sprite landing that required a four-person recovery and reassembly team. Keith Hilton's purchase of a 250-horsepower Piper Comanche 250 and its ferry flight from Great Barrington, Massachusetts to Front Royal mark the club's foray into powered flight. Other highlights include seven-year-old Margot Norman's first glider flight in a Grob, Dave Collier's hard-won landing in a corn-stubble field, a nostalgic reunion at the Warrenton Soaring Center airpark, Christine Vincent's tandem skydive, Shane Neitzey's enthusiastic recruitment pitch for contest flying at Mifflin and Fairfield, and a call for volunteers to man the SSA booth at the 2015 Oshkosh AirVenture.
Skyline Soaring Club's September 2015 issue centers on a landmark honor for longtime member Bill Vickland, a 1-26 Championship competitor, who is set to receive the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award on September 27 at the Washington Dulles Flight Standards District Office in recognition of 50 or more years of safe, professional flying. The issue also carries the deeply personal farewell of Steve Zaboji, who recounts his son Chris's five-year journey from a 13-year-old first lesson to a confident pilot who, on his last day at the field before college, took his mother Susan up for her first glider ride. Carlos Troncoso details his hard-won 2 hour 22 minute flight in the club Cirrus, a milestone toward his Bronze Badge, while President John Noss reports a remarkably productive August with 13 flying days and a Boomerang glider retrieved from New Castle by Shane Neitzey. Rounding out the issue are an obituary for former member MacKaye W. Smith, a youth-outreach report from the NA&SM STEM Family Day, and news of the Perlan 2 pressurized glider's debut at Oshkosh, designed to soar at 90,000 feet at the edge of space.
Skyline Soaring Club's October 2015 issue celebrates a remarkable milestone: 84-year-old Bill Vickland receiving the FAA's Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for 50 years of safe flying, complete with a spouse's pin in memory of his late wife Joan and a ceremonial induction into the United Flying Octogenarians by fellow member Jim Kellett. The issue also chronicles Vern Kline's debut in a regional contest, where he piloted the club's Cirrus sailplane against a grid of modern 18-meter gliders at New Castle, Virginia, and finished 9th of 11 in class—beating an ASG-29 and an LS-10 in weak conditions. President John Noss reports a productive September (143 club flights), a record 18-flight student training day, and details the upcoming Away Day at Bill Burner's grass strip near Woodstock on October 18. Former member Paul Pruitt files a 'Post Card from the Left Bank' describing his new life flying public rides in a Schweizer 2-32 at Santa Ynez, California, while the recycled-news column carries word of the Perlan 2 pressurized glider's first test flight above Redmond, Oregon, as the project aims for a 90,000-foot altitude record in 2016.
Skyline Soaring Club's November 2015 issue is headlined by Chuck Stover's gripping account of his Mt. Washington wave camp flight, in which he climbed from a 5,300-foot release to 25,800 msl in 1 hour 44 minutes to secure the altitude requirement for his Diamond Badge—completing the badge where he first learned to soar in the mid-1970s. The story carries a sobering postscript: the very next day, a sudden weather collapse at camp left one pilot bailing out under parachute, another landing on the Mt. Washington Auto Road with a damaged sailplane, and a third making a downwind dash to a Maine airport. Elsewhere, Shane Neitzey's first-place Silver class win at the Region 4 North contest in Fairfield, PA, is celebrated alongside Bruce Zivic's vivid behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to crew a contest pilot. Piet Barber recounts a ridge-running weekend in the Duo Discus with former student Keith Hilton, crossing the Virginia–West Virginia border and chasing thermals past Bryce Resort. Chris Carswell reports on a winch-tow adventure at the Norfolk Gliding Club in England, where he logged two launches and landings in 21 minutes at a former WWII bomber base. The issue also announces the club's December 5 holiday celebration at Aspen Dale Winery, reminds members of updated SSA badge-claim forms, and flags a new New Members Orientation session for November 7.
This December 2015 issue is anchored by a richly detailed profile of Bill Vickland, who received the FAA Master Pilot Award for five decades of flying—all in a single 1-26 sailplane he and his late wife Joan built from a kit over two years. Vickland earned all three of his Diamond badges in that one glider, competed in the 1-26 Championships nearly every year since 1973, logged 265 landouts, and delivered polio vaccine to bush strips in Guyana during a Peace Corps stint. His wife Joan, dubbed a "STAR" (Sociable Tenacious Aircraft Retriever) by fellow competitor Del Blomquist, crewed him through it all. The issue also celebrates an extraordinary November in which five members—Jeff Windham, Mike Heinz, Joe Lingevitch, Nik Kruhmin, and Evan Dosik—passed their practical checkrides within two consecutive weekends under DPE Piet Barber, a milestone President John Noss notes the club had not seen in years. Other highlights include the annual holiday party at Aspen Dale Winery, a 1-26D #470 offered for sale to the club, a near-miss side-step landing by Ertan Tete, and a call for members to run for two open board-of-directors seats at the January 2016 membership meeting.