Outgoing President John Noss bids a final farewell to the membership, reflecting on 2015 as the club's second-busiest flying season ever and an apparent all-time record of at least thirteen new glider ratings, before handing the reins to a new board to be elected at the January 23 membership meeting at the Samuels Library in Front Royal. The issue is enlivened by Bruce Zivic's vivid account of his first ridge flight aboard Piet Barber's Duo, a 40-mile carpet ride to Massanutten Ski Resort that left the self-described "ridge virgin" grinning for days, and by a candid (if exasperated) report that the club's ASK-21 has been shipped to Gehrlein near Erie, Pennsylvania, for finish repairs after a string of avoidable cosmetic and structural damages. Rounding out the newsletter are the holiday party recap at Aspen Dale Winery, Tim Moran's hard-won private glider rating, Bill Vickland's playful challenge to identify a 1978 in-town landing, and the Senate's unanimous passage of the Pilot's Bill of Rights 2 medical-reform legislation.
The February/March 2016 issue opens with a leadership transition as Dan Ernst assumes the presidency from John Noss, welcomes new directors Dick Edge and Evan Dosik, and presents the Bela Gogos Service Award to longtime treasurer Steve Rockwood. The heart of the newsletter, however, is a multi-author dispatch from the biennial Soaring Society of America convention in Greenville, South Carolina, where fifteen Skyliners gathered and Shane Neitzey's Illudium Q-36 glider simulator drew a steady line of pilots for three straight days. Convention coverage ranges from Piet Barber's technical deep-dive into the Concordia racing glider—55-to-1 aspect ratio, a 2.5-centimeter center-of-gravity window, and a cruise glide ratio near 70-to-1—to George Hazelrigg's wide-eyed tour of the Stemme S-10 motor glider (a used example at $295,000, a new one at $400,000) and the Adventure Motor Homes display. The issue also records the annual Safety Meeting, attended by roughly 72 members and highlighted by Bill Burner's parachute demonstration and Pete Maynard's calm walk-through of a Sprite landout; the arrival of Elise Wheelock, a high-school senior and Skyline Soaring Educational Foundation scholarship recipient aspiring to a career in rescue flying; a three-generation Navy aviation tradition in the Otis family; and the club's 2016 calendar, including a cross-country camp at Emporia, Virginia, a Week of Training over the July 4th holiday, and the season's first flying days, which saw Guido Kramp post a 3-hour-30-minute flight in the Cirrus to open the year.
The April 2016 issue marks Skyline Soaring Club's full-throttle launch into the 2016 soaring season. President Dan Ernst reports the club's Grob two-seater back from a compliance inspection in Erie, Pennsylvania, now sporting two new round inspection windows in each wing, and announces a strong early showing for the Week of Training set for July 4–8. The board has locked in the Woodstock Spring Fly-In and Family Day for Memorial Day weekend (May 29), where the club will haul all four gliders fifteen miles to a 3,000-foot grass strip in the Shenandoah Valley, offer students a cross-country tow and simulated outlanding, and make the Burners' 1957 Bergfalke 255 and 1967 1-26A available for rent-free flights. Dick Garrity kicks off a hands-on Cirrus assembly program beginning April 2, aiming to get eighteen qualified-but-unflying members through the check-out process. In the lighter corners, editor Phil Jordan shares a 1974 P-3 Orion ferry-flight tale from Captain Richard Otis, a Brussels update from former president Joe Rees written in the shadow of the March attacks, and Jim Kellett's tongue-in-cheek proposal for a “BikeBack” recumbent bicycle to be strapped to a glider for outlandings—a gag that actually made the pages of SOARING magazine back in 2001 and drew a formal letter of aerodynamic concern from a reader in Alaska. The issue closes with congratulations to Mario Simula on an approved Silver Altitude and Distance claim, Piet Barber's search for a co-pilot for the Mifflin contest, and Brian Clark's heartfelt thanks for finally logging his first solo.
May 2016 is a milestone month at Skyline Soaring Club. Two extraordinary new members arrive: Theo ten Haaf, a 57-year-old Dutch Air Commodore (Brigadier General) and Apache helicopter pilot who led the Netherlands' MH17 recovery effort in Ukraine and now serves as Defense Attaché at the Dutch Embassy in Washington, D.C., and Jeff Armentrout, a former C-5 Galaxy captain, American Airlines 727/MD-80 pilot, and Lockheed Martin F-22 program engineer. On the youth front, 14-year-old Max Fisher earns his first solo in the club Grob, and Joe Lingevitch passes his CFI-G checkride at Bermuda High Soaring in South Carolina. John Noss marks his 2,000th tow and offers his Naviter Oudie for cross-country training sessions. President Dan Ernst issues a pointed reminder about careful use of the Grob tail dolly after recent gel-coat and tail-boom damage, while the club looks ahead to the Woodstock Fly-In Family Day on May 29, the Tidewater XC camp at Emporia, Virginia, and the Week of Training in early July. A STEM-education piece by Erik van Weezendonk recounts bringing a fifth-grade class's aviation lesson to a live glider, and the Safety Corner urges members to adopt an 'aircraft hygiene' mindset borrowed from corporate jet operations.
An eventful June at Skyline Soaring Club opens with a tense rear-canopy failure on the club's Grob during takeoff—no injuries, but a trip to New Jersey for repairs and a temporary loss of the two-seater. The month's most gripping story belongs to Piet Barber, who flew his first glider contest at Mifflin, PA, battling a stuck variometer, a misprogrammed flight computer, and a dramatic land-out in a Pennsylvania field where two young Amish men and a team of horses came to inspect the
July 2016 brings a landmark honor to the Skyline Soaring Club as Jim Kellett, alongside fellow Virginia glider pilots Bill Vickland, Graham Pitsenberger, and John Molumphy, is set to receive the FAA's Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award on July 30 at the Dulles Flight Standards District Office in Herndon—a recognition of fifty years of accident-free flying. The issue also announces plans for a gala celebration of the club's 25th anniversary on November 5, a Warrenton Soaring Center reunion cookout on Labor Day, and the triumphant return of the club's Grob glider after a cross-state canopy repair effort involving a half-dozen volunteers. In the hangar, George Hazelrigg chronicles his upgrade from a trusty LS1-f to a gleaming ASW-27, while the outgoing LS1 finds new life with a trio of eager pilots. New member JP Stewart, a Virginia Tech aerospace engineering student and SSA Youth Committee Chairman, shares his journey from radio-controlled aerobatics to the Junior World Championships in Australia. Rounding out the issue: a new 2-33B's successful first flight ahead of the IVSM at Harris Hill, a tow-rope knot mystery, and the club's ongoing Week of Training preparations.
The August 2016 issue of Skylines brims with milestone moments as the club prepares for its 25th Anniversary Gala on November 5 at the Stonewall Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia. President Dan Ernst kicks off the issue with congratulations on a record-breaking Week of Training that logged 112 flights across 15 pilots, producing multiple first solos and a 13-year-old student, Maryam Ali, confidently staging gliders by week's end. The issue also celebrates founding member Jim Kellett's receipt of the FAA's Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for fifty years of accident-free soaring, a 19-year-old Elise Wheelock's new private glider rating, and Matt Linger's emotional solo flight he calls the best twelve minutes of his life. Rounding out the news are plans for a nostalgic Warrenton Soaring Center reunion on September 3, an appeal for the Skyline Soaring Club Educational Foundation, a petition to save the Virginia Aviation Museum, and a temporary board restriction on new member intake to protect the training pipeline.
President Dan Ernst reports a remarkable summer at Skyline Soaring Club, where a wave of young pilots — from 13-year-old Ryan Trexell taking first instruction to 20-something transient members earning commercial ratings and international competition experience — carried the club's training pipeline to new heights. The issue also chronicles the club's successful static display at the Virginia Airshow, where a Grob glider drew crowds and piqued the interest of would-be soaring newcomers, and features Michael Bishton's travelogue from a detour through Moriarty, New Mexico, home of the Southwest Soaring Museum and the bustling Sundance Aviation operation. Looking ahead, the newsletter announces the highly anticipated 25th Anniversary Gala Celebration on November 5 at the Stonewall Golf Club, a second Burner Away Day at Woodstock on October 2, and a new members orientation session, while the editor's column lays down updated safety rules banning selfie sticks from club gliders and tightening vehicle-and-radio procedures on the field.
Skyline Soaring Club's October 2016 newsletter announces the details of its 25th Anniversary Gala on November 5 at The Stonewall Golf Club in Gainesville, featuring competition pilots Eric Nelson and JP Stewart as speakers and a musical program by club members Susan and Steven Zaboji and 14-year-old pianist Maryam Ali. The issue also reports on a successful second Burner Away Day at the Burner family's grass field, where three tow pilots logged 32 flights amid a crowd of members, families, and a record number of dogs; congratulates Reynolds Renshaw on earning his private pilot rating at Bermuda High Soaring; and carries a letter from Ken Ekman, a Skyline member stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, who fondly recalls a 320-kilometer, 17,000-foot flight with his father over the Sacramento Mountains. Rounding out the issue are a humorous safety column from "Gramps," a new tow pilot class, a pre-flight square-dance poem, and a call for volunteers to crew at the MASA Fairfield contest in mid-October.
The November 2016 issue marks the Skyline Soaring Club's 25th Anniversary Gala at the Stonewall Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, and the month is packed with milestones. New PPL-G pilot Michael Bishton earns his checkride under Chief Instructor Piet Barber; 85-year-old Katie Simenson checks a long-held dream off her list with a FAST flight witnessed by her large family; and club member Martin Gomez is named to the FAA's high-level Drone Advisory Committee alongside 34 other aviation experts. President Dan Ernst reflects on the legendary Bob Hoover, who passed at 94, drawing a parallel between Hoover's energy-management gliding in a Shrike Commander and the sport Skyline calls home. Tim Kreiner bids a fond farewell as he relocates to Florida, calling Skyline 'by far the best Soaring Club I have seen or been part of.' The issue also carries SSA news of a new online Soaring magazine subscription and a modest dues increase for 2017, a ground-school interest survey from George Hazelrigg, and a reminder that the flying season winds down on December 11.
Skyline Soaring Club marked its 25th anniversary in early November with a gala honoring founding members Jim Kellett, Spencer Annear, Shane Neitzey, and Phil Jordan, while looking ahead to a restored Pawnee tow plane and a 2017 Petersburg Wave Camp (Feb. 24–Mar. 5) with a 23,000-foot wave window. The issue also carries a sobering safety account: on November 20, gusts exceeding 37 knots freed a 1-26 (registration 081, in which Ted Teach won the 1973 1-26 Championship) from its tie-downs, and the glider flew itself apart mere feet from a Cherokee. Other highlights include a gripping November 26 ridge-day narrative in which four pilots tracked the North Mountain ridge for three hours—one covering over 200 kilometers without ever climbing above 4,000 feet—Keith Hilton's achievement of a single-engine land rating in a 1964 Comanche 250 after a glider-pilot foundation, Erik Van Weezendonk's promotion to full Colonel in the USMC Reserves, and a call for volunteers to adopt a near-complete run of Soaring magazines dating to 1969.