President Richard Garrity looks back on a solid 2019 season (1,543 sorties, a near-record ad hoc day of 29 flights) and previews the January 25 annual membership meeting, where two new directors will be elected and the club's growth toward 150 members will be discussed. The issue's most human moments come from Erik van Weezendonk's self-deprecating 'Doofus Report,' in which a complacent tow pilot leaves carb heat on, watches a glider release in a puff of smoke, and then forgets to drop the tow rope at the field; and from Jeff Kellett's warm reminiscence of growing up in 1960s Alexandria, Virginia, where his family assembled a Schweizer 1-26 in the front yard, chased cross-country flights with a CB radio, and eventually led to his 1978 solo in a 2-33 over Burmuda High. Brian Clark recounts a high-pressure week at Seminole Gliderport in Florida, where he completed Commercial and CFIG checkrides in a no-frills Super Blanik with no radio, no wing runner, and 50-foot trees in the pattern. Rounding out the issue: Pete Maynard's letter urging members to crew at a regional contest, Jim Kellett's candidacy for the board, a photo caption contest, WSPA scholarship information, and a feature on member Jim Perlmutter's 100-kilometer 'Tour of the Moon' cycling trek through Colorado National Monument.
Pete Maynard, a 35-year United Airlines captain who also spent a decade as a DEA Special Agent and flew C-130s in the Air Force Reserve, steps into the Skyline Soaring Club presidency for 2020 with a safety-first manifesto and a call for members to pitch in on everything from fueling tow planes to pushing gliders. The issue also carries the thrilling second half of Brian Clark's Seminole, Florida training odyssey, where 83-year-old Dutch glider legend Jan Driesson—nearly 30,000 flights and counting—shepherded Clark and his father through 42 flights in four and a half days. Erik van Weezendonk's second Doofus Report delivers a hair-raising account of an aileron pin ejecting mid-tow at Warrenton and a spoiler deploying on takeoff at Lovettsville, both traced to skipped control-integrity checks. Round out the issue with Bob Sallada's candid take on duty-team readiness, Board decisions on the Grob sale, FAST flight expansion, and a Spring Family Day locked in for Memorial Day weekend at Bill and Sharon's field in Woodstock.
The March 2020 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with a somber tribute to club President Pete Maynard, who was killed on February 9 in a crash of his Russia AC-4 near the Front Royal, Virginia airport. The memorial recounts a remarkable life: a New Jersey police officer, DEA agent, Air Force Colonel who flew C-130s and C-141s worldwide, a United Airlines Captain who retired in December 2019, a motorcycle enthusiast, and a safety-driven Skyline member who helped make the club's annual Week of Training in Petersburg, West Virginia a success. The issue also carries vivid dispatches from the 2020 Soaring Society of America Convention in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Skyliners rubbed shoulders with hundreds of pilots from around the globe. Highlights include a breakfast with Sarah Arnold, the new Standard Class Women's World Gliding Champion, and her teammates Sylvia Grandstaff and Kathryn Fosha; Piet Barber, the club's Chief CFI and DPE, receiving two SSA awards for his tireless instruction work across the East Coast; and a rapt banquet audience hearing the three US Women's Soaring Team members recount their Lake Keepit, Australia campaign. A candid DUFUS report details a near-miss on a demo tow when a loose ballast weight jammed the control stick mid-turn, prompting a pointed reminder that the pilot in command bears ultimate responsibility for the aircraft. The newsletter also previews a mandatory safety meeting with a quiz drawn from the Ops Manual, discusses the club's decision to outfit all gliders with ADS-B Out after a scary IFR-traffic incident near Dulles, and notes that a team of members spent Super Bowl Sunday assembling a new XZ glider. A brief sidebar on the growing prevalence of electric motorgliders in European production hints at the sport's evolving future.
With the club's terminal closed and flying suspended amid the early days of the pandemic, this issue turns to the classroom. SSA Director Jim Garrison publishes a detailed post-flight analysis of a 126-mile cross-country task flown in a Duo Discus at the Seniors Soaring Championship at Seminole Lake, Florida, on March 13, 2020. Using IGC trace data, he walks through three specific thermals to show how a few minutes of aimless circling on a short leg can cost a pilot 1.6 mph of average speed—roughly a quarter of the gap between his 63 mph result and the day's winner, 18-meter champion John Seaborn, who averaged just over 70 mph in a new JS3. The issue also carries highlights from the February 29 board meeting, including the unanimous vote to acquire an additional hangar, three parties circling the purchase of the club's Grob, and the report of a gear-up incident that sent the Discus to Gehrlein Products in Pennsylvania for repairs. A $300 donation to the Front Royal Fire Department, SSEF scholarship applications, and a lighthearted Skyline Cycling Club photo of Joel Hough rounding out a newsletter that reads as both a technical study and a snapshot of a club pausing mid-season.
With Virginia's stay-at-home order grounding all club operations, the Skyline Soaring Club issued a May 2020 newsletter that reads less like a flight report and more like a community finding its footing in an unprecedented crisis. President's notes detail the club's financial triage—shifting fleet insurance to storage coverage to save $736 a month and moving board meetings to remote format—while a 'Too Late for Press Time' note teases the April 30 board session that hammered out a plan to resume flying. The emotional center of the issue is a brief, dignified memorial to young member Ryan Trexel, with a request that donations in his name go to the Skyline Soaring Educational Foundation. In 'Coping with COVID,' Piet Barber offers a vivid, slightly self-deprecating account of keeping his competition skills sharp through a home-built Mach 0.1 cockpit, Oculus Rift goggles, and the Condor 2 soaring simulator, complete with online races in US Nightly Soaring where he discovered he was 'a mediocre or low-quality competition pilot' against 70 other pilots. Jim Garrison kicks off what promises to be a multi-part series on using internet weather tools—Windy.com, XC Skies, SkySight, NOAA satellite viewers, and more—to predict the Continental Polar airmasses that deliver the East Coast's best soaring days. And in a nostalgic coda, Alan Bikle shares a 1967 Soaring Magazine piece about growing up in the shadow of his father Paul Bikle's world-record flights, complete with a photo of a three-year-old watching his brother solo a Windjammer trainer.
In a month when the club was cautiously reopening its gates after the spring shutdown, the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter carried a deeply personal tribute from instructor Bob Sallada to Ryan Trexel, the red-haired, 105-pound, almost wordless teenager who crept into the club in mid-2016, earned his solo in November 2018, and was taken in his sleep just weeks before the 2020 season. Alongside that moving remembrance, the issue features a detailed weather-forecasting walkthrough by Jim Garrison of the spectacular May 7 soaring day that produced a 1,000-kilometre ridge flight by Jim Frantz out of New Castle, a 750-km run by JP Stewart, and a 300-km out-and-return to Luray by Pete Appleby. Erik van Weezendonk, a commercial airline pilot, draws practical parallels between his carrier's COVID-19 protocols and what a small soaring club might adopt, while Secretary Keith Hilton reports on the Board's careful step-by-step resumption of operations, the cancellation of the summer week-of-training, a new wind-operations procedure, and the search for a new Chief Duty Officer to replace Reynolds Renshaw. A photograph by Dick Otis captures the Linden VOR on the ridge above Front Royal, a navigation aid quietly being retired in the GPS era.
Skyline Soaring's July 2020 newsletter marks a milestone month: the club officially launches spin training in its ASK-21 (N321K), with weight-and-balance certification from Schleicher, new cockpit cards, and a cadre of instructors being qualified under Chief Flight Instructor John Noss. Jim Garrison delivers a thorough, data-rich guide to forecasting mountain wave along the Alleghenies and Blue Ridge, walking through the April 22 and May 9, 2020 wave days with Skew T–Log P soundings, SkySight model comparisons, and contest flights that reached 18,000 feet and stretched all the way to the Atlantic coast. In the 'Story Time' column, Jim Kellett recounts a 1970 Gold-distance attempt that ended with a 27-mile flight into the grass field of the Cold Springs Correctional Center outside Lexington, Virginia, where a prison guard let him use the phone and a friend arrived in a Citabria to tow him out while inmates watched from the fence. The issue also carries Board highlights on resuming dual instruction under pandemic protocols, a quirky sidebar about a Charlottesville pastor who filmed a 'canoe metaphor' sermon with Skyline gliders in the background, a safety column on maintaining currency and proficiency during the COVID-19 shutdown, and a detailed listing for a 1968 Open Cirrus 8AN (with trailer) that once flew at the World Glider Championship in Poland.
Skyline Soaring Club welcomes Rock Skowbo, a former Air Force Academy cadet, Westair and United Airlines captain (currently flying the Boeing 767), and self-described 'aviation polymath,' as the new manager of Front Royal Airport (KFRR) following Reggie Cassignol's retirement. Skowbo, who has been a long-time tenant and flight instructor at the field, pledges to turn KFRR into a community destination with youth outreach, fly-ins, and a staffed flight school. The issue also features a thought-provoking essay by George Hazelrigg arguing that aviation safety must be framed in terms of future probability and personal belief rather than past accident statistics; a vivid first-person account by Richard Good of earning his glider pilot license after transitioning from power flight, complete with a nerve-wracking covered-panel grass landing; a comprehensive Condor2/Top Hat cross-country training guide by Ron Wagner, who logged nearly 6,000 virtual XC miles during the pandemic; Dan Ernst's behind-the-scenes story of crafting his 'Little Glider That Could' 1-26 history presentation for the SSA Convention (now a 50-minute YouTube video); and a note that former club president Joe Parrish, featured in Smithsonian Air & Space, is leading DARPA's Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program. Board highlights include the club's stable $63,000+ bank balance, a unanimous vote to reopen guest flights under COVID-19 protocols, and planning for a Week of Training in mid-August.
A bittersweet September issue marks the departure of the Skyline Soaring Club's Grob glider, delivered on August 7 to Eric and Annie Ellis for their new Mallards Soaring Club in Locus Grove, Georgia—a months-long effort involving a dozen or more members in maintenance, negotiation, and final packing. The issue also carries the moving account of Ryan Trexel's life celebration at the Harris Pavilion in Manassas, where Skyliners gathered among red-and-white Nationals balloons and soaring memorabilia to honor a young pilot who had just earned his solo, a cross-country runner, a Taekwondo blackbelt, and the official bat boy for the Potomac Nationals. On the celebratory side, sixteen-year-old Maxwell McGowan of Herndon logged his solo on July 18, and Stephanie Zilora and Ben Bierstine passed their private pilot practical tests on August 22. A long, vivid first-person essay by William O. Banks recounts learning to spin twice—first in a Navy T-28C, then in a French Ka-13 glider club in Provence, where a soft-spoken instructor named Balzac induced a near-fatal over-the-top spin at low altitude. The Safety Officer's column, titled "Snow White, Fairy Tales, etc.," urges members to guard against complacency as pandemic-restricted flying slowly resumes, while a 1968 Schempp-Hirth Open Cirrus 8AN with World Glider Championship history is offered for sale at $16,000. Board notes confirm that Grob-sale proceeds will fund Tost tow-release upgrades and accelerate payoff of the K-21 loan.
This October 2020 issue opens with a heartfelt tribute to Pete Maynard, the club's longtime president, logistics coordinator, and all-around fixer, whose untimely passing left what Erik van Weezendonk called a hole in the collective heart of Skyline. A retired USAF colonel and United Airlines captain who flew the full Boeing fleet before retiring on the 787 Dreamliner, Pete was remembered as a man of boundless energy, empathy, and a 5'6" frame belied by a Wright Brothers t-shirt. His ashes were released over Front Royal in late September to tears and a small crowd. The issue's centerpiece is Jim Garrison's extensive 'Ridge Runnin' 101,' a practical guide to soaring the 47-mile Massanutten Ridge that covers wind geometry, the convex front slope, the Short Mountain gap vortex, transition points, and a full set of safety rules for pilots new to ridge work. Rounding out the issue are Kip Ongstadt's candid near-miss landing story, a sidebar on a cuckoo's 26,000-km Mongolian-to-South African migration, a half-share listing for a 1984 LS-4, and a board update covering the club's cautious return to scheduled operations amid the pandemic, a new ATV helmet mandate, and approval of a second Week of Training for October.
Stephanie Zilora's sprawling retrospective traces her three-year journey from a December 2017 introductory tow with Andrew Neilson to earning her glider certificate just after Week of Training 2020, detailing rope breaks, a first solo in the rain, a terrifying Sprite landing, and the camaraderie of three consecutive WoTs at Petersburg and Front Royal. The issue also carries Ralph Vawter's thrilling account of a wave flight to 10,000 feet during 'OctoWot,' Nick Leonard's October 8 private glider rating, and Bob Sallada's warm retirement from the club. The Skyline Soaring Education Foundation reports on new scholarship recipients, a memorial fund for Ryan Trexel, and board changes, while the October 15 board minutes reveal a club of 97 active members resuming FAST flights, accepting five new students from a 35-person waitlist, debating a PW-5 to replace the Sprite, and migrating its website—all while keeping COVID precautions in place at Front Royal.
December 2020 brings a rich mix of club news and aviation history. Ralph Vawter steps into the role of Skyline Treasurer, bringing three decades of financial-systems experience and a soaring background stretching back to his first glider lesson at Warrenton Air Park in 1987. In Curmudgeon's Corner, a fond remembrance of founding member Jim McCulley recounts his Korean War F-86 SAR mission in which his wingman was lost at sea while McCulley himself made a dead-stick landing after running out of fuel. The club also congratulates Jim Garrison, its SSA Regional Director, on his elevation to chair the national SSA Board of Directors. The issue's standout feature is Phil Jordan's first-person account of designing the USPS 100th Anniversary of First Powered Flight commemorative stamp, including his collaboration with artists Bruce Morser and McRay Magleby, and his painstaking effort to prove—using the official Kitty Hawk Life Saving Station weather report and Library of Congress glass-plate photographs—that the sky was clear, not cloudy, on December 17, 1903. Rounding out the issue, a gift guide points members to club tee-shirts and tote bags available on an honor system behind the right elevator of the Husky.
The January 2021 issue opens with a vivid account from Bruce Thomas, a FedEx B757 captain who learned to fly gliders as a teenager at the Warrenton Soaring Center, describing the moment his jet crossed a ridge beneath a lenticular cloud and the autothrottles dropped to idle as the aircraft climbed on pure lift—260 knots, nose down, soaring. The issue also features William O. Bank's in-depth comparison of spin-entry sensations in a Navy T28C versus a French ASK13 glider, with practical advice on using the Condor 2 simulator and VR headsets to build spin-recovery muscle memory. Erik van Weezendonk, a Marine battalion commander, shares a 2004 memory of a glider ride at Twentynine Palms that reminded him of the simple freedom of soaring, and looks hopefully toward a 2021 season at KFRR. Joel D. Hough, a CFIG with the Skyline and Pittsburgh Soaring Clubs, provides a detailed first-person account of his long-hauler COVID-19 recovery—from a 27-watt bike trainer in May back to solo flights and instruction by November—along with a 19-point appendix on pacing, breathing exercises, and monitoring. Jim Kellett closes with the club's 2021 season policy on masks, sanitizing, and personal risk assessment, noting that no mitigation is 100% effective and urging members to make informed decisions. The virtual 2021 Annual Meeting is set for Saturday, January 30.
February 2021 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter. The standout feature is Ron Wagner's remarkable personal account of meeting and flying seven U.S. Presidents over a career spanning from a 1972 ROTC visit to see Nixon at Tulsa to watching Biden's inauguration from his living room in January 2021. Wagner, a former USAF pilot at Andrews Air Force Base and later an Eastern Air Lines captain, recounts touching Air Force One under its wing as a young trainee, ferrying a newly returned Nixon, flying Bush 41 and Barbara Bush, performing the ramp meet-and-greet for Carter, and shuttling Trump between Washington and New York before the airline's demise. The issue also carries Kip Ongstead's reflective first-year report on transitioning from a freshly earned private certificate to club single-seaters (Sprite and Discus) and planning cross-country training, and Marcelo Morichi's charming essay "Stay in the Center Lane," which weaves together ASK 21 landing technique, triathlon swimming, and track running under one unifying metaphor. The club also announced the election of Erik von Weezendonk and Stephanie Zilora to the Board of Directors and Zilora's selection as Club President, succeeding Jim Kellett, at the January 30 annual meeting.
Skyline Soaring Club member Hugh McElrath recounts a 700-nautical-mile, six-hour solo tour in a Pipistrel motorglider from College Park, Maryland, to Groveland, Florida, complete with punishing headwinds that reduced his ground speed to 27 knots on final, a controller's warning about 1,500-foot antenna farms, a spoon-fed yogurt at 63 knots over the Georgia coast, and a tense low-level detour around the Okefenokee swamp. The issue also features a tribute to the Women Army Service Pilots of World War II through the lens of Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love, a passionate open letter urging members to show up early, pitch in at Week of Training, and treat the club as a community rather than a commercial operation, and the transition of the Safety Officer role to Ron Wagner with a new three-person Safety Team. The Board reports on the club's 30th-anniversary planning for November 2021, new badge accomplishments across the membership, the adoption of electronic payments, and the opening of the 2021 flying season on March 14.
The April 2021 issue opens with Hugh McElrath's vivid, self-deprecating account of learning to aerotow hang gliders in a Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly at Blue Sky Hang-gliding near Richmond, Virginia, where his instructor Bobby Bailey treats the runway like an aerobatic stage and the 70-year-old towpilot screams from the grass. New Safety Committee member Allison Diaz introduces herself as a 12-year NTSB air safety investigator who, despite growing up in Northern California's soaring country, didn't take up gliders until 2019. William O. Bank delivers a surprisingly deep physiological essay on
This May 2021 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter carries a bittersweet tone, opening with the passing of James D. (Kit) Carson, a founding member and the club's first Chief Towpilot, a career Air Force pilot who flew multi-engine aircraft across the world before becoming a fixture at Front Royal. The Board also honored long-time member Bill Burner with Emeritus status and began planning the club's 30th anniversary celebration for November. On the growth front, the newsletter reports 44 individuals waiting to join as student pilots, 25 students already on the membership list, and the addition of Allison Diaz as the club's newest flight instructor. Upcoming events include a cross-country training day from KFRR to Burner Field on May 7 and a Spring Family Day at the Burners' Woodstock air strip on May 29. The issue also features Bill Burner's emergency-parachute presentation set for publication in Soaring Magazine, a detailed interview with Austrian glider pilot Uwe Jetmar (who logged a 3-hour-36-minute Discus flight to 7,900 MSL in April), a heartfelt farewell from Kip Ongstad before his move to Phoenix, and Board updates on tow-rope tensile testing, medical-requirement changes for tow pilots, and evolving COVID-19 guidance for two-seat flights.
President Stephanie Zilora rallies the membership for the Week of Training, June 21–25 at Front Royal (KFRR), urging even non-students to show up for the camaraderie, campfires, and mentorship that make a full week of soaring unforgettable. The issue also carries a tender farewell to Marvin Holland, a long-time Cumberland Soaring CFI and DPE who examined generations of Skyline members, who made his final glide in early May; a poem titled "Last Flight" accompanies the notice. On the achievement front, Tom Ward retrieved the Boomerang trophy from Merlin Aerodrome in Amelia, Virginia on May 15, adding his name to a distinguished list that includes Shane Neitzey (seven times) and others. A short sidebar reveals that FBO Rock Skowbo's Piper U-3A on the ramp once served as the chase plane guiding a U-2 spyplane to landing. A lengthy "Meet Your Fellow Club Member" profile introduces Gregory Ellis, a 1967 student from California who cycled twenty miles to his first lessons, holds Silver Distance, Silver Duration, and Gold Altitude badges, and whose wife Miriam has organized the club's anniversary celebrations for decades. Jim Garrison closes with practical navigation tips for the SSA's new website and its still-active legacy site.
The July 2021 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is a rich blend of wartime aviation history and hard-won operational lessons. Jim Perlmutter reviews J. Norman Grim's *To Fly the Gentle Giants*, a detailed account of how the U.S. military trained glider pilots in World War II, from Harris Hill, New York, to the mass production of nearly 14,000 Waco CG-4As by contractors as diverse as Singer Sewing and Steinway Piano. William O. Bank contributes a lesser-known chapter of that same war: the invention of 100-octane aviation gasoline by chemist Tim Palucka at a Sun Oil refinery near Beaumont, Texas, a breakthrough that made Spitfires 34 mph faster and turned the air war over Europe. On the operational side, Andrew Neilson recounts a tense Week of Training at the uncontrolled Front Royal field, including a C-172 pilot who misread a sectional chart's right-hand-traffic asterisk, a Navion screaming in at 140 knots with no radio calls, and a Piper Cub that refused to yield to a landing glider. Marcelo Morichi describes the club's first Week of Training held at Front Royal itself, capped by a spectacular evening of unused burritos, craft beers, and a full moon illuminating the Blue Ridge Mountains. The issue also features a detailed interview with member Peter Ross, a former Leningrad native who took his first FAST flight in 2016 and surprised his father with a passenger ride in 2018; a listing for a 1984 Rolladen-Schneider LS-4 (N370JS) available by half-share; board highlights covering a spirited debate over tow-pilot medical requirements, a 30th-anniversary celebration survey, and recognition of members Tom Ward, Andrew Neilson, and Richard Good for their contributions to the club.
This August 2021 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is headlined by Rob Jacobsen's gripping first-person account of a landout in a narrow 912-foot field in Fort Valley, complete with a tree line, a power line, and a cleanup crew that arrived in twenty minutes. Jacobsen pairs the story with a practical tutorial on how to pre-select fields, plan approaches, and fly the airplane when the moment comes. The issue also celebrates the club's successful Week of Training, which produced numerous student flights and a strong financial result, and marks the first solo of young Caleb Smith, signed off by CFI Piet Barber on July 18. Ron Wagner contributes a handy "Rule of Sixths" method for estimating crosswind components in the cockpit, Joel Hough recounts a challenging hour of weak lift and careful thermal hunting on July 5, and Marcelo Morichi sits down with member Richard Good for a wide-ranging interview spanning his marine-engineering career, his path from England to South Africa to Canada to Virginia, and his gliding bucket list that includes six continents.
The September 2021 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter carries a deeply personal tribute to Mathew Michael Linger, a young man whose life was profoundly shaped by the club's mentorship. A 2012 SSEF scholarship recipient who overcame homelessness and autism to earn his solo on July 3, 2016, Matt's story stands as one of the club's most moving testaments to the transformative power of flight instruction and community care. The issue also features a vivid "Meet Your Fellow Member" interview with Syed Ali, a Karachi-born engineering lead who recounts a thrilling October 2016 wave flight to 10,800 feet with Bob Sallada in a GROB 103-B, a harrowing near-stall close call in the club SGS 1-36, and his path from YouTube soaring videos to private glider rating. Additional content includes Jim Perlmutter's review of Winston Groom's *The Aviators*, August kudos for tow-rope steward Joel Hough and 15-year-old solo pilot Caleb Smith, and a welcome-back note from Robb Hohmann after a near-decade absence from the Front Royal field.
The October 2021 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter leads with a gripping safety account of an RV-6 crash in which two experienced pilots each assumed the other was flying, resulting in a near-ground impact and a final nose-over into a soybean field. The issue also celebrates the September Week of Training at Petersburg, where Piet and Chris Norris logged over 95 instructional flights and eight pilots earned winch endorsements; chronicles the 51-minute first soaring flight of Dee, a former NASA employee resuming aviation after decades away; profiles member Hugh McElrath, a 30-year naval intelligence officer whose first date with his wife was a Supercub flight over Vesuvius; and details Board actions including a 70% member vote to replace the club's Sprite with a PW-5, the postponement of the 30th Anniversary celebration to spring 2022, and ongoing efforts to formalize the Front Royal traffic pattern to keep gliders and powered aircraft on opposite sides of the field.
The November 2021 issue is anchored by two extraordinary first-person accounts of October 17, 2021, a day when favorable wave and ridge conditions at Front Royal produced back-to-back major achievements: JP Stewart earned his Diamond Altitude Badge with a 16,404-foot gain, threading the Massanutten ridge and catching a persistent wave, while Shane Neitzey completed a 96-mile Boomerang flight to Merlin Soaring in Amelia, Virginia, scrubbing off 3,000 feet in a lazy spoiler spiral for a spectacular view of the landing field. The issue also features a reflective "QQ Ballast" column by William O. Bank on the pilot-passenger communication dynamic, an update on the FAA's revised transponder code guidance for gliders (12002 at all times), and a "Meet the Member" profile of Rob Jacobsen, a physicist and former BAE Systems R&D director who added his glider rating in 2019 and once flew a Pitts S-1E in IAC Unlimited competition. Rounding out the issue are AOPA recognition of Ken Ring as a top Eastern Region flight instructor, a call for the club's first annual tow rope meeting, holiday merchandise ordering tips, and a lighthearted plug from member Ron Wagner for a serialized science-fiction novel set in the year 2218.
The December 2021 issue opens with a moving tribute to Ryan Trexel, a 2017 SSEF Scholarship winner who passed away in April 2020 at an untimely age. On what would have been his nineteenth birthday, his parents, grandparents, and brother gathered at the field to watch operations and remember the joy Ryan found in flying with the club, while his grandfather Ralph Sharpe continues to support the Ryan Trexel Memorial Scholarship. Beyond the memorial, the newsletter captures a Skyline Soaring Club in vigorous growth: 104 members, forty prospective students on the wait list, and a unanimous Board vote to pay off the ASK-21 member loan and pursue the purchase of a PW-5 glider in San Antonio. November brought a pair of newly rated pilots, including sixteen-year-old Caleb Smith, dubbed the youngest rated glider pilot in the United States at the time, and a volunteer crew that brought the Discus back to the flight line for under a thousand dollars.
The February 2022 issue opens with the difficult news that the SSA Convention has been cancelled amid the Omicron surge, with plans to reschedule for late 2022 or early 2023 in Reno, Nevada. The centerpiece of the issue is Dan Ernst's enthusiastic review of *Flying with the Schweizers*, a two-part history tracing the immigrant brothers Paul, Bill, and Ernie from building gliders in their father's barn during the Depression to running a company that produced over 2,600 Grumman Ag Cats, trained 20,000 Army helicopter pilots, and helped found the Soaring Society of America — all while constantly teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and taking on everything from satellite-tracking antennas to 16,000 CNC machine guards to keep the lights on. The book's second generation follows their sons through a Toyota collaboration, a UAW strike, and the ultimately ill-fated acquisition by Sikorsky/United Technologies. Rounding out the issue, Rob Hohmann celebrates earning his glider pilot certificate on January 2, 2022, and Erik van Weezendonk shares vivid advice on getting rated in time to ride along in Piet Barber's gleaming Duo Discus at a MASA contest near Gettysburg, calling the experience "pure magic" and urging readers to "eat that rules/regs/academics/bookwork elephant in little bites."
The March 2022 edition of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with President Stephanie Zilhora looking ahead to the upcoming season, emphasizing the vital role of volunteerism in launching gliders and highlighting openings for club meisters. Former Navy test pilot Bob Sallada's extensive flying career is celebrated through a new terminal display at Front Royal featuring over 30 hand-crafted model aircraft housed in a custom display case built by club member Dan Ernst. The issue details a memorable cross-country contest flight by Piet Barber and Erik van Weezendonk that ended in a smooth land-out in Pennsylvania, accompanied by a breakdown of contest rules and GPS tracking logs. Additionally, member Joel Hough shares a personal perspective on long-term flying retirement plans, Ken Ring is featured in the monthly member spotlight, and the newsletter issues an airport security warning following recent avionics thefts in the region.
In a vivid personal essay, longtime member Jim Kellett reflects on five decades of soaring and the extraordinary cast of characters the sport has drawn into his life—a Me-109 pilot from the Eastern Front, a Navy torpedo-bomber pilot who later shared a dinner table with the captain of the Japanese cruiser he sank, a classmate of Sully Sullenberger from their glider days at the USAF, a CIA field operator, a NASA Mars-rover project leader, and an Olympic tennis coach, among others. The April issue also profiles Chris Zaboji, an Air Wisconsin Airlines pilot and multi-rated CFI who joined the club in 2010 and recounts a memorable LS-6 cross-country from New Castle to Front Royal. On the administrative side, the Board—now led by President Stephanie Zilhora and new members Robert Jacobsen and Peter Ross—announced plans for the club's 30th Anniversary Gala in November 2022, awarded three scholarships through the Skyline Soaring Educational Foundation, scheduled a Free Soaring Safety Foundation audit for late July, and set a Burner-family fly-in for May 21. A major overhaul of the Operations Manual, guided by local attorney Chris Norris, is also underway, and the club urged members to use the blustery early season to review their personal weather and crosswind limits before the real soaring days arrive.
The May 2022 issue of Skyline Soaring Club's newsletter is anchored by a warm, detailed tribute to charter member and tow pilot Clayton Wilbur Vickland (1930–2022), who passed in April. Vickland built his Schweizer 1-26 from a kit in 1966, earned the rare Diamond Distance badge (one of only two on the East Coast), led the national 1-26 Association, and spent decades as an aeronautical engineer, Peace Corps staffer, and post-retirement glider mechanic. The issue also carries Erik van Weezendonk's thoughtful safety analysis of the NTSB report on President Pete Maynard's 2020 accident, urging pilots to keep flying the glider as their number-one priority. Bill Burner's enthusiastic call to action for the Spring Family Day/Fly-in at Burner Field in the Shenandoah Valley (May 21, rain date May 28) rounds out the issue, alongside a lively interview with newly licensed pilot Tenko Dimanov on his checkride, his 2-hour 20-minute thermal flight, and his advice for students still waiting to join the club.
The June 2022 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter captures a club in full community mode. New pilot Caleb Smith recounts his September 2021 check ride with examiner Piet Barber, including a tense moment when conflicting traffic patterns at Front Royal (gliders right, powered aircraft left) forced him to divert to a grass emergency landing area before finally earning his license. Board member Erik van Weezendonk reflects on the club's Away Day at Burner Field, which he calls a de facto Family Day, celebrating a mix of six-year-olds earning their first glider rides alongside veteran members, and urging the club to keep recruiting younger pilots to offset SSA's warnings about declining membership. Student pilot Mia Anderson continues logging solo time toward her PPL(G) practical, tracked by her mother Kari via flight apps. In a history sidebar, Jim Perlmutter traces the red-roofed complex south of Front Royal from its 1909 origins as the Aleshire US Army Quartermaster Depot (Remount) through its Cold War and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute eras, noting that General Pershing's WWI mount Kidron is buried on the grounds. The issue also highlights the club's newest glider, the PW-5, and the Kolstad Scholarship, now worth $10,000.
Piet Barber delivers a vivid, often hilarious account of his run at the 2022 20 Meter Multi-Seat Nationals in Sunflower, Kansas, where a landout in a wheat field adjacent to a cattle feeding lot, a 2 a.m. tent collapse under Kansas thunderstorms, and a near-triple-landout streak tested every ounce of his nerve. Alongside Barber's story, the newsletter details a major overhaul of the Skyline Soaring Operations Manual, including new procedures for the recently acquired PW-5 Smyk, updated wind-operations guidance, camera-safety rules, and a tow-fee increase to $25. The Board of Directors reports the club's solid financial standing, a record-slow March, 99 active members with 30 on the student waitlist, the county's transition to direct airport management, and the installation of a new security gate at KFRR. The issue closes with the long-awaited announcement that Skyline's belated 30th Anniversary Gala is officially on the books, with President Stephanie Zilora teasing the possibility of seeing Erik van Weezendonk in dress blues and Kellett in a tux.
Skyline Soaring Club's July 11–15 Week of Training at Grant County Airport in Petersburg, West Virginia, produced a staggering 181 sorties in a single week—nearly two months' worth of normal weekend flying. The event was a showcase of student achievement, with Keith Brown, Chris Jones, Jackson Loyer, Lydia Olsen, Kevin Barrett, and Peter Ross all earning A, B, or C badges, while Alex Zobell, Josh Barber, and Kevin Barrett received practical-exam endorsements. Perhaps most striking was the club's 33 percent female student representation (four of twelve), a female CFI-G in Allison Diaz, and a female duty officer in President Stephanie Zilora—a fact that left a young visitor from Randolph Macon College incredulous and inspired after watching a female instructor fly with a female student. The issue also carries a heartfelt memorial for Reggie Cassignol, a longtime Skyline friend and FBO fixture whose ashes were scattered over the airport he loved; a report on Burt Compton's third Soaring Safety Foundation survey; Alex Zobell's commercial pilot license (CPL-G) earned July 23; a detailed interview with newly rated pilot Marcelo Morici on his July 10 practical; and the joyful first flights of young Caleb in a donated Sparrowhawk R sailplane.
This September 2022 issue celebrates a remarkable cluster of new pilot achievements at Skyline Soaring Club, including private pilot certificates, glider add-on ratings, and first solos for Mia Anderson, Kevin Barrett, and Nerissa Zobell—all within a two-day span in early August. The centerpiece is a candid interview with new glider pilot Rob Hohmann, who recounts his check ride with DPE Piet Barber, his first passenger flight with his partner's mother (who went from skepticism to "I'd go for a ride" within thirty seconds of tow), and his plans to work toward a bronze badge and CFI-G rating. Veteran member and CFI Ron Wagner contributes a fiery Quora response defending his teaching style while simultaneously arguing that students must assert themselves as pilot-in-command, recounting two memorable episodes of being yelled at—once by a nervous young Air Force instructor during T-38 formation training, and once by a sixty-year veteran glider instructor who pounded the cockpit wall. The issue also follows member Maxwell McGowan as he departs for the University of Oklahoma to study Aerospace Engineering, after a summer that included a Civil Air Patrol flight academy and a General Dynamics corporate aviation internship where he shadowed the Chief Pilot and met General James Mattis.
The October 2022 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is dominated by Mike Christensen's gripping first-person account of his cross-country 'Lap of the USA' in his Lycoming-powered Cardinal, N34723. What began as a leisurely coastal hop from Front Royal, Virginia, to Ocean City, New Jersey, in late May 2022 devolved into a months-long ordeal: a GPS and NavCom theft at Charleston Executive, a bout of Covid-19 that grounded him and his copilot in St. Augustine, a carboned exhaust valve staked back to life by a roadside mechanic in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and finally a catastrophic loss of power over the high desert east of the Grand Canyon. Sinking at 300 feet per minute with no road or structure in sight, Christensen drew on his soaring training to locate a thermal, spiral back to 10,000 feet, and thread a needle into Grand Canyon's Class D airspace for a safe landing. The engine, ultimately found to have valve guides and stems beyond Lycoming limits, was trailered to LyCon in Visalia, California, for a full remanufacture, with the flight to be resumed in spring 2023. Rounding out the issue: the Club's 30th Anniversary and Holiday Party on December 17 at Heritage Hunt Country Club; a Board update covering stable finances ($67K in the bank), 100 active members, a 31-name student wait list, and the October 8 Wings and Wheels event; and a touching note on an Eagle Scout bench honoring former Club President Pete Maynard, built almost entirely by a young Boy Scout with no adult help.
As autumn operations wind down at Front Royal-Warren County Airport, Skyline Soaring Club members focus on seasonal fleet maintenance, winter flight planning, and club governance. The issue covers essential safety operational reminders, updates on towplane and glider airworthiness inspections, and upcoming social events celebrating club achievements and volunteer contributions. Readers can dive into pilot progress updates, safety briefs regarding local airspace considerations, and key board decisions guiding the club into the upcoming soaring season
Skyline Soaring Club marks its 31st anniversary with a December 17 gala headlined by a U-2 pilot, but the issue's standout story is Ron Wagner's account of Bill Payne, an 85-year-old former Naval jet aviator and 26-year Boeing 727 captain who, after a half-century without a glider, took the controls of an ASK-21 at 1,000 feet and flew the rest of the aerotow like a seasoned club member. Payne's daughter, singer Melanie Hughes, watched from the ramp and immediately joined the student-pilot waiting list. The newsletter also previews the long-postponed SSA Biennial Gathering of Eagles in Reno (February 25–27) and features Jim Perlmutter's review of David McCullough's *The Wright Brothers*, a fitting read timed to the 119th anniversary of the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk.
Skyline Soaring Club marked its 31st anniversary on December 17, 2022, with a black-tie gala at Heritage Hills Country Club that drew 56 members and guests, complete with military dress uniforms, an open bar, and a surprise keynote from Dave Weaver, a former Skyline member and decades-long pilot of the U-2 high-altitude aircraft (which he insisted was a 'reconnaissance' plane, not a 'spyplane'). President Stephanie Zilhora was honored with the club's most prestigious Bela Gogos Award in a surprise presentation by her fellow directors, and founding member Shane Neitzey entertained the crowd with a rendition of 'Hallelujah.' The issue also carries the full December 2022 Board of Directors report, covering the club's solid $75,000 bank balance, the approved $14,172 insurance claim for the Discus canopy repair (with the glider headed to Gehrilein Products in Pennsylvania for work), a 102-member roster with 24 active students, ongoing negotiations over the hangar lease as Warren County assumes control of the Front Royal airport, and the Board's unanimous support for a new 'maneuvering area' waiver with the Washington FSDO. Looking ahead, the club rallied behind a February 18 youth-aviation speaking engagement at the College Park Aviation Museum and set a combined Annual and Safety meeting for March 4, 2023.
The February 2023 issue of Skylines announces a quiet financial milestone: the club has paid off its final glider loan, leaving every aircraft in the hangar free and clear except N341KS, which Fred Winter graciously leases to the club. Despite a $4,300 annual loss driven largely by that early payoff, Treasurer Ralph Vawter confirmed the club's stable footing, and the Board voted unanimously to hold dues at the 2022 level. Carlos Troncoso was unanimously approved as the new Chief Duty Officer, stepping in for Chris Carswell after several years of distinguished service. With 36 students on the wait list and roughly half of all club flights being training sorties, the club is clearly in a growth phase, and Membership Officer Tim Moran is onboarding ten new students ahead of the March meetings. The issue also details the mandatory safety meeting and annual membership gathering set for March 4 at the community center across the road from the airport, where two open Board seats (Perlmutter and Kellett) will be filled in an online election running February 24 through March 2. A lengthy discussion of passenger liability waivers for non-member guest flights, a consultation with Costello Insurance Associates, and a friendly offer of custom bumper stickers from club signmaker Shane Neitzey round out a newsletter that, as editor Jim Kellett apologizes, arrived late and a bit short after his desktop computer met an untimely end in the shop.
The March 2023 issue pairs a practical book review of Dennis Pagen's updated *Understanding the Sky* with a detailed February 16 Board Meeting summary covering a healthy $111,400 bank balance, a record-breaking January for student flights, ongoing maintenance on the Husky, Pawnee, and Discus, the adoption of a new weather-cancellation policy for duty crews, and four candidates vying for two open Board seats. But the real highlight is a breathless first-person account of the 2023 Soaring Society of America Convention, where Skyliners caught up with Bob Wander, Burt Compton, Ken Sorenson, Pat Costello, and Rich Carlson, marveled at a presentation on a helicopter designed to fly on Mars, and gawked at the Nixus—a 93-foot, 67:1 glider boasting six independently computer-controlled flap panels on each wing. “Can't wait until the next convention in 2025,” the author concludes.
April's issue of the Skyliner leads with the success of a KCGS speaking engagement at the College Park Airport Museum on February 18, where Caleb Smith and fellow Skyline members addressed a large, captive audience on soaring, mentoring, and the club's educational programs, capped by an outdoor display and briefing of the Sparrow Hawk-R glider. The issue also features a new-pilot interview with Lydia Olsen, who recounts her practical test with examiner Piet and her 11-year procrastination on the knowledge exam; a colorful profile of new Board of Directors member Carlos Troncoso, son of an Argentine naval admiral and aeronautical engineer, who first caught the soaring bug on a Super Blanik in Córdoba and has been a Skyline member since 2010; and treasurer Ralph Vawter's notes on the SSA dues increase, Rob Jacobsen's C and Bronze Badge achievements, and Dave Collier's tire-alignment fix on the club's gator.
Anand Mohan's long-awaited ground-launch endorsement at Eastern Soaring Center anchors this issue, tracing his gliding journey from a wooden Slingsby T.21b launched by a drum winch at Safdarjung Airport in 1991 to a full solo winch campaign in an ASK-13 at Grant County Airport in April 2023. The newsletter also announces the May 13 Family Day Fly-In at Burner Field near Woodstock, hosted by Bill and Sharon Burner, and features Cliff Robertson's elegiac poem "Where Have All the Old Planes Gone?" read in memory of 1980 World Aerobatic Champion Leo Loudenslager. Board notes reveal a club in solid financial health ($84,000 in the bank), a 30-student roster with 28 more on the wait list, the installation of an ADS-B transponder in the PW-5, a vote to join Friends of KFRR on new hangar leases with Warren County, and a unanimous by-law amendment permitting electronic board elections.
Skyline's June issue is a feast for the practically minded and the competitively driven alike. Anand Mohan delivers Part II of his winch-launch series, tracing the history of ground-launching in the United States, comparing the economics of winch versus aero-tow, and compiling a remarkably thorough directory of every active winch operation, training provider, and CAP unit in the country — from a homebuilt winch in Livingston, Montana, to the Utah Soaring Association's portable rig that can launch from a 9,900-foot dry lake bed. On the competition front, Piet Barber files a vivid day-by-day account of his run in the 20-meter multi-seat national at Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, where he logged roughly 35 hours and 2,700 kilometers over ten days, made an off-field landing in a cornfield near State College, and finished 11th of 15 in a field that included Karl Striedieck and Sarah Arnold. Rounding out the issue, SSC member Ron Wagner announces his new role as AOPA Airport Support Network representative for Front Royal, and the club celebrates a hard-won June 27 soaring day at a hard-to-find grass strip near Woodstock, Virginia, where K-21s and a PW-5 climbed past 6,000 feet.
Andrew Neilson's long-anticipated first cross-country flight beyond the glide range of Front Royal Airport anchors this issue, as he details his carefully planned 41-mile task to Laird's Knob, the blue thermals over Woodstock that nearly forced a landout, and the relief of hearing the Oudie confirm task completion at a 23 mph average. The flight earned him SSA Silver Badge #7403. Also featured: a candid "Coffee with a New Pilot" interview with Mark Moran, who recounts his practical test day, a last-minute cancellation of a simulated rope break, and his advice for student pilots; Tim Bookwalter's entertaining account of three club gliders sharing a thermal and the careful coordination required to land them all safely; and a Kudos section celebrating Andy McGowan's first solo, Emma Tetley's third soaring scholarship (the SSA Costello), and a batch of new SSA soaring badges awarded by instructors Chris Norris and Ron Wagner.
August's issue celebrates two fresh milestones: Uwe Jettmar's SSA Bronze Badge, earned under instructor Chris Norris on July 9, and the practical-test triumph of new pilot Chris Jones, who passed his checkride on July 4 with Designated Pilot Examiner Piet Barber. In a wide-ranging 'Coffee with a New Pilot' interview, Jones recounts a Piper Cub's runway incursion during his landing, a 30-minute lift-geeking session with Piet, and a two-hour-plus thermal ride in the PW-5 that he calls his most memorable flight since earning his wings. He praises the club's welcoming instructor community—singling out Allison Diaz for her patience with Skew-T diagrams—and offers a candid suggestion for high-intensity training days, while noting the practical challenge of walking gliders back from midfield at KFRR. Jones also reveals that his family's upcoming move to Uganda has him eyeing a Condor setup to keep his skills sharp. Rounding out the issue, veteran member Jim Kellett delivers a pointed 'Curmudgeon's Editorial' urging all 103 active members to familiarize themselves with the club's Emergency Response Plan, arguing that with roughly 15% annual membership turnover, too many pilots may be rusty on what to do when a glider lands off-airfield and a news crew shows up.
Scott Bradley, a power pilot who earned his glider add-on rating in early August under examiner Piet Barber, recounts a cross-country flight over the Strasburg, Virginia area where a routine land-out discussion became a real decision under pressure—only to be saved by a thermal over a white-roofed warehouse that carried the pair back to Front Royal after another three hours of soaring. The issue also features Chief Flight Instructor John Noss's pointed safety bulletin cataloguing a string of near-misses and procedural lapses at the field, Keith Hilton's account of accepting Emeritus member Fred Winter's generous donation of a pristine Discus CS (picked up from Mifflin County Airport in Reedsville, PA, for a symbolic one-dollar bill), congratulations to Anand Mohan on his SSA 'C' badge, and the debut of new $5 Skyline Soaring Club patches available at KFRR.
Piet Barber and Nelson Brandt launched from Front Royal, Virginia, on a forecast-perfect Saturday with an ambitious 560-kilometer out-and-return task along the Massanutten and Tuscarora ridges into central Pennsylvania. What followed was a six-hour, 48-minute odyssey of ridge soaring, marginal thermals in smoggy haze, a tense decision to abandon the planned turnpoint at Shade Mountain, and a dramatic thermal escape from Dickey's Mountain that left them 55 miles from home with fading light. They threaded Hagerstown Class D airspace, dumped water ballast at the worst possible moment (which immediately improved their thermals), and landed safely to claim the highest OLC score east of the Mississippi River for the day. Rounding out the issue, Ralph Vawter issues a passionate call to action for Skyline members to embrace the SSA Badge Program, proposing a dedicated "Badge Meister" to track and celebrate members' achievements from first solo through Gold Badge and beyond.
Alex Zobell's 300-kilometer cross-country flight along the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge ridgelines in his 51-year-old ASW-15b anchors this issue, earning him the SSA Gold badge after a six-year wait to align the distance task with his 2017 altitude flight. The report reads like a pilot's real-time struggle with ridge transitions, altitude management, and a loose Nano 3 recorder sliding across the panel. Elsewhere, Marcelo Morichi offers a vivid, multi-voiced dispatch from a wind-shifted ADO shift on Runway 10, collecting candid opinions from Christopher Carswell, Carlos Troncoso, Scott Bradley, Hugh McElrath, Keith Hilton, and George Hazelrigg on why the shorter runway is either a backcountry-camping adventure or a no-bathroom ordeal. The club also thanks Bill and Sharon Burner for hosting a family soaring outing at their Woodstock airport, and Andrew Neilson kicks off a new monthly 'Things I Learned Today' column with a hard-won lesson about tailwinds fifty feet off the ground during a Husky tow off Runway 28.
December's issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter delivers two hard-won lessons in aviation safety. Chris "Filter" Baughman recounts a 2021 hypoxia event at 17,000 feet in a DA42 where a shifted oxygen bottle kinked his supply line, then walks readers through his progression from a 2004 altitude-chamber session at Laughlin AFB to a recent FAA Portable Reduced Oxygen Training Enclosure (PROTE) session at Manassas, where his O2 saturation plummeted into the 60s and his once-simple maze solution looked, in his words, "drawn by a three-year-old." Meanwhile, Jeff Windam shares a humbling tale of flying a 452-kilometer, five-hour ridge task that should have earned him a Gold Distance badge—only to have it denied because he skipped the electronic task declaration required by the Sporting Code. He did walk away with a Silver Duration badge and a cautionary tale for anyone tempted to trust a FAQ over the full regulations. The issue also notes that club member Piet Barber made the centerfold of SOARING magazine.
Bill Burner opens this issue with a hair-raising tale from roughly fifty years ago at Albuquerque Soaring Club: a 2-33 glider drifting wide behind a 180-hp Super Cub, a rudder stall that left the glider pilot straining at max controls, and a retired Air Force test pilot who saved the day with a quarter snap roll—ending with the two aircraft wing-tip to wing-tip, the tow rope arcing between them. Burner uses the story to make a serious safety point about rudder stalls and the positive-feedback danger of a glider getting wide in a tow turn. The issue also looks back thirty-two years to the club's first flight on November 23, 1991, with the Pawnee and ASK-21, and to the social Saturdays of the old Warrenton Soaring Center, where the crew would grill, drink, and brag about their flying. Ralph Vawter's 'Musings' column urges members to push for an SSA Cross Country Camp at Skyline and to make sure their solo, extended-flight, and badge achievements are properly recognized. The full roster of officers and 'Meisters'—from the PW-5 to the Gator to the towline—rounds out a solid January issue from the Front Royal-Warren County field.
February's issue is headlined by Piet Barber's announcement of a fully functional FAA Wave Window over Petersburg, Virginia, scheduled for late February through early March, with the possibility of a second tow plane donated by Mid-Atlantic Soaring to ease the queue of pilots chasing the wave. The club also celebrates the launch of the Central Pennsylvania Soaring Association at Centre Airpark, where Skyline members—including Chris Groshel, who provided his personal SGS 2-33—helped found the new club among its original 33 members. Scott Bradley contributes a vivid first-person account of his 6.5-year, $90,000 Glastar kit build, complete with basement riveting, a wife who doubles as an unlicensed FAA inspector, and a six-car parade to get the finished airplane out of the garage. The Board of Directors summary covers a new Discus CS donated by Fred Winter (insured at $50,000), the sale of the aging Sprite to CPA Soaring for $5,000, a switch to Truist banking with Zelle payments, a $127-per-month hangar lease increase, and Jim Kellett's pointed call for the club to actively search for an alternative airport rather than risk another forced departure. Board elections for two seats are set for March, and the mandatory Safety Meeting and Annual Membership Meet are scheduled for March 9 at the firehouse next to Front Royal–Warren County Airport.
In a remarkable crossover between the world of glider pilots and the Manhattan Project, Skyline Soaring Club member Dan Ernst recounts the story of Barb Dresner, wife of 1-26 glider pilot Al Dresner, who served as a stenographer to Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer in the weeks following the Trinity test. Barb, who passed in 2020 at age 95, left behind steno pads of her shorthand notes and gave an oral history to Historic Chevy Chase in 2012, describing ten days of dictation in an empty building on 16th Street in Washington, D.C. The issue also features Jim Kellett's nostalgic tour of the Replogle, Winter, and Peravia barographs that once recorded badge-claim flights, Jim Perlmutter's review of Donald L. Miller's *Masters of the Air* (and its Apple TV+ adaptation), and George Hazelrigg's gripping 1968 account of a total engine failure at 9,500 feet over the Laguna Mountains, traced to a fuel-line vapor lock that Cessna would later redesign. Rounding out the issue is the club's full 2024 contest calendar, a shout-out to webmaster Piet Barber's site overhaul, and the annual safety meeting scheduled for March 9 at the Front Royal firehouse.
The April 2024 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is anchored by Allison Diaz's detailed 2023 Glider Accident Analysis, originally prepared for the club's Safety Meeting. The presentation examines two particularly instructive incidents—a PIK 20D that struck Tennessee ridge terrain after its pilot followed circling birds into a turn toward the slope, and a Williams, California landing in which a highly experienced ATP with 1,800 glider hours ran out of altitude in a rice paddy after encountering unexpected sink on base—before distilling hard-won advice on ridge-soaring turns, approach discipline, and the cognitive biases that can lull even veteran pilots into complacency. The issue also carries a touching
This May 2024 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with a full 2024 event calendar spanning the Merlin Cross-Country Soaring Camp through the OSTIV Congress in Uvalde, Texas. The standout feature is Jim Kellea's nostalgic 'Back in the Day' column, recounting the club's 1992–1999 tenure at New Market airport (8W2), where member and surveyor Kevin Fleet had the inspired idea of laying out the club's name in oversized letters across the adjacent grass strip, then feeding the letters with lime and fertilizer until the healthy growth made the wordmark visible from altitude. The issue also announces the club's first-ever Family Fly-Away Day at Burner Field in Woodstock, Virginia (May 11), complete with a new right-hand traffic pattern for Runway 03 and driving directions through the Shenandoah countryside. President Stephanie Zilora issues a heartfelt call for volunteers to fill the trailer meister, merchandising meister, and secretary roles, while Jim Perlmutter shares a vivid account of a day spent exploring the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget Airport in Paris, from its pre-war art-deco halls and interwar gliders to a walk-through 747, a towering A380, and two Concorde jets nose-to-tail.
In this June 2024 issue, club member and newsletter editor Jim Perlmutter contributes a feature titled "Gliders Go to War," exploring the military heritage of the glider aircraft that share their lineage with the sport soaring community. The article is accompanied by a photograph of a memorial brick at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, which Perlmutter calls "a very interesting place to visit." The issue also carries the standard Skyline Soaring Club officer and director roster for the club, based at the Front Royal–Warren County, Virginia Airport and affiliated with the Soaring Society of America, listing Stephanie Zilora as President, Ron Wagner as Safety Officer, and the full slate of directors, tow pilots, and duty officers who keep the club's operations running.
Skyline Soaring Club celebrates a milestone month, reporting its largest membership ever at 108 pilots, 31 active students, and a 35-name wait list, while the Board approves an extra half-day for the June Week of Training to accommodate the surge. The issue's centerpiece is a long, reflective essay by CFI-G George Hazelrigg, who draws on two decades of instruction and a background in aerospace engineering to argue that soaring is an art that cannot be taught, only experienced—offering hard-won lessons on control, coordination, knowing when to do nothing, and always keeping a Plan B, each mapped to a broader principle for living. Two young Skyliners, Mia Anderson and Caleb Smith, are profiled as they step out of high school and into aviation careers, with Smith already holding two licenses and Silver and Gold badge distance legs in the club's Sparrowhawk. Board Secretary Keith Hilton's notes cover the Costello–Heffernan insurance merger, a $350 emergency canopy repair on N341KS, fleet maintenance on the twin Discus and the new FW Discus at Gehrlein, and the Board's decision to hold steady on Discus checkout and wind-limit policies. Classifieds call for volunteer Trailer and Merchandising Meisters, and the SSA Wing Runner online safety course is promoted to all members.
The August 2024 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter captures a season of growth and community at the Front Royal–Warren County Airport. New pilot Andrew McGowan recounts his July 6 practical test with DPE Piet Barber, including a memorable simulated rope break at 800 feet and a fumbled 'modified pattern' call that sent him onto a left downwind for Runway 28. The club celebrates a string of badge achievements reported in Soaring Magazine—A, B, C, and Bronze badges earned by Marcelo Morichi, Andrew McGowan, Mark Moran, and Hugh McElrath—along with completed PPL flight reviews. A detailed recap of the July 11 Warren County Airport Commission safety seminar covers coordination among SkyDive Front Royal, helicopter operators, tow pilots, and glider crews. Hugh McElrath profiles Rudy and his son, new A&P mechanics at the field who performed a composite tailwheel repair on his Pipistrel, offering a local alternative to the long trip to Gherlein, Pennsylvania. The issue also lists open club positions including K Meister Trainee, Trailer Meister, and Merchandising Meister, and directs members to SSA's online Wing Runner safety course.
The September 2024 Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is headlined by D. Marcelo Morichi's gripping account of an unplanned landout: after getting disoriented over the rocks and losing radio contact with the field, he descended to a rectangular grass field where a bull and several cows watched his approach with bovine indifference. Keith Hilton's quick drive out with a trailer and a farmer's help made the recovery smooth, but the debrief with John Noss and Joel Hough turned the scare into a masterclass in situational awareness. The issue also celebrates a remarkable family milestone—Chris Baughman earning his Commercial Pilot–Glider add-on on the very day his sixteen-year-old son Ryan received his Private Pilot–Glider rating, capping a journey that began when the family lived under the sonic-boom corridor at Edwards AFB. Andrew Neilson contributes a thorough essay on radio discipline and the often-overlooked 'listen' half of 'Aviate, Navigate, and Communicate,' illustrated by a near-miss between a C-172 and a glider on final at Front Royal. Joel Hough's Burner Day weather tutorial breaks down thunderstorm radar colors and the hazards of flying beneath anvil clouds, while the club congratulates new Silver badge holder Caleb and first-solo pilot Cindy Lawyer, and notes a Luscombe tail dragger that ended up in the corn after a quartering tail wind during landing.
Robb Hohmann's birthday collided with the rain-delayed Burner Day make-up flight, turning a family reunion at the Shenandoah Valley's premier soaring site into a multi-generational glider outing. His mother Lori, whose only prior experience in an engineless airplane was a 30-plus-year-old incident involving "unplanned aerobatics," was gently coaxed into a 14-minute flight she declared she'd happily extend all day. Sister Melinda (and new beau Jed) and nephew Rhett also got airborne, and the day closed with cupcakes and what Hohmann calls "an overwhelming sense of gratefulness and pride." Elsewhere, the club celebrates Ron Wagner's second SSA recognition as the most active flight instructor in Region IV — and the second most active in the nation. The issue also carries a slate of classified ads recruiting a Trailer Meister, a Merchandising Meister, and new Assistant Duty Officers, alongside a call for members to submit masthead photos for the 2025 newsletter.
A packed November issue celebrates a remarkable stretch of Skyline Soaring Club achievements. Mia Anderson captured the IAC National Aerobatic Championship in the Glider Primary Division at Salina, Kansas, piloting an MDM1 Fox, while a wave of A, B, C, Bronze, and Silver badges from Soaring magazine recognized the flying progress of David Wacker, Larry Ayers, Andy McGowan, the Baughman brothers, Caleb Smith, Ron Wagner, and Matt Vosika. The club also welcomed new Safety Officer Christopher Wuerker, a former MedSTAR helicopter pilot who ran one of the nation's largest medical evacuation programs before returning to the cockpit and the club. Young Benahi Lichti logged his first solo under CFI Brian Clark, the Tetley sisters hauled in a string of Virginia 4-H state shooting titles alongside their glider work, and a lighthearted safety column reminded long-duration pilots to check the AWOS before committing to a landing. New member Nick Meeder was thanked for a set of sturdy folding chairs to replace the hangar's rickety old set.
The December 2024 issue centers on a detailed post-incident analysis of an October 6 PIO (pilot-induced oscillation) that damaged the club's ASK-21 during landing, with Safety Officer Chris Wuerker walking through the mechanics of the bounce cycle, the critical differences in landing attitude between the ASK-21 and PW-5, and concrete steps pilots can take to prevent a repeat. Chief Flight Instructor John Noss points members to Chapter 8 of the Glider Flying Handbook for further study. President Stephanie Zilhora issues a strong call to action: with the club temporarily down to a single two-seat glider while repairs are completed, post-solo members are urged to get into the single-seat PW-5s and the two newly assembled Disci gliders, keeping the fleet flying and the skills sharp. A brief safety reminder on the classic 'Aviate, Navigate, Communicate' priority sequence rounds out the issue.
This January 2025 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is anchored by a stirring biographical tribute to Bela Gogos, a founding member whose life read like a thriller. A Hungarian Air Force pilot who flew ME-109s and Ju-87s on the Eastern Front in World War II, Gogos was arrested by the postwar Hungarian government in 1948 for anti-communist activities, handed to Soviet authorities, and sentenced to 25 years of hard labor. After three years in solitary confinement in Moscow's Lubianka prison and stints in Arctic labor camps at Inta and Vorkuta, he fled Hungary during the 1956 uprising and eventually settled in the United States, where he went on to earn a PhD in Electrical Engineering, hold five international patents, and work at IBM. He also earned the FAI Diamond badge in 1995, flew an ASW-20 with Skyline until his retirement from flying, and endowed a $50,000 scholarship fund through the Collegiate Soaring Association before his passing in 2007. The issue also carries the President's season-closing thank-you to volunteers, a detailed board report covering the club's roughly $110,000–$120,000 bank balance, a peak membership of 112, and 34 active students, plus updates on the planned six-week runway closure at Front Royal–Warren County Airport, a new FAR 61.57 currency discussion affecting the instructor cadre, the awarding of Good Service membership to tow pilot Richard, and the launch of a winter Strategic Planning meeting led by Marcelo Morichi. Board elections with two open seats are set for early 2025.
The February 2025 issue of SKYLINES leads with a charming throwback to September 12, 1988, when Skyline member Tom Brice gave his bride Linda the ultimate wedding-day entrance: an aerotow in the club's ASK-21 from 8W2, a release, several orbits around a hot-air balloon, and a textbook pattern landing on Runway 05 at Sky Bryce, rolling to a stop directly beside the reception tent to applause. The story, recounted by the 'Guy-in-Back' instructor Joe Parrish, details the months of planning, practice patterns, and the tight fit of a 100-pound bride in the rear seat. Also in this issue: editor Jim Kellett announces his retirement to Emeritus status while pledging to keep the newsletter going until a successor steps forward; a thank-you to Keith Hilton for delivering the 341KS to Gehrlein and repairing the rear-seat vario in the 321K; and a new set of detailed ADO helper checklists—arrival, during-the-day, and closing—authored by Carlos Troncoso to standardize field operations for new and veteran volunteers alike.
The March 2025 issue of Skylines leads with a practical gift for every member who will one day hold the clipboard at the ramp: a complete set of Duty Officer checklists covering arrival, in-day operations, and closing procedures, from hoisting the Skyline flag and laying out tow ropes in the correct color order to uploading the log sheet and writing the operations report within 24 hours. On the achievement front, Soaring Magazine reported that Benaiah Lichti, Ben Maitre, and Nick Meeder each earned their 'A' badges, a milestone the club celebrated alongside a general congratulations to Ralph Vawter. The issue also carries the full roster of club officers and meisters for the Front Royal-Warren County, Virginia, home field, reminding readers that the club remains a 501(c)(7) affiliate of the Soaring Society of America.
The April 2025 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with a lyrical ode to summer soaring and moves into highlights from the club's annual membership meeting, where Erik von Weezendonk was honored with the Gogos Award. The issue welcomes six new members for 2025, including SSEF scholarship recipients and a former US Army Armor officer turned Raytheon executive whose family aviation lineage stretches back to a US Air Force fighter pilot. A standout interview features Mike Osmers, a retired United Airlines captain with 54 years of glider experience who learned to fly at the Schweizer Soaring School in Elmira, New York, and is now building a Bushby Mustang 2 in his garage. The issue's most practically significant piece, penned by Piet Barber, walks through how a lapsed airplane pilot can legally re-enter aviation through glider training by satisfying the 14 CFR §61.56 flight review requirement via the FAA WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program—eliminating the need to dust off a headset and climb into a Cessna. The article positions Skyline's curriculum as a structured, pace-friendly on-ramp for former pilots drawn back to the sky by a silent glider overhead.
The May 2025 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with congratulations to Anand Mohan on earning SSA Bronze Badge #2578 and to Cindy Lawyer for stepping up as Merchandising Meister, then turns to the big news: the 2025 1-26 Championships, a national soaring event, is coming to Amelia County, Virginia, May 7–14, hosted by the Merlin Soaring Association. The longest feature is Ron Wagner's vivid first-person account of racing to a commercial add-on glider rating at Seminole Lake Gliderport near Orlando, where he logged 24 flights in a single day, flew a Blanik L23, and passed his practical test in just four days—a stark contrast to the slower, walk-heavy training at Front Royal. On a lighter note, Jim Perlmutter recounts a police helicopter dropping onto the field with rotors still spinning, a timely reminder of the club's helicopter-downwash safety review. Treasurer Ralph Vawter delivers a candid financial report: hull insurance jumped 27% (about $9,000), the Pawnee tow plane's annual inspection ran nearly $25,000 against a four-year average of $6,800, and a canopy installation on glider 341KS is estimated at $8,000. His prescription is characteristically upbeat—fly more, chase badges, and let participation offset the costs before the Board has to raise dues or tow fees.
June's issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is a celebration of members pushing their limits. Erik von Weezendonk delivers a gripping first-person account of a cross-country ridge-and-wave flight along the Blue Ridge in his 1968 Cirrus, from a bumpy launch behind a Pawnee tow to a nerve-wracking landout at Burner Field and an aerial retrieve by Robb Hohmann. The club also heaves a collective sigh of pride over Mia Anderson's 2nd Place Overall finish in the Sportsman Division at the Estrella Classic Glider Aerobatic Competition in Maricopa, Arizona; Chris Wuerker's SSA Gold Distance award; and a pair of young aviators, Benaiah Lichti and Jonathan Faux, collecting flight-training scholarships from the SSA and CAP. Ben Bierstine graduated With Distinction from the Virginia Military Institute and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force by his father, SSC tow pilot Jim Bierstine. Rounding out the issue are treasurer Ralph Vawter's call to members to fly and help close the budget gap, a $2,000 SSA grant toward 2025 Week of Training fuel costs, and a lighthearted nod to the old Grey Poupon limousine commercial.
Treasurer Ralph Vawter's revenue-and-expense breakdown puts a stark number on the club's mid-year finances: as of June 25, 2025, Skyline Soaring is running roughly $22,000 behind, with the Board warning that corrective action may be needed if the gap isn't closed by year's end. The call to action is simple—get out to the Front Royal-Warren County airport and fly. On the brighter side, the issue celebrates a string of firsts: Jonathan Faux earned his initial solo and the coveted "A" badge under CFI Rufus Decker, Hugh McElrath banked Silver and Gold Distance awards on a five-hour, fourteen-minute cross-country in a FW glider, and young Cliff Storey was named a Ray Aviation Scholarship recipient from the Experimental Aircraft Association, pocketing $12,000 toward his private pilot training with his Skyline Soaring membership and a reference from Joel Hough cited by the selection committee. The newsletter also rounds out its usual fare with a July birthday list and the full roster of club officers, from President Stephanie Zilora to Webmaster Piet Barber.
This August issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter leads with a pointed technical article by George Hazelrigg explaining how a variometer can display a dramatic energy loss during a final approach simply because a headwind dropped ten knots at 300 feet—the air mass accelerated, the inertial-frame assumption broke, and the instrument told the pilot a lie. The piece extends the discussion to the phantom lift pilots often “see” on a downwind leg, attributing it to a reducing tailwind rather than genuine thermal activity. Joel Hough's book recommendation for Dennis Pagen's *Understanding the Sky* broadens the theme into a vivid tour of atmospheric hazards: wave rotors that inverted a 450-pound motor glider with no other traffic in sight, dust devils responsible for over 170 NTSB-investigated accidents, and the BOAC Flight 911 disaster near Mount Fuji. The issue also welcomes five new July members—including commercial ASEL/AMEL pilot Chad Ohl-Trlica and Week of Training student Haile Cano—lists August birthdays, and presents a year-to-date revenue-versus-expenses chart showing the club narrowing its seasonal deficit to −$13,267 by July, a result Treasurer Ralph Vawter credits to strong participation and a well-run July 4th Ad Hoc day.
A tense July afternoon at the field—lightning strikes closing from 14 miles to 12 while a pilot debated launching a PW-5—anchors this issue's most gripping story, followed by a deep dive into why satellite lightning mappers can miss the very flashes that matter most. The newsletter also celebrates a wave of new certifications, including Cli Storey's Private Pilot Glider certificate and Nick Meeder's practical test, as he immediately took his wife Kate up for her first ride. Five new members joined in August, ranging from a 14-year-old CAP cadet to an aerospace engineer chasing his pilot's certificate. Fritz Treyz, a pilot returning after decades away, pens a vivid account of Week of Training 2025 in Petersburg, West Virginia, capturing the volunteer teamwork and camaraderie that define the club. And the financial chart tells a quiet triumph: after months in the red, July and August flying have pushed Skyline Soaring toward a positive year-to-date balance.
Nicolas Meeder's vividly told check-ride account dominates this issue: his examiner Piet Barber, being colorblind, mistook the grey PTT ball for the yellow one and yanked it at 1,000 feet, forcing Meeder to execute his emergency plan and land on runway 10. The second flight ended in a rain-soaked landing with a tailwind, and the anticlimactic reveal that he'd passed came only after he'd already walked back to the FBO and told his wife. Also in this issue: Andrew McGowan recounts a multi-hour ridge flight with Piet Barber along the North Fork Shenandoah, calling it the best learning flight of 2025; the Skyline Soaring Education Foundation reports three scholarships awarded in 2025, including the $2,500 Ryan Trexel Memorial award; and the October birthday list celebrates Jim Kellett turning 90.
The November 2025 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is dominated by the triumphant return of Mia Anderson from the 2025 IAC U.S. National Aerobatic Championships in Salina, Kansas, where she claimed the Sportsman Glider National Championship and made history as the first woman ever to compete in both the Powered and Glider divisions at the U.S. Nationals, finishing fifth in the Primary Powered category in an Extreme Decathlon. The issue also carries a lyrical poem, "Wings of a Season," by William Brian Wark, a meditation on summer soaring and the approaching stillness of winter. Club Treasurer Ralph Vawter reports that Skyline Soaring has finally tipped into positive net revenue for the 2025 season, a milestone the club attributes to the collective effort of its members. The issue closes with a list of November birthdays and the full roster of club officers and aircraft "Meisters."
January 2026 brings a full slate of club milestones: Mike Osmers earns his Husky tow-pilot certification, Manny Serrano takes an A Badge, and Jonathan Faux and Cindy Lawyer each earn B Badges. New pilot Paul Brower recounts his December practical test in a cold, overcast sky, including a simulated rope break at 300 feet and a slip-to-landing that left the glider "really just wanting to keep flying." Treasurer Ralph Vawter reports a positive 2025 net and proposes the Skyline Challenge 2026, a progressive cross-country task program around the airport using SeeYouNavigator and WeGlide. The club also celebrates a Top-3 Front Royal Award in the Non-Profit Organization category. But the issue's standout feature is Chris Zaboji's vivid dispatch from Chinko, a 7,000-square-mile conservation reserve in the Central African Republic, where he conducted flight reviews in a Cessna Caravan and Savannah light-sport aircraft under conditions of no radar, no weather stations, and a single nationwide radio frequency, dropping off rangers to a remote strip and reflecting on a country where the monthly minimum wage is $60 and every person he met carried a smartphone.
This edition of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter features key announcements as members prepare for the upcoming soaring season at Front Royal-Warren County Airport. The issue highlights essential updates from the Board of Directors, details on the annual mandatory safety meeting, and operational reports covering tow plane maintenance and airfield readiness. Club members also share insights on winter flight conditions, flight training milestones, and upcoming social gatherings, offering an engaging snapshot of the community's dedication to soaring safety and camaraderie.
This March 2026 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is a practical field manual in the truest sense: a step-by-step operational playbook for the club's Duty Officer and Assistant Duty Officer, covering every phase of a flying day from the first hangar door opening to the final log-sheet upload. The DO checklist walks through 16 arrival tasks—monitoring weather via 1-800-WXBRIEF and Skysight.io, laying out the four-color tow ropes (Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue), hoisting the Skyline flag, calling TRACON, and running the morning safety briefing—before moving into 12 midday duties that emphasize assertive flight-line management, pattern clearance checks, and coordination with instructors and the Airport Manager. The closing sequence details 13 steps, from wiping down glider leading edges and stowing Gators to verifying the log sheet, collecting checks (no cash), and filing the Operations Report email within 24 hours. A parallel ADO checklist mirrors the same three phases with a focus on visibility vests, pre-launch checks, and situational awareness on the field. A brief March Birthdays card rounds out the issue, celebrating Sam Gilbert, Erik van Weezendonk, Tim Moran, and Andrew Neilson. For anyone curious about the unglamorous but essential machinery that keeps a soaring club's operations running safely and on schedule, this issue reads like a behind-the-scenes tour of the ramp.
The April 2026 edition captures the excitement of the opening spring soaring season at Front Royal-Warren County Airport as members take to the skies for cross-country planning and pilot badge attempts. The issue details key operational safety updates, airfield logistics, and maintenance reports on the club’s glider and tow plane fleet. Highlighting member achievements, upcoming instructional clinics, and community events, this newsletter provides a vivid snapshot of club activity and preparation for peak thermal soaring conditions.
This issue of Skylines is anchored by a richly detailed profile of Jim Kellett, the 90-year-old Skyline Soaring Club co-founder whose career spans a 1940 first flight in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to roughly 6,000 glider hours across 24 different sailplanes in 15 states and four countries. Kellett's story weaves together his 1991 role in founding the club, his 40 years as a CFI(G), his 2016 FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, and his colorful tenure as Director of the Mt. Weather Emergency Assistance Center, from which President Reagan fired him for championing renewable energy. The newsletter also features a candid, first-person account from Nicholas Meeder on the paralyzing anxiety he overcame during his FAA Practical Test, a safety column on situational awareness drawing on a 2024 mid-air collision in Slovakia, and a ground-based coordination exercise for new students. Club operations news includes the adoption of the Manage 2 Soar system, the Pawnee's engine replacement, and the appointment of new ADOs Nick Meeder and Ben Maitre. Upcoming events highlight a May 9 away-day at Burner Field in Woodstock for off-field landing training, the annual Week of Training at Petersburg, West Virginia (July 5–10), and the October Great Pumpkin Drop. A navigation challenge problem, a photo gallery from recent Quack-Quack flights, and a listing for a 1974 Rolladen-Schneider LS1-f for sale round out the issue.
The June issue of *Skylines* carries the club's most consequential operational news of the year: the KFRR runway and taxiway resurfacing is now scheduled for September–October 2026, with the airport expected to be closed for the duration. Bill and Sharon Burner have graciously opened their Woodstock field (VG55) and hangar as the club's alternate base, and the newsletter's own Away Day report—24 flights, a last-minute weather gamble that paid off, a hand-flipped prop start, and a 1947 Piper Cub making a guest appearance—serves as a proof of concept that VG55 can host a full soaring operation. Beyond the closure news, the issue is rich with technical and community content: Chief Instructor John Noss dissects the geometry of turns on tow, arguing that
The July 2026 issue of Skylines arrives in the thick of the club's annual Week of Training (July 5–10, with students shuttled to Petersburg, West Virginia), and the pages are packed with the kind of deep technical thinking that makes a soaring club feel like a living laboratory. Chief Instructor John Noss delivers a sweeping, source-by-source takedown of slack-line recovery doctrine, tracing how a 1961 SSA handbook's advice to simply “yaw the sailplane” persisted through successive editions of the FAA Glider Flying Handbook and into modern training manuals, before laying out the actual two-phase physics of the problem. George Hazelrigg follows with a three-theory treatment of lift—Bernoulli, momentum, and vorticity—that connects the Kutta-Joukowski theorem to why aileron inputs demand rudder and why a tailspin must never be corrected with aileron. The issue also carries a thorough heat-illness safety briefing from the club's physician, a stern canopy-care warning after three broken canopies cost the club over $30,000, a nostalgic “Way We Were” column recalling the club's 1999 founding and its fight with a hostile airport commission, a wave-soaring challenge problem that traps the pilot above a closed cloud deck at 12,000 feet, a kudos to Mia Anderson for her AOPA magazine feature as the first woman to compete in both powered and glider aerobatics nationally, and a for-sale listing for a 1974 Rolladen-Schneider LS1-f offered to members at $18,000.
The August 2026 issue of Skylines is dominated by a vivid, multi-part account of the club's Week of Training 2026 in Petersburg, West Virginia, where 157 training flights were logged over four or five days despite challenging weather. Highlights include 16-year-old Chris Billips making his first solo on his birthday, several pilots re-soloing after long hiatuses, and students completing PW-5 checkouts. The issue also introduces Andrew McGowan as the club's new Safety Officer, reports on board decisions to purchase a new ASK-21 wheel assembly and raise tow-plane and hookup fees ahead of a possible KFRR runway closure, and features a deep-dive by Chief Instructor John Noss on reading modern Skew-T/Log-P charts and decoding CAPE, CIN, and Lifted Index terminology. Additional content includes Joel Hough's step-by-step battery troubleshooting narrative, a fond interview with founding member Jim Kellett (61 years of gliding), a first-of-its-kind 'Meet the Meisters' section profiling the dozen-plus volunteers who keep the club's fleet, ropes, towplanes, and systems running, and a safety challenge problem asking readers what they would do if suddenly trapped beneath a cloud deck at 12,000 feet with no visible exit.
September's Skylines opens with a jolt: during an annual condition inspection, the club's instructor discovered that all eight seatbelt harness connection points on both a K-21 and a Discus were essentially unconnected, prompting a forceful reminder to every pilot to check harness attachment tabs, loose cockpit items, and canopy latches before every single flight. The operational stakes ratchet up with a detailed update from the airport on the long-awaited runway and taxiway repaving at Front Royal–Warren County (KFRR), which could begin as early as mid-September and shut the home field for up to two months, potentially sending Skyline Soarers to Burner Field in Woodstock or Grant County in Petersburg, West Virginia. The issue also debuts a 'Meet the Chiefs' series introducing the four volunteer officers who keep the club's roughly 100-member operation running, offers a thoughtful lesson on the counterintuitive geometry of sharing a thermal with other gliders, lists a 1974 Rolladen-Schneider LS1-f (N6108J, 2,863 hours) for sale to members at $16,000, and issues a call for a new Club Treasurer to take over from Ralph Vawter in 2027.
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