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.
The November 2022 issue opens with a gripping first-person account from Christopher Wuerker, who lost the entire canopy of his club Discus during a routine ferry flight to Burner on October 8. With sunglasses shielding his eyes and a parachute in his back pocket, he flew a high pattern, called out on the radio, and set down uneventfully—only to discover the canopy frame still clinging to the fuselage. NTSB classified the event an accident, and pieces of the canopy turned up in a neighbor's yard. Elsewhere, Piet Barber delivers a hilariously chaotic
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.