1991 / 1992 / 1993 / 1994 / 1995 / 1996 / 1997 / 1998 / 1999
The inaugural issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter chronicles a stormy November 16, 1991 meeting so heated that the restaurant band asked the members to keep it down. From the smoke, three key resolutions emerged: the club will operate out of Warrenton Airpark for an indeterminate period (Front Royal was rejected over a lack of hangar space and a cancelled airport improvement plan), the Pawnee tow plane will be purchased outright for $22,500 cash rather than financed, and the planned purchases of an ASK 2-33 and ASK 1-26 sailplanes were shelved as over-capitalizing. With over $28,000 raised, the club will be left with roughly $5,500 in operating capital, and the editor wryly notes that the club is, for the moment, a glider club that owns no gliders. Hopes are pinned on member Jim McCulley purchasing the 2-33 privately and leasing it back, while another member explores a shared-ownership arrangement for the 1-26. The issue also announces a new 'Who's Who' member profile series, a standing Flight Safety column warning that Warrenton's pattern is no place for macho talk, a next meeting set for December 16, and a running joke about the club's checks being printed with the name 'Skyling Soaring Club.'
The Skyline Soaring Club announces the launch of its flying operations with a Pawnee tow plane and an ASK-21 glider, celebrating a successful first flight on a beautiful Saturday, November 23. The newsletter lays out the club's new fee structure, establishes a detailed eight-point Duty Officer system for daily field operations, and sets basic rules for members including check rides for rusty pilots and proper equipment care. Bob Leyendecker, the club's point of contact, urges members to attend the December 14 meeting at Bela's house to sign up for positions and bring three months' dues, emphasizing the need for a "tight ship" as the club builds its flying program.
President James Postma opens this issue with a flurry of club news headlined by Jim Kellett's 15,300-foot wave flight over Waynesboro on January 18 and an upcoming wave camp at Petersburg, West Virginia (Feb. 15–23). The club's most dramatic story, however, is the rapid $9,000 fundraise to purchase a 2-33 glider (N2743H): members voted to raise the money at the December meeting, delivered the cash to WSC the following Monday, and Shane Neitzey spent an entire Sunday driving the territory collecting payments—his van now reads "Shane's Armored Car Service" instead of "Shane's Signs." The club now owns the 2-33 and a Pawnee, leases an ASK-21, and is negotiating a 1-36 lease. Seven new members (Carson, Collier, Farr, Soule, Vickland, Winchester, Wentzel) bring the roster to 36, with a stated goal of 60. Postma also reports that the Front Royal Airport Master Plan has been approved and hangar improvements are underway, urges members to keep dues current amid slow winter operations, and calls a General Members Meeting for February 8 at Jim Kellett's home, where officer elections and membership growth will be on the agenda. A full 36-member telephone tree rounds out the issue.
In a landmark issue, the Skyline Soaring Club announces its unanimous decision to relocate all operations to Front Royal Airport by April 1, 1992, a move that will reshape the club's future. President James Postma, writing from what may be his final tenure, details the February 8 members meeting where 17 attendees voted to establish four working committees—Front Royal relocation, trailer transport, portable runway lights, and a quonset-hut hangar plan to attract private glider owners. Postma, a contract engineer whose assignment has ended, graciously withdraws his presidential nomination, urging members to step forward. The March 14 meeting will see formal elections for officers and directors, with nominees including Bob Leyendecker (VP), Bela Gogos (Treasurer), Jim Kellet (Secretary), and new maintenance and hangar directors Jim Miles and Spencer Annear. The issue also calls on all members to submit updated information forms by March 21, underscoring a club in active, purposeful transition.
The March 1992 issue of Skylines marks a watershed moment for the Skyline Soaring Club: at the March 14 membership meeting, the club officially elected its first Board of Directors, with James Postma as President, Bob Leyendecker as Vice-President, Bela Gogos as Treasurer, and a full slate of operational, maintenance, and membership officers. Equally significant, a Front Royal Airport Safety Committee was established the day before, with Leo Meacher named the club's representative, setting the stage for the first official flight patterns to be defined for all airport users on March 23. The newsletter also carries dispatches from the SSA Convention—Gren Siebels's moving keynote, Bob Wander's second consecutive new-member recruitment award, Bermuda High Soaring's move to Lancaster County, South Carolina, and a showcase of exciting new Eastern European gliders including the SZD-55 and Blanik L-25. Woven throughout is an urgent, good-humored plea from the editors: the club is off the ground, but it needs every member to volunteer for duty-officer shifts, help draft an operations manual, install hangar lighting, and simply show up. A staffing schedule for April and May, a for-sale listing for a yellow 1-26 glider, and a note welcoming fourteen-year-old new member Michael Yarger round out an issue that reads less like a newsletter and more like a rallying cry for a young club finding its footing.
In a special announcement dated March 28, 1992, the Seyline soaring club called on all members to attend a two-day field exploration and fly-in at New Market Airport (Valor Field) in New Market, Virginia, on April 4–5. The airport features a 5,850-foot paved runway (24/6) with a parallel grass strip, hangars, tiedowns, fuel, operations buildings, a picnic area, and a shop. The owner, Ed Raney, expressed strong interest in hosting the club and invited members to come down and fly. The Board of Directors endorsed New Market as a highly desirable soaring site, citing safety, available space, light traffic, and its proximity to Massanutten Ridge, and noted it may prove more attractive than the club's current location at Front Royal. Members were urged to inspect the site firsthand and discuss a possible relocation at the April 19, 1992 club meeting. Seyline planned to station its towplane and gliders at the field for members to use. A detailed area map of the New Market region accompanied the announcement.
In a decisive April 18 meeting, Skyline Soaring Club members unanimously approved the Board's recommendation to relocate operations to New Market Airport, a site that visiting members have embraced without exception. The newsletter captures a club in transition: founding president James Postma, the driving force behind the club's creation, is set to leave the area by May 21, prompting the nomination of Spencer Annear to complete his term, while Shane Neitzey steps in as Vice President following Bob Leyendecker's resignation. Operations face a practical crisis as extensive rust damage is discovered in the towplane's rudder and horizontal stabilizers, grounding the fleet for at least April 25–26 with no firm return date. On a brighter note, a custom dolly engineered by Charlie Lee finally allows the 2-33 glider and towplane to be stored in a hangar, and member Phil Jordan has donated a striking new club logo and layout services. The issue also includes the club's first member phonebook, a stern dues-collection notice, and an invitation to the next meeting on May 30 at the new airport itself, complete with a do-it-yourself picnic to mark the transition.
With the move to New Market nearly complete—just two trailers still in transit—the Skyline Soaring Club is settling into what members are calling a 'world-class gliderport,' with the Pawnee, 2-33, K-21, and 1-36 all flying from the new site. The spring season delivered memorable flying, including a record 23 flights in a single day on May 7 and a classic five-hour up-and-down-Massanutten flight by Bela on May 13. The newsletter lays out an ambitious restructuring: the Safety and Instructors Committees merge into a new Operations Committee under Leo Meacher, a Facilities Committee replaces the old Hangar Committee, and the Maintenance and Membership Committees are formalized under Jim Miles and Shane, respectively. Volunteers are urgently sought to chair the Competition and Social Committees. The Board is also weighing a proposal to soften the club's by-laws for greater flexibility, and a recruitment drive targets 60 members to cover fixed dues. A combined fly-picnic-meeting is set for Saturday, July 11, with an agenda covering fee adjustments, new-member introductions, and social planning. Secretary Dr. James C. Kellett, Jr. signs off from Fairfax, Virginia, as the club looks to build its next decade from its new home.
This issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter captures a club in full organizational bloom. The headline story is the remarkable achievement of Matthew Jones, who started as a "line boy" at the Warrenton Soaring Center and has now earned his Certificated Flight Instructor (Glider) rating—a feat the club calls "a terrific achievement for this young man" before he heads off to school in North Dakota in late August. Charter Member Paul Dawson has also earned his CFI and brought a Grob 103 to the gliderport, while two new members, Gordon and Eric Loucks of Manassas, have begun instruction after approval in June. On the administrative front, the club has fleshed out six standing committees (Operations, Facilities, Maintenance, Membership, Competition, and Social) and formed a special ad hoc committee, chaired by Bela Gogos, to revise the club's By-Laws ahead of a September membership vote. Directors are also weighing the cost-benefit of becoming an SSA Chapter to access group insurance savings before the November renewal. Dues have been restructured to an annual schedule, founding President James Postma has relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, and the club's August–September duty and tow-pilot schedule is printed for members' reference.
The September 19, 1992 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter captures a small club in the thick of operational growing pains. Treasurer Bela Gogos reports a healthy $13,000 in the bank, but the Pawnee tow plane's annual inspection looms with the possibility of costly repairs, and the Schweizer trailer is in such disrepair that the club fears losing it altogether. The most pressing concern is a shortage of qualified tow pilots—insurance rules demand 100 hours of taildragger time and 25 tows before a new pilot can be cleared—prompting a lively debate over honorary memberships, non-member arrangements, and, most intriguingly, Spencer's suggestion of a winch as an alternative to aero towing. The club also wrestles with leaking hangars, a $250 counter-offer to buy out the Warrenton Soaring Center's parts inventory, a leadership transition in the membership director's chair from Shane Neitzey to Phil Jordan, and the prospect of affiliating with the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association. With by-laws still in draft and a 1993 budget on the horizon, the newsletter reads as a candid snapshot of a young club determined to keep its gliders in the air through the coming winter.
The September 1992 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with a close call that should make every towplane pilot pause: a major bolt in the main landing gear had broken, but a vigilant pilot caught it during preflight inspection. Maintenance Director Jim Miles used the incident to urge all pilots to open cowlings and check for exhaust leakage that could cause costly engine damage. The issue also marks a new era of club governance, as a new interim secretary steps in following Jim Kellett's move to inactive status, and the board votes to require students to pass a written examination before earning solo privileges. Kit Carson is named the new Chief Tow Pilot, the club reports roughly $7,200 in reserves earmarked for a future Pawnee engine replacement, and a generous donation from Joe Rees brings a sunshade canopy to the field. The newsletter closes with an invitation to the September 19 cookout at the gliderport, where members are encouraged to bring burgers, hotdogs, and friends for a post-flying picnic.
Marking the close of its inaugural operating season, Skyline Soaring Club looks back on a hard-fought first year of winter, spring, and summer flights at New Market and turns its attention to building a 1993 operating plan. President Spencer Annear calls on every member to weigh in on a sweeping set of questions—staffing, aircraft maintenance, recruitment, competitions, funding, and a three-to-five-year vision for the club's size and role in the broader soaring movement. The treasurer reports more than $13,000 in the bank but warns that the Pawnee's annual inspection and daily operating costs will test the reserve. A pressing tow-pilot shortage dominates the meeting, with Chief Tow Pilot Kit Carson outlining insurance requirements and membership options still to be resolved. On the human-interest side, fourteen-year-old Curtis Phillips earned his solo on September 20, and veteran pilot Piet Barber returned to the flying fold. The newsletter also covers a negotiated $250 purchase of the Warrenton Soaring Center's parts supply, ongoing hangar-leak frustrations, a draft by-laws still in the works, and a consensus to keep the club flying through the winter. Phil Jordan, art director of Air & Space magazine, steps in as the new membership-committee chairman, and the club's newsletter, Skylines, is now being typeset on a Macintosh with Quark X Press.
The Skyline Soaring Club newsletter out of Alexandria, Virginia, is dominated by a good-natured retelling of a new pilot's initiation, muddled by a communication mix-up that left the members uncertain of the full sequence of events. President Spencer Annear recounts how, after the initiation was carried out, a message went missing, and the club ended up chucking the new member in good fun while still not entirely sure what had transpired. The issue also notes that a pilot named John intends to take on some of the soaring in Virginia, and a photograph accompanies the account. It is a small, warm snapshot of a tight-knit soaring community welcoming a new member with equal parts tradition and mischief.
The December 1992 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is packed with the kind of drama that makes a small glider club feel like a major enterprise. The board's year-to-date report reveals a net loss of over $4,000 and a blunt prescription: get more members in the air. The club's Pawnee towplane has been grounded at Warrenton-Fauquier Airport for an annual inspection that will require new brake discs, airframe patches, and a recently replaced engine cylinder after a valve seat came loose in flight. Meanwhile, the club celebrated a hard-won IRS tax-exempt status, welcomed Jim McCulley as the new Maintenance Director, and approved a 1,000-brochure marketing push to recruit new flyers to the New Market, Virginia site. On the lighter side, interim secretary Ralph Wentzel returns from a Thanksgiving sojourn to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he and his family were swept into the White Sands Soaring Association's "Turkeyfest" at Alamogordo, trading Eastern hurry-up for 9,500-foot desert mountains and what he calls "spectacular" flying. The issue also details the club's holiday schedule (operations pause December 13 through January 2), a proposed doubling of the towplane reserve to $20 per hour, a pending dues increase, and a January 22 annual meeting at Shane's Signs in Manassas Park where six members will stand for the board. For anyone curious about what it took to keep a volunteer glider club alive in the early 1990s, this single newsletter is a front-row seat.
The February 1993 issue of the Skylines newsletter carries the minutes of the club's first annual membership meeting, held January 22 at Shane Neitzey's office in Manassas, Virginia. Treasurer Bela Gogos reported that the young club—founded in 1992 by Gogos, Bob Leyendecker, Leo Meacher, and James Postma—logged 465 tows across 50 operating days at the New Market airport, with membership holding steady at 33 active members. The books closed the year a mere $94 in the red, a result President Spencer Annear called 'excellent for a new organization.' The meeting elected a new six-member board (Annear, Gogos, Kit Carson, Neitzey, Jim McCulley, and Ralph Wentzel) and settled on a slate of officers. Board discussion touched on the money-losing ASK-21 lease, a donated radio for the Pawnee towplane, the feasibility of a club answering machine, and reciprocal membership with the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association and Ridge Soaring. A recruitment handout laid out two options for prospects: a $30 'donation' ride in a two-place glider to 3,000 feet, or a ten-day trial membership for $20. Phil Jordan announced that the club brochure had gone to print, the Operations Manual was 99% complete, and Sporty's-branded polo shirts, caps, and a silk-screened T-shirt bearing the slogan 'Soaring is flying pure and simple' were available for group orders. The issue closes with the March 1993 duty-officer and tow-pilot schedule.
This issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter opens with board minutes covering a healthy $6,500 treasury, new tow-letdown procedures, and the long-awaited Operations Manual finally heading to press. The real drama, however, lives in two dispatches from the wave world: a tongue-in-cheek account of an Air Traffic controller at Petersburg, WV, who told a flight of Marine A-6 attack aircraft to watch for gliders in the wave window, only to be met with the question, "Why should we care about some gliders?" — answered, smugly, with "They're above you, sir!" — and a sobering safety article by Jim Kellett that traces the physics of mountain-wave rotors from his own near-fatal tail gust in a 1-23 over Mt. Mitchell to the March 1991 crash of UAL Flight 585, a 75,000-pound Boeing 737 slammed into the ground near Colorado Springs in nine seconds by the very same microbursts glider pilots seek out for lift. Kellett's close timeline of the 737's final 90 seconds, with its oscillating airspeed and sudden 4-g inversion, lands as a stark reminder that no one is immune to the rotor. Rounding out the issue are circle-diameter and time-to-fly reference tables contributed from the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association, a detailed May-through-August duty-officer and tow-pilot staffing schedule, and a proposed student-pilot competition pitting the earliest solo and Private certifications against one another.
The April 1993 issue of Skylines carries the minutes of the Skyline Soaring Club's board meeting alongside a thrilling first-person account from Secretary Ralph Wentzel, whose routine 200th flight in the club's ASK-21 turned into a nearly four-hour, 65-to-70-mile cross-country that he dubs a "Fantasy Flight." Launched with young local pilot Matt as passenger, the pair rode extraordinary thermals—vario pegged at 10 knots, climbs estimated at 1,200 to 1,500 feet per minute—over the Massanutten, through the Fort Valley, and up to 8,200 feet AGL near Mount Jackson before a hard, spoiler-full return to New Market. The board minutes cover a range of club business: a declining membership count (28 active, 5 inactive), a debate over ending the Temporary Member category and offering a $50 "blue light special" initiation discount, Ed Rainey's offer to sell and finance a club radio, bird-nesting problems in the Pawnee towplane, and a request to ATC for a dedicated wave window west of New Market. The issue also solicits member articles and requests updated contact information for the club's address list.
The Skyline Soaring Club's June 1993 edition of SKYLINES arrives brimming with fresh energy. A new editor steps in at the helm as Phil Jordan steps back from publishing duties, and the board minutes from the May meeting reveal a club in visible growth: two new tow pilots (Jim McCulley and Paul Dawson) have been checked out, relieving the veteran tug crew of Spencer Annear and Shane Neitzey who had been flying overtime. Jim McCulley also marked a personal milestone, logging more than five hours in a single flight in his Schreder sail plane on June 6, the same day new member Joe Smith signed on. Piet Barber earned his Private Pilot-Glider certificate, and Fred Winter squeezed in time to get the club's ASK-21 through its annual inspection. The board debated the safety of the Schweizer tow release on the Pawnee, tightened landing-threshold policy, and approved a reduced initiation fee to spur a membership drive ahead of the July 24 Front Royal Airshow, where the club has been invited to fly and display its gliders. Rounding out the issue is a warmly nostalgic essay by Jim Kellett, "Contrails," which transports readers back to the 1966 Capitol Area Soaring School at Godfrey Field, recalls the era's soaring statistics and aircraft prices, and closes with a reproduction of Sam Wright's 1966 poem "Listen to the Wind." Duty schedules for July through October and detailed end-of-day checklists for duty officers and tow pilots are included as practical appendices.
The August 1993 issue of Skylines, the monthly newsletter of the Skyline Soaring Club, carries the minutes of the July 28 Board of Directors meeting, in which the club formally adopted a revised Article IV of its bylaws establishing a detailed tiered membership structure spanning Charter, Full, Probationary, and several Special categories (Trial, Transient, Event, Service, and Affiliated Club), along with a published fee schedule covering a $500 initiation fee, $240 annual dues, and per-minute aircraft-use rates for the club's ASK-21, 2-33, and 1-36 sailplanes and tow operations. The club also welcomed three new members—Tim Ettridge, Wolfgang Frauenfeld, and Joe Parrish—reported a successful recruiting effort at the Front Royal Airshow, and announced an ongoing experiment in running operations from a hilltop overlooking the grass strip, with water and power provided courtesy of FBO Ed Rainey. Maintenance notes covered the 2-33's recurring Braunschweig tube issue and the tow plane's pending tire replacement, while the board directed that the runway's displaced threshold be marked to improve safety. A general membership meeting was set for October 1 at the Falls Church Civic Center, and the editor, Ralph Wentzel, apologized for a two-month publication gap before promising a more robust issue to follow.
The Skyline Soaring Club's October 1993 issue opens with minutes from the club's annual membership meeting at the Falls Church, Virginia Community Center, where Treasurer Bela Gogos reported a record 457 tows (up from 369), a shrinking loss, and a modest membership dip to 33. The newsletter carries a heartfelt update on Gogos's successful open-heart surgery for a major arterial blockage, performed just days after the meeting. The issue's centerpiece is a thought-provoking safety article arguing that soaring training equips pilots with instincts power pilots lack: a 1985 fatal accident near Los Angeles in which a 7,000-hour power pilot tried to out-climb a powerful sink and was killed, contrasted with the glider pilot's instinct to lower the nose and accelerate. Pilot-instructor Steven Philipson's ongoing (and largely ignored) campaign to get the NTSB and FAA to recommend basic sailplane training for power pilots is recounted. A second technical piece warns members about the flutter-speed trap at altitude, where true airspeed can exceed limits while the indicated needle still looks safe, in anticipation of the club's mountain-wave season. Rounding out the issue are calls for tow pilots and CFI-Gs, a volunteer effort to repaint the PAWNEE's wing struts, a safety seminar on tie-down ropes and runway-crossing discipline at New Market, and a reminder that all club maintenance must be cleared through Director Jim McCulley.
The November 1993 issue of *Skylines* carries the club's most consequential news in years: Maintenance Director Jim McCulley has secured what appears to be a near-final FAA approval for a designated "Wave Window" that would allow Skyline members to fly above Flight Level 180 (18,000 feet) in wave conditions, with a go-ahead expected by mid-January. The proposed flight area stretches from New Market to Sky Bryce along the Blue Ridge. The issue also recounts a remarkable 75-minute flight on November 6, when McCulley and the newsletter's editor towed the newly airworthy ASK-21 (N341KS) to 5,000 feet and discovered a narrow, fast-moving band of 400-to-800-fpm lift that neither could immediately identify—later attributed to the convergence of a cold easterly air mass pushing ahead of a low-pressure system. Other items include the Pawnee tow plane's winter annual inspection (Dec 15–Jan 15), the 2-33 glider's upcoming inspection, hangar-floor gravel work, Paul Dawson's near-completion of tow qualification, a new membership-participation committee chaired by Joe with a report due at the January 14, 1994 meeting, and an invitation to the Kelletts' Christmas party on December 11.
The January 1994 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter carries the board's sobering report on the club's Piper PAWNEE towplane, where a late-discovered Airworthiness Directive led to the removal of wings, struts, and the spray hopper, revealing a severely rusted-away longeron and widespread fuselage corrosion traced to years of water seeping inside the fabric skin. With a repair bill expected to approach $2,500, the board also voted to relocate the PAWNEE to a drier adjacent hangar. On brighter notes, the club logged 588 flights in 1993 (up from 465), Jim McCulley secured a certificate of authorization for a new 'Wave Window' soaring area stretching from New Market toward Mount Jackson and the Sky Bryce ridge, and membership committee chairman Joe Parrish prepared a data-driven participation report for the annual meeting at the Falls Church Community Center on January 14, where 1994 directors would be elected. The issue also records the semi-inactive status of long-time member Phil Jordan and includes the full 1994 club duty and tow-pilot schedule.
In a rare special edition issued outside the normal monthly cycle, the Skyline Soaring Club board issued an urgent call to every member to write a letter to the FAA in response to Airworthiness Directive 93-21-12, which mandates wing removal and inspection of Piper Pawnee PA-25 aircraft to check for corrosion caused by agricultural spraying chemicals. The club's own Pawnee, used exclusively for glider towing, was inspected and showed no such damage, but the directive's compliance costs are significant. The board outlined five specific arguments members should weave into their personal letters—ranging from the fact that many PA-25s never carry ag chemicals to the safety risks of repeated wing removal—and urged writers to submit copies in triplicate to the FAA docket office. The issue also carried a revised member duty schedule reflecting requests received to date.
The Skyline Soaring Club opened its 1994 season with a safety-and-kickoff meeting featuring Jim Kranda, the local FAA Designated Flight Examiner for gliders and a former Warrenton Soaring Center instructor, who urged members to stay vigilant amid a new wave of low-altitude military flights, a recent fatal sailplane accident, and the FAA's expanded staffing. Kranda proposed a club-run 'Wings' proficiency program modeled on the AOPA/FAA initiative and stressed that the FARs represent only a minimum standard. The newsletter also celebrates a remarkable stretch of soaring over the Massanutten ridge: M-ASA visitors Chuck Forrester (LS-6) and Jonathan Gere (ASW-20) topped 14,750 feet, advanced student Curtis Phillips reached 7,400 feet in a 2-33 training glider, and member Shane Neitzey logged a four-and-a-half-hour wave flight to 14,000 feet in his new LAK-12, even penetrating upwind at the top of the wave with minimal altitude loss. On the administrative side, the club announced a new digital answering machine for field-status reports and ship reservations, a cash-deposit policy for trial members flying club gliders, and early planning for a summer field-day event featuring precision landings, flour-bombing competitions, and a barbecue.
This issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter, filed from the Manassas Park, Virginia, flying community, is equal parts tender farewell, gruff exhortation, and ambitious program planning. The club bids a fond goodbye to French student pilot Pierre "Pagu" Aumont, who has returned to his native country, and to founding Vice President Bob Leyencker, displaced from his Vint Hill Farms government post by a base closure and now bound for Vancouver, B.C. In their place, the board welcomes new members Tom Bryce—a professional pilot whose father is the namesake of Sky Bryce and Ski Bryce—and A&P mechanic Charlie Shonduby, while Matt Little and his tail-dragger-qualified father are expected to join as well. Maintenance Director Jim McCulley, in a characteristically blunt and unedited "Club Philosophy" column, lays out a pointed list of recurring neglect—unhooked hangar doors, a tow car parked on a glider wing, a vario left draining a battery over the weekend—and issues a rallying cry: Skyline Soaring is a club, not a commercial operation, and every member owes "tender loving care" to shared equipment each time they drive to New Market. The newsletter also details a proposed club adaptation of the FAA Wings Pilot Proficiency Award, a nine-phase recurrent-training program spanning ground school, thermalling, proximity flying, physiological (hyperbaric-chamber) training at Andrews AFB, and progressively more demanding flight phases, each earning a distinctive lapel pin from plain bronze to gold with rhinestone. The June flying extravaganza, delayed by weather, is rescheduled to June 18, with Joe Partish coordinating logistics, and the next board meeting is set for June 25 at Shane's Signs in Manassas Park.
This issue carries board minutes from the April 28 and May 1994 meetings and captures a club in visible transition. The Skyline Soaring Club welcomes a new tow car—a serviceable Dodge graciously provided by Ed Raney of the New Market FBO—along with newly installed hangar tracks for the Pawnee tow plane and a replacement canopy for the Sprite (SGS 1-36). Membership rosters shift as Tom Bryce, son of the man for whom Sky Bryce and Ski Bryce are named, joins as a member and tow pilot, and A&P mechanic Charlie Shonduby is accepted, while student pilot Pierre Aumont departs for France and founding member Bob Leyencker relocates to Vancouver, B.C. Maintenance Director Jim McCulley contributes a pointed "Club Philosophy" essay urging every member to treat the club's gliders, hangar, and tow car as their own, listing specific chores from hangar-door security to mowing the tie-down area. The newsletter also discusses the FAA Wings Pilot Proficiency Program as a possible model for a club recurrent-training scheme, notes the postponement of the Summer Event to June 18, and closes with a revised duty roster running through August 1994.
The October 1994 issue of Skylines carries the minutes of the board meeting held at Shane Neitzey's sign shop in Manassas Park, where the club approved a new Duty Officer incentive (one free flight with a tow to 3,000 feet and up to an hour of aircraft time), set the 2-33 for a multi-week annual inspection and horizontal-surface recovery, and began implementing Bela Gogos's long-awaited plan to repay Charter members. The newsletter's standout feature, however, is Jim Kellett's dispatch from England, where he spent a summer at the Lasham Gliding Centre—the largest gliding club in England and possibly Europe—describing its two double-drum winches, fleet of K-13s, Grobs, and Nimbuses, and its welcoming guest-privilege policy for visiting pilots. Kellett recounts a 48-minute soaring flight from a 1,200-foot winch launch, an hour of thermalling in sight of Heathrow and the Thames with a check pilot who doubled as a London police officer, and the surprisingly low cost of a full day's flying. For anyone curious how the sport is practiced across the Atlantic, this issue offers a rare, first-hand glimpse into British gliding culture alongside the club's own operational business.
The November 1994 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter reports a busy board meeting held at Shane Neitzey's sign shop in Manassas Park, Virginia, where the club celebrated its growth to 44 members and a healthy $13,369 in savings. The board debated expanding its structure with a new Vice President role for day-to-day operations, and Joe Parrish accepted a committee chairmanship to present the pros and cons of SSA affiliation to the membership at the January 20 annual meeting in Falls Church. On the flight line, the PAWNEE tow plane sat grounded with a fuel leak, the 2-33 awaited its annual inspection, and the ASK-21 and 1-36 each needed attention before returning to service. Looking ahead, the club planned a Wave Camp at Petersburg, West Virginia, using the tow plane and ASK-21, and Kit Carson and his wife graciously offered their new Alexandria home for the club's December 17 holiday party, with members asked to bring food and drink to the 6 p.m. gathering.
The Skyline Soaring Club's January 20 annual meeting at the Falls Church Community Center produced a newsletter brimming with momentum for the club's fourth year of operation. Treasurer Bela Gogos reported that 1994 tows rose 18 percent and total flying time jumped 28 percent to 429 hours, while outlining a board-approved plan to use initiation fees to pay down capital debt to $1,000 by year's end and eliminate it entirely by 1996. President Spencer Annear called 1995 a "landmark year," citing New Market airport's new management under Linda Rainey, a host of field improvements, and a packed calendar that includes a wave camp at Petersburg, West Virginia (featuring the Pawnee, 2-33, and 1-36), a Spring Fun Day with contests and picnic, a Community Day with public rides, the Vintage Sailplane Regatta at Waynesboro, Virginia, and a Fall Fun Day. A unanimous vote elected the 1995 Board of Directors, welcomed new director Joe Parrish, and set the tone for a season the club hopes will cement its long-term viability. The issue closes with the full March-through-December duty roster, assigning duty officers and tow pilots for every scheduled weekend of the year.
The Skyline Soaring Club's April 1995 newsletter is dominated by Joe Parrish's vivid first-person account of the club's Petersburg, West Virginia Wave Camp (February 18–26), where he logged a Gold Altitude flight to 17,800 MSL in the ASK-21, describing the wave as a perfectly smooth, panoramic ride with the oxygen system kicking on past 11,500 feet and radio contact with pilots as far north as Cumberland, Maryland. The issue also records the induction of four new full members — Tom Brice, Colombe Chappey, Rich Pickett, and Jean-Francois Gibrat — the signing of a one-year hangar lease at New Market's Valor Field, and an urgent maintenance warning about the ASK-21's aging canopies. Board minutes cover a new takeoff protocol at New Market, the Schweitzer 2-33's return to service after lengthy maintenance, recruitment efforts over the early Internet, and plans for the Annual Safety Meeting (May 5) and the Skyline Spring Fun Day (May 13, rain date May 20). A full 1995 duty roster, running from April through the Christmas break, rounds out the issue.
A remarkable month of soaring achievements anchors this issue: Treasurer Bela Gogos completed his FAI Diamond Badge with a 5,000-meter climb out of Minden, Nevada, becoming just the 806th American pilot ever to earn the distinction, while Joe Parrish logged his FAI Gold Altitude leg at Wave Camp in West Virginia and Kevin Fleet picked up his SSA A badge. The club's calendar is packed with the Spring Fun Day on May 13, the New Market Community Day on June 10 (featuring a hot-air balloon dealer, a skydiving outfit, and the local Pilot's Association), and an International Vintage Sailplane Meet in July drawing antique sailplanes from Europe, Canada, and the U.S. The board also approved trial memberships for Civil Air Patrol cadets, set aside funds for a hyperbaric-chamber altitude-physiology training session at Andrews AFB, and appointed a Chief Duty Officer to address recurring no-show problems. A full duty roster for the remainder of 1995 rounds out the issue.
This July 1995 issue of Skylines celebrates the June 10 Community Day at New Market Airport, where the club provided 25 glider rides to local residents and airboss Tom Osinkosky logged 179 flights. A newly appointed Secretary—stepping in after Ralph Wentzel's request for inactive status—welcomes members with an open invitation to contribute letters, opinions, and stories, and proudly announces the club's new World Wide Web home page, built by Piet "Hammy" Barber and Joe Parrish, featuring photos of Charlie Lee's plane and Emie Klimonda's famous "grey Poupon". The issue also highlights the club's growing connections to the broader soaring community via the Soaring Society network, with members from Shenandoah Valley Soaring, Blue Grass Soaring, and the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association already active on the net, and a new member directory with e-mail addresses in the works
This August 1995 issue of Skylines opens with a dramatic first-person account from Spencer Annear, who describes an off-field glider landing near Lexington, Virginia, in which he bounced from hillock to hillock across a rolling hillside he had mistaken for flat ground, only to be rescued by a Super Cub that had to claw for altitude to clear a tree line on its own landing. The issue also reports that 16-year-old Curtis Phillips passed his private pilot (glider) examination at the Bermuda High Soaring School in Lancaster, South Carolina, and profiles member Jan Makela, a Searle Pharmaceuticals executive preparing for his FAA checkride after a year of flying with Skyline. Club members Jim Kellett and Shane Neitzey recount their attendance at the inaugural International Vintage Sailplane Meet at Harris Hill, New York, where roughly fifty vintage machines drew about 200 participants from a dozen countries, including a Shempp-Hirth Minimoa once owned by Wolf Hirth and designer Rudy Opitz himself. The newsletter closes with a reminder that the DuPont Regatta, commemorating a 1930s record flight from the Blue Ridge to Frederick, Maryland, will be held September 22–24 at Waynesboro Airport, alongside a pointed call for members to pitch in with field work and scheduling rather than waiting for a commercial operation.
This September 1995 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is a lively snapshot of a small Virginia glider community at the dawn of the internet age. The star of the 'Meet the Member' feature is Piet (Hammy) Barber, a 23-year-old George Mason graduate who maintains the whois database for the U.S. military's classified SIPRNET network by day and is working toward an instructor rating in engineless flight by weekend. Fellow member Jonathan Kans, a genetics Ph.D. from the University of Chicago now at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, describes being 'hooked' on his very first tow and enjoying the ground time with clubmates as much as the flying. The issue also carries the editor's good-humored self-incrimination for dinging the right wing of the club's 2-33 glider on a hangar-door post, a plea for the anonymous culprit behind a major K-21 fuselage damage to 'fess up,' a correction to the 1995 DuPont Regatta dates at Eagle's Nest in Waynesboro, a Civil War reenactment at New Market Battlefield, and the unanimous Board vote welcoming Linda Raney as Skyline's newest honorary member.
The October 1995 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter leads with what it calls the "REALLY BIG NEWS": the early-September escape of Ed Raney, the ostensible owner of New Market Airport and a 1994 felony tax-fraud convict, and his armed confrontation at the field on September 8. According to the report, Raney approached the airport office with a knife after allegedly writing a death threat against his wife, Linda, who had been managing the airport in his absence. A flight instructor present in the building held the escaped prisoner at gunpoint until the New Market Police chief, who had been at the office warning Linda of the escape, took control of the situation. No one was injured. The issue also covers the Fall Membership Meeting held at the Falls Church Community Center, where the updated Duty Officer Checklist and a new "Do It Right!" training videotape were highlighted; a one-day FAA hyperbaric-chamber altitude training course available for $20; the FAA's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking #95-11, a sweeping rewrite of FAR Parts 1, 61, 141, and 143 that would establish separate powered and non-powered glider class ratings, with a comment deadline of December 11, 1995; and the upcoming Fall Fun Day soaring competition and pot-luck cookout on Saturday, October 14 (rain date October 21). Two "Meet the Member" profiles introduce Stephen Szibler, a multi-talented runner, musician, and aspiring astronaut, and veteran pilot Jim Kellett, who has logged roughly 1,100 glider hours since earning his license in 1966, holds a Gold badge with one diamond, and serves as Director of the Mt. Weather Emergency Assistance Center near Winchester, Virginia. A closing section, "Getting Wired…," lists the e-mail addresses of Skyline and neighboring-club members, a snapshot of the early days of the internet in the soaring community.
The November 1995 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter captures a club in rapid growth and reaching beyond its own fence. Members are rallying around a proposal for a proper long hangar with curtain walls at Valor Field, modeled on the M-ASA Frederick facility, while a broader inter-club movement takes shape along the Shenandoah Valley: the Shenandoah Valley Soaring Club has formed a working group, the Skyline Board has voted to waive guest security deposits for M-ASA and SVS members, and a suggestion has surfaced to create a multi-club "council" stretching from Tennessee to Pennsylvania, echoing the old Appalachian Soaring Association. Three new members join the roster, including Fred Daams, who brings a lovingly restored Romanian Lark to New Market and simultaneously lists his French-built Pegase (ASW-19) for sale. The "Meet the Member" section delivers two extraordinary biographies: Joe Parrish, an MIT aerospace engineer on NASA assignment at the University of Maryland developing a spacecraft-servicing telerobot, and Bela N. Gogos, a WWII Hungarian Air Force pilot who flew ME-109s and Stukas, was sentenced to twenty-five years by a Soviet military court, endured the Lubianka and a labor camp above the Arctic Circle, and went on to earn an FAI Diamond badge and five international patents. Shane Neitzey is congratulated on the club's first altitude diamond at New Market, and the calendar fills with a FAR Part 61 briefing, two CFI(G) clinics, the club's first all-hands planning meeting in January 1996, and the tantalizing prospect of hosting the 1996 DuPont Regatta for vintage sailplanes.
The December 1995 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is a lively snapshot of a small Virginia glider club at a moment of growth and self-reflection. The club announces its first-ever all-members brainstorming session (January 6, 1996) to set direction on everything from tow-pilot scheduling to the future of the airport, followed by an annual membership meeting and officer elections. A packed 1996 calendar includes Tom Knauff's CFI clinic at Frederick, the Soaring Wave Camp at Petersburg, the SSA Convention in Huntsville, and the DuPont Regatta. The "Meet the Member" pages deliver two vivid biographies: Spencer Annear, who went from CAP cadet spotting B-36s and B-50s to Boeing 727 and Minuteman missile work, to law school, to the US Patent and Trademark Office, and finally to soaring instruction and club presidency; and Rob Shallenburger, a US Fish and Wildlife Service bureaucrat who rebuilt a Stinson L-5, flew it across the Hawaiian islands, and joined Skyline to finally make the jump from power to gliders. The issue also congratulates new member Matt Little on his solo in the club's 2-33 and his FAI "A" Badge, celebrates Curtis Phillips' feature in SOARING magazine, and reminds members that the club's website now posts the newsletter days before the hard copy arrives. A potluck Christmas Party at the home of Piet and Stacey Barber closes out the year.
In a landmark issue for the Skyline Soaring Club, the January 1996 newsletter delivers the full report of the club's first Strategic Planning Session, held at New Market Airport on January 6 and attended by nearly 40 percent of the active membership. Over a six-hour brainstorming chaired by President Spencer Annear, members laid out ten broad goals—from fiscal solvency and hangar improvements to a push to grow membership from 38 to 50 and a renewed emphasis on safety culture—along with specific 1996 recommendations including a disaster financial plan, acquisition of radios for all club sailplanes, and a formal Duty Officer training program. The newsletter urges every member to attend the January 27 Annual Membership Meeting at the Falls Church Community Center, where the Board of Directors will be elected and the strategic agenda ratified. Rounding out the issue: a richly detailed “Meet the Member” profile of charter member Jim Miles, whose aviation journey spans a Piper Cub at Sembach Airbase in Germany, a rebuilt Curtis F9-C2 biplane from the NASM collection, and a career as CFIG and tow pilot at Warrenton Soaring Center; the bittersweet farewell to founding treasurer Bela Gogos, who is relocating to Minden, Nevada, leaving behind the club's beloved “Gogos' Gap”; welcome notes for new members Ralph Vawter, Bill Vickland, and John Ayers; and congratulations to Rob Shallenburger and Steve Szibler on their commercial and private glider licenses, respectively, earned at Bermuda High, South Carolina.
The Skyline Soaring Club enters its fifth year of operation with a membership that has nearly doubled from the 23 charter members of Fall 1991 to 43 active pilots, and a new Board of Directors freshly elected at the January 27 annual meeting. President Spencer Annear's state-of-the-club address looks back on a 1995 season that saw 74 of 85 available days flown and ahead to a 1996 calendar headlined by the Petersburg Wave Camp (February 17–25) and the DuPont Regatta in September. The issue features a richly detailed “Meet the Member” profile of Shane Neitzey, tracing his path from a queasy first tow at Warrenton Soaring Center in 1975, through a memorable off-airport landing in a Blanik L-13, a stint building time at Maryland Airlines, and a sign business that bankrolled his flying, all the way to earning his Gold Badge and two Diamonds in a LAK-12 in 1995. Also included: planning details and local hotel listings for the wave camp, a retirement reception for longtime member Jim Kellett, the club's consideration of SSA Chapter status for better insurance and dues savings, a new three-month duty roster for March through May, and a call for members to return outstanding flight-record forms to their insurance carrier.
The March 1996 issue opens with a revised three-month duty roster for April through June and the announcement of Stacey Barber as the club's new treasurer, elected at the March 6 board meeting. A tender In Memoriam section reports the 1994 passing of Helmut Muller, a beloved figure from the old Warrenton Soaring Center days and an accomplished soaring photographer. The issue's two 'Meet the Member' profiles are standout reads: charter member Bill Vickland, a retired aeronautical engineer who built his own Schweizer 1-26, flew Peace Corps assignments across seven countries, and worked alongside the late Fred Cuny on humanitarian projects in the Balkans; and Jim McCulley, a U.S. Air Force veteran who flew 100 combat missions in an F-86 against MIG-15s in Korea, piloted test aircraft over atomic bomb detonations in Nevada, and contributed to NASA's Gemini and Apollo programs. Ralph Popp recounts an aerobatic lesson in a Grob 103 at Estrella, Arizona, and a check flight in a Lark at the Soaring Club of Victoria in Australia. Joe Parrish's report on the 2nd Annual Petersburg Wave Camp, held jointly with the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association from February 17 to 25, describes a week of snow-blocked ferries, a 37-knot gale that kept most pilots grounded, and a final day of smooth 15,000-foot wave riding above Seneca Rocks, punctuated by a gear-extension incident that sent a DG-300 into the airport fence. Jim Kellett's enthusiastic dispatch from the 24th annual Soaring Society of America convention in Huntsville, Alabama, highlights a keynote by British soaring columnist Mike Bird, a CFI clinic, and a Civil Air Patrol/SSA memorandum of understanding. The issue also notes Fred Daams' plan to outfit his Lark with a Cambridge L-Nav system and seek up to five partners for serious dual cross-country work, and bids a fond farewell to Charlie Lee, who is selling his 1-35 'Shark' and heading to Hawaii.
In a newsletter that captures a club caught between the analog and the digital, new Secretary Jim Kiellett announces that Skyline Soaring Club has staked out a World Wide Web home page—complete with photos of Charlie Lee's glider and Emilie Klimonda's famous
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