Newsletter Archive 1998

1998

January 1998

A Romance Novelist's Forgotten 200-Mile Aerotow; Skyline Club Sets Course for Third duPont Regatta

President Joe Rees calls members to the annual meeting on January 31 at Shane's Signs in Manassas, Virginia, to chart the club's direction for a season that promises an expanded wave camp, cross-country training, and the third hosting of the duPont Vintage Sailplane Regatta, all with a stable membership of about forty. A thought-provoking safety essay by William H. Snow, pulled from the rec.aviation.soaring newsgroup, argues that a pilot's greatest danger is not freak weather or metal fatigue but personal judgment, fatigue, and rule-breaking. The issue's most surprising find is a Discovery Channel segment revealing that Dame Barbara Cartland, the 95-year-old romance novelist, co-pioneered long-distance aerotowing in 1931 with Edward Mole, completing a 200-mile tow in a Tiger Moth that helped prove the practicality of aerotowed troop gliders in combat. Jim Kellett contributes a fond memory of a barnstormer ride at Spartanburg Municipal Airport in the spring of 1940 or 1941, and the Log This section announces Shane Neitzey's new FAA Designated Pilot Examiner certification, a member syndicate proposal to purchase an EDS oxygen system for altitude badge flights, Spencer Annear's retirement and interest in acquiring a Citabria for club tow backup, and the release of Doris Grove's new 105-page book, Federal Aviation Regulations for Sailplane Pilots.

February 1998

Skyline Soarers Rally to Claim a Stake in New Market's Future

The February 1998 issue of Skylines is dominated by a potentially club-altering development: the impending sale of New Market Airport, which the membership voted to meet head-on by forming a special committee to explore ownership or investment in the field. President Joe Rees named Spencer Annear, Jim Kellett, and John Ayers to lead the effort, while Linda Raney issued an urgent call for every member to lobby Virginia Aviation Board member Kenneth T. Carlson before a February 25 hearing on funding to replace the airport's leaking underground fuel tanks. The newsletter also celebrates a record-breaking 1997, with membership hitting an all-time high of 50 and revenues at a peak that allowed the club to pay off four charter members. Other highlights include plans for the 1998 Wave Camp at Petersburg, West Virginia; a satisfying account of a six-member painting party that transformed the Pawnee's metal skin in a single rainy Saturday; a safety column urging pilots to watch for visitors wandering the field; and a lighthearted case for Kevlar cockpit seats, illustrated by tales of BB guns, rifle fire, and one tow pilot who answered a ground plinker with his own .45.

March 1998

Airport on the Line: Club Battles IRS Lien While Weekday Soaring Era Dawns

The March 1998 issue of Skylines opens with Linda Raney's urgent report from a Virginia Department of Aviation Board meeting, where the club's funding request for fuel-tank replacement received unprecedented member support but now hinges on whether the IRS will sign off on a Deed of Trust protecting the airport's 20-year aviation use. The newsletter is packed with momentum: Jim Kellett announces a new Thursday-and-Friday weekday instruction program (with one student already logging 14 flights in a single session), Richard Freytag and Fred Mueller close the deal on a brand-new LS-3A glider for New Market, and retired USAF General Dick Ault steps in as an honorary member to provide weekend towing. Robert L. Michael, a former Navy aviator and Montana flight instructor, shares his long road to finally becoming a glider student, while G. Norman Crump recounts a hair-raising 1951 C-46 near-crash over the Mississippi River in which a condemned WWII transport lost an engine and the crew was ordered to jump over the water. Spencer Annear organizes a March wave camp at Petersburg and solicits volunteers for the Plymouth, the DuPont Regatta, and the airport committee, and Phil Jordan's editorial urges members to pitch in with stories and expertise before the monthly deadline.

April 1998

Ten Thousand Feet of Lift: Petersburg's El Niño Wave Season Draws a Fleet of Pilots and an ASK to the Allegheny Plateau

The April 1998 issue opens with a vivid wrap-up of Wave Camp at Petersburg, West Virginia, where Spencer Annear ferried the club's ASK glider to the field and pilots from Skyline, the Cumberland Soaring Club, and MASA rode an El Niño-fueled wave that produced 10,000-foot altitude gains—one day capped by a 14,000-foot break-off for lack of oxygen, the next by dawn wave and snow on the plateau. Jim Kellett reports back from the 14th Soaring Society of America convention in Portland, Oregon, where he sat in a restored WWII Waco CG-4a troop glider, attended a CFI revalidation clinic, and shared a meal with Paul Macready and other soaring legends. The issue also announces that Shane Neitzey has cleared the path to become the club's first Designated Pilot Examiner, halving rating-exam fees for members; details the Skyline board's support for the 1998 DuPont Regatta in the Shenandoah Valley; urges members to schedule biennial flight reviews before the spring flying season; welcomes new member Mike Cordova, a USAirways 737 first officer trading his jet for a glider; and closes with a pointed warning from Richard Freytag about the El Niño-driven tick season and the very real threat of Lyme disease for anyone laying down in the grass to hook up a glider.

May 1998

Six Grand for Glass: Skyline's ASK Canopy Cracks Issue a Stark Bill and a Sobering Call to Careful Hands

The May 1998 issue of Skylines opens with a lighthearted FAA chicken-launcher anecdote before landing on a genuinely alarming note: the club's ASK glider canopy has developed converging cracks that, if left unchecked, will require a full replacement estimated at $6,730 for glass, labor, and shipping. Editor Kevin Fleet urges members to handle the aircraft with new reverence. Elsewhere, Bob Collier recounts a scaffold fall during a hangar bird-poop-tarp job (no serious injuries, but a vivid lesson in Murphy's Law), and Jim Kellett rallies volunteers for a May 2 hangar-ceiling work party. The issue also introduces new member Norm Crump, a retired Westinghouse engineer whose patents include the variable-polarity plasma arc welding process used to salvage the Space Shuttle program and tooling for the first titanium heart pacemaker case, a man who finally got to fly gliders only after retirement. In a charming display of what Kellett calls 'Kellett's Law,' a spontaneous flying day materialized when the sun broke through the rain: Fred Daams drove up from Staunton to give tows, and Fred Mueller took his nephew for a first ride before logging his own first flights in a brand-new LS-3a. The newsletter closes with maintenance schedules for the 2-33 and Sprite, a roster call for the summer, and a small stock of official Skyline T-shirts timed for Mother's Day.

June 1998

Through the Hole: A Pilot's Fight with the Sky, Safety Warnings, and a New Era for Skyline

The June 1998 issue of Skylines opens with a stirring call to action as Bill Vickland announces his summer inactivity and urges members to step up for fleet maintenance, while the club navigates a July tow-pilot shortage that leaves an entire weekend without a launch. Jim Kellett sounds an urgent safety alarm, citing a Let L-23 terrain collision at New Castle, Virginia, and the fatal off-airport landing of an ASW-19 pilot during the Nutmeg Soaring Club's Waynesboro odyssey. On the organizational front, Skyline celebrates the signing of its first Affiliated Club Agreement with Atlantic Soaring, opening the field to three new pilot members and setting a precedent for regional cooperation. The issue also carries the 1998 Blanik Fun Fly Meet announcement for New Castle, the launch of a regular Saturday cookout tradition spearheaded by Richard Freytag, the welcome of new member Greg Stanfield (PIK-20), and congratulations to Bob Michael on earning his commercial glider rating. Anchoring the issue is R. Spencer Annear's gripping short story "The Hole," in which a pilot named Lew attempts a 500-kilometer cross-country task along the ridges of Waverly and Battle Mountains, only to be ambushed by an unforecast band of snow-laden clouds and forced into a heart-stopping, near-vertical descent through a narrow gap in the overcast to reach the field.

June 1998

Skyline Soaring Club Inks First Affiliated Club Pact with Atlantic Soaring; Blanik Fun Fly Meet Takes Center Stage

The June 1998 issue of Skylines marks a milestone for the club with the signing of its first Affiliated Club Agreement with Atlantic Soaring, a step that broadens the club's reach and resources. The issue also covers the lively Blanik Fun Fly Meet, a gathering of pilots flying the popular Czech-designed glider, alongside a feature pairing two aircraft or pilots under the playful title 'The Pawnee and The Lady.' Regular columns round out the newsletter, including a Safety Corner, a two-part 'Mmmm, Mmmm, Good' feature, roster updates, flight-logging notes, and the club's signature 'The Hole' section, giving members a full snapshot of club life and soaring activity in the spring of 1998.

July 1998

Airport Sale Looms as Skyline Members Rally to Keep the Wings Flying

The July 1998 issue of Skylines opens with Board minutes revealing that New Market Airport is actively being shopped to prospective buyers, with the unresolved state funding for fuel-tank replacement cited as a major obstacle and a potential turf-runway approval problem hanging over the club's head. Against that backdrop of uncertainty, the newsletter brims with the kind of hands-on, slightly exasperated community spirit that keeps a small soaring club alive: a detailed work-party report on sanding, patching, and painting the Pawnee towplane; Kevin Fleet contorted under the panel of the 2-33 installing a compass, radio, and rudder pedals by himself; and Shane Neitzey lending scaffolds and a compressor so volunteers could hang plastic sheeting over the hangar ceilings to keep pigeon guano off the gliders. Secretary Jim Kellett delivers a pointed, good-humored open letter—titled after the dead website they'lltakecareofit.com—urging members to latch their hangar doors, haul out the garbage, report discrepancies to the Maintenance Officer, and, above all, fix the problem themselves rather than just mentioning it. A lighter entry from Jim Garrison chronicles a blue-sky, no-lift day at Eagles Nest that, in his words, provided

August 1998

Welch and Rohmann Remembered as Gogos Scholars Open a New Chapter in Youth Soaring

This August 1998 issue of Skylines carries two weighty memorials alongside a landmark announcement for the sport's future. Lorne Welch, the Colditz glider-escape hero whose story inspired the 1963 film The Great Escape and who co-authored the definitive Complete Soaring Pilot's Handbook with his wife Ann, died in May at 81; Carl Rohmann, a WWII Navy pilot and five-decade soaring instructor who helped build the Shenandoah Valley soaring community, passed in July at 84. Against that backdrop of loss, the Collegiate Soaring Association announced the Gogos Scholars program, a three-year grant initiative funded by retired Hungarian Air Force Colonel Bela Gogos—himself a WWII pilot who endured ten years of Soviet imprisonment before returning to soaring in the United States. Administered through Soar Minden in Nevada, the program will award seven $2,000 grants annually from 1999 to 2001, covering the full range of sailplane training from first flight to advanced FAI badges. The issue also details plans for the duPont Vintage Regatta at Eagles Nest Airport in Waynesboro (September 18–20), a safety essay on pilot judgement by Jim Kellett, a report on a DG-800B crash in Nevada, badge achievements by Kevin Fleet and Bob Michael, and a vivid first-flight account from new member Dave Brunner, a British technologist who found Skyline Soaring through an AltaVista search.

September 1998

Newcomer Brunner Soars Solo on the 13th; Club Eyes Airport Ownership as duPont Regatta Looms

In a vivid first-person account, new member David Brunner recounts his 46-minute solo flight in the club's ASK on August 13, from the sweat on his hands at 3,000 feet to the triumphant roll-out on the strip at New Market. The issue also announces the Richard C. duPont Regatta (September 18–20) at Eagle's Nest Airport in Waynesboro, Virginia, where Skyline members will base the Pawnee, Miss Daisy, and ASK for a weekend of cross-country contests, a spot-landing competition, a lap race, and a recreation of duPont's historic 1930s flight to Frederick, Maryland. The board reports that the price of the New Market airport has dropped and that the club is exploring creative financing or a partnership to become a participant in any change of ownership. Two new members—Greg Ellis, a State Department veteran returning to soaring after a 20-year hiatus, and Brunner himself, a British-born mathematics lecturer now at James Madison University—share their backstories. Maintenance Officer Bill Vickland issues new policy after a Pawnee brake was damaged by the wrong hydraulic fluid and a wheel bolt was over-torqued, and reminds tow pilots to wipe the new prop daily. The editor closes with a lighthearted 'Chicken Little Syndrome' column featuring a near-collision with a grasshopper at 4,000 feet and a Red-tailed hawk's F-14-style roll-away.

October 1998

Close, But No Cigar: Senate Votes Down Hoover Bill as Skyline Pilots Vow to 'Plant Their Stake Hard' in the Fight for Soaring's Survival

The October 1998 issue of Skylines opens with urgent news from Washington: the Senate rejected Senator Inhofe's 'Hoover Bill' 46-51, preserving the FAA's broad certificate-revocation powers. Club member and longtime pilot Jim Kellett responds with a fiery open letter to the Soaring Society of America, arguing that the federal aviation bureaucracy is on a steady path toward eliminating general aviation and urging a 'forceful and vigorous campaign' with a public component to keep soaring viable. On the field, the 29th Annual Richard DuPont Memorial Regatta wraps up with 48 tows over two flying days, a square dance for 65-plus attendees, and a full slate of awards—Lou McDonald takes both Endurance (3:18 hrs) and O&R miles, Jim Kellett claims Altitude at 5,800 ft, and Len Dolhert earns the Big Trophy for a near-miss cross-country to Frederick. The club also reports growth to 52 members, launches a three-phase tow-rope safety upgrade, and plans a major repaint of the club's 2-33 'Miss Daisy' in December. In lighter fare, British expat Gary Shepherd recounts his childhood in the Air Training Corps and his rediscovery of soaring after a PBS documentary; Linn Buell reports flying a repainted 1-26 at the Luigi Teichfuss Vintage Glider Rally in the Italian Appennines; and a steady stream of migrating monarch butterflies and raptors provides free lift (and free entertainment) at the field on a hazy October afternoon.

November 1998

Bride Rolls In by Glider as Skyline Soaring Club Marks 7 Years and Charts Course for Front Royal

This November 1998 issue of Skylines captures a milestone year for the Skyline Soaring Club, which celebrates its seventh anniversary and announces a relocation from New Market to Front Royal Airport ahead of the new year. The issue's most colorful dispatch recounts how member Tom Brice aerotowed his bride Linda in the club's ASK-21 from New Market to the Sky Bryce airport, executing a pattern and rolling right up to the reception tent on their September 12 wedding day. Other highlights include the tragic death of aerodynamicist and 1-26 champion Oran Nicks in a PW-5 accident in Texas, 15-year-old Erin Haske earning solo status on her self-declared path to becoming an astronaut, novice pilot John Lewis's hard-won lessons from a ground-looping landout into a cow pasture, Bill Malick's first flight after 32 years of longing, and a five-member syndicate's purchase of a vintage 1-26c. The issue also notes visits from Mach 2 pioneer Scott Crossfield and 77-year-old WWII cargo glider pilot Frederick Williams, the death of soaring author Gren Seibels, and a flurry of badge achievements and new-member welcomes.

December 1998

Skyline Soarers Pack the Blue Ridge: Club Bids Farewell to New Market and Rolls Into Front Royal

The Skyline Soaring Club is pulling up stakes after a long and successful run at New Market (8W2), with the move to Front Royal Airport (FRR) set for the December 12–13 weekend. President Joe Rees details the logistics—ASK-21 boxed for a trip to Pennsylvania, the Pawnee headed to North Carolina for a new engine, the Sprite and Pawnee flown into brand-new T-hangars with paved floors and electric doors—and credits Spencer Annear, Jim Kellett, and Kevin Fleet for the lease negotiations, with Dave Brunner (Class of 1998) coordinating the physical move. The issue also carries a deeply moving first-person essay by John D. Lewis, who recounts how his grandfather's World War I stories of flying Caproni bombers with LaGuardia's squadron over the Italian front, and a harrowing first crossing of the Alps in a powered aircraft, planted the seed that led Lewis to the cockpit decades later. Bill Vickland begins a two-part chronicle of his 1986 Diamond Distance flight—317 miles in eight hours in a Schweizer 1-26 along the Massanutten and Blue Ridge ridgelines—narrating near-misses at Mt. Jackson, a 70-knot ridge-top race, and a tense turn-point photo at the Fort Ritchie microwave tower. The newsletter also reports the passing of soaring pioneer Peter Riedel at age 93, announces a new no-cost family membership policy, and invites members to the annual Christmas potluck at the Buells' home in Herndon on December 12.