Newsletter Archive 1999

1999

January 1999

New Field, New Doors, New Dress: Skyline Soaring Rallies for a Front Royal Debut

The January 1999 issue of Skylines captures Skyline Soaring Club in full transition to its new home at Front Royal (FRR), with a flurry of practical activity to get the season started. Club president Joe Rees designates Kevin Fleet as the single point of contact for all hangar and FBO matters, while Bob Michael lays out a preliminary operations plan built around right-hand patterns on Runway 27 and a pond to the northwest as a downwind entry point. The urgent work of making the fleet airworthy dominates the issue: the Pawnee towplane is in Burlington for engine work, a cracked exhaust manifold, a mandatory spinner, and a mysterious six-to-eight-foot rip in the fuselage fabric, while Bill Vickland leads a multi-day volunteer effort to strip, re-cover, and repaint the 22-year-old Miss Daisy glider from the ground up. Dave Brunner earns a well-deserved 'Rookie of the Year' nod for going from first flight in July to a private pilot license by December 6, all while organizing a member syndicate to acquire a 1-26. Jim Kellett issues an enthusiastic call for members to attend the February SSA Convention in Knoxville, complete with hotel recommendations and a running list of personalities to seek out on the exposition floor. The issue also carries the annual membership meeting notice for January 30, a practical battery-care guide from Brunner, and a small but delightful note that member Linn Buell has become an internationally published author with a pen-and-ink illustration of the club's 1-26 in the Italian gliding magazine Vola a Vela.

February 1999

Gogos Scholar Soars to Solo in 24 Flights as Skyline Club Marks Record Year at New Front Royal Home

The February 1999 issue of Skylines documents the club's 1999 Annual Membership Meeting (held January 30 at Warren County/Front Royal Airport) and captures a pivotal moment in the club's history. President Joe Rees reports an outstanding 1998 season: the club successfully relocated from 8W2 to FRR, overhauled its towplane for over $22,000, approved a new Tost tow rope reel for improved safety, and holds roughly $28,000 in liquid assets. Active membership hit an all-time high of 57. The emotional centerpiece is Linda Hiller's moving first-person account of her 17-year-old son Blake, a Gogos Scholar, who soloed in just 24 flights at Carson Valley, Nevada, and circled the family's house in a motorless sailplane. Bela Gogos, a Hungarian immigrant, had endowed a $50,000 scholarship program for young aspiring glider pilots that year. The issue also covers new three-year board terms with a six-year service limit, the charter-member loan payback plan, revised Duty Officer procedures for the busier FRR field, the restoration of the club's 2-33 sailplane, Gary Shepherd's vivid report of ridge flying and aerobatic Fox flights at the London Gliding Club in Dunstable, England, and enthusiastic planning for the club's group trip to the 1999 Soaring Society convention in Knoxville, Tennessee.

March 1999

Skyline Soaring Shakes Off the Winter: New Airport, Overhauled Fleet, and an Open House to Prove It

The March 1999 issue of Skylines captures the Skyline Soaring Club at a pivotal crossroads. Editor Phil Jordan opens with a wry lament over a bone-chilling February before pivoting to the real story: the club is launching a new season at Front Royal Airport with a dramatically upgraded fleet, including an extensively overhauled 2-33, a renovated K-21, a Pawnee with a new engine, a brand-new LS-4, and a group-purchased 1-26. A full slate of new operating procedures is being hammered out by a team of dedicated members, and an Open House on April 3 (rain date April 10) invites neighboring pilots at Front Royal for a 15-minute glider ride at the price of a tow. The issue also carries a vivid, multi-page dispatch from Dave Brunner's first SSA Convention, where he marveled at an 88-foot ASW 22, watched a Ventus pilot slice off a wing and plow through a fence into a parked Mercedes, and debated whether 32-bit processors should be telling pilots how to center a thermal. Rounding out the issue: a detailed four-session Cross Country Training course with Jim Garrison, a welcome to new member and retired airline captain William H. Bentley, a call for duty preferences, a wave camp update, and a delightfully absurd anecdote about a pilot who walked a blind passenger's Seeing Eye dog off the plane in Sacramento while the man stayed seated.

April 1999

Clawing to 19,000: Skyline Pilot's Seven-and-a-Half-Hour First Solo Wave Flight in a 1-26

Skyline Soaring Club's April 1999 issue marks the club's first spring at its new Front Royal (FRR) field, with an Open House, a mandatory safety meeting, and the launch of an 18-pilot Cross Country Course all scheduled for early April. The centerpiece is Dave Brunner's gripping first-person account of his maiden solo wave flight at Petersburg, West Virginia, where he spent seven and a half hours in a 1-26 sailplane, battling a violent tow, a dislodged oxygen mask, a frozen water bottle, and a cockpit at minus 10 degrees to claw his way to 19,000 feet and earn a Diamond altitude badge. The Wave Camp at Grant County Airport produced five Diamond and Gold altitude flights in 1-26s, with Ron Schwarz and Bob Templin becoming the fourth and fifth pilots east of the Mississippi to collect all three Diamonds in the type. Other highlights include a safety advisory on sharing the Massanutten Ridge with hang glider pilots, a detailed crosswind takeoff-and-landing guide for the new paved runway, Bela's remarkable recovery from carotid-artery surgery and a new pacemaker-defibrillator, the Board's plans for a club hangar and a cooperative arrangement with the Virginia Civil Air Patrol, and Malcolm Gardner and Ed Lehr's decision to partner on a Russian AC-4 sailplane.

May 1999

Secret Service, Three Choppers, and a Stymied Phone Tech: The Veep's Earth Day Fly-In at Dickey Ridge

The May 1999 issue of Skylines is a busy one for the Skyline Soaring Club at its new Front Royal, Virginia home. The standout story is the Vice President's Earth Day visit to Dickey Ridge, which brought dozens of vans, Secret Service agents, and three helicopters to the small field — and left a Sprint technician installing the club's new phone line swarmed and turned away by federal agents. The club also announces a new $100 Ridge Race challenge, sponsored by the Massanutten Silver Mining Company, awarding the first pilot to complete a documented ridge flight between Signal Knob and the Ski Area within CH96-handicapped time limits. Maintenance Officer Bill Vickland gives notice of his departure for Albania, California, and the 1-26 Championships, leaving detailed instructions for Pawnee oil-analysis procedures and tire rotation. Malcolm Gardner lays out the club's reasoned decision to purchase a new Russian AC-4c sailplane with retractable gear and a ballistic recovery system, expected to arrive by summer. Other highlights include the club's first Open House at FRR (featuring a crosswind landing that put an indelible grin on a New Jersey visitor's face), the completion of Miss Daisy's full restoration, a thought-provoking essay on what makes a good soaring pilot, safety reminders about proper scanning (the dreaded "Salmon Slip"), and the Vintage Sailplane Association's Eastern Regatta over Memorial Day weekend.

June 1999

Three Killed in Mid-Air Collision; Club Urges Pilots to Embrace 'Practice in Disaster'

The June 1999 issue of Skylines opens with a sobering report of a fatal mid-air collision at Philadelphia Glider Council on May 1, in which a Cessna L-19 tow plane and a Grob 103 glider collided at roughly 1,500 feet, killing the tow pilot and both glider occupants. The report, issued by PGC's Bob Lacovara, asks the community to avoid speculation while the NTSB investigates. In the lead editorial, Chief Flight Instructor Jim Kellett draws a pointed parallel between auto-safety reform and soaring safety, arguing that pilots at every level need what he calls 'practice in disaster'—deliberate, controlled exposure to dangerous situations so they can recognize and recover from them. The issue also features vivid member profiles of Dick Otis, a former Navy P-3 Orion pilot whose first Cessna was destroyed in a Virginia tornado, and Bill Bentley, a Pan Am and Delta veteran who spent two years designing ordnance at China Lake before turning to soaring instruction. Dave Brunner recounts his 101st flight, a Silver Distance cross-country along the Virginia ridge that ended in a first-ever landout in a freshly tilled cornfield, complete with a helpful farmer's mother offering to help push the glider down the track. Operational news includes a reduction of scheduled weekday flying to Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday for much of the season due to a persistent tow-pilot shortage, and a strongly worded parking reminder from Kellett. The issue closes with congratulations to Gary Shepherd and Mike Cordova on their badge and Silver/Gold flights, and a proposal to acquire a L-23 Super Blanik for the club fleet.

July 1999

From 30,000 Feet of Wave to a Sorghum Field in Boyce: Skyline's July Brims with Adrenaline, Achievement, and a Soaring Community in Motion

This July 1999 issue of Skylines captures a club in full stride at its new Front Royal home, packed with stories that range from the sublime to the harrowing. Chief Flight Instructor Jim Kellett issues a pointed safety warning after a USAir jet passed within a mile of his nose, using the near-miss to hammer home the case for constant scanning and attitude flying. The club's first joint Skyline/CAP flying event saw seven cadets—five of them first-time glider pilots—reach 2,000 feet in ASK and 2-33 sailplanes. In the 'Gogos Scholar' letter, Dillon Krapes recounts a transformative two weeks in Minden, Nevada, including a 300-kilometer cross-country and three days of wave soaring that carried him to nearly 30,000 feet. Bob Collier's 'Saturday Morning Fever' chronicles a cross-country that turned into a dramatic near-crash recovery when a violent thermal hit him at 1,300 feet, jolting the wings and forcing a scramble back to 6,000 feet before a safe landing. Richard Freytag's 'Molasses Prices Go Up!' tells of a silver-distance attempt that ended in a landout in a three-inch sorghum field near Boyce, Virginia, followed by an evening of door-knocking, a conversation with a dressage trainer's grandmother, and a trailer-shoehorning operation in soft dirt. The issue also records Dave Brunner's Silver Badge (a 5-hour, 2-minute flight), Serge Kohudic's confirmed Silver leg, the club's first-year reflections, the tragic death of 1997 U.S. glider champion Clem Bowman in a crash near Minden-Tahoe, and a steady stream of new members, graduations, and community notes that underscore a club growing rapidly around its new canyon-site home.

August 1999

Aviation Loses Two Legends: FAA's Engen and Soaring's Ivans Killed in Nevada Motorglider Crash

The August 1999 issue of Skylines opens with the devastating news of the July 13 deaths of former FAA Administrator and Smithsonian Air & Space Museum director Donald D. Engen and soaring pioneer William S. Ivans, killed when their Nimbus-4DM motorglider crashed in the Nevada desert near Minden. The club convened a Safety Committee to investigate, while member Greg Ellis penned a reflective piece on the risks and rewards of soaring in the wake of the tragedy. The issue also carries extensive Board Meeting minutes covering a new membership-management system, a proposed rotating "Dial-A-Plane" hangar, the election of Gary Shepherd as Treasurer, and publicity efforts timed to the release of the film *The Thomas Crown Affair*. Other highlights include Greg Ellis's thrilling five-hour Silver duration flight over the Shenandoah Valley, a safety bulletin on the Pilot-in-Command's sole responsibility for a safe landing, a special Friday fly-in for Joe Parrish's University of Maryland project team, and a roundup of the club's growing media presence in the Washington Post, local papers, and a PBS *Life of Birds* segment filmed in a Schweizer 2-32.

September 1999

The Wind Quit at 2,200 Feet: One Pilot's Last-Second Thermal Rescue on the Blue Ridge

A dramatic ridge-riding account takes center stage as a pilot, running the Shenandoah ridge on a hot, humid August day, watches the lift die and his altitude bleed to 2,200 feet with the field hopelessly out of reach—only to find salvation in a single thermal off a sunlit rock face, climbing to 5,300 feet just as the sky closes in behind him. The issue also carries a vivid report from the 1999 1-26 Championship at Hobbs, New Mexico, where first-timer Jayne Reed of Bermuda High Soaring finished seventh overall and the aging 1-26 fleet proved its enduring value for cross-country training. Club members debate the implications of soaring's sudden surge in national publicity—National Geographic Traveler and USA Today among the recent visitors—against a backdrop of rapid membership growth and a growing shortage of tow pilots and club equipment. Rounding out the issue: Ed Lehr's entertaining checkride narrative at Bermuda High, a humorous Keystone-Kops retrieval story, lighthearted tales of cows and doped fabric, the full agenda for the Richard duPont Memorial Soaring Meet at Eagle's Nest in mid-September, and a note that the August issue of Soaring magazine features nine Skyline Soaring Club accomplishments, including new Silver Badges for Bob Michael and Dave Brunner.

October 1999

Club Fleet Swells to Fifteen Gliders; Homemade Electromagnet Cures a Compass That Only Pointed East

Skyline Soaring's October 1999 issue celebrates a rapid expansion of the member-owned fleet to fifteen gliders, including a one-of-a-kind Schreder RHJ-7, a fourth 1-26, and an HP-18 en route from California. The issue features a vivid account of a homemade electromagnetic coil—built from a WW2-era transformer and two thousand feet of wire—successfully de-gaussing the stubborn compass on the club's 081 glider, which had been pointing exclusively east for months. In the 'Above and Beyond' column, Jim Kellett and Kevin Fleet describe the near-impossible feat of rolling a fully assembled glider into the hangar during the driving rain of Floyd, with centimeters to spare. Board minutes detail a favorable response from the Front Royal Airport Commission to the club's hangar-expansion request, a decision to outsource towplane maintenance to Muia Aviation, and safety recommendations following a July 17 towplane incident. The issue also profiles member Serge Kohudic, a retired USAir captain with 28 years of airline service, and welcomes new members Tim Lewis, Scott Stevens, and David Dawood, who soloed in a glider on September 24. A free Chuck Yeager lecture at the National Air and Space Museum on October 14 rounds out the issue.

November 1999

Skyline Pilot's Kosovo Dispatch and a 7,800-Foot Wave Ride Headline a Packed November

Bill Vickland, serving as a USAID/OFDA Shelter Specialist, files a vivid first-person account of post-war Kosovo, describing the devastation of 77,000 damaged homes, the resilience of a largely secular Albanian population, and the surreal sight of a motorized hang glider launching off the end of Prishtina's runway. Back at home, the Massanutten Ridge delivered a spectacular season: Dave Brunner logged a wave flight to 7,800 feet complete with in-flight snowfall, icing, and violent turbulence; Bill Bentley sketched his first ridge run in an SGS 1-26 and landed out two miles short of the field; and Serg Kohudic's ridge attempt ended in a farm field surrounded by grazing cattle. A sobering safety article urges all pilots to perform daily preflight positive control checks in the wake of a fatal assembly-related accident at the 15M Nationals. The issue also carries congratulations for several new solo pilots, an announcement of a half-ownership sale of the club's Sprite, and a call for members to attend the 27th Annual Ralph Stanton Barnaby Lecture featuring Paul Schweizer and a private tour of the Smithsonian's Garber Facility.

December 1999

Four Badges in One Flight: Fleet's 5-Hour, 14,000-Foot Odyssey Over the Massanutten Ridge

The December 1999 issue of Skylines is dominated by a pair of extraordinary ridge flights on consecutive days in early November. Kevin Fleet's 5-hour-42-minute sortie on November 7—Silver Distance, Silver Altitude, Gold Altitude, and Duration in a single flight—unfolds in vivid first-person detail: a 300-foot dive to notch the baro, a 14,000-foot ceiling, progressive wingovers to shed cold, a mid-flight hypoxia quiz delivered over the radio by crewman Bob Michael, and a 40-minute spoiler descent that still felt too fast. Kolie Lombard's Silver Distance flight the day before sparks a spirited club debate over a new travelling trophy, the proposed 'Signal Knob Massanutten Trophy,' complete with a heated (and editor-annotated) argument about handicapping glass ships. Greg Ellis contributes a white-knuckle account of a 20-to-30-mph headwind landing in which the windsocks pointed in opposite directions and the glider touched down opposite the taxiway. The issue also covers the club's marathon six-hour board meeting (new Chief Towpilot Bill Bentley, hangar negotiations, the January 29 annual meeting), a two-part wave and meteorology seminar at CassAviation, first solos for Bob Downin and 14-year-old Erich Carter, the arrival of a new Russia AC-4, a Smithsonian Paul Garber Facility tour following the Ralph Stanton Barnaby Lecture, and the welcome of returning pilot Judah Milgram, a CFI-G with 400-plus glider hours.