January 2026 brings a full slate of club milestones: Mike Osmers earns his Husky tow-pilot certification, Manny Serrano takes an A Badge, and Jonathan Faux and Cindy Lawyer each earn B Badges. New pilot Paul Brower recounts his December practical test in a cold, overcast sky, including a simulated rope break at 300 feet and a slip-to-landing that left the glider "really just wanting to keep flying." Treasurer Ralph Vawter reports a positive 2025 net and proposes the Skyline Challenge 2026, a progressive cross-country task program around the airport using SeeYouNavigator and WeGlide. The club also celebrates a Top-3 Front Royal Award in the Non-Profit Organization category. But the issue's standout feature is Chris Zaboji's vivid dispatch from Chinko, a 7,000-square-mile conservation reserve in the Central African Republic, where he conducted flight reviews in a Cessna Caravan and Savannah light-sport aircraft under conditions of no radar, no weather stations, and a single nationwide radio frequency, dropping off rangers to a remote strip and reflecting on a country where the monthly minimum wage is $60 and every person he met carried a smartphone.
This edition of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter features key announcements as members prepare for the upcoming soaring season at Front Royal-Warren County Airport. The issue highlights essential updates from the Board of Directors, details on the annual mandatory safety meeting, and operational reports covering tow plane maintenance and airfield readiness. Club members also share insights on winter flight conditions, flight training milestones, and upcoming social gatherings, offering an engaging snapshot of the community's dedication to soaring safety and camaraderie.
This March 2026 issue of the Skyline Soaring Club newsletter is a practical field manual in the truest sense: a step-by-step operational playbook for the club's Duty Officer and Assistant Duty Officer, covering every phase of a flying day from the first hangar door opening to the final log-sheet upload. The DO checklist walks through 16 arrival tasks—monitoring weather via 1-800-WXBRIEF and Skysight.io, laying out the four-color tow ropes (Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue), hoisting the Skyline flag, calling TRACON, and running the morning safety briefing—before moving into 12 midday duties that emphasize assertive flight-line management, pattern clearance checks, and coordination with instructors and the Airport Manager. The closing sequence details 13 steps, from wiping down glider leading edges and stowing Gators to verifying the log sheet, collecting checks (no cash), and filing the Operations Report email within 24 hours. A parallel ADO checklist mirrors the same three phases with a focus on visibility vests, pre-launch checks, and situational awareness on the field. A brief March Birthdays card rounds out the issue, celebrating Sam Gilbert, Erik van Weezendonk, Tim Moran, and Andrew Neilson. For anyone curious about the unglamorous but essential machinery that keeps a soaring club's operations running safely and on schedule, this issue reads like a behind-the-scenes tour of the ramp.
The April 2026 edition captures the excitement of the opening spring soaring season at Front Royal-Warren County Airport as members take to the skies for cross-country planning and pilot badge attempts. The issue details key operational safety updates, airfield logistics, and maintenance reports on the club’s glider and tow plane fleet. Highlighting member achievements, upcoming instructional clinics, and community events, this newsletter provides a vivid snapshot of club activity and preparation for peak thermal soaring conditions.
This issue of Skylines is anchored by a richly detailed profile of Jim Kellett, the 90-year-old Skyline Soaring Club co-founder whose career spans a 1940 first flight in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to roughly 6,000 glider hours across 24 different sailplanes in 15 states and four countries. Kellett's story weaves together his 1991 role in founding the club, his 40 years as a CFI(G), his 2016 FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, and his colorful tenure as Director of the Mt. Weather Emergency Assistance Center, from which President Reagan fired him for championing renewable energy. The newsletter also features a candid, first-person account from Nicholas Meeder on the paralyzing anxiety he overcame during his FAA Practical Test, a safety column on situational awareness drawing on a 2024 mid-air collision in Slovakia, and a ground-based coordination exercise for new students. Club operations news includes the adoption of the Manage 2 Soar system, the Pawnee's engine replacement, and the appointment of new ADOs Nick Meeder and Ben Maitre. Upcoming events highlight a May 9 away-day at Burner Field in Woodstock for off-field landing training, the annual Week of Training at Petersburg, West Virginia (July 5–10), and the October Great Pumpkin Drop. A navigation challenge problem, a photo gallery from recent Quack-Quack flights, and a listing for a 1974 Rolladen-Schneider LS1-f for sale round out the issue.
The June issue of *Skylines* carries the club's most consequential operational news of the year: the KFRR runway and taxiway resurfacing is now scheduled for September–October 2026, with the airport expected to be closed for the duration. Bill and Sharon Burner have graciously opened their Woodstock field (VG55) and hangar as the club's alternate base, and the newsletter's own Away Day report—24 flights, a last-minute weather gamble that paid off, a hand-flipped prop start, and a 1947 Piper Cub making a guest appearance—serves as a proof of concept that VG55 can host a full soaring operation. Beyond the closure news, the issue is rich with technical and community content: Chief Instructor John Noss dissects the geometry of turns on tow, arguing that
The July 2026 issue of Skylines arrives in the thick of the club's annual Week of Training (July 5–10, with students shuttled to Petersburg, West Virginia), and the pages are packed with the kind of deep technical thinking that makes a soaring club feel like a living laboratory. Chief Instructor John Noss delivers a sweeping, source-by-source takedown of slack-line recovery doctrine, tracing how a 1961 SSA handbook's advice to simply “yaw the sailplane” persisted through successive editions of the FAA Glider Flying Handbook and into modern training manuals, before laying out the actual two-phase physics of the problem. George Hazelrigg follows with a three-theory treatment of lift—Bernoulli, momentum, and vorticity—that connects the Kutta-Joukowski theorem to why aileron inputs demand rudder and why a tailspin must never be corrected with aileron. The issue also carries a thorough heat-illness safety briefing from the club's physician, a stern canopy-care warning after three broken canopies cost the club over $30,000, a nostalgic “Way We Were” column recalling the club's 1999 founding and its fight with a hostile airport commission, a wave-soaring challenge problem that traps the pilot above a closed cloud deck at 12,000 feet, a kudos to Mia Anderson for her AOPA magazine feature as the first woman to compete in both powered and glider aerobatics nationally, and a for-sale listing for a 1974 Rolladen-Schneider LS1-f offered to members at $18,000.
The August 2026 issue of Skylines is dominated by a vivid, multi-part account of the club's Week of Training 2026 in Petersburg, West Virginia, where 157 training flights were logged over four or five days despite challenging weather. Highlights include 16-year-old Chris Billips making his first solo on his birthday, several pilots re-soloing after long hiatuses, and students completing PW-5 checkouts. The issue also introduces Andrew McGowan as the club's new Safety Officer, reports on board decisions to purchase a new ASK-21 wheel assembly and raise tow-plane and hookup fees ahead of a possible KFRR runway closure, and features a deep-dive by Chief Instructor John Noss on reading modern Skew-T/Log-P charts and decoding CAPE, CIN, and Lifted Index terminology. Additional content includes Joel Hough's step-by-step battery troubleshooting narrative, a fond interview with founding member Jim Kellett (61 years of gliding), a first-of-its-kind 'Meet the Meisters' section profiling the dozen-plus volunteers who keep the club's fleet, ropes, towplanes, and systems running, and a safety challenge problem asking readers what they would do if suddenly trapped beneath a cloud deck at 12,000 feet with no visible exit.
September's Skylines opens with a jolt: during an annual condition inspection, the club's instructor discovered that all eight seatbelt harness connection points on both a K-21 and a Discus were essentially unconnected, prompting a forceful reminder to every pilot to check harness attachment tabs, loose cockpit items, and canopy latches before every single flight. The operational stakes ratchet up with a detailed update from the airport on the long-awaited runway and taxiway repaving at Front Royal–Warren County (KFRR), which could begin as early as mid-September and shut the home field for up to two months, potentially sending Skyline Soarers to Burner Field in Woodstock or Grant County in Petersburg, West Virginia. The issue also debuts a 'Meet the Chiefs' series introducing the four volunteer officers who keep the club's roughly 100-member operation running, offers a thoughtful lesson on the counterintuitive geometry of sharing a thermal with other gliders, lists a 1974 Rolladen-Schneider LS1-f (N6108J, 2,863 hours) for sale to members at $16,000, and issues a call for a new Club Treasurer to take over from Ralph Vawter in 2027.