Annual Meeting
It's Saturday, January 29 at the airport, 10:00 AM. Bring a chair and your drinking water. Many, many issues.. the ONE TIME every year that the FULL membership exercises its responsibility to get the straight poop on what's happening and to provide guidance to the new Board of Directors (elected at the meeting)!

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their club
I'm resigning as the club's scheduler. I'm at a critical phase in graduate program and work is eating me alive. I will do my best to train/help whomever volunteers as the new scheduler. Having received the short end of the turnover stick in previous military assignments, I believe that a good turnover effort is important for the club's efficiency.

Any advertisement for a new scheduler should talk about the rewards of getting to know the club members as well as the significant commitment required to coordinate schedules. I have talked with several people about different scheduling mechanisms (there was one proposal to have each Chief be responsible for soliciting, negotiating, and enforcing their group's duties). This will be something to talk about at our annual meeting. I'll gladly facilitate any discussions about scheduling.
-Tony Bigbee

Weather Briefing
Skyline's Chief Weather Weenie, Bob Michael, offered a weather seminar to the membership December 4, 1999 at the FRR Terminal Building. The seminar promised to deal with weather issues in general, plus an emphasis on wave-related weather to get them ready for next spring's wave camp. (Thanx to the FRR management for making the meeting place available to us!!)

The fifteen or so Skyliners who were there were treated to an OUTSTANDING program that delivered all that Bob had promised, and then some. And then some. And then some. First off, most of the gang congregated early and ordered pizza and something to wash it down. So while we put the pizza and suds down, George (The Elder) Hazelrigg treated everyone to a surprise slide show on his tour of duty as director of NSF's Antarctic station! Neat photos from the C-130s ferrying folk between McMurdo and the pole, plus tons of other completely unique pictures, with stories to match! (How about streaking the pole at-100 degrees??)

Then another very pleasant surprise Soaring Society of America Region IV Director, Bob Ball, showed up, bringing greetings in his official role plus, as the evening wore on, much useful commentary on the subjects being discussed. Then the first act of the main show Jim Garrison delivered on some very specific and very useful information on wave in the Shenandoah Valley. How about a map marking the location of common waves between Lexington, VA and Winchester, VA? How helpful can you get?

Bob delivered his usual very comprehensive (and very accurate) summary of weather prediction. Not only did he cover the basics in a way most people could both understand and use, but he provided a lot of source data (mostly internet based) so that one can use his techniques to develop very useful soaring forecasts for any point defined by lat/long. By the way, if you haven't noticed, Bob has been delivering incredibly accurate weather forecasts for the area within about 100 miles of FRR for the entire year. We owe a BIG debt to Bob for providing every member of this club with a forecast that outshines anything you can get from commercial services (or, heaven forbid, Flight Service). Kevin Fleet wrapped up the session by providing a very useful case study on wave-finding and on mixing lift systems in his recent silver duration/gold altitude flight. After that night, the only way to improve your wave flying would be with a guide dog. You shouldda been there.
-Jim Kellett

Chute-man-Parachute Repack and Seminar
Brought to you by the Club's Newest Weenie , Steve Rouse (Chief Parachute Weenie)!

When:	Saturday, 29 January 2000
What Time:	9:00 a.m. (Group Presentation) (Rest of day for packing)
Where:	Front Royal Airport (FRR) Terminal Building (followed by Skyline Soaring Club Hangar) Front Royal
What:	Parachute Safety and Caring for your Chute
Presenter:	Glenn Bangs, Director of Safety and Training for the United States Parachute Association
Credentials:	Master Parachute Rigger
References:	Jumps his own chute!!! Has packed many of our chutes in the past, and is a regular sport jumper himself.

At 9:00 AM, Glenn will present an excellent opportunity for us to actually observe/try pulling the D-ring on our chutes, and presenting an overview of chute safety and use. Then, at 10:00 when the Annual Meeting starts, he'll retire to the Club's hangar to check, test, and repack members' chutes for the new flying season. Members may want to absent themselves from the annual meeting long enough to watch him do their chutes-Glen says it'll take 45 minutes to an hour to do each chute.

So far, the following have signed up to have their chutes packed: Joe Parrish, Jim Kellett, Greg Ellis, Glen Baumgartner (2), Shane Neitzey, and John Lewis/Bob Downin. If more want to take advantage of this opportunity, they should tell Banks () quickly so that he can be prepared. He will need to know: what kind of chute and if all AD's been done. Costs are approximately:

Repack $45.00 Pull test $25.00
Kicker plate-$17.00 (if needed)

All of our members should take advantage of this opportunity to both educate ourselves on the use and care of our chutes, and also to gain an understanding of the importance of regular repacks. As a byproduct, we are also enabled to remain in compliance with regs.
-Stephen Rouse

Milestones
As you know, we maintain a soaring milestones board in the hangar at FRR. Jim Kellett keeps a database of the various SSA and FAI badges, FAA ratings, etc. that club members have earned.

Now that our very successful 1999 season is over, it is a good time to update Jim's database. Please dust off your log books and provide Jim jim@kellett.com with the dates that you:

1. Soloed in gliders
2. Earned A Badge
3. Earned B Badge
4. Earned C Badge
5. Earned Bronze Badge
6. Received Private Glider license (or rating)
7. Received Commercial Glider license (or rating)
8. Received CFI(G) rating
9. Earned Silver Duration
10. Earned Silver Distance

If you responded to Jim's initial request for this information back in 1997, please clearly identify those items which are updates.
-Joe Parrish

Who Says You Can't Teach An Old Cow New Tricks?
On December 11, wave was reported all over the valley. I took a try early in the day in 081, but after 3 or 4 minutes in weak but steady lift north of Signal Knob at about 5000 msl I was in sink. 25 minutes later I was on the ground. During the next two hours almost every glider in the club was towed aloft and climbed away in one of the several waves that had invaded our airspace. Eventually only poor old Miss Daisy was left by her self, sitting on the ground in her new clothes, staring forlornly up at the action aloft and wishing she could somehow be a part of it all. George Hazelrigg and I looked at each other, and realizing that the old cow with the new clothes was the only game left in town, agreed to give her a whirl.

And what a whirl it was. George and I alternated flying Miss Daisy in the wave and watching our ground track on his GPS. At one point we were making good a forward speed of 4 knots! Miss Daisy is a sophisticated and stately wave flyer. She does not have the pizzazz and dash of the Sprite, doesn't make the grand entrance of the K-21, and is not as lively as the 1-26; but she does fly the wave with great maturity and wisdom.

During the flight, George and I were privileged to spot the K-21 sitting in a farm field just west of the ridge. The report from the K was that we looked like a giant kite just hanging in the sky over the ridge. We also played radio relay between the K and Skyline Ground as preparations for retrieval got underway, taking advantage of our line-of-sight to both FRR and the out landing site. As we turned and headed home, we spotted Bob Michael's red SUV pulling the K trailer along the road. Attempts to report this to the crew of the K failed, apparently because Miss Daisy's battery was getting weak. We landed exactly 2 hours after launch. For a couple of guys who took the last available thing that could fly into the wave, George and I sure had a great day in the club's senior citizen !
-Greg Ellis

International Vintage Sailplane Meet
Bob Gaines is an officer in the Vintage Sailplane Association (VSA) that's a prime mover behind the International Vintage Sailplane Meet (IVSM) that will hold the second rally at Harris Hill in July of this year. (IVSM met for the first time in 1995.) The IVSM is a really unique event there will be about 50 machines there, several of which are truly unique. All will be interesting . And there will be a lot of interesting people there both modern people and a lot of those who shaped this sport in this country over the last half-century.

Subject: Want Your Own Towplane???
Jan Scott has purchased a Scheibe SF-25 Rotax Falke motorglider, scheduled to be in service by April, 2000 at his airpark in Lovettsville. The 80 hp Scheibe is a very popular towplane/motorglider in Germany, and is the most popular motorglider in the world, with over 1,200 machines sold. It's performance as a towplane is reputed to be as good as the Katana Xtreme (which we test-flew at Jan's last summer), but without the Katana's maintenance problems with their turbochargers. Thus Jan will have a machine that will not only serve as his towplane, but also his personal glider for when there's no one else around to give him a tow in one of his gliders.

Assuming this ship works out as Jan has planned, he will sell the Scout. I haven't spoken with him about exactly when (or how much), but it sounds like he may be ready to sell it by spring, as soon as he's established that the Scheibe is performing the Scout's tasks at his airpark. The Scout is a very clean, very well maintained ship. It would make a perfect second towplane for the Club, ideally if a group of Club members wanted to buy it and lease (or through some other arrangement make it available) to the Club as a backup/training towplane. NOW is the time to be thinking about this!!

So all you taildragger pilots or taildragger wannabees get out your scrap paper and pencils and start scratching. I'm sure you'll find the Club's Board very receptive to any reasonable offer by a group of Club members to help defray the costs of ownership in return for the use of the ship on an as-needed basis by the Club.

Once again, I am looking for a few good persons
Mission: Form LLC to purchase 2 place high performance sailplane for personal enjoyment and/or lease back to Skyline Soaring Club. Target: Grob Twin Acro with trailer, etc. Target is currently being beatified along with performance of mandatory 3000 hr inspection. O2 bottle can be removed to increase useful load. Price is negotiable.

Earlier this year I had a group willing to purchase a Grob Twin Astir. It failed because we learned Twin Astir's have weak landing gear and no other suitable aircraft were on the market. The Twin Astir was priced at $43,000 US., the maximum for our group. This Twin Acro is priced at $36,500 US and is the best deal I've seen all year. Anyone willing to consider forming a new group, please contact Shane Neitzey. For those of us interested in forming a LLC to purchase a 2 place high performance sailplane, please announce your preferences.

Shane's preferences are-

1. L/D greater than 30:1, 38:1 best.
2. Lease to club-I could go either way-Pro or Con
3. Ease of assembly/disassembly, 1 to 2 people required.
4. Enclosed trailer
5. Reasonable useful load 400 lbs+
6. 4 to 6 partners
7. $40,000 maximum purchase price
8. Options-to be considered.

Let's match up our preferences, form LLC, bank the cash then; search for aircraft to purchase. My attempt last year was crushed due to a lack of suitable aircraft for sale within our budget. The sailplane we were considering, the Grob Twin Astir, was found to have a fleet wide weak landing gear. Not suitable for off field landings.
-Shane Neitzey

Log This...

• Congratulations to Stacy and Piet Barber: Cecilia Reneé was born December 19.-ten fingers, ten toes, full head of hair-mother and daughter are both doing fine.
• And more congratulations to Mimi and Ken Zugel. Mimi gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Cecilia, December 21st! Mimi and Cecilia are doing well.
• Congratulations to John Lewis who successfully completed his checkride with Shane to become the Club's newest PPL Glider pilot
• and to Dick Feierabend who soloed a glider on October 30th. (Apologies from the editor who, with the delft precision for which he is noted, deleted the notice from the December issue.)
• On December 5th Jack Downin was awarded his C badge,
• and Mike Cordova received a Bronze badge.
• Dropping like honey bees- Ruobing and I were married on Christmas Eve at Kiawah Island, SC! Honeymoon to follow in Kenya this February
  -Malcolm Gardner.
• Stephanie and I are engaged to be married. The reaction from our families has tended to be something along the lines of "Sheesh, it's about time!"

  I take that to be a sign of approval. Wedding planning is taking a back seat to completion of Steph's thesis, so we don't have a specific date or location picked out yet. Most likely time is in the fall. Stay tuned for more details.
  -Joe Parrish

• The following is a direct quote- (remember folks, you read it first right here!) PS I LOVE my Palm V.... dammit, next thing you know I'll be lusting after a G4 .
  -Dave Brunner
• Check out the URL for our inactive Skyliners Linn and Lee Buell at http://www.linnbuell.com
• Another 1-26 may soon be joining the Skyline Soaring 1-26 Squadron. Bob Downin and John Lewis have negotiated the purchase of 038, a 1-26a, that's currently in Indiana. While 038 needs a good bit of beautification work, there's apparently nothing major that impaires it's airworthiness. Anyone who has an old 1994 SSA calender can see 038 in her finest-she was Miss July that year!! Bob and John will be retrieving 038 sometime in January, bringing to five the number of 1-26's associated with the club.
  -John Lewis
• Anyone else thinking about a starter-plane -in 1999 081 flew 207 flights, over 176 hours, longest 7.5 hrs, 3 @ 5+hours, highest 11 k, 1 Diamond leg, 3 Gold/Silver legs, 3 Silver legs, 1 Silver badge, 1 Bronze badge
• The calendars are here and have been placed in the hanger on the table inside the door-if you need the code call someone other than me (I'm not going to be readily available for a while)

  I have a list of all those people who requested them and there is a signup-sheet with the box. If you can get to FRR please take your calendar(s) and check the box on the sheet next to your name and send the required amount to the club treasurer.

  If you didn't order one or need more, there are 25 additional, just write your name on the sheet and send the money to the treasurer (ensure that the number of additionals taken does not exceed 25 in total).

  If you can't make it to FRR before Xmas, then either find someone who can, or wait until the annual meeting next century/millennium whatever.
  -David Brunner

• And on a final note there are several things you won't see in Skylines in the Year 2000:
  • Ed and Malcolm's Russia AC4 will be here soon, (It's here-believe it or not.)
  • Year 2000,
  • Y2K,
  • Glitch,
  • Millennium-

  These words will be donated to NASA for inclusion on the next Mars Probe for safekeeping until the next _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !