Skyline Soaring Club has ended another soaring season. We had a few blemishes on this season,but overall, I would say it was pretty good. We are all safe and healthy, and we had some pretty good flying days. We are about even on membership for the year, despite the departure of a few good friends. Each year, a few of our good friends leave, and we somehow find a few new ones. This year has been no exception, with some great new people joining. And we have pilots with a few new ratings, which is always something to celebrate. The new ask-21 will arrive any day-maybe even before you read this, and the Pawnee is being recovered. We will have a good looking fleet to begin our next season. Overall, I am hopeful that next season will be a good one. The Club is in sound financial condition, and we should be ready to open our next season by about the first of February. There are a few downers that we have to face. The airport renovations have, as you all know, been less than "fully successful" to date. I sure hope that they can finish the taxiway and ramp work early in the spring. That will make our lives much better. I also think the hanger construction is now "permanently" stalled. So we sill continue to have a hanger shortage. There's not much we can do about these things right now. Another issue is that we are still short on instructors. It just takes time and effort to get your cfi-g, so maybe a few of us can accomplish that in the new year. These things aside, however, we plan to be ready for a great new year. Be sure to come to the annual meeting and take part in this Club activity. I hope you all had a great holiday season, and I hope to see all of you early next year.
-- George Hazelrigg, Jr

Soaring is facing a threat at least as great as the "airspace grab" of 1990. Under the well-meaning banner of national security, responsible government agencies and officials are scrambling to protect us from the very real threat of terrorism. As in many other really complex public issues, there are many ways to skin that cat-just not many the cat likes! And there is a strong and understandable pressure upon those tasked with national security to "skin the cat" by eliminating any activity that could conceivably be exploited for terrorist purposes. That includes most general aviation, and, of course, soaring.

Our soaring brethren at the Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association are now sitting at the point of that spear, suffering from the ham-handed application of this principle by expanding P-40, and proposing to expand it even further. They should not have to face that threat alone, for if they fail, the rest of Region iv, and then the nation, will be next.

M-asa has mounted a thoughtful and professional effort to deal with this-briefings, urging members to "work the system" with their elected representatives, and other activities. There's a good link to their "Alert" at

http://www.m-asa.org/P40Expansion.html Take at look at it first, since it has a lot of useful information in it. For example, they've put up the slides used in a briefing to the faa-see http://www.m-asa.org/images/P40Zone/P40_8nmSlides.pdf

But the rest of us are silent at our peril, if we assume "they're" working on the problem ("they" being M-asa or ssa). Yes, they are working on the problem, and need our encouragement and support. But the rest of us, particularly those in Region iv, must also work.

And the timeliness and accuracy of the flow of information throughout the affected community is not inspiring. In the most recent M-asa newsletter, m-asa President Collins observes-wisely, in this writer's opinion, that- "aopa and ssa have joined us in fighting this expansion. Both of these organizations, however, have perspectives which differ significantly from ours. ssa is far removed from the problem and really fails to fully grasp the national implications. aopa is fighting to ensure it doesn't get bigger. Frankly though, they would gladly settle on 10 nm if it meant saving the rest of the region. The end result is that wewill need to fight our own battle on this."

There's not a lot of information from ssa coming out on this that inspires confidence. There is a reference on the ssa website- http://www.ssa.org/ListNewsArticleDtl.asp?id=286 but it gives no clue to what-if any-effective activity, public or behind-the-scenes, is going on. ssa offers a guideline to security http://www.ssa.org/docs/SOARProgram.pdf

which makes sense, but provides no comfort that there is any productive effort under way to gain us the exemptions and accommodations that are appropriate for both national security and our continued enjoyment of the sport. In fact, the document appears to be a rather clumsy mod of something written for general aviation.

Please review the references mentioned herein, and if you share my concern for all of us in Region iv, spread an awareness of the problem-with sources of accurate information-to your Clubs and glider operations, through newsletters and other means, and urge individuals to make thoughtful, timely, and strongly justified recommendations to those who can influence the final outcomes. That includes your State and local elected representatives, national professional organizations, local fsdos, and others. This is the time for well-reasoned appeals; certainly, all contacts must avoid being confrontational or irrational, and should offer suggestions for how to help assure security with soaring activity going on rather than without.

Thanks for your attention. If you are aware of constructive solutions to this under way, I'd be personally grateful if you'd share them with me.
-- Jim Kellett

While it might be considered unlikely that gliders will be used to rain terror from the skies, the Soaring Society of America is trying to minimize even the remote chance that the perception exists. And along they way, the group has prepared a thoughtful and comprehensive guide to everyday security that could apply to almost any aviation environment. "The promotion of responsible flying and enlightened security conscientiousness (sic) will help in assuaging public fears of general aviation," says the group's Secure Our Aviation Resources (soar) program guide. http://www.ssa.org/docs/SOARProgram.pdf
-- avWeb

The best laid plans of mice and glider pilotsŠ. Well, here's how I had it planned. I would take every clear Thursday off from work and go out to frr and get in lots of soaring. And here's how it worked out: lots of rainy days, lots of meetings, and about two Thursdays at the airport. Result-I ended the year with about two weeks of (you government people understand this) "use-or-lose" time. This is vacation time that I must use before the end of the year, or I lose it. The second part of my problem was that I had accumulated well over 100,000 miles with United Airlines, and who knows how long that would be good. So I was faced with the dilemma that I just had to go somewhere. But where? I thought about Hawaii. That would be nice, and I have friends there. Haven't been there in about 4 years. But what would I do in Hawaii? I could sit on the beach, swim, and maybe fly a bit. But the flying is on Oahu, and I really like the Big Island. Besides, it's expensive to live in Hawaii as a tourist, and flying there is costly. I thought about Fiji-terrorism there. And Phuket, Thailand-been there before. I got a Club Med catalogue. Nothing really hit me as the thing to do. I searched the web and found Omarama. Of course, it's the best place to soar in the world. And, since my travel was essentially freeŠ Also, been to New Zealand before and liked it, and nz is not an expensive place to live. On top of that, we speak almost the same language. Seemed like the logical choice. I e-mailed Doug Hamilton at Alpine Soaring, looked at their rates, and decided to book some time. They called it a cross country course. It turned out to be rather informal, too informal to call it a course, but it looked good. I could get lots of dual and some solo. And they appeared to have lots of equipment. Then I struggled with United to get my flights. They kept telling me that they had nothing available. But about an hour on the phone checking every combination of flights and class of travel finally turned up something I could do. I got a full economy ticket-lots of miles, but hey, it's free. Booked an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Christchurch, and made hotel reservations for the first two days and last day in nz. Here's where working for nsf really helps. We run all our Antarctica ops out of Christchurch. So I got lots of help, and even good hotel rates by saying I am with nsf. Doug Hamilton reserved a b&b for me in Omarama. Late October, and all my arrangements are made.

Friday, December 6, we have our big year-end gala, and the next day I pack. I always do only carry-on. Then, on Sunday, December 8, I take an evening flight from Dulles to lax. Flight is on time. The flight from lax to akl is heavily booked. I get seat 19h on the 777. But so does someone else. He really wants the isle seat, but I say, "Let's let the stewardess sort this out." She comes back five minutes later and tells me I'll have to move-up to business class. Well, that worked out pretty well. I get in to akl right on time, clear customs in two minutes, and head off to the domestic terminal. I'm really early. I ask for an earlier flight to Christchurch, but I'm told that everything is fully booked. So I go to the gate for the earlier flight anyway. I talk to the woman there and say, "I would really be happy if I could get on that plane." She says, "It's completely full. No chance." I sit at the gate with a long face. At the last second, she says, "Only carry-on luggage? Go ahead, get on." Now, I'm here to tell you that there were all of 40 people on that 737. Whatever. Go figure.

So, I'm in Christchurch and I rent a car. Now, as for driving on the leftŠit's an experience for all who haven't tried it. The hardest part is that the wiper and signal controls are reversed, and every time I turned, I had the wipers going. It takes about 10 days to get over that. Also, rental cars are standard shift in nz, and you shift left-wise. I decided to "recover" on the day after my arrival, so I planned a visit to the School of Engineering at Canterbury University. Had a great time there. My inspiration for this is that my Phd thesis, which dealt with space trajectory optimization, was an extension of work done at this university in the early 50's. I still think that it's interesting that all our outer planet exploration work is based on foundations that come from New Zealand. This was Wednesday, the 12th.

That evening, I had dinner in the hotel and prepared to leave the next morning to drive south. My plan was to go to Queenstown for a day, then back to Omarama. I had been convinced that I should take the scenic inland route that, in fact, goes through Omarama. After dinner in the hotel, I saw two men looking at the pictures of Antarctica in the hotel lobby. Since lots of our people go through this hotel, I asked them if they were on their way to the ice. They said no, just tourists driving back from Queenstown. They were from Texas, one owned an a model Bonanza. He told me that they had just come through Omarama, and the wind was really blowing. I asked how hard. He said "Gale force." But the gliders were flying.

Next day, I left for Queenstown. For anyone who has not been in nz, I suggest you go see Lord of the Rings. It was filmed near Omarama. The scenery is just unbelievable. The pictures, spectacular as they may be, don't capture it. Well, I got to Omarama on my way to Queenstown, and decided to turn into the road to the airport. I wound up staying the night at the airport.

The next day was Friday the 13th and I was ready to fly. I teamed with Bo, an instructor from Sweden. We flew a twin Janus, which Bo said, "This is a hard ship to fly. It's a pig. Don't worry if you have trouble." The controls are as light as a fence post, and almost as moveable. The wind was a stiff 25 kts with gusts to 35, but more or less down the runway. We are towing out behind a stock Cessna 172. Well, the runway, grass, is 5,000 feet long, and we are using 4,000 feet of it. We clear the fence at the far end by at least 25 feet. No problem. Well, not until the turbulence off the end of the runway. But soon we release. Both varios are pegged, so I couldn't tell you how fast we were going up. The Winter pegged so hard, the needle was stuck. Then into the rotor. Slam, bam, but up. At 7,000 we contact the wave, and off we go. Maneuvering speed for the next 80 miles and up to 13,000 msl. We go most of the way to Mt. Cook, with spectacular views of the nz Alps. On our return, we run the last 20 miles with spoilers out, and still arrive at the airport with 6,000 feet to spare. We are up only 1.3 hours. This was the day Fossett set the speed record. I hung around at the airport till dusk, but Fossett was still out. I didn't see him.

Day two at Omarama, December 14th. We all gather at the clubhouse at 10 am for weather briefing. High winds, but no wave. Rain due in the afternoon. Off again in the Janus. This is a ridge day, and I begin to learn to work the ridges in the area. With 30 kt surface winds, it can be tricky on the ridge. There is no well-defined ridge, but really lots of mountains to work. And work them we do. Up to 8,000 msl and a 2.0 hour ride. Then the rain came. It was quite sudden, and forced two landouts because of low clouds. I took the afternoon off and drove to Queenstown. It was a beautiful drive, and I had a good time there. Found a fantastic place to stay (two bedroom apartment with living room, kitchen and laundry for $150 per night).

Day three, an early morning drive back to Omarama, and the wave is everywhere. Bo and I go out again in the Janus and this time get to 15,000+. It was just hard to hold altitude. Strong up wherever we went. These wave flights just aren't that long. We are gone only 1.5 hours, covering another 80 km. But two people do 500 km flights that day. One in only 3:12 on task. That's nearly 100 mph! The other was a woman who flew the course in 7 hours in a Libelle.

Day four, now the flying starts for real. I am scheduled in the ash-25, with an l/d of 60. The day is "light fluff." Hardly any winds. Bo and I go out and work the ridges for a while, and we get up to 6,000 msl. Then, I get a pretty good thermal and bounce up to 6,700, where I contact wave. Practically no wind, but still wave. Some nearby clouds are clearly lennies, confirming wave. The ash is extremely quiet and smooth in the wave. We fly 3.5 hours and get up to 8,000 msl. Everyone else had fallen out of the sky. The next day is my turn to fly solo. I got the ls-4 and played in light lift on the ridges all afternoon. Launched at 2:45 and returned at 6, with most of my time at about 7,000 msl scraping the clouds. Another great day, and spoilers needed to come down.

The afternoon of the 19th was perhaps my most spectacular flight. Again in the ash, we went out over the nz Alps, getting 45 km from Omarama. After 2 hours of mountain flying, I turned back to the airport. A straight glide of nearly 30 miles with less than a 2,000 foot altitude loss. The ash is really a magic carpet in disguise. During this flight, we get over some pretty tall mountains. And some are too tall to get over. Most are covered in snow. My last day was another ridge day in the Janus. Three hours in light fluff that demanded a great deal of work. But finally we got up to 8,500. Then the going got much easier. Such is the case in the mountains. You can really see why they say, "Get to the high ground and stay there." Unfortunately, getting there demands altitude, and getting that can take lots of work. The valleys are under a strong inversion layer. So no lift there. But the mountains stick up above the inversion, and lift can be found on mountain slopes. It just demands that you psych out the winds and sun, and do a lot of trial and error work-let's call that exploring.

It was Friday evening, time to leave Omarama. I faced a long drive (340 km) back to Christchurch, seemingly endless waiting in airports and 17 hours in flight back to Dulles. Then a 12-hour sleep to recover. This was indeed the soaring experience of a lifetime, and a great learning experience under a great instructor. He began telling me about cross-country flying by saying that the most important part of cross-country flying is landing. He said, "You can fly anywhere you can land. Just don't ever go to a place where you can't land." This is one of the things that makes Omarama great. Even over the mountains, we were practically never more than 2 miles from a runway. There are ag strips located all over the place (not to mention abundant paddocks). The closest to Omarama is a whole 2 km away, and during my stay, about 4 pilots joined the 2k Club, with landouts only a short walk from home base.

Before I end this, I need to say something about the cost of living and flying in nz. Of course, my travel cost practically nothing. Now, as for hotels: a typical hotel costs about $70 per night. The most I paid was $150 (the Queenstown apartment). But that was for a huge place in Queenstown, near downtown. And I stayed with a family b&b for six days at $60 per night (a sheep farm of 29,000 acres). It's hard to spend over $40 for a meal, $25 is more typical for dinner. On my last day there, I had filet mignon with wine and dessert and my bill was $46 with tip. My flying bill for eight days and 16.9 hours was $2,300, including tows and instruction, and almost 6 hours in the ash. That's pretty classy flying. All Alpine Soaring gliders are oxygen equipped, and most have transponders. Their equipment is pretty good. I checked out airplane rentals, and found a Cessna 172 available with instructor for $140 per hour. So prices are pretty much in line with the u.s. But here's the kicker-these prices are in nz dollars, worth 50 cents u.s. So divide everything above by 2. My flying cost about $75 us per hour. That's just about the same as I would pay to fly our Grob with tows! So, if you're thinking about Minden, let me tell youŠ Pay the extra airfare, and save it on your flying and living expenses. nz is a great place to visit. The scenery in unbeatable, their flying clearly the best in the world, the weather is good, and the people are great. I didn't do any badge flights, but they were a clear possibility, both altitude and cross country. If you think this is a plug for Alpine Soaring, it is. I'm already planning my return. Even significant others will find nz such a great place to visit that surely a few days of soaring would be tolerated.
-- George Hazelrigg, Jr

November was turning into a pretty disappointing month for soaring. We hadn't seen a good soaring day in over a month. Those of us who watch the weather were waiting for that classic fall cold front to sweep across the Massanutten and produce a solid ridge day in its wake. We might even see some mountain wave if all the essential elements came together (Moon in the seventh house, Jupiter aligned with Mars, stuff like that). The week of November 23rd finally showed some promise. A cold front spawned by a low-pressure area over the Great Lakes was due to pass through Pennsylvania / Northern Virginia on Friday and had the potential to produce winds favorable for ridge soaring on Saturday. However, the blipmap forecast did not favor thermal production. A final check of the weather on Friday night indicated some probable ridge lift but it wouldn't be particularly strong and would probably fade by Saturday afternoon. As an after thought, I checked the Naval Research Laboratory's Mountain Wave Forecast Model (mwfm). The mwfm indicated surprisingly strong wave over the Alleghany's. I arrived at frr early on Saturday and noted that bands of typical, eastern wave clouds were forming east of the Massanutten and beyond the ridges to the west. While I assembled my glider, George, Kolie and Kevin arrived as well. Steve Wallace showed up shortly after the othersand took the Pawnee aloft for the morning shakedown flight. By the time he returned, I was nearly ready to launch. Steve said that he encountered substantial turbulence and strong lift at about 3,000' msl. All right, sounds like we're good to go. The wave is not normally contacted below 5,000' msl near frr so I felt that Steve was flying in the rotor turbulence below what was likely to be good wave lift. I launched around 1100 and took a tow toward Signal Knob. I hung on a little longer than usual so that I would have enough altitude to evaluate the ridge and then return to the excellent rotor that we encountered east of Signal Knob. I could tell the ridge was working but it was not anything to get real excited about so I returned to the area around the fishponds just below 3,000' msl. The rotor in this area was excellent and I rapidly climbed to 5,500' msl where I contacted the wave. I climbed in 8-9 knot lift to about 13,000' msl in the area one half mile northeast of Signal Knob. From this position I penetrated upwind towards Petersburg, wv. The standing wave created by the Alleghany Plateau was right out of Tom Knauff's textbook "Ridge Soaring The Bald Eagle Ridge". There was a wave harmonic about every 4 miles, all the way to Petersburg and the band of stratocumulus clouds that marked each one was typical of the Eastern wave system. Lenticular clouds were fairly rare on this day but I did see some to the north of my position and some more very far to the south. As I approached Petersburg the clouds started to thicken up at several levels. I turned to the north-northwest and cruised along the wave harmonic toward Cumberland, md and some nice looking lennies. Nearing Cumberland, I noticed that the clouds were increasing, it was getting late in the day and I was getting cold. It was time to head for home. I raced southward toward Signal Knob. I was still at 12,000' msl passing well to the west of Winchester. When I arrived at Signal Knob, I encountered strong wave at 9, 000' msl and climbed back to 1,000'. Skyline ground called to tell me that they were getting ready to shut down so I extended the dive brakes and headed in to land. This was a proof of concept flight. Ever since I first read "Ridge Soaring Bald Eagle Ridge" I have been intrigued by the idea of flying a long (500 km) cross country flight using the Eastern wave system. Knauff describes the potential for 1,000 km triangular flights beginning at Front Royal. I landed after spending almost 4.5 hours above 10,000'. With a little more cooperation from the clouds, a 500 km flight is definitely attainable. With an early start and conditions like this, I can see a 1,000 km Diploma from Front Royal
-- Dave Weaver

For years, Greg Ellis has nagged the Club about doing things for young people, getting them involved in soaring, etc. etc. Last year, Greg took another step in putting his heart and head where his mouth was when he joined the Civil Air Patrol's Burke Squadron and, in the last year, became a very active Cadet Orientation Ride Pilot for the Virginia Wing's glider program! His efforts were recently recognized by Greg's promotion to the rank of 2nd Lt.

Well done, Greg!! This is a good example of what the cap-ssa Memorandum of Understanding of 1996 is all about! Greg's the only glider pilot (and I think the only pilot, but I'm not sure) in the Burke Squadron, which consists mostly of Cadets.

For the Club's newer members, be aware that Skyline was a major contributor to the Virginia cap Wing's getting started what has turned out to be a very successful Glider Program, and that currently there are four Skyliners who are members of the cap-Greg, Dave Dawood, Eric Litt (the Wing's Ops Director), and yours truly. At the end of 2002, the cap now operates two glider sites-at Winchester, va and Chesapeake, va-and has recently been approved to receive another Blanik l-23 glider in 2003! You can see more about the cap Glider program in Virginia at the vawg website's glider pages at http://www.vawg.cap.gov/ and click on "Glider Program" on the left side menu. (If you follow that link to the "meet the Maule" link, you'll see Skyliner Lt. Col. Eric Litt "taking delivery" on the very, very nice Maule (a trike multiplace towplane with a constant speed prop and internal Tost reel), which is now operated out of okv (Winchester Regional)!

-- Jim Kellett

• We all owe a big thanks to Team Hazelrigg for the great Annual Party that they so graciously hosted in their home. The food was great, the drink wet, the company cordial and Dr. Strangelove remains pertinently idiotic after all these years-only sharper in dvd.

• I've been wrestling with this decision for most of 2002 and have regretfully decided that I would like to go on inactive status with ssc beginning in 2003. Commitments required by my family, job, and graduate school leave me little or no time to pursue leisure activities. Additionally, my father passed away December 23rd and I will be spending much of the next few months in ny taking care of family matters.

  These last five soaring seasons have been a great source of enjoyment and personal satisfaction and I would like to thank the board members and ssc members for making it possible.

  Best regards always to you and your families, and thank you very sincerely for the friendship and fun you have shared with me in our soaring adventures.
  -- Bill Malick

• Skyline Soaring Club Annual Safety Meeting PERSONAL SAFETY EQUIPMENT Presentations by: Jim Kellett

  Dave Weaver Special Guest Speaker: Sport Parachute Instructor and Master Rigger Jim Wine

  See Parachutes Packed Before Your Very Eyes Bring Your Personal Parachute For Repack Come Early and Bring Your Own Chair Plan To Stay and Fly After The Meeting Saturday, February 8, 2003 at 10:00 am. Front Royal Warren County Airport

• The Skyline Soaring Club Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday, January 19, 2003, at 1:30 pm. We are doing a Sunday meeting this year to make the meeting accessible to a few people who cannot come out on Saturdays.

  An important event at the meeting is the election of members of the Board of Directors. Your Board currently consists of Malcolm Gardner, Fred Mueller, Richard Freytag, Shane Neitzey, Chris Williams and George Hazelrigg. Each serves a three-year term, with two people up for election each year. Shane is filling out Dave Weaver's position, and will be on the Board for two years. Chris is filling out Glenn Baumgartner's position, and will be on the Board for one year. They will then be eligible for re-election to a full term.

  This year, George and Malcolm's terms expire. George will run for re-election while Malcolm has chosen not to run for a second term. This is your chance to run for the Board or to nominate someone for the position. The Board represents you with respect to setting Club policy. Be sure you have the representation you want.

• Excerpts from 2002 ssa Region 4 Report-In most regards soaring activity and club functions were "business as usual" for 2002. The larger clubs carried out successful ssa/cap cadet training and flight indoctrination camps. Special events for cross-country training, "buddy" flights, classroom sessions, and fun contest events were also run by several clubs. Sanctioned contests were held for Region 4 North and South....

  ...There are at present no commercial soaring operators in Region 4, which is unfortunate but not something the ssa structure can directly remedy. Only the soaring clubs offer entry into our sport. In general club membership retention and growth is good in this region. The lack of instructors has been remedied in most clubs by a recruitment and training effort, but even more instructors would be better.-Bob Ball, Director, ssa Region 4

• Paul Remde (http://www.cumulus-soaring.com) has assembled a very useful spreadsheet, comparing different soaring instrumentation systems. He lists price, functionality, and installation requirements for each combination. Very useful indeed.
  -- Kolie Lombard

• Commander Aircraft Files for Bankruptcy-Commander Aircraft Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the last week in December, allowing it to continue operations while it reorganizes. The Aviation General Inc. subsidiary filed its petition in federal court in Delaware late last month. Several expected orders for new and preowned aircraft fell through, producing an immediate cash flow shortage of about $1 million and necessitating the filing, Aviation General said in a press release. The company said it has invested $40 million to build Commander Aircraft Company; it said that it is seeking additional debtor-in-possession financing and is committed to supporting the existing Commander fleet with parts and service. "We look forward to discussions with financially qualified principals who are interested in refinancing, merging, or acquiring the company," said Wirt D. Walker iii, chairman and ceo. The company said it can break even financially with the manufacture and sale of 10 to 12 new Commander aircraft per year
  -- AVflash

• aopa Airport Watch Program gets under way- The toll-free number to report suspicious activity at an airport-866/ga-secure (866/427-3287)-went live on Monday, December 2. The Transportation Security Administration (tsa), which is funding and operating the 24-hour hotline, has partnered with aopa in providing an easy-to-remember national number as part of aopa's Airport Watch program to help protect national security at our nation's general aviation airports. Aopa also has created posters and pamphlets to show pilots examples of suspicious activities, steps pilots can take to help law enforcement, and sensible precautions for improving airport security. The brochure is available online and will be mailed to the more than 388,000 aopa members next month. See ( http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2002/02-4-114x.html ).

• Excellent soaring videos recommended by Richard Freytag 1 By far the best is "Champions of the Wave". I have given my copy away but here is where you can buy it: http://www.eglider.org/catalog/items/item240.htm (calling and buying from Knauff would be a good way to introduce yourself to Tom Knauff). You can also get this video through the ssa site. Here is more information on this video from the New Zealand distributor: http://wildsouth.safeshopper.com/7/78.htm?266

  2 This Soaring video is $4 and some footage is taken from the above nz video. I can hand you a complimentary copy when you come to Front Royal: http://commerce.ssa.org/catalog/product.asp?dept%5Fid=24&pf%5Fid=706415 3 This is a video also done by the producer of videos #1 and #2 above. It has stupendous video shot in the New Zealand Alps: http://commerce.ssa.org/catalog/product.asp?dept%5Fid=24&pf%5Fid=70%2D6301 4 "Running on Empty" is sort of the ssa's flagship video: http://www.ssa.org/Roe.asp 5 The rest of the ssa's video offerings are here: http://commerce.ssa.org/catalog/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=5 6 Note: this is the video with John Denver: http://commerce.ssa.org/catalog/product.asp?dept%5Fid=24&pf%5Fid=70%2D6732 7 Ok, I have to include the classic "The Sunship Games" film of the 1970 Open Class Soaring Championships. It accurately captures the excitement of the race: Direct Cinema (The Sunship Game) p.o. Box 10003 Santa Monica, ca 90410 phone (310) 636-8200 phone (800) 525-0000 fax (310) 636-8228 directcinema@attmail.com I think its $40. Very interesting and exciting, in spite of degraded quality due to the faded film stock from which it was taken.
  -- Richard Freytag

• I am headed to Antarctica between 8 January and 22 January 2003. It's a cruise ship starting out in the world's southernmost city "Ushuaia, Chile", shipping across a tumultuous stretch of the Southern Ocean, down to the Antarctic peninsula, where we will view Deception Island, and a sizable portion of the Antarctic Peninsula. I will even get to leave the ship and go play with the penguins. I am bringing along two digital cameras, so I surely will get a ton of pictures, and I will be sure topromptly post them on http://pietbarber.com/ when I get back. If I don't write by the 24th, I'm probably stuck in Antarctica like Shackleton. http://www.tierradelfuego.org.ar/webcam/
  -- Piet Barber

• I have purchased a wet/dry shop vacuum which now resides in the private owners hangar next to the old couch that will soon move to the ssc Lounge in the g-103 hangar. I bought it primarily to clean out the bottom of my glider and trailer where grass and dirt tend to accumulate. If anyone wants to borrow it to clean out their glider, a club glider or a trailer, please feel free to do so as long as it gets back where it came from. Please don't use it to vacuum up the floor of the hangar. Its capacity will not support this.
  -- Dave Weaver

• itsa to attend ssa Convention-ssa has been informed that representatives of the new Transportation Security Administration have accepted ssa's invitation to appear at the ssa Convention in Dayton in January 2003. At this time it is planned that the head of the ga Policy and Security Division will make a presentation to the general membership session scheduled for Friday, January 24th in the afternoon. Development of working relations with the new tsa have been considered a high priority by ssa given the formation of the new Homeland Security Dept. which will be separate from dot and faa. Key authority and policy responsibility is vested with the new agency. Their participation in the ssa Convention will be an important highlight of the event.

• Short Final...A sailplane turned final too low to make the desired runway. Equipped with a hand-held microphone, the pilot radioed his intention to change runways ...

  Glider: Glider abc can't make 29 taking 24. Unicom: Glider abc are you having control problems? Glider: I can eliminate one if I let go of this microphone. -(avFlash

• Looking for a Few Good Persons-Regretfully circumstances dictate that 081 partner Bill Malick go inactive for an indeterminable period. We're going to miss Bill but know that, deep down, he shares the same genetic defect we all have-the one that makes it impossible to stay on the ground-he'll be back! In the meantime, 081 will entertain a new partner in one of the sweetest flying little gems ever built. Here's an opportunity to fly a historic 1-26 and build time and experience in an inexpensive environment. Contact Phil Jordan or Mark Ballinger. Friendly Reminder: