In "Letters from the Earth," Mark Twain writes about the great flood. It rained for forty days and forty nights, and the waters rose up to cover everything in sight. But did it cover the entire Earth? No, there just wasn't enough water to go around. And then the Ark soared aloft to land on top of Mount Ararat, at something over 16,000 feet. So, what's the difference between the Ark and us at Front Royal? Basically, nobody's soaring to 16,000 feet. Despite the gloom, I have it from a good source that the sun will actually come out and shine once more-at least once more. And that may be the day that we get this soaring season off to a start.

Now just suppose that it does clear up and we actually get a flying weekend. And just suppose that is the weekend of June 6-8. Well, if it is, grab your log book, your silly looking soaring hat, your water bottle, and anything else that you would keep in your survival kit, and come on down to Eagle's Nest in Waynesboro. The Shenandoah Valley Soaring Club is hosting us for a weekend fly-in-we bring the towplane and gliders. Weather permitting, we will take the Pawnee and Grob down on Friday morning, and enjoy three full days of soaring before heading home. I really encourage everyone who can make it to come out and join us. A very important part of your training is to land at a field other than your home base. Don't live your life afraid that your next landing won't be at FRR. Go do it somewhere else before it just happens to you.

This is more than a training opportunity. It is a chance for us to meet our fellow soaring pilots from a neighboring club, and begin to create a relationship with that club that will benefit us all in times to come. I can think of a dozen reasons to have this relationship, but here's the most obvious. You're on your first big cross country, and you make it down to Eagle's Nest. So you land, meet some friends, and get a relight for the trip back to FRR. The SVS people have already been kind and generous to us. This is our turn to do something for and with them, and I really hope we get a good turnout. I especially encourage you students to make a special effort to come.

It is also the case that we soon can expect to have the opportunity to acquire more hangar space. So, once again, I would like a head count. If any of you who already have a hangar slot for your trailer have any intention of moving out over the next year, now would be a good time to let me know. And if any of you who don't have a hangar slot and want one, now would also be a good time to let me know. I am not looking for wishful thinking here. It will involve a commitment and it will involve money. I am sorry for repeatedly conducting this survey, but I want to be sure I have the most up-to-date information possible when it comes time to make decisions.

Well folks, that's it for this month. Let's just look for the rainbow that marks the end of the rain. And let's all wish our newest couple, Richard and Rachel Freytag, a long and happy marriage.
-- George Hazelrigg, Jr

I had a discussion the other day with a member of our club. It was about whether a Safety Officer should concern himself with the long view of establishing a good safety record or take a short view approach. I thought you all would be interested in my thoughts on the subject:

Confucius say, "All great journeys are made one step at a time."

I do want people to be short sighted when it comes to safety. They have to focus on the tasks at hand every time they strap on a glider or tow plane and make the right decisions every time for the conditions that exist at that given moment. Nothing else will do. If everyone takes that approach each day, then over time, we will build a safety record we can be proud of. Any safety record is only as good as the very next flight, so celebrating the successful end of each and everyone is highly appropriate and encouraged by this Safety Officer.

I don't put much stock in our long standing and highly touted "Safety Culture" which in view of our record over the past two years, hasn't done much to make our club very safe. Giving lip service to the existence of some nebulous safety environment in the SSC has just not been very effective if my evaluation of the safety record in our club is anywhere near the mark.

I'm taking a new approach which is both highly visible and also highly inclusive of every pilot in the SSC. Safety is a continuous and interactive process which is enhanced by effective communications within the pilot ranks. Quiet Safety Officers are, in my view, ineffective Safety Officers . People may get sick of me spouting off about safety and encouraging them to spout off about safety all the time as well but that's too bad. That's the way I'm approaching the job. The only good Safety Officers I have known were the ones who had the guts to shake the tree hard enough to get the bad apples (habits) to fall out of the tree. Now, if enough of the club gets sick of hearing me, they can select a new Safety Officer next year. Until then, they might as well get on board this train, join the party and the fun because we are leaving this station and heading down the track to a safer, more enjoyable club. The proof will be in the pudding. We will either being doing a safer job by this time next year and building a strong safety record or we won't. If we're not, then a new Safety Officer will be in order anyway.

Your friendly Safety Officer but only one of many in the club.
-- Stan Pawlowski

I was at the first one in May 1972, and most of them since. So... I was determined that I was going this year. (I called out for help with D.O. duties, but left town working the next morning, and never heard the answer 'til I got back. Thanks to all that responded. I'll make it up) I took my hang glider with me... told the wife I was going to try to sell it. Anyway, when I got down there early Saturday morn. the wind was blowing 40 mph ENE. Events for the day were cancelled... blown-out.

Most of the old timers and current instructors headed for the beach. With the wind blowing that hard, a launch from flat beach in front of the dune was just a jump straight up. A bunch of the more current guys got up and soared for a while. One of my good friends talked me into setting up my glider and flying. The last time I had my glider out of the bag was in July 1993... not exactly current.

Well, with help I got the glider set up, and harness on and hooked up. My buddy held my front flying wires and kind of flew the glider in place. I experimented with pitch control, took a couple of test hops, and then jumped up and pushed out hard, and was airborne for the first time in 10 years. As I got up in a near hover, I tried my turns and was able to soar up and down the dunes for a few hundred yards. After about 15 minutes, it was obvious that I had a harness strap twisted in a very uncomfortable place. So, I landed and fixed the strap. Then, I launched again.

This time I got up and joined a gaggle near a hotel with a pitched roof which hung out over the dune. This provided excellent lift. Had to take turns...not much room. Back on the dune at an altitude(?) of about 20-30 ft. I went screaming down the dune for about 2.5 miles. Slowing down to utilize lift provided by a group of hi-rise condos. Then a little further was a hi-rise motel with front face right out to the dunes. With the high winds hitting this vertical face, a strong pressure wave was created, providing strong lift. We had to be very careful not to get too high, as the wind flattens, it becomes difficult to penetrate and could be blown over the motel facing ruff rotor and turbulence.

After a while I was getting tired, so I flew back to where I had set up and landed. This flight lasted 3.5 hours. Not too bad for an old bird 10 years inactive.

First flight logged:
March 1972 # 1

Last flight logged:
July 6, 1993 #2349

total time 998 hrs-5 min

Last weekend
May 17, 2003 #2350 15 min
May 17, 2003 #2351 3 hrs-30 min
31+ years 1001 hrs-50 min Now let's see......where should I tell my wife I'm going next to sell this glider. Woodstock? Grandfather Mountain?

-- Kevin Fleet USHGA #1035

In mid-May I managed to sneak away from the Shuttle investigation for two days to Jack Brown's Seaplane Base http://www.gate.net/~seaplane in Winter Haven, Florida, and add a single-engine sea rating to my pilot's license. It was something I had been wanting to do for years, I was due for a biennial flight review which a new rating covers, and I wanted to bag the investigation for a couple of days and have some fun. Jack Brown's is literally surrounded by hundreds of little lakes, and is a perfect setting for this training.

A package deal at $850, which includes ground school, a training document they have developed, 5 hours dual in a J-3 Cub on floats, and a ride with the examiner, which in my case was another .8 in the logbook. That assumes that all goes well, and you don't need any remedial training, which will usually be the case for a current power pilot adding on the rating.

Most of the time is spent on landings, takeoffs, and all the water stuff. In fact after the first 10 minutes, during which time we went to 1,500 feet and did a few stalls and steep turns, we never went above 500 feet again for the next two days, and in 5.8 hours made 55 landings!

There is a bunch of fun water stuff: idle taxi, plow taxi, step taxi; glassy water takeoffs, rough water takeoffs, confined space takeoffs, crosswind takeoffs, and yes, normal takeoffs; glassy water, rough water, and normal landings; and docking and sailing. Lots of new and fun stuff.

Useful skills covered:

How to tell the wind direction from the air, mostly using water cues like glassy water on the upwind side of a lake, and wind streaks. Smokestacks, flags, birds and boats can work too.

Attitude flying-everything is an attitude, taxiing, getting on the step, and all the takeoffs and landings. With glassy water you cannot judge the height, so you pick a last visual reference, preferably something low on the shore like seaweed, with a clear approach, and come down low over it, set a nose-high attitude with power, and hold it until you touch the water, and pull the power and stick back on touchdown.

Cross controlled maneuvers. Although crosswinds are not usually a problem on lakes, they can be in confined areas like canals or rivers. The most common use of crossed controls is a glassy water takeoff, where the friction is great so you lift one float out first to reduce drag on the water, while holding the heading with the rudder. With a loaded 85-horse J-3 cub, we used this technique on almost all takeoffs, just to get it off the water quicker.

A few things which don't relate to other types of flying, like plow taxiing and sailing, but all of which enforce the need to be constantly aware of where the wind is coming from.

Although quickie ratings (unlike the glider rating I am still working on!) are sometimes suspect, I felt that the training at Jack Brown's was very comprehensive, and the oral and check ride covered everything. We did have some extreme glassy water conditions, as well as ideal light ripple conditions, but no actual rough water practice. Like any new rating you have to know your limitations.

One unfortunate reality about a new seaplane rating is that it is very hard to find anyone willing to rent you a seaplane for solo flight or to take your friends for a ride. This is a reality of the insurance on seaplanes, since there are a lot of ways to bang them up. But if some folks want to get together and buy one, OTIS TOLD ME HE IS READY, and I might just consider it.

Great fun!
-- Steve Wallace

Be sure to read Steve's article in the June issue of AOPA Pilot, Fathers and sons and airplanes, page 107.Wonderful story that all members can enjoy.

It occurs to me often that there is such a wealth of personal experience that our members could be sharing through the Newsletter. As electronic communications become the favored means of instantaneous interchange, something worthwhile is being shunted aside. Not every message needs to be, or can always be, instantaneously communicated.

There are many examples of courage, here's a good one:

To All Club Members, Thank you for your contribution to the ALS Association in memory of my wife Ruth. We were fortunate to find the ALS Association. They provide services to people with ALS in addition to supporting research. Without the ALS Associations help at their clinics Ruth's life and quality of life would have been shortened by at least a year.

Attached is a photo of Ruth giving her thanks. It was taken last October on the walk to support ALS.

Happy Soaring to you all.
-- Chuck Ridings & Family

PS: A special thanks to Richard Freytag for driving out and attending Ruth's Memorial service along with Jim & Pat Kellett and Bob & Tracy Collier. I had only met Richard a few times, but sensed from his emails to club members he is a very caring person.

Centennial of Powered Flight

1911 Wright Model "B" crashes-Ken Hyde, the head of the Wright Experience near Warrenton, Virginia, that will build and fly a reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer at Kill Devil Hills this December, was in surgery Thursday for a broken arm following the crash of a Wright Model B. Hyde's Discovery of Flight Foundation had built the aircraft for Northrop Grumman for display at this year's Paris Air Show, according to the "Fauquier Times-Democrat." The aircraft is also the subject of a NOVA public television program, "Inventing the Flying Machine," to air late this year. Hyde was performing high-speed taxi tests on Monday when the aircraft veered toward a ditch, the newspaper reported, so Hyde decided to fly the airplane out of trouble. (The reproduction flies with an original Wright engine.) He was able to circle for about 10 minutes, dodging trees and power lines, before it dipped a wing and headed into a tree, the newspaper said. The setback will not affect plans to fly the 1903 Wright Flyer.

-- AOPA ePilot

Tickets now on sale for Centennial Celebration at Kitty Hawk- If you're thinking far, far ahead-to the coming winter-you can get your tickets online now for the Centennial events scheduled for Kitty Hawk, N.C., December 13-17. The celebrations are centered at the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kill Devil Hills, and include exhibits, displays, and air shows. At a recent ceremony, the National Park Service opened its new 20,000-square-foot http://www.nps.gov/wrbr/indepth/mar03%20briefing/pavilion.htm First Flight Centennial Pavilion at the Memorial, which will provide space for exhibits, meetings, concerts, and special events. On December 17, at exactly 10:35 a.m., the EAA's reproduction of the Wright 1903 Flyer will attempt to repeat the historic first flight.
-- AVflash

Please note the stamp on your newsletter. Your humble editor produced this stamp beautifully illustrated by McRay Magleby of Provo, UT. Mac is an ultralight pilot and internationally recognized poster artist. While we don't get a cut of the sales, buying lots of these jewels will surely make us look good! In fact if you buy lots of them you may even stall a rate increase...for a while.-
-- Phil Jordan

The 13,685-member Soaring Society of America is searching for an executive director following SSA President Larry Sanderson's resignation early this year after 20 years at the helm. The position has been given the new title of executive director. Karol Hines, a regional director for SSA, said the position will pay in the "high five figures." SSA has a staff of about a dozen fulltime personnel and is based at Hobbs, New Mexico. The ideal candidate is a pilot, not necessarily a soaring pilot, with strong advocacy skills and five years of management experience who is able to meet the group's goal of expanding membership 10 percent each year for three years. SSA has already located several good candidates. Those interested should e-mail SSASearch@sbcglobal.net ), or mail a resume to: SSA Headquarters, Post Office Box 2100, Hobbs, New Mexico 88241-2100.

New Challenge for You White Wing Kraut Glass Slipper Cross Country Flyers

VFR Route Opened to Russia-Flying to Alaska can now be the start of an even bigger adventure. The FAA has issued a NOTAM opening a VFR route from Alaska to Russia. Route B-369 takes the venturesome GA pilot from Nome to Provideniya, a 275-nm trip that includes 39 miles over open water. Alaska Region FAA staff have been working on the route for three years and hope it eventually leads to a safe VFR route to Japan. But before you start packing your fur hat, be mindful that the legendary Russian bureaucracy must have its due.
-- AVFlash

The Silent Wings Museum opened October 19, 2002 in Lubbock, Texas. It is on the Lubbock International Airport which is on the site of the former South Plains Army Airfield where more than 80% of all U.S. military glider pilots were given advanced glider training during WW II.

The Museum has a fully restored CG-4A and is in the process of restoring a Horsa for display. Lots of related hardware and 10,000 artifacts make this Museum more pertinent to us glider-persons than even the extraodinary U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton.

The Silent Wings Museum is dedicated to telling the history of the American military glider program. The Silent Wings Museum opened in Terrell, Texas in 1984 as a project of the National World War II Glider Pilots Association, Inc. The Museum collection was transferred to the City of Lubbock in September 2000 and relocated to the Lubbock International Airport grounds in February 2001. A newly renovated facility will open to the public on October 19, 2002. The Museum building in Lubbock served as the Lubbock airport terminal from its construction in 1949 until the opening of the Lubbock International Airport in 1976.

We need your help in gathering information on the US Navy and Marine Corps Glider Program. We would like to hear from glider pilots who served at Page Field and Parris Island. http://www.silentwingsmuseum.com

The DuFus Reports

I am going to start something new in our club. It is simply called the "Dufus Personal Safety Report." It will be your opportunity to share with your fellow club members an unsafe situation you personally encountered during an outing at the airport. Since we are all getting back in the saddle after a long lay off from flying, it is reasonable to assume that we all are going to experience varying degrees of rustiness and forgetfulness. By sharing unsafe moments when they happen to us personally, we may save a fellow pilot from making the same mistake the next time he goes up.

This was a required report when I was in the Navy but it was called something else (I can't remember what but it was more official). Anyway, you had to report any safety incident and share it with your community. You didn't get in trouble for it and everyone benefited from knowing what you did and went through. It's a great way to promote safety awareness so I encourage each and everyone of you to participate in the "Dufus Personal Safety Report" program.

The only rule is you can't use names. This is not about getting your fellow pilots in trouble. It's all about you and sharing information to help us all stay out of future trouble.

On second thought, to maintain even more anonymity, let's have a second rule. Send your Dufus report directly to me. Only use pronouns or non-identifying phrases in your report like "I, he, she, we, the other aircraft, etc., " I will remove your email address from the report and resend it to all our other members from my address as the club's Safety Officer. That way you are even more protected from the remote possibility of someone wanting to use that information for some nefarious reason.

Only two rules:

1. Use no names. 2. Use innocuous pronouns and phrases

My email is: <ommitted>

Looking forward to reading your harrowing accounts and sending them on to the membership. Consider this like going to confession (if you can relate to that time tested Catholic tradition of guilt bashing). The Dufus Process cleanses your flying soul allowing you to forgive yourself (or a fellow pilot if you were a true victim of the other guys actions) for being human and also thanking God for allowing you to make a mistake and live to talk about it without going straight to flying hell. So let the DPSRs roll.
-- Stan Your friendly Safety Officer, one of many in the club.

I had recently purchased a nice little "Point-and-Shoot" Olympus camera just for candid family recording. It was a spectacular day at FRR. Lift was good, the air somewhat turbulent and I remembered that I remembered to put the camera in my flight bag.

After a short break, I put the camera in my shirt pocket and went back up. Soon I was up to 4,000' and soaring down the Eastern slope of the Massanutten.

The view was beautiful and out came the camera.

Now I'm not the brightest bulb in the marquee, but it was obvious to even me that I couldn't use my left hand to operate the camera-I must use my right hand-the one with the life-grip on the stick.

Smoothly I transferred the digit responsibilities. I raised the camera to best bi-focal option and calmly composed and shot several spectacular scenes.

Suddenly those little hairy guys in my ears are telling me you better look up.

That spectacular blue sky is suddenly all green! Just like I've done countless times before, stick forward, top rudder...fast. She levels out while my brain is going "holy s..., I'm going to be on the 6 o'clock news !"

Lucid moment of revelation-you don't fly well left-handed nor have you EVER practiced doing so.

I mentioned this episode to several more experienced Club members, whose collective response was "we all fly ambidextrously". Hell, I can't even spell ambidextrous. Virtually every flight since, I've practiced flying left handed.

Log This...

• Just a quick heads up for those interested in low speed aerodynamics, ornithopters, birds, nature, awesome cinematography, and more.

  See the movie Winged Migration, keep an eye out for it if it comes to your area.
  -- Bob Ormiston (forwarded by Judah Milgram)

• Renee and I saw this recently-absolutely fantastic, must see. Checkout the trailer at: http://www.sonyclassics.com/wingedmigration/home.html
  -- Dave Nadler

• Tower, I'm ready for takeoff... no need to cry about it- British pilots who tuned their aircraft radios to listen to ATC near London's Luton Airport instead heard the sounds of a crying toddler, The Sun reported on Monday. A baby listening monitor in the child's room somehow was interfering with the airwaves. Government inspectors traced the interference to a home near the airport, The Sun reported. Lisa Stapsley, the child's mother, said she was shocked when the inspectors knocked on her door. "It was like something out of Ghostbusters. It totally freaked me out." The trouble was traced to a monitor in her 13-month-old daughter's bedroom. The Stapsleys now just leave the door open a crack instead.
  -- -AVflash

• The PAX Airshow went really, really well. I'll save the details for a memo to Phil Jordan's newsletter. Suffice it to say that Richard Otis really got us the red carpet treatment and Stan put our best foot forward with the parents, tykes, CFIs, glider pilots, etc. that were attracted to the big white airplane.

  The airshow was the best I have ever seen.
  -- Richard Freytag

• (Evidently Richard had something else to occupy him or we would have featured that article in this issue)
  -- Ed

• Color My Underwear Code Orange-The NORAD exercises involving F-16s at treetop chasing a fox over DC caught a lot of us off guard I'll bet? NORAD says "we announced it on our website"...yeah, like that's a good place to warn us citizen-suburbanites. It would have reached a bigger audience on misc at skylinesoaring dot org without scaring the living hell out of millions of TV besotted civilians.