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| Shenandoah Valley Soaring |
| Vol.6, No.7 | Eagle's Nest-Waynesboro | August 2000 |
By Bud Branch
Or maybe it would be more correct to say "Being Tinkered With"…
Randy & I were happy to volunteer to host & manage SVS's website when Bud K. offered - we'd wanted to learn what makes it "tick" for a long time.
The first thing we tackled was that l-o-o-o-o-ng URL http://personal.cfw.com/~klaser/svs.html ). We registered a domain name: svsoar.org (svs.org was already taken), and pointed it to the website, so web surfers need only type svsoar.org (or www.svsoar.org) to reach us. This makes it a little easier to direct people to the site.
We hope to make the website an effective tool for recruitment. In that spirit, we have added some text to encourage visitors and promote rides. Randy has added the Soar Board, a message center that we hope club members will use to post glowing accounts of their memorable experiences, and other notes of general interest. This will provide a public "window" into the sport that will inspire interest & curiosity. Another new feature is the Guest Book, which can be used by visitors to leave their mark on the site. We encourage all SVS members to visit and sign the guest book.
Future plans include:
Please forward your site-related requests, comments,
and suggestions to me or Randy, and please, spread the word: www.svsoar.org!
Carl Striedieck, one of the country’s top glider pilots, will be among featured guests at the duPont Regatta next month.
Shenandoah Valley Soaring will once again be host to the annual Richard C. duPont Vintage Sailplane Regatta, which will be held at Eagle’s Nest Airport September 22-24.
There’ll be a barbecue Friday evening at Bob Byron’s hangar; on Saturday, there will be glider flying and balloon flights, plus radio controlled model plane demonstrations.
Striedieck will be the main speaker at the Saturday evening banquet at the Holiday Inn at Staunton. Among his many accomplishments in soaring was his world record flight of more than 1,000 miles, from Lock Haven, Pa. to near Oak Ridge, Tenn. on May 9, 1977, a flight that was featured later in National Geographic magazine. His hobbies include falconry.
On Sunday, weather permitting, pilots will once again attempt to fly from Waynesboro to Frederick, Md., to commemorate the historic flight made September 21, 1933 by the late Richard C. duPont from Afton Mountain, near Rockfish Gap, to Frederick in his Bowlus sailplane. The 122-mile flight, which he made in four hours and fifty minutes, established a U.S. distance record for gliders at the time.
DuPont, a member of the prominent duPont family of Delaware, was a special assistant in the Army Air Corps’ glider program in World War II and was killed in a training accident in 1943.
Stay tuned at our new web address, www.svsoar.org, for further details about the Regatta and be prepared to assist in the weekend event.
Walter Grooms, SVS instructor and club stalwart, is recovering from injuries he received Sunday, Aug. 20, when the Titan Tornado he was flying crashed shortly after takeoff into a field near Libertytown, Md.
Walter had been attending the annual gathering of the Capital Area Light Flyers in Frederick County, Md. and had taken off to fly to his Rockingham County home. Maryland State Police said the plane apparently had engine failure shortly after takeoff.
Walter was flown by helicopter to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. His injuries included two fractured vertebrae and a broken leg.
We all wish Walter a speedy recovery.