Soaring Symposia was formed in the late 1960's by Ed Byars and Bill Holbrook to help educate pilots in advanced cross country/competition soaring. They conducted annual symposiums on competition soaring and brought in the leading pilots and aircraft designers to share their knowledge. From 1969 until the mid 1980's, nearly a dozen symposiums were held. These symposiums were merged with the SSA conventions and then replaced by them. The proceedings of the four symposiums from 1969 to 1972 and also the textbook Soaring Cross Country by Byars & Holbrook were published.

This web site contains the four proceedings and the book Soaring Cross Country. While some of this information has become obsolete over the past 20 years, much of it is still relevant to the cross country/competition pilot of today. Obsolete or not, it is still interesting reading and also important for its historic value.

It has been my pleasure to convert the published works of Soaring Symposia from print into electronic form in order to help preserve and distribute the work of my father, Bill Holbrook, and all the speakers at the symposiums. I hope you find reading their work interesting, informative, and enjoyable.

Guy Ford Byars - June 1995