Any other aviation buffs like this?

[77south]

So this is what I did for my summer vacation. 

Which I took in mid October.  For an hour.


http://picasaweb.google.com/BadIdeasPoorlyExecuted/Gliding

I would like to to do a lot more of it. And it certainly has the effect of making collecting and riding Italian motorcycles seem like an affordable hobby by comparison.

[Speeddog]

Did a similar deal many years ago, got to fly the glider a bit along with riding as a passenger.

Pretty cool, the one I was in was a bit more utilitarian than that slick model. 

[tcspeedfreak]

looks like fun. i wanna try!  mommy mommy please   whats something like that cost to do

[Speeddog]

looks like fun. i wanna try!  mommy mommy please   whats something like that cost to do

http://www.800soaring.com/Soaring_Glider_Rides.htm

My ride was in a glider like this:

[muskrat]

I did that in the mountains near Temecula, what a blast that was.  wifey was pregnant dogin about it but I had nutin but smiles.

[Grampa]

must...... keep...... secret

[ducpainter]

must...... keep...... secret

good...luck...with...that

[orangelion03]

Soaring (and gliding) is a truly wonderful experience!  Back in the late 60's, a friend of my father's was a Blanik dealer and we went up for rides a few times a year.  then in the late 80's, i worked with a fellow that was a very experienced long-distance pilot (Cali to Texas with no engine!) and my ex and I were his chace crew when hi wife was preggers.  That made me want to learn to fly sailplanes so  I started taking lessons. Turned out that I was fine when someone else is flying, but tended to get violently airsick when I was in control.  I did get to experience running a "cloud street" though ...10,000 feet with 120 knot ground speed for almost an hour.

[LA]

The official world record for long distance soaring is 1,015 miles. It was set on May 9, 1977, by glider pilot Karl Striedieck - soaring down the backbone of the Appalachians.

Imagine flying like a bird, with no engine and no noise, from dawn to dusk over a distance of 1,000 miles. In setting the record, Striedieck took off from a small airport on top of Bald Eagle Mountain in Pennsylvania, soared to the starting point above Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and flew along a ridge of mountains that took him through the states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and into Tennessee.

Near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, he photographed the bridge over Bull Run Creek to prove that he was there and then turned and headed for home.

Always struggling to find thermals, the upward-rising currents of air that would keep him aloft, Striedieck finally landed at the airport back in Lock Haven, his official start and end point, just before sunset.

With only the power of the wind, the pilot had soared over 1,000 miles in fourteen hours and three minutes, a world record for distance.

He had flown 1,000 miles another day just the year before but had not properly photographed his half-way turn-around point, and the record was denied him until he did it again.

LA

[77south]

Once I get my sport classic paid off, I will be faced with a tough decision.  Streetfighter S, or glider pilot's license.

[wbeck257]

Dad's got one of these in the garage:


It's a Schweizer SGS 1-23.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizer_SGS_1-23

[Le Pirate]

i've wanted to go up in one for a long time



sadly, my budget requires that my only aviation be of the R/C kind (and it still gets expensive  )