The Weekend 'Glides' By

A view of Rough Top and with Picacho Peak in the distance from a glider at about 6,000 ft.

Drew's and my most recent hobby is gliding, which is flying an aircraft that does not have an engine. Intuitively, this may sound like a stupid thing to do, however, in calm conditions glider aircrafts are designed to be able to fly for up to 40 miles or more while only losing 1 mile of altitude (something called a lift over drag ratio). Moreover, the best thing about gliding is that you can fly around searching for thermals, that is, warm air rising up that will lift your glider further up into the sky. It is not uncommon on a warm day for thermals to take a glider from 5,000 ft up to 10,000 ft and experienced pilots can thermal to 18,000 ft. I actually was able to thermal from 7,000 ft to 10,000 ft my third time in a glider, which was a real thrill. Anyway, after being away from the glider port for a few weeks Drew and I got to take lessons and glide on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. It felt great to get up there again. Once your autonomic and vestibular systems habituate to what is feels like to glide it is unbelievably serene.

The trickest thing about gliding is getting the glider off the ground. Obviously, because there is no engine the glider either has to be catapulted up with a winch lauch or towed up with a small motorized place. The glider port that we fly out of, El Tiro, uses a tow plane that will take you and the glider from 2,100 ft up to 5,100 ft. Flying on tow is very difficult but on Saturday it finally started to click for me! In addition to flying on tow Drew and I both got to work on takeoffs and landings and Drew did a very impressive landing without spoilers (i.e., breaks). Once we are licensed (hopefully by next year) anyone who comes to visit can have a glider ride!


The view from the glider on tow