Thanks Wouter.

I know you introduced me to one, who I believe flew for KLM, that's the guy I was thinking of when I saw that KLM crosswind landing video.

That is right, I remember who that was.

Wouter

Remember, if you want to be a Pilot, best to start at the botom and work your way up, like this kid!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/919IA_Lj0Ko

jeebus, you gonna drag this thread up everytime the forum is a bit slow?


Tim, ever fly a sailplane? Phucking awesome.


Way louder than I ever would have thought. I want to get my license, but I'm worried I'll do something stupid like buy a glider.

My dad use to say: "if it floats, flies, or fucks; rent it" Fortunetly there's a low probability of me ever getting married, but if I did all three he'd be spinning in his grave.

Quit braggin'!(I'm jealous) I've never had a desire to fly anything with an engine but gliding is the coolest thing I can imagine.

Enjoy!

Karl, yes I have some glider time and I've always wanted to get my glider rating but it allways comes down to the two things we all need more of in life;

1. Time
2. Money

Until I get my 4 kids (and 6 horses) off my "Payroll" I won't be adding any "Fun" stuff like that to my debit card.

Before I got my first ride in a glider, I thought it would be like going up in any Cessna and turning off the motor, then slowly gliding back to earth, in about 5-10 minutes. But after we disconnected at about 3,000' we flew for over 45 minutes!

It was great fun, I hope to someday get into it, but there's only so much money in the bank account and I relly need a new main and jib if I'm going to keep racing sailboats.

The one drawback about gliders is, you have to go to an airport, then you need a tow plane (or car, or winch) to get you up there to begin with, so it's not a sport you can do "Alone" any time you have the urge. It becomes a big production every time you want to go fly, with more money spent (and time wasted) sitting around waiting your turn in line for a...wait for it...a tow-job!

And your dad was right aobut the 3 F's, rent it!

The two things I do like about sailing vs. flying is, in 30+ years of sailing, I have yet to spend a dollar on gasoline for my boat. And I can do it -alone- any time I want, with no outside help required...usually. Oh, and I can legaly drink a beer while sailing...in fact I think it's required.

The two sports are very much the same with the physics involved, lift, drag, thrust, gravity, all that stuff works the same on both sailboats and airplanes. I don't know if you have ever seen the book "High Performance Sailing" by Frank Bethwaite, (if not, get it!) but Frank was an Australian Airforce pilot back in WW 2 I think, and then a competition Glider pilot, but also an awsome sailboat racer/designer of their 18' skiffs.

The two sports go hand in hand. If you can do one, you can do the other, given enough time and money of course! And if you want to do both, I suggest you stay single! You can always rent it. And remember, you are NOT paying for the Sex, you are paying for her to LEAVE when you are done!

I just loved being in a thermal when you're getting really good lift. The tight turns and and the G's are awesome. We don't have any orographic uplift here (its essentially dead flat), but the thermal action in the spring can be pretty wild when the fields are all black and the air is cool.






I actually have few shares in a small airport <5 miles away that does a lot of soaring stuff. They've got a couple of tow planes, and number of members. The do have a few gliders that the club owns, but nothing really sexy and cool. But just like catamarans you can get into a base model pretty reasonable. The sexy ones cost a buttload. Time and money as you say though. Usually I have one or the other, but rarely both at the same time.








One of my favorite lines.

If you are only 5 miles from a good glider strip you wouldn't have to waste too much of your day driving there and back.

The closest glider strip to me is over 90 miles. This place:
http://www.soarfl.com/

Watch their video.

If I had one 5 miles away I'd probably have my ticket by now. It's only about a 10 hour transition course if you already have your powered license.

I have shopped online for what they call Self Launched "Powered Gliders" but if you think the unpowered ones are expensive, look at a self launched! Well above $50K for an old used one, over $100K for new...
You want to see toys that cost a lot more than cats, start here:

http://www.barnstormers.com


Here is the glider equivelent of Catsailor;

http://www.ssa.org/

My two favorite glider stories: (condensed)

From Nat. Geo., way back.

Guy soared the entire lenght of the Appalchians (or some such distance), read the wind by looking at the color change of the leaves on the trees below as the wind blew across them.

Anothe guy was soaring in California and started watching sea gulls soaring. So, he followed one off shore. He began to wonder and sure enough, after awhile, the bird turned around and started flapping its wings! He made it back okay but made a mental note not to follow sea gulls.

Yeah there are two ways a glider can get "Lift". One is by thermals, ie. hot air rising, the other is "dynamic" or what is commonly referred to as Ridge Lift, where wind is blowing across the plains then runs into some type of ridge, like the Apelation Mts. and the air is forced upwards to go over the ridge, but it also comes back down on the backside, so you have to soar on the upwind side, obviously.

They have distance races to see who can ride the ridge the furthest...then when they run out of lift, they land in a field and call for their support crew to show up with the trailer, just like some of our catamaran distance races!

I don't know that I would follow a bird out over water in a glider, a large body of water lacks both ridge and thermal lift!

Qualifying for a soaring license is one of my goals here in life! If only my ears are up to it..

Hi Rolf, here's something you can fly low and slow which is a lot of fun too, and you won't hurt your ears with pressure changes if you stay low! This guy lives here in Sebring and is a good friend of mine, I've flown his blue Air Cam in the video, it's a lot of fun!

http://www.aircam.com/

Phil Lockwood is his name and I've had him out on my Blade, I20 and Prindle...but he owns two Sunfish! I've been trying to talk him into buying a cat for years and he's been trying to talk me into buying an Air Cam!

Maybe...someday.

I've been thinking about going the glider route myself.
I spent about 1/3 of the summer with no wind on the lake I sail at. And there's are two glider ports with in ten miles.
Know if I can just find a job!

Thanks Tim, but I want to go soaring like the eagles if I am to go

Only airplane I would be willing to build would be this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Horten_Ho_IV.JPG

(or another Horten design)

Girlfriend just got me one these for my Birthday. Yippeee!

She bought you a Sailplane??!! Geez, that's going to make it pretty expesive come her birthday!

Oh, and does she have a sister?

;^)

Two, and one of them is available.

Bring her to Spring Fever!

Oh wait...I think my kid is coming...hmmm.

I wonder how much ice cream is this going to cost me??

Is that you one you're saving as crew for me?

Is she hot and promiscuous? I'll be down on Thursday. lol