Video: Soaring Isn't Just Awesome - It's AWESOME!

 Do you like gorgeous slender airplanes, beautiful mountains and great camera views? Well then this video is right up your alley! But you might wanna turn the music down if you don't like a rock music background. It's well worth watching even if you've never paid attention to soaring before.

 I was so fortunate to be raised around soaring back in the 70's due to my dad's love for it, and that included getting to solo a Schweizer 2-33 on my 14th birthday! Later that year I was flying a high performance Schweizer 1-35 that my dad had bought to go along with the Citabria (tow plane) that we also had. Those were the days - 14 years old and flying such an amazingly beautiful airplane!

 But getting into (and staying into) soaring takes a little more effort than many forms of flying. I certainly experienced this as it's been a long time since I've flown a sailplane. The need for a good location for either thermals or ridge lift along with the fact that you usually need a community of people to make everything work out well means that soaring operations are typically pretty far in between. But they are out there, and modern aerodynamics have pushed the performance higher than ever before as well.

 I'm hoping to emerge far enough from my financial crisis of these last three years to finally get current in powered aircraft this summer... and if things go really well, I'm gonna be looking for an opportunity to get current in a sailplane as well. I hope seeing a video like this might spark the same desire in you to go flying on silent wings! : )

Me on my 14th birthday (1975) right after my first solo in a glider/sailplane!

Still age 14 preparing to go fly the Schweizer 1-35 high performance sailplane

Note the N numbers with my initials on our Citabria and Schweizer 1-35 in 1975!