And a couple of them have saved a few hundred lives.
Gimli Glider pilot was a sailplane pilot and the guy that landed on the Hudson.
There is a cool tale about a 757 test pilot who told the engineers the plane was not flying clean. They didn't beleive him so he taped bit of yarn to the windscreen ( all sailplanes have that ) and it showed he was correct.
Apparently one of the test pilots also actually soared over the Rockies in the 757...got into a mountain wave, spun the engines down to zilch and gained height.
A number of the pilots in SOSA were airline pilots...they come to fly, not drive a bus.
It's $3-4000 in cost to get to your solo sailplane license including training, tows and plane rental for 40 flights. All the training is club based and included in your yearly membership. The cost is for tows and plane rental ( depends on the plane the cost of an hour flying.
Waaaaaay cheaper than a power to solo course
You can take two weeks in spring summer or autumn and get your solo licence.
I did it in 5 weeks starting in August after a wonderful demo flight up to 6,000' and perfect soaring weather.
Had five years of enjoyable flying including in France and once at Estrella in Arizona...perhaps the best sailport in the world.
Expensive to fly there but worth it.
Why soaring pilots choose Arizona Soaring Many pilots prefer to fly where they do not have to share the airport with power traffic, or fly under or in major airline arrival and departure routes. Estrella Sailport is a privately owned airport located in an area with very little local traffic,
azsoaring.com
I pulled off the tow at 900' in strong lift and got my Diamond Climb to 14,000' in may 15 minutes. Nothing like that in Ontario.
We also flew ridge soaring
Scary shite...with the instructor we flew through the lift and out the downwind side and it was very difficult to follow the instruction and push the stick forward while losing altitude at an insanely rapid rate. The plane flies out the sink with lots of speed and THEN you push the stick forward and climb.
Do it wrong and you'll be pushed right into the downslope.
One of the best pilots in the world died in the mountains from those sinks
Steve Fossett (born April 22, 1944,
Jackson,
Tennessee, U.S.—disappeared September 3, 2007, western Nevada) was an American businessman and adventurer who set a number of world records, most notably in
aviation and sailing. In 2002, he became the first
balloonist to circumnavigate the world alone, and in 2005 he completed the first nonstop solo global flight in an
airplane.
There was a world wide search on global earth for his plane...it took a long time to find....someone on foot. I spent some time looking along with hundreds of others.
We were at Pearson recruiting for members and they were showing off the 757 and the neat outboard power unit to provide hydraulic pressure it engine power is lost. THAT turned out to be a life saving feature on the Gimli Glider - the 757 that ran out of fuel at 30k feet.
The pilot glided it home with no power and landed at Gimli. There are a couple of good movies about it.
The other neat thing we noticed were two shiny chrome bars on the instrumental panel. We asked and grinned when the tour pilot said they are footrests for the officers...stop them scratching the panels as they put their feet up.
He told us he could punch in a destination, line up on the take off runway and punch a button...regardless of weather the plane would take off, fly to the destination and land without any pilot input. We were duly impressed.
A very good bucket list accomplishment and certainly extremely good value for money.
Both SOSA and York Soaring rent trailers you can stay in while you take your 40 flights.
Was happy to see my favourite sailplane in the Smithsonian. Many fond memories. So quiet at 9,000' feet and insane visibility..
This is a Grob single dropping water ballast on a competition flight. They can hit 180 mph diving across the finish line...sounds really cool too.
I used to sneak up on a slow moving power plane in the 17m Lark with negative flaps and go zooming by
The best cloud street flight was in a Lark cruising along at 100knots just under cloud base west of Pearson and these what looked like black baseballs started coming at me....I actually ducked.
Monarch butterflies migrating in the same thermals I was flying.
Amazing critters.
Got my spin test in the Lark and holy **** did it leave an impression of NEVER to drop a wing on circuit and stall it.
That thing felt like I been grabbed and swung by a giant....it just torques into a spin with no warning....safe enough at 4,000', deadly at 300' on a turn to final.
That plane weighed 900 lb and a ***** to push back to the flying line on a muddy day ....but oh to fly it was wonderful.
Now 9k is unusual in Ontario ...most flying days ar 4k-6k. The surrounding lakes just kill the lift but cross country pilots do do 300k km triangles in Ontario....a rare accomplishment.
Flights in other locations where the lift goes to 20,000 feet on thermals and 40,000 + mountain wave.
You can do the latter in Alberta - they close off the airline jetways in that area.
The high tech sailplanes developed by Airbus are up to 76000 feet
In terms of the outright world record? As of September 2018, the record is 76,124 ft. To put that in perspective it's above the 'ceiling' of the high altitude U2 spy plane. The record was set in a special glider called Perlan 2
