This Saturday I decided to give gliding another shot. I met Sobek at the airfield at 11:30am, and the skies looked like they were about to open up on us. I thought I would be foiled by foul weather yet again. But we were the last flight to make it up, and our flight lasted about a half hour. The photo above was taken in the cockpit of the glider during the tow.
This photo was taken of the tow plane during our ascent...
I sat in the front of the glider, and Sobek sat in the back. Each of us had our own set of controls. The tow plane pulled us off the runway and took us up to 3000 feet, where Sobek released the chord attaching us to the plane. From there, he performed several aerial maneuvers including sharp dives, stalls, and zero gravity descents. At certain points I thought I would lose my breakfast. Sobek let me pilot the glider for a portion of the flight, but he always kept his hands and feet close to the controls in case I slipped up.
As we were making our descent toward the runway, Sobek heard over the radio that an airplane was going to be taking off while we were making our approach. So he was forced to land in the grassy field next to the runway. It was a smooth landing, all things considered. But I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of closing in on a field at 50-60 mph from a 30 degree angle-- especially for the first time. All the thoughts that have lately been running through my mind instantly gained a new sense of clarity.
This was decidedly one of the coolest experiences I've ever had.
In other news, I am blogging this from my new MacBook. A good friend of mine has a Mac, and after playing with hers for a few months I decided to get one. I'm amazed at what this thing is capable of. One of the coolest applications is a program where I can record myself playing guitar and then loop other tracks on top of it. I can even play over myself. I've been playing around with it a little bit, and I've been able to export the tracks I've recorded to iTunes and share them with my friends and family. It will be the ultimate exercise in narcissism to have my recordings on other people's iPods.
Next weekend... The Annual BAC Classic Golf Tournament.
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