Monday, September 29, 2008

Gliders

I went gliding last Sunday. The take off was impressive, a 1km long cable and a winch accelerated us from 20-100km/h in 2.5sec, and brought us to 500m. We didn't find any thermal columns :( the flight time was only 9 minutes. We missed a few great "hot air bubbles", some other planes stayed in the air for 30 minutes and had to come back because other people also want to fly. One glider made 2 loopings, a few rolls and spirals. I wish I could fly with him, but that wasn't allowed for me. On good days they make longer flights and even make it to Germany, a few 100 km. They can land in fields if they run out of rising air. A good pilot only needs 30m of grass to land. A new gliders costs around 120,000 euro. Here is my flight path :), you can see lowlands on the far right.

2 comments:

Kamiel said...

controlling them should be a very nice skill. looks awesome to glide true the air. that airplane can make some sharp corners

cybrbeast said...

Awesome, was afraid you couldn't go as it was quite misty that day.