very cool! *travel

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Insanely cool. I got to fly in a 2 seat moto-glider once and pilot it without engine. The owner told me to pay attention to the view and particularly to the amount of wind noise. Without an engine its so quiet the wind noise is great indicator of airspeed and lift potential.

I got my glider license when I was 16 (almost 20 years ago...wow). Our training gliders had probably the worst glide ratio and no engine but it was still amazing to actually be able to find thermals and climb higher without the tow plane.

You just had to pay attention to your actual altitude and not focus just on the VSI (Vertical Speed Indicator) or you might end up in big trouble (not that that ever happened to me ).

Thanks for the sift...brings back memories...

Cool -- like Lendl, I too got my glider license when I was 16. We had 2-33's and a Krosno.

I *did* get in trouble one time however -- or almost -- it was one of the first flights of the season so I was out of the habit of keeping a close watch on my altitude. I was just glancing at it and thinking "oh I've got plenty" (the ground was at 800' ASL, so what looked like a lot of altitude on the gage was 800 feet less in actuality). I'm just cruising around, enjoying the sunshine and being up there alone again after a long winter, and it wasn't a strong day for thermalling (nor did I ever really have the knack for it) so I was naturally descending the whole time. Finally it occurred to me that the tractors and cars down below were looking bigger than they usually did from up there...! I woke the fuck up and realized with a shock that I was well below circuit height and still a good two miles from the airfield. I made it back but not by much.

*wings

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