Soaring

Years ago, I was given a gift certificate for a glider ride, the variety where I would be permitted to actually guide the glider.

I remember I had the day off from work. It wasn’t the best of days, weather-wise, but I took my mother and headed to the diner beside the small airport for a late breakfast while we waited to see if the weather would clear. It did somewhat, enough to walk over to the airport to ask if gliders were flying ever though we hadn’t seen any the whole time we were eating. My mom was hoping not, the only reason she accompanied me was that she expected me not to be able to go that day.

The person behind the counter was hesitant but left it up to the woman who piloted the gliders. She went outside, looked around, grinned at the few holes in the clouds and told me to follow her. My certificate was for a twenty minute ride. Mine lasted almost two hours.

I’ve never experienced anything else like the sensation of pulling the release lever to disconnect the glider from the tow-plane. We went from obviously being pulled behind a noisy twin-engine plane to nothing. Absolutely nothing. It felt as if we stopped, like we were sitting still however far up off the ground we were in a paper airplane. For a moment it seemed silent too. That was an illusion that didn’t last long. There was plenty of wind whipping around. I just didn’t notice it at first.

The pilot told me to take a few breaths and put my hands on the stick in front of me. It took a minute but soon I was able to breathe again and then I started looking around. Oh my, talk about incredible! A bird’s eye view of this area sure is something. If you have the chance I highly recommend it.

The clouds broke up into what the pilot called a cloud alley, a string of puffy clouds in a row that kept drawing us higher and farther. Something about the temperature gradients resulting from the clouds causing air currents and lift that made the glider soar. And wow, did it soar! We ended up out over first one, then the other of our local lakes. I’m sure she was ready to take control at any given second but for the most part the pilot had her hands resting on the sides of the glider while telling me what to do.

All too soon, or what felt like it to me, we headed back to the airport. No, the landing was left to the expert. As much as I enjoyed myself, I wanted to live to tell everyone about my adventure.

My mother? A total wreck! She was certain I had crashed us somewhere. Our lengthy flight had her so upset she called the friend who had given me the gift certificate and extracted a promise to never give me one for a sky diving adventure, something that was also on my list at the time.