Hi Joe, Yeah, I had a few sailplane lessons and loved it. I also like to skydive, too - similar one-shot landing situation. I never tried hang gliding though. I'll give it a go sometime (I keep meaning to have a go at paragliding too, since a lot of my parachute canopy handling skills would transfer to that...). People who fly gliders always make better powered pilots too, IMHO.
One of the biggest draws of powered flight for me is that we turn it into a family occassion and we all fly places together. As the kids get older I might well look for something more peaceful! Matt. > Hey Matthew; > > Have you ever tried gliding? Once I tried unpowered flight I had no > more interest in the noisy stinky brute force method of cruising the > skies. The silence in a sailplane (just the sound of the slipstream) is > beautiful. It is actually a solar powered vehicle when you think of it. > We use thermally (from the sun) generated air currents to climb and > stay aloft. When you think of it, it tests your skill as an aviator in > ways that powered flight cannot. The dance of finding these air currents > and centering your turns on the most powerful core is extremely > rewarding when you see your vario indicating hundreds of feet per minute > in the up direction and you hang in there until you reach cloudbase! > Also having one chance to plan your approach and nail the landing flare > is a serious test of your judgement and skill, there are no go-arounds. > Now take all of that and multiply by one hundred when you move up to a > hang glider. You are out in the slipstream feeling every nuance of the > air, watching butterflies and dandelion tufts rising in the air with > you, taking clues from circling hawks which sometimes come to check you > out and you can see the wind ruffling their feathers as they regard you > with their hawk eyes. I have managed to play this game for almost three > hours at a time and some of my buddies have had flights of over 100 km. > The landing gear is your feet and it never felt so sweet as when you > time the flare perfectly and land without taking a step! Consider taking > a trip to your local flight park and take an introductory flight in a > glider. I bet you will be hooked. If you have time you can watch a > video I put together which will give you an idea of what it's like. > There's a link at the bottom of this page: > > http://www.nonprofitfuel.ca/Hang_gliding.html > > Happy skies > Joe > > Matthew Law wrote: > >> I traded my old car in for a pretty economical turbo diesel which, >> although it isn't running on BD yet, it will be once I get past the >> experimenting stage and on to bigger batches. My neighbour is taking a >> keen and reasoned interest in my endeavours and suggests his next >> vehicle >> will be diesel so he can take the same route as I. >> >> I would have no problem sharing my BD with him if the net effect of two >> cars on say, BD50 is better than one on BD100, even though I would >> reluctantly have to take some from the pumps. >> >> My biggest issue is that I love to fly. Almost all aeroplanes still use >> leaded avgas in very old, mega-inefficient engines. So, all the work I >> may do to reduce my nasty emissions every day is probably cancelled by >> the >> one or two hours flying I do every month. Yes, there are diesel 'planes >> coming on to the market, but what we really need is bio jet fuel which >> probably won't happen in my lifetime given the speed at which the >> aviation >> regulators work. Or even better, electric aeroplanes. >> >> Matt. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Biofuel mailing list >> Biofuel@sustainablelists.org >> http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org >> >> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >> http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html >> >> Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 >> messages): >> http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 > messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
