We’re Riding on a River of Air!!

My favorite dreams are flying dreams. I always remember those. I am walking up a beautiful mountain on a gorgeous day and the wind starts to blow. I then inhale deeply. As I exhale, I start running and I suddenly take flight, the ground below fading away quickly. That sound of the wind is what is heard when you are flying in a glider. It is one of the purest ways to fly. Unfortunately for us humans, we cannot simply take flight like a bird. We have no wings and we are too dense and heavy. But our ingenuity has allowed us to conquer the skies with our machines ever since the days of Kitty Hawk. Oh we of giant brains have even figured out how to get closer to unaided flight with our ever increasing technological prowess.

Flying Over Swamps

It was at a glider port in the middle of the Everglades in Florida where I learned how to fly. I got a job as “ground crew technician” with my buddy John, and the two of us were in charge of a myriad of responsibilities. Every Sunday we would show up at 8 am to get ready for the day’s schedule. The hangar was an old cement fortress with vegetation growing all around it, but as soon as you entered, all the gliders were creatively stashed and positioned in ways that made it look like an abstract work of art, or a neat 3D puzzle. It was beautiful to see all of those shiny wings, canopies, and tail sections intertwined.

John and I made coffee and then opened the hangar doors to begin removing the engine-less planes, as we began to push them towards the runway. Our daily duties included, plane washing, ground crew, as well as other odd jobs. By the end of the day we got paid with flight lessons. It was a great trade.

Our instructor was a lovely older gentleman named Bill. He had flown in WWII and then had a career flying L10-11’s for Eastern. His real passion was flying gliders though. His enthusiasm was contagious. He would sometimes say “we’re riding on a river of air”. Our training glider was the Schweizer 2-33, one of the best gliders for a newbie to learn on. It was incredibly forgiving and virtually un-spinnable. The 2-33 was a two-seater trainer, and the instructor usually flew from the back seat. Below are a few images of the 2-33!

Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

I will never forget my first solo flight. I was sitting in the front seat, and I kept looking back behind me to see if there was anyone there. All I had to do was get towed up to 1000 feet above the ground and land the glider from there. It was such a feeling of accomplishment for a 15 year old kid. I eventually logged in about 70 hours of flight after soloing. I practiced soaring when I had a chance to get up.

The glider port was a magical and mysterious place. It was located in the middle of a swamp. The runway was about 2,000 feet long covered in grass. On rainy days, we would stow the gliders back in the hangar and play football. There was danger too. Once in while we had to avoid stepping on water moccasins, that reptilian denizen of the Everglades! We even got a few gator sightings, but unlike crocodiles, they never really wanted to eat fully grown humans.

Below you will see what it is like to get towed up in a glider: