Hollister Gliding Club
11 Jul 2004…
Yesterday I went up with a friend in an acrobatic glider. It was an amazing experience that I think weathering a few storms at sea helped me prepare for. Russ, te pilot had an extensive plan of loops, rolls, hammer-head stalls, and several other manouvers high above the agricultural fields of central california.
As we started the routine and dived sharply to gain the airspeed for the first loop I immediately started feeling queasy; as the contents of my stomach were moving in a different direction than the glider. But then I forgot completely about my stomach as the adrenalin kicked in. Russ put me through the full workout, and then asked how I was doing, I shouted ‘more’! So a few more snap- rolls and another loop and we wre finally down to the altitiude at which we’d need to return to the airport. As we calmly glided back twards the airport the excitement/terror of the aerobatics wore off and my stomach re-asserted how unhappy it was about all this. But it settled down gradually without the need to decorate the cockpit with my lunch. On the way back Russ gave me a few moments of instruction then handed the controls over to me. I did a few sweeping turns but for the most part the glider flew itself. Finally as we approached the airport we did one high-speed pass just off the top of the runway, climbed and swept left, circled around and landed.
The Hollister Gliding Club is located 45 minutes south of San Jose. They offer training and glider rides (hey, what a great gift idea!).
For more information visit www.soarhollister.com
The MDM-Fox, Technical data
