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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

More on Soaring

These are a couple of fun photos (of me) I was able to take when I went up soaring last week. What is soaring you ask?  I'll tell you!


It's essentially a plane without an engine, a.k.a. sail plane or glider.  The plane stays up by thermal air currents which rise.  It's more difficult than flying a engine propelled aircraft because the pilots must pay attention to the weather more.  The planes can stay up in the air for hours just by finding these currents to keep the plane up.  The plane is lifted into the air initially by a "tow plane", or propeller plane, and attached by a tow rope.  The rope detaches by a latch released by the pilot when the plane is high enough to soar on its own.


On my ride, we flew to 4,000ft and stayed up approximately 25 minutes.  I was expecting it to be an exhilarating experience similar to skydiving, but it was anything but that.  It was extremely relaxing!  A mental massage if you will.  


The sound when you are in the glider is next to none because there are not propeller or jet engines attached to the plane.  The only sound is the wind passing over the glider, which is similar to the white noise you would hear in a car.  It was amazing, and I highly recommend this activity to anyone who is brave enough!


Soaring FL at the Seminole-Lake Gliderport, www.soarfl.com

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