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I hope you enjoy my blog, a collection of articles and thoughts regarding my interests. I'm a married father of two that loves to write about gliding, hunting, fishing, camping and any outdoor passion. Oh yah, I'm a quadriplegic. I hope this is informative to some, entertaining to others, and interesting to all. Let me know what you think. If you'd like an article for your publication, I've got words I haven't even used yet!

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Flying Week

Glider for wheelchair - good trade!
Well, last week was the Edmonton Soaring Club's soaring week, what a pile of fun!

Monday we arrived in the field and put my name on the list to fly, and Trevor stepped forth and volunteered to man the back seat for me. My arm strength is on the weak side so I need help with the tow, as it sometimes requires some strength and full movement of the controls to stay behind the tow plane .
Trevor supervising my landing.

At first it did not look like there was going to be very much lift, but as we got in the air the clouds were forming.   The lift turned out to be pretty good, and all that Condor practicing seemed pay off , we stayed up for 94 minutes !

"I'll fly with you anytime! " said Trevor after the flight , I took it as a huge compliment to hear that from such a good pilot !

 Tuesday I headed back up to the field, and when I arrived I noticed that nobody was flying .

" How come nobody's in the air? " I ask .

 "The air is flat, there appears to be no lift ." comes comes the reply.

  "Okay, we'll go do our sausage run and then come back , hopefully there will be lift by then . "

 We load back into the van and take off for a nearby town that has a fantastic sausage shop,  within an hour we are back of the flying field.

 " Well  there still doesn't seem to be any lift, did you want to go for a flight anyhow? " I'm told .

" Sure do! I'm here so I might as well fly! "

 It takes About 10 minutes to load me into the glider, there is no hurry because nobody else wants to fly yet anyhow . John volunteers to ride in the back with me, brave soul!  We put my cuff on so that I can grab the stick, get me all positioned and strapped in and away we go! John in the back does the tow, and at 3000 feet above ground we release from the tow plane.

"Okay, get yourself organized," John says from the back.