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| Estrella Flight |
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| Swoop In the Estrellas |
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| Vario PEGGED |
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| A Flight at Turf Soaring with Bob Thompson (Blanik) |
Although my first adventures in flying were in a hang glider, my first knowledge of soaring was from the guy who owned the business where I worked. One of my first jobs was after high school working at Glassart Studios, Joseph Colville Lincoln's stained-glass studio. This job allowed me to have a little money and I worked with a couple of friends. I was skateboarding at the time, and I knew that George and Charlie Morris' father flew sailplane. I thought that was so cool. We were skateboarders and knew each other from that. I think out of all the people that I knew; it was George and Charlie and Steve Ford that went on to fly. I don't remember if they flew RC back then, I knew I wasn't interested, I just wanted to hang glide and that's the direction I took.
In the meantime, many of the pilots I flew XC with went on to fly sailplanes. Bob Thompson, Hans Heydrich and Jim Whitelaw as well as John "JJ" Johnson.
I was in the Civil Air Patrol for a while, and I was ready to solo, but I didn't because life got in the way. Flying sailplanes isn't hard, you just have to be persistent in staying current.
Anyway, above is a flight I took with Dustin Martin, a world record holder in Hang Gliders and also Bob Thompson, another World Record Holder. I would pay for the tow and the guys would take me up. I got stories, big stories but again, this isn't about sailplanes, it's about RC soaring.
I love flying passenger in a sailplane. One of my favorite places to fly is at Dillingham Field on O'ahu. You can see the entirety of the North Shore and over to the West Shore too.
You can click on the link above that are below each image for a YouTube video.
