Gliding!

Yesterday Michelle and I brought the whole family to Faribault for a little adventure. We each got a turn to go gliding. A friend of ours is an aviation instructor at the university in Mankato (and worked for NASA for seven years, and used to be a commercial pilot, and flew helicopters, and ... in other words, we trusted him), and goes gliding every weekend in the summer, weather permitting. Since it's a two seat glider, he can bring victims with him, and invited us to go along.

Here is the glider. It's only about 1,200 pounds, but very expensive, apparently.



To get into the sky we get pulled into the air by a tow plane. There's a long yellow cable that is supposedly very strong. It had better be strong, since it's the only thing between me and a terrible, fiery death.



Correction: Since the plane is a glider, it doesn't have fuel, so I probably wouldn't suffer a fiery death. The correct word is more likely "mangled", or "severely mangled", or "horrifically disfigured."

Here is the very important yellow cord in the glider, which, when pulled, disconnects the glider from the plane. It is very important to only pull the cord when the pilot says, "Pull the cord, now!", not when he says, "Cool, a bored cow!"

That's a mistake you only make once.



Here is how I looked for most of the glide.



Here is the instrument panel. The altimiter shows that we are almost 6,000 feet above sea level, which means about 5,000 feet above the ground. We let go of the plane at 4,000 feet above sea level, and gained 2,000 feet by circling up in thermals. I'm sure there are laws of physics which explain why that works.



This picture is an attempt to show that we were darn close to the clouds.



Nihad (the pilot) asked if I wanted to experience zero gravity. Stupidly, I said "Yes." It's a simple procedure in a glider. Pull the stick back (make the houses get smaller), and then push it forward (make the houses get bigger). It's kind of like the feeling you get on a roller coaster, except that you're 5,000 feet above the ground.

Anyway, after that I opened up a sick bag, just to be safe.



Here's a bird's eye view of the Faribault airport. We had a beautiful time there. The kids played outside a lot, they had an air conditioned "terminal" with bathrooms, Nihad's wife brought some yummy food, great weather. A nice place, and a great day.



OK, back to the flight. Here's Interstate 35.



The landing was nice and smooth. Really, it was. If you don't believe me, just check out the video I took of it:



Eli wanted to fly, too.



Michelle got to fly also. Here she is getting instructions. They mostly consist of things like, "Don't touch this lever, because the canopy costs $5,000 to replace."



Here is video of Michelle getting pulled into the sky:



And there is Michelle, in the air!



And coming in for a landing.



The kids were much more worried about Mommy in the glider than Daddy. Here you can see them all running to Mommy to make sure she survived.



Right after I finished my flight, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it again, but that was mostly because my stomach got turned into knots on the zero gravity bit. The final analysis is that I would do it again in a second, if given the chance. Michelle loved it immediately, but Nihad didn't mess with her like he did with me. That will be for her second time out.