I saw the episode you are describing a number of years ago.
My recollection is that the glider was a Schweizer 2-32.
I too am curious who the pilot was.

On Nov 5, 11:53 am, ContestID67 wrote:
My wife loves animals and was watching the documentary "Life of
Birds" (details below) which she had gotten from NetFlix (http://
netflix.com).

On Disk 1, Episode #2 is "Mastery of Flight". Chapter 3 is entitled
"Flying on Thermals" and has a very good sequence of David in the back
of a glider being flown by a woman pilot.

Does anyone know who the pilot is? Does anyone know what glider this
is?

- John DeRosa

--------------------

More details from Amazon.com

Like the albatross glimpsed in the beginning of this 10-part, 5-volume
series, The Life of Birds quickly takes flight. Sir David Attenborough
hosts this unprecedented and extraordinary global look at the
magnificent and often curious winged species with which we share our
planet. Like the best wildlife shows, The Life of Birds offers a fresh
and accessible view of creatures we may take for granted (didn't
Alfred Hitchcock warn us about that?). The focus of this series is not
on the different bird species, but on bird behavior. Remarkable and
awe-inspiring footage preserves the wide range of tools and techniques
with which birds fly, hunt for food, attract a mate, hatch their
chicks, and defend themselves against predators.

Each volume contains two episodes. Series titles include: "To Fly or
Not to Fly?," "The Mastery of Flight," "The Insatiable Appetite,"
"Meat Eaters," "Fishing for a Living," Signals and Songs," "Finding
Partners" (the inevitable mating episode), "The Demands of the Egg,"
"The Problems of Parenthood," and "The Limits of Endurance." One
comedic diversion while watching this series is the Pythonesque (as in
Monty) way in which Attenborough pops up in the most remote, most
exotic locales. At one point, night-vision cameras capture the rare
sight of the nocturnal kiwi as it forages for food on a New Zealand
beach. The camera pans to reveal scant paces away our guide shining a
flashlight on the nonplussed bird. Attenborough is also the creator of
the classic natural-science series The Trials of Life, The Living
Planet, and Life on Earth, all of which are also available on video. --
Donald Liebenson

Product Description

The definitive series on the most colorful, popular and perfectly
adapted creatures on earth, The Life of Birds traverses the globe,
covering 42 countries and examining over 300 different species.
Calling upon the immense skills of many of the world's top wildlife
cameramen and women, and pushing filming technology to the limits, new
behavior is brought to the screen in staggering detail. Infra-red
cameras find oilbirds deep in pitch black caves. Ultra slow motion
film unravels the complexities of bird flight and ultraviolet cameras
reveal the world from a bird's point of view.