On Aug 26, 7:06*pm, ContestID67 wrote:
I finally got around to watching this 1967 movie
*Anyway, it was a
pretty good show and I can imagine that watching this as a kid could
easily have gotten you bitten by the soaring bug.

That is where I got my first introduction. It was years before I ever
actually got my first flight, however.

* There is a reference in the movie to a pilot that "set a record of
over 600 miles between Odessa, TX and Nebraska

Al Parker, in a Sisu.

* While I am sure that many of the soaring types shown in the movie
are the real deal, did the two teenagers (Chris Jury and Margaret ???)
exist or were they simply Hollywood actors?

I know that Chris did much of his own flying (obviously not all of
it), and actually got his license. I think the girl (Margaret?) also
was a pilot, at least for a while.

* The release from tow was shown as the standard tow plane goes left
and glider goes right. *Except, that is, in the case of Chris' first
solo in which the tow plane goes right and the glider goes straight
ahead.

Probably ether Hollywood or someone reversed the negative. Sometimes
Hollywood does things for effect not because it is supposed to be done
one way or the other.

* Chris gets his Silver, Gold and Diamond during the movie (pretty
impressive kid). *They use the older "Silver-C" and "Diamond-C"
nomenclature. *What did the C stand for? *Is this nomenclature still
used outside the US?

I was not flying in those days, but it used to be common for people to
refer to the "Silver C" and "Gold C." In fact, you still occasionally
hear someone say "Silver C." I don't think I have ever heard anyone
talk about a "Diamond C."

* Can a 1-26 really thermal away from an auto tow behind a Model T on
a 200 foot rope? *Can you actually stand up-right immediately
following a 5 hour flight in a 1-26? *;-) *Ahhh, that's Hollywood for
you.

A group of us did a camp-out and auto tow expedition on El Mirage Dry
Lake about 12 years ago. We had a somewhat longer rope, maybe 500
ft. No one could stay up but Taras Kicinik (sp?) got in Wayne Spani's
K-8, took a tow, and we didn't see him for about 2-3 hours. People
were getting pretty worried. But he was fine and had flown all the
way to the mountains and back.