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Old December 15th 17, 12:17 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Bruce Hoult
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Default Millie's 97th Birthday Glider Ride!

On Friday, December 15, 2017 at 4:05:29 AM UTC+3, wrote:
Amazing Millie spent her 97th birthday gliding over Toro Peak and Mount San Jacinto with Palms To Pines Gliding. We had a blast!

https://youtu.be/EC_qPq_0pxI


Looks like she had a good time. That thing seems to glide quite well .. better than a G109 anyway. What is it, exactly? Super Ximango? A pity there wasn't enough lift around to actually go up.

I was driving through the Caucus mountains in southern Russia a couple of weeks ago, near the border with Georgia (specifically, on the road from Karachayevsk to Dombay) and thinking "Man, it looks like great gliding here ... someone should set up an operation with a motorglider...".

Dombay is pretty busy in ski season (it's one of the main ski resorts actually in Russia) and there were a couple of guys doing passenger paraglider rides from the top of a chairlift at 3010m (9900 ft) to the bottom of the same lift at 2300m (7550 ft). But you'd probably get more customers at Sochi/Adler, 140 km away on the other side of the mountains.

NZ bungy jump company AJ Hackett has been operating in Sochi since summer 2014.

The 5642m (18510 ft) Mt Elbrus is 70 km the other way from Dombay.

You can see Elbrus a person-width to the left of me in this photo taken at 3170m (10400 ft) at Dombay on December 3:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQNPiiFXcAA_BCd.jpg

And here from 90 km away at the top of Gora Mashuk in Pyatigorsk on December 4 (people were paragliding there too):

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQOC8PUWkAA_f1g.jpg


I'm always amused how Americans point out they are an "FAA Certified pilot".. As if anyone is flying around without being so certified. It makes me think of 1920s barnstormers: "Don't worry ma'am .. the US GOVERNMENT says it's safe".