Great Story in this month's AOPA Pilot by Rick Durden

Our own Mr. Durden has published a wonderful tale in the new AOPA Pilot mag
about the experience of watching his daughter, Amelia, solo a glider on her
14th birthday.

As the father of a daughter who is just 4 years shy of that age, I can
attest to the fact that there is NO WAY I can imagine her soloing an
aircraft of any kind. My stomach tightened as I read the story, thinking
about what it would be like watching my little Rebecca wheeling and soaring
overhead. I actually shed a tear when Amelia successfully completed her
solo flight, and palpably felt Rick's relief upon seeing her perfect
landing.

Great story, Rick. Thanks for giving me yet ANOTHER reason to fear the
future...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
As the father of a daughter who is just 4 years shy of that age, I can
attest to the fact that there is NO WAY I can imagine her soloing an
aircraft of any kind.

Just wait until she starts "soloing" boyfriends. You'll wish she was looking
for slope lift in the Rockies, instead!
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

Just wait until she starts "soloing" boyfriends. You'll wish she was
looking
for slope lift in the Rockies, instead!

Augh! You guys are killing me!


--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

She can date anyone she wants.


When she's 21.

;-D

"Dan Luke" wrote in message ...
"Jay Honeck" wrote:
As the father of a daughter who is just 4 years shy of that age, I can
attest to the fact that there is NO WAY I can imagine her soloing an
aircraft of any kind.

Just wait until she starts "soloing" boyfriends. You'll wish she was looking
for slope lift in the Rockies, instead!

Corrie,

She can date anyone she wants.


When she's 21.


Dream on! She'll find a way - and you'll look, well, pardon me, but:
stupid. Do you have any faint memories of your youth, possibly?

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Jay Honeck wrote:

Our own Mr. Durden has published a wonderful tale in the new AOPA Pilot mag
about the experience of watching his daughter, Amelia, solo a glider on her
14th birthday.

Speaking of gliders. I was wondering how much it costs compared to renting say
a 172. I am guessing that with out the big money eating hunk of aluminum the
propeller is attached to, a glider would be significantly less money to fly?
In flat land (Oklahoma, no slope soaring) how long can you keep it up on a nice
hot sunny summer day?

Chris Woodhouse
Oklahoma City

"They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania

cost depends on whether you rent from a commercial operation.. or invest
time and $$ in a club operation..

CLUB RATES: We have Schweitzer 2-33s and 1-26s for rent at $12/hr and with a
$20 charge for tow.. that equates to $32 the first hour, and $12/hr after
that.

A nice 2 seat Grob 103 is $36/hr or $30/hr with ten hour prepaid blocks
A very nice 1 Seat LS4 is $30 or $27 prepaid (10 hrs)

Can't touch those at commercial operations for less than $50/hr, plus the
tow to get started.

As for how long can you fly?? depends on the weather.. hot summer sun in
OKC.. most all day.. the "lift" should start by noon and fly until sunset.

Schweitzer 2-33 and 1-26 L/d of about 23/1
Grob 103, 36/1
LS4 41/1
That means at 41/1 for every 1000ft of altitude you can glide appx 7nm in
still air.

BT

"Chris W" wrote in message
...
Jay Honeck wrote:

Our own Mr. Durden has published a wonderful tale in the new AOPA Pilot
mag
about the experience of watching his daughter, Amelia, solo a glider on
her
14th birthday.

Speaking of gliders. I was wondering how much it costs compared to
renting say
a 172. I am guessing that with out the big money eating hunk of aluminum
the
propeller is attached to, a glider would be significantly less money to
fly?
In flat land (Oklahoma, no slope soaring) how long can you keep it up on a
nice
hot sunny summer day?

Chris Woodhouse
Oklahoma City

"They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania

How much do clubs charge for "winch" launches, if they have a winch? Do most
clubs have one?

I was fascinated by the farm machinery type launchers (winches) in the
Glider Ride thread. Some of them looked like very nice($$) farm machinery.

http://www.wolds-gliding.org/launfacl.htm

http://www.skylaunch.de/album/index.html

http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q23F51855
(Glider Ride thread from last week)

--
Montblack

(BTIZ wrote)
snip
Can't touch those at commercial operations for less than $50/hr, plus the
tow to get started.

As for how long can you fly?? depends on the weather.. hot summer sun in
OKC.. most all day.. the "lift" should start by noon and fly until sunset.

How much do clubs charge for "winch" launches, if they have a winch? Do
most
clubs have one?


usually about $10 per launch, some are cheaper.. depends on club

Jay,

Thank you for the kind words.

I had never considered that my daughter wouldn't fly. In fact, my ex
and I had told her, jokingly, one day, that to be in this family she
would have to get a pilot certificate. It just never crossed my mind
that her actually soloing would affect me as it did.

Interestingly, she has soloed again since the first time and my level
of nervousness has dropped a lot, however, on one flight I was towing
a glider up as she was entering downwind and I thought she was quite
low. That got my heart rate up a bit, but she handled it just fine
(she'd gotten into more sink than she expected getting to the
pattern).

What also takes a while to sink in is how incredibly fast kids learn
to fly (I heard that from both of the glider instructors as they
talked repeatedly about their amazement at the rate at which the 13
year olds learn to fly the gliders), plus we forget just how smart
kids are. They are every bit as smart as us old farts, they just
haven't had the same experiences, their thought processes and
reasoning and ability to learn probably exceed our due to their youth.
That came back to me last week when I was reading a book about the
RAF's 617 squadron and the raid on the German dams in 1943. The
commander, Guy Gibson, then the most decorated RAF pilot, was only 24.
Virtually of the pilots had flown at least one tour in Lancasters
(four Merlin engines) bombing Germany and had been decorated, and one
of the best of those was only 20.

I guess they might as well put us out to pasture...g.

Warmest regards,
Rick

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:E0oSa.101742$ye4.74560@sccrnsc01...
Our own Mr. Durden has published a wonderful tale in the new AOPA Pilot mag
about the experience of watching his daughter, Amelia, solo a glider on her
14th birthday.

As the father of a daughter who is just 4 years shy of that age, I can
attest to the fact that there is NO WAY I can imagine her soloing an
aircraft of any kind. My stomach tightened as I read the story, thinking
about what it would be like watching my little Rebecca wheeling and soaring
overhead. I actually shed a tear when Amelia successfully completed her
solo flight, and palpably felt Rick's relief upon seeing her perfect
landing.

Great story, Rick. Thanks for giving me yet ANOTHER reason to fear the
future...