Have sky, will soar
Pilots get a rise out of challenging gravity
At 4,000 feet, the commotion of the world below disappears, leaving just a magnificent 360-degree view of the Ottawa Valley and the sound of the unpowered glider itself as it cuts through the wind and air. It is easy to understand Fiona Chapman’s statement when the 17-year-old student, who has flown about 50 times and on this day, coincidentally, will earn her solo pilot’s licence, says it’s as close as you’ll get to human flight.
This isn’t gliding, explains George Domaradzki, president of Rideau Valley Soaring, near Kars. It’s soaring, something of a treasure hunt where the goal is to find repeated instances of the same object: rising columns of warm air, or thermals, that will lift a 270-kilogram airplane and its occupants as high as the clouds that typically, and conveniently, denote the top of each column.
The idea, then, is to find the next thermal, and then another and another and another, and hop from one to the next, using them to stay aloft as long as possible. From the club’s field near Kars, members have made trips to such places as Kingston, Cornwall and Pembroke and back — upwards of 500 kilometres — without once having to touch down en route, while crosscountry soaring is also popular among enthusiasts. In the South American Andes, world-record flights about 2,500 kilometres, lasting upwards of 15 hours, have been recorded.
“You forget about everything,” says Domaradzki. “All your problems just go away, because you’re concentrating on flying.
“Why? Because as soon as you pull the release from the tow plane, you’re going down. If you don’t do anything, you’ll be down in 10 minutes. And the strategy here is to stay up.”
The planes will typically glide 10 kilometres for each 1,000 feet lost in altitude, so from 4,000 feet, a pilot needs to find another thermal within 40 kilometres or risk landing on a farmer’s field, or worse.
The volunteer-run club, formed in 1972, has five gliders, one tow plane, one grassy runway and 40 members, about the maximum it can happily handle.
Past club president and instructor John Mitchell used to pilot float planes but now, at 69, prefers soaring and has been doing it since 1997.
He notes that the hobby is a relatively inexpensive one: a powered plane costs upwards of $150 an hour to operate, while a soaring flight can be done for about a third of that.
“It’s kind of like having all the fun of a cottage, but without the expense.”