Spent Twenty Years Waiting For This

It was 1999; the dot.com boom was booming; it was our generation’s ’Great Gatsby.’ A remake of the ’Thomas Crown Affair’ was one of my favorite movies – for me, the glider flight scene was something I needed to experience. I suppose hanging on to that memory of the ”good old years” was locked on to something I never got a chance to do – go glider flying.

Waking up in the construction site sounds as glamorous as it was, but it made the day’s drive relatively short (6 hours), I’ll be in Carson City just in time for lunch.

After yesterday’s adventure, a hotel was very much part of the plan. I pull into the hotel on schedule, and since the rooms have microwaves, I figured hitting the grocery store would be better than take-away. Throughout this trip, I’ve made a conscious decision to avoid fast food and gas station delicacies (ok, the DQ Blizzard was an exception, but it did arrive with a ”you betcha” – so it was worth it).

It’s now Thursday morning, and I am pretty excited to go glider flying. Minden airport is 30 minutes away, and my flight is at 10 AM, this is an easy day, the trip is about 45 minutes in the air, and then I hit the road to San Francisco (4-hour drive). I should be at Matt and Hilary’s at 4 o’clock.

The airport reminds me of the George Strait concert (mentioned earlier) – except without an arrival charged with alcohol-infused pandemonium. The thing about private or regional area airports is that you don’t have all the security and processes that make flying a pain. It’s almost like flying pre-9/11.

Ok. The adventure is about to begin. I am early, really early, I suppose the anticipation met with a desire to fly early before the day gets too hot, is fueling my sense of timing. I walk out to see what we will be flying today.

The Duo Discus is a two-seater, high-performance glider with a 65 foot wingspan. These are beautiful machines are sleek, and simple.

The pilot sits behind the passenger; the cockpit is tight – leaving barely enough room for the control stick between your legs. The seat cushion doubles as a parachute, the safety procedure sounds exciting (detach window, unbuckle the harness, lift and out you go – pull cord with both hands and yell expletives until you land).

A tow-plane takes you to a starting altitude, in this case starting at the top of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This plane is an old crop-duster.

In a perfect world, we would have been wheels-up precisely on time. But today, the starter on the tow-plane decided this was the ideal day to require replacement. So… we wait… watching mechanics operate on a plane is like watching paint dry. From a distance, it appears they are elbow deep in the mechanical patient, periodically sitting down and staring into the engine. As the waiting passenger, you just hope they don’t find anything else wrong in there.

Long story short, the 10 AM flight turns into a 12.30 trip. Sitting and waiting, we watch the Skycrane helicopter come into refuel from firefighting the blaze that has been erupting the last few days. Along with the pilot and I are two student pilots and their instructor. They are practicing flight exam with questions about flight altitudes and visibility rules. To pilot a glider, you need only be 14 years old.

I am impressed with the notion of someone who is 14 being responsible enough to fly. At 14, I was barely competent enough to manage a skateboard.

Finally, the mechanics start putting the cowlings back on the plane. A full two hours delayed, thank goodness for not needing to be somewhere precisely on time. We drive out to the glider, hook up to the tow-plane, and taxi down the runway.

My pilot is Stefan from Austria. He’s been flying since the ’80s and is retired from working as an accountant for Hilton and IHG hotels.

The glider is 900 pounds; it doesn’t take too much speed before we are off the ground. We fly in large circles up to the mountain, gaining altitude with each pass. The turbulence approaching the mountain peak causes the planes to jump – at first, you see the tow-plane bounce, then there is a bunch of slack in the line, then the glider drops with a big bounce. A little unnerving, but after decades of flying for work, you just learn to think of it like waves on a boat ride. The boat doesn’t sink with each bounce, so I believe the plane won’t crash – the water analogy helped get me over the fear.

The flight over Lake Tahoe is beautiful. Looking down at the blue water and the ski trails now cut for mountain bikers. I have a go-pro fixed to the wing of the plane (I will post the video when I get it). Taking pictures from inside doesn’t do the experience justice. All you hear is the wind as you sail through the sky, the pilot has this uncanny sense for finding columns of rising air (where the turbulence hit on the tow up). Riding the air currents, the plane climbs another 1000 feet or so. Flight speed tops out at 80-85 knots (around 100 mph). Exhilarating!

The landing ends with a graceful thud, coasting to a stop right where we started, concluding something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time at one of the premier gliding locations in the world.

That was amazing, now to drive out to San Francisco!