Field Trip for Mom and Dad

No building today!  But there is stuff about airplanes and flying, so it's on the blog!  I've been very sick this past week, but this is a long 3-day weekend, the kids are all staying with Grandma and Aunties for the weekend, so today Teresa and I went for a drive.

As we head east on I-30 out of Dallas on our way to Caddo Mills to check out the glider operations there (on recommendation from Spike Cutler, another DFW pilot on www.PilotsOfAmerica.com), we reach and cross Lake Ray Hubbard.  There is a park just off the freeway, and I can see several large sails in the sky... my first thought is that they are giving para-sailing rides behind boats, so we pull off into the park to check it out.

It's not para-sailing, it's KITE-BOARDING.  Think "snowboards meet giant kites meet water."  A leading kiteboarding website/retailer (www.BestKiteBoarding.com) is doing a national bus tour, demoing the sport.  On the bus are several internationally recognized experts in the sport.  We snatched these pictures and video of Clinton, a very friendly South African who just spent a couple months doing this in Australia, was on the December cover of Kiteboarding Magazine (I found this out later, doing some research... Clinton was a modest, friendly, mild man who didn't self-advertise himself, was just excited about his sport and quite friendly), and was invited recently to join the bus tour.

 

I love this next shot.  Clinton let me lay down on the grass and get a picture looking up at the kite.  These kites are large... probably 20' across!

Clinton explaining how the harness and three quick-releases work...

Clinton wasn't the only one working the winds today.

Must be easy to stay in shape doing this... every single one of these guys was FIT.

Here's a video of Clinton in action.  I couldn't believe the SPEED these guys had across the water.



Can't see the video above? Download it (723 kb).

Leaving the lake, we take Exit 83 of I-30 and head north just a couple of miles.  The town of Caddo Mills, population 1500 or less, has a large airport that many years ago was quite the center of glider instruction.  Southwest Soaring is based here and still does instruction in several Grob sailplanes.  Their hangar was also full of some beautiful new single-seat fiberglass sailplanes which individual owners base there.

Both my wife and I were pleasantly surprised by the friendly atmosphere inside Southwest Soaring's office... there were lots of people there, entire families with kids (dad or mom working, kids helping or flying, etc.).  We were immediately greeted, got a tour, went out to the line and checked out the sailpanes (we were so busy talking, we forgot to take pictures of that!).  Then Tom, an experienced instructor, spent some time with me explaining what it would take for me to get a glider add-on rating.  First thing is to lose 20-25 pounds; there is a strict front-seat weight limit on the gliders.

As we drove up to the facility, this older glider was on a trailer behind the hangar.  Notice the cracked canopy...  then we noticed the white sticker on the trailer cross-member (in front of the fuselage).  See it?  See what it says?  "FIBERGLASS SUCKS".  Ha ha ha!