Nearly everyone is curious about what makes sailplanes fly with confidence-giving predictability. Joe Dobronski has risen to the challenge with this master work that will satisfy many aspects of your curiosity. His prose is in a fun-to-read storyteller style, while introducing you to what makes a glider fly and how modern day gliders, now called sailplanes because of their high performance that permits them to fly many hours and extraordinary distances. Joe tells how he got involved in soaring in 1956 and the advantages of belonging to a Sailplane Club to get the required training. He explains how a pilot can utilize the awesome forces of nature to his/her advantage, resulting in shear pleasure. He covers lift created by thermals, ridges and mountain waves. These challenges are rewarded with the issue of Badges by the Soaring Society of America in the interest of the Gliding Commission of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and are awarded for tasks ranked in the order of increasing difficulty. Record flying and contest flying for the more experienced pilots is also explained, which includes non-powered as well as auxiliary powered sailplanes.
