Welcome!
We are a commercial glider operation based at the Faribault Municipal Airport, about 40 minutes south of Minneapolis on I-35W. We operate from April through October. We take folks up for glider rides, deliver glider flight instruction, offer glider rentals and provide tow service for local pilots who own gliders. We began operation in 2004, and in 2010 WCCO featured us on a program called "Life To The Max". The seven minute segment is called "Glide Like The Wind". If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video has got to be way up there! Click the link if you’re new to the concept of soaring. The video will open in a new tab. Just close it when you are done and you’ll be right back here.
As long as the sun shines and heats the ground, plumes of hot air rise, taking our graceful sailplanes with them. We bank steeply, circling to stay in the heart of the rising thermal, often sharing the space with hawks and eagles. Up they go. Up WE go. You have probably never felt anything like it. Part of the magic is the silence. Part of it is the unobstructed view. Part of it is banking steeply, rolling into turns like on a motorcycle, and feeling the gentle g-forces shift as you maneuver. It’s a dance and the music is the simple whoosh of air that birds must hear when they fly. And as odd as it may sound, eagles and hawks don’t mind circling with us, sometimes only a dozen feet off our wingtip, staring at our contraption, unafraid. Since we are bigger than they are, we are not a threat. They can out-maneuver us and they know it. They usually out-climb us, though, so we treasure the minutes we get to spend at their altitude. Here is a short video I shot with a student about a mile from the airport over Faribault. It will open in a new tab so you can just close it when the video is over and you’ll be right back here.
As we all learned in school, and maybe since forgot, the first man-made flying machines were gliders. The Wright Brothers started with gliders and then added an engine later. One reason today’s sailplanes are so advanced, and they are, is due to famed German engineering. Germany had to sign the Treaty of Versailles after WWI and, among other restrictions, they were not allowed to build powered aircraft (for obvious reasons). So all of their aviation talent went into sailplanes for over 100 years! Today’s sailplanes have red-line speeds over 160MPH, can do exotic aerobatics and can perform a straight glide for over ten miles losing only one thousand feet of altitude. We could over-fly downtown Minneapolis from Faribault from only a mile up. Amazing. They are also very comfortable and often equipped with state-of-the-art flight computers, radios, GPS, etc. Many of my customers are power pilots and airline captains and first officers. They like the purity and simplicity of silent, unpowered flight. They also enjoy the challenge of staying up as long as they can. Since thermals are invisible, we hunt for them using clues from the formation of clouds, circling birds, and dark areas on the ground that we suspect will heat up and trigger thermals (the Walmart parking lot is a local favorite). When you get good at it, staying up for a few hours isn’t too tough. Here is a short video from a talented German pilot - Stefan Langer - flying over various terrains. It will open in a new tab so you can just close it when the video is over and you’ll be right back here.
Gliders are one of the seven categories of aircraft. The other six are: airplane, rotorcraft, powered-lift, lighter-than-air, powered parachute, and weight-shift. As such, gliding is conducted under FAA regulation, requiring inspection and maintenance routines for the gliders, as well as pilot certification (a license) to fly them. Many people who fall in love with the sport and decide to become a glider pilot will take lessons one season (April - October) and usually begin taking solo flights (no instructor in the back seat) the same season. They then set their sights on taking their FAA check ride and earning their license the next season. The license allows them to take up passengers.
We will be taking up a German-made Grob 103 Twin II sailplane. You get the front seat. I get the back seat. There are identical controls and instrumentation in both seats. Folks who come for a glider flights are pretty evenly split between “I don’t want to do anything except enjoy the experience” to “it would be awesome to take the controls and carve some turns”. Either one is totally fine with me, but I get the takeoff and landing. :-)
