Seventh day: Saturday, July 2nd

Matt- As to provide the perfect contrast to being 1.25 miles underground, today we flew in gliders!  Brian noticed a flier advertising glider rides for only R100 = $14.  We figured, heck, TIA, lets do it!  Half an hour away, we met Mark who was the glider pilot.  Each one of us paid and signed our lives away for a second day in a row.  I figured that if anything happened, I could at least put the glider down myself.  Flying something without an engine has to be twice as easy as flying something with an engine right!  This assumption may seem counterintuitive, but after going up I proved to be right.  Jeff, a member of our team was leaving to fly home today.  He went up first so he could hurry back to Joburg before the Big Engine Plane left.  I was second.  All gliders I’ve seen before are towed up into the air by another airplane; here, they used a winch to essentially slingshot the glider into the air.  The initial climb attitude was absolutely crazy.  Any normal prop would stall at such a pitch after liftoff.  We were launched 400 meters into the air.  Mark, the pilot, was quick to allow me to take over.  I was flying with a joystick instead of a yoke and only 6 instruments instead of a dashboard full.  Gliding revolves around finding thermals and using them to climb.  When no thermals can be found, the flight is short and you gradually float back to the ground.  This glider could fly for 30km and only drop 1… a much better glide slope than my Cessna back home.  In the Cessna’s credit… these guys all talked about how gliding is for enjoyment and engines are just for transportation.  I sure “enjoy” being able to climb whenever I want!  Pa will appreciate this part.  It was a perfectly blue, cloudless day with few thermals to be found.  The highest I got was 450 meters.  I put the glider into a few 60-degree banks to try and ride the thermals I thought I found.  We put the glider into a 2G rollercoaster and he let me see what a stall in a glider is like.  It was another great experience – soaring above South Africa in a perfectly noise-free glider.  I may have to get my type rating some day!