Soaring the sky a glider pilot‘s Podcast

Kempton Izuno is back from the 20 Meter 2 Seater Nationals  in Montague California and will share his experiences flying a contest with another pilot in the cockpit.  He will also share some super interesting experiences he has had in the cockpit. Like the time he actually was sucked up into a Thunderstorm and flying blind for two and a half minutes!    (52:00) Sergio The Soaring Master is back wi...

8x Brazilian Champion Henrique Navarro, Glider competition pilot, Instructor, Aerobatic instructor and author joins us today. He also has competed several times in the World Gliding Championships in (France 2006, Argentina 2012, Finland 2014, Lithuania 2016, Czech Republic 2018) Henrique has broken 33 national records in Brazil has over 5,000 hours in gliders, over 500 in airplanes (mostly towing...

  Tony Condon has recently won The Club Class Nationals in Tennessee! He will take us with him in the cockpit as we experience what it's like from start to finish and what it takes to soar all the way to the podium. Tony has competed in many National gliding competitions as well as the 13.5 Meter World Gliding Championships.  When he is not competing he is teaching others how to Soar!  (44:00) Wha...

Contest Flying, scary landouts, hangar stories, Waco gliders & world war II and more! Our featured guest pilot today is Dave Reilly joining us from Merlan Soaring center in Virginia.  Like many of us From the time he was a kid he wanted to fly. Dave discovered gliding in 2005 and progressed from the 2-33 to the 1-26 and on. He now enjoys flying in is very own LS8-18 Dave shares some great stories...

On this episode we head to Brazil to chat with Sergio Lousada, he is 35 years old and is a Soaring Pilot, Cross country Coach, and Flight Test Engineer.  Sergio has been flying sailplanes since 2007, but for as long as he can remember he has been addicted to aviation. Interesting enough, soaring made it possible to fulfill his dreams. As his gliding activity was decisive when he was selected to be...

Don Ingraham was living in Minneapolis when he was bitten by the soaring bug in 1993 at age 39. Thanks to the tutelage of Bob Wander, by age 40 he had soloed, earned a PPG certificate and purchased a Jantar Standard. Over the next couple of years he flew the Jantar to more than a dozen MN State Soaring records and kept busy during the winters refinishing it in gelcoat (with much phone advice from...

On this episode we first talk with Miguel Iturmendi, one of the pilots from the Perlan project as he answers your questions and shares his adventures flying super high altitudes and what it's like soaring in the only pressurized glider in the world. Is it possible to fly the Perlan Ship on Mars? You may be surprised when you hear the answer. Miguel is also a test pilot and will also tell us about...

Flying Simon is a glider pilot joining us from the Netherlands and a few years ago he started his YouTube channel 'Flying Simon'. He has captured some of his amazing flights. Simons goal is to share the excitement and the wonderful perspective of gliding and this year he hopes to share adventures all over Europe from flights in new gliders to the Junior European Championships in Lithuania! Simon c...

Today our featured guest flies out of southern California. Casey Scholz is a 650 hour commercial pilot flying in airplanes and gliders. His ratings include, multi-engine land, single engine sea and land, instrument rating, as well as AGI/IGI ratings. He is currently Working towards his CFI-A and CFI-G. He has approximately 200 hours in tow planes and has about 1,000 tows in the Tow-plane. Casey sh...

On this episode of the podcast we first head to the Philippines and talk with Rolf Dunder, He originally learned to fly in Hamm-Lippewiesen Germany but is currently the only glider pilot soaring in the Philippines. Rolf started soaring in 1979, soloed in 1980 at the age of 15. He received his PPL in gliders in 1982 and his CFIG in 1989. In 2000 he picked up his Ultralight rating and in 2001 his Pa...

Bill Palmer is our first guest pilot we will hear from on this episode.  Bills soaring journey started in 1991 when his wife gave him a glider flight for his Birthday . It was with the now famous Bob Wander in Minnesota. Bill had recently qualified as an A320 captain with Northwest Airlines at the time, but had not flown gliders before nor had any exposure. He started with The 2-33 northeast of th...

Dan Johnson is a retired AME and internist, living on the west coast of Wisconsin, close to the airport from which he flies sailplanes and airplanes. He's flown airplanes since his father bought a Cessna 150 with observer doors in 1962, and has flown gliders since 1986. He's been speaking and writing on aviation physiology for 30 years and is also the medical advisor for the Perlan Project. Today...

Today our featured guest pilot is Patrick McMahon, Patrick is a Canadian cross country soaring pilot and flight instructor located in Alberta Canada. Today he flies at The Cu Nim Gliding Club, having learned to fly with the Royal Canadian Air Cadet Program, and learned to soar in southern Ontario at York Soaring Association. During the week Patrick manages various energy efficiency programs across...

Honored to have Triple Gliding World Champion George Lee MBE with us on the podcast today. George was Born in Dublin in 1945. Joined the Royal Air Force in 1962 as a technical apprentice. He then Became a pilot and flew primarily the F4 Phantom. He Joined Cathay Pacific Airways in 1984 where he flew 747s for fifteen years before retiring to Australia. George Started gliding in 1963, became an inst...

Scott E. Ashton is President and CEO of Aerox Aviation Oxygen Systems, based in Bonita Springs, FL. Scott is an aerospace industry executive with more than 25 years of experience working in engineering, sales and marketing, and executive roles. He has extensive experience in aircraft sales, operating business aircraft and helicopter charter operations, and MRO operations. He has served as Presiden...

On this episode of the podcast we first head to The Prescott Soaring Club in Coyote Springs Arizona, just north east of Prescott Valley as we speak with glider pilot and instructor Peter Steinmetz. Peter is a research neurologist and computational neuroscientist. He was fascinated by flight and space from an early age but a busy career deferred his pilot training until 2015. Since then he has comp...

On this episode we bring you our interview with World famous Glider Pilot Stefan Langer! Stefan is a successful cross-country and competition pilot who loves to share his adventures on YouTube. His YouTube channel was the first pure gliding channel and now has over 100,000 subscribers. Stefan's passion is to see the world from a birds eye view and capture these moments on camera to show the excite...

On this episode of the podcast we first talk with Jack Jenner hall, Jack is currently UK's Youngest Pilot! He started learning to fly gliders at age 11. Jack Recently flew his first solo flight in a glider on his 14th birthday. He is currently working towards his bronze exam while also learning glider aerobatics. One of his goals is to get more young people like himself into aviation and show them...

On this episode of the podcast we first talk with Pete Appleby, Pete is a soaring pilot with the Merlin Soaring Association club in Virginia. He has been flying gliders since 2012 and discovered sailplanes through building and flying R/C model planes. He has participated in wave and XC soaring camps as well as finishing 5th in the sports class for his first regional contest in Perry South Carolina...

On this special Veterans episode we first speak with Julie Bennett of the soaring academy in Los Angeles County about their Warriors Soar program and getting Veterans in the cockpit of the glider. We will hear from some of those Veterans about their experiences soaring and what it has meant to them. Later on this episode we have another Soaring Tale with Dale, (30:16) called "Class A Experience". ...

On this episode of the podcast we first head to the west coast of Sweden to find glider pilot David Holmen soaring at the Gothenburg Soaring Club. David got his enthusiasm for aviation from his fighter pilot father, after seeing his Dad in the cockpit he soon started flying himself at the age of 15. David would later introduce his father to a type of flying he had never done, soaring.  Next on the...

This episode is packed full of great soaring content with five guest pilots! First we will be checking in on some of our previous guest pilots and find out what they have been up to and what they are doing at their club. (3:25) Wendy Carson a school teacher, blogger, yoga instructor, model and glider pilot soaring in New Mexico. She chats with us about her future plans and what we can learn about...

Our guest pilot today, Mitch Thomson, started his soaring journey 15 years ago picking up RC gliders after years of flying powered RC planes and building scale airplane models, he realized quickly that he wanted to scale up from RC into his own glider when the opportunity presented itself.   Soaring in his own glider was something he put on his bucket list for over a decade, and culminated in an o...

Kempton Izuno has been soaring since he was 14. With 45 years of soaring gliders he has a lot to share. Today he shares his story and also how he is contributing to this great sport. Included below are some links he shared of some great soaring content he has written for soaring magazine as well. Don't miss his amazing journey! Later on this episode we join blogger and glider pilot Clemens Ceipek...

Today on the podcast we first chat with Daniel Sazhin about his blog, The Soaring Economist. Daniel talks about his most recent flight soaring in two air masses and what he learned from it. (2:22) Then it's our Soaring Safety segment with Enis Englehardt from Berlin Germany. Also on this episode Todd Chapman a glider pilot at Central Coast Soaring Club north of Sydney Australia talks with us. (29:...