Learning to fly – without an engine: Lethbridge Soaring Club looking to expand

After a successful first season, the LSC has worked to establish a permanent operation in Cowley, AB. They’ve flown from the Cowley Glider Strip since 2014, erected a permanent steel hanger, and fly using both tow plane and winch launch.

The LSC is hosting a public information evening at the Lethbridge Crossings Library on Wednesday, May 1 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for anyone interested in gliding and soaring in Southern Alberta.

Anyone interested in taking part will have the opportunity to try out their glider simulator, to see what the experience looks like from the comfort of the ground.

Soaring Club Vice-President Glen Lowe

Chief Flying Instructor Pavan Kumar says the nice thing about soaring is that just by coming out to the talk you can find out what you’ll learn by getting involved.

“We learn a lot about the nature we’re in, we learn about the atmosphere and understanding can feel good. When you look outside the window of your car and recognize the clouds as indicators of what’s going on or when the wind blows, and you know what’s happening in the region because of that.

“Look at something really common that we see all the time around here, the Chinook arch, well you can find out how that happens and why it’s there. We’re connected by geography, we all choose to live here, so we get to appreciate the place a lot more when you understand what cool things are going on that make it this way. What creates the chinook and what creates the warm winds that we get.”

They currently operate two gliders, the first of which is a Schweizer 2-22EK, a two-seat glider popular for training, and the second is a Grob Twin Astir Trainer, also a two-seat trainer but a high-performance fibreglass ship.

How the gliders soar, and the science behind it, is not quite as complicated as you might think.

“Most soaring sites in Canada we have thermal lift. That’s where the sun heats the ground, warming it up, and the warm air starts to rise. You can circle in that; you rise with it, and then once you’ve reached a certain height you can fly in a straight direction “on glide”. When you’re near mountains like we are here, there’s also ridge lift. That’s where the wind hits a ridge, and it can’t go around it, so it has to go up, so you can rise in that and then “run the ridge”. Then there’s also the wave lift which is unique to probably about half a dozen sites in the world that are good for that kind of soaring, and this is one of them. That’s what I’ll show pictures of and describe to people at the meeting on May 1,” Kumar stated.

The LSC has had a solid core group of 7 to 10 members, and they’ve slowly grown to about 13 full members of the club.

“We also get visitors that want to come for one flight or up to six,” Kumar continued. “We have packages for that, and if we can entice them to join that’s great. We have the equipment because we’ve done all the labour of building a hangar, having a nice aircraft, and having a nice facility. All of the big work is done, so coming out to fly is the easy part now.”

A certain amount of people are needed to come out to actually fly because they help each other go.

“It’s doable with four people, but it can be stressful. To make it more social whenever we have an operation, there will be a mixture of instructors, licensed pilots and students. If you have six or seven people come out, you get to enjoy the day together and take turns flying. There can be more than one glider out there at a time as well,” Kumar said.

The upcoming information meeting comes at a stage for the LSC where they’re looking to grow because everything in terms of equipment is there now for people to step in and learn to fly without taking up construction as a hobby.

“We’re just at that growth stage now. Some other clubs are a lot more active with seven days a week flying. They’re at the point where they have about 60 members and more aircraft. We haven’t maximized the use of equipment that we already have yet, but once we get to that stage, we’ll certainly be looking to add more as the demand grows.”

Typically, most Saturday’s of the summer the group flies, and they have four different weeks of the year that they schedule to camp out at the Cowley glider strip for the whole week.

“Friday night through to Monday of a long weekend. Two of those camps are province-wide, so there are several aircraft coming from other clubs in the province, and one year we about 50 aircraft on the field. It gets busy.”

For anyone interested in flying down the road, or as a hobby, or even for youth: the club does take members as young as age 12.

Kumar says it’s a pretty welcoming sport and what you learn you take with you forever.

“There is a lot of variety in the types of people who are involved. This is a Transport Canada recognized licence so if someone is interested in the power flying side, these hours count towards keeping that licence current as well as reducing the training hours towards those licences for those just getting started. These skills are good for life.”

Kumar gave a pretty good historical example of those skills coming through in the clutch: the Gimli Glider.

For those who may not remember, on July 23, 1983, Air Canada Flight 143 was flying between Montreal and Edmonton when it ran out of fuel at an altitude of 41,000 feet midway through the flight.

The crew was able to glide the Boeing 767 aircraft safely to an emergency landing at a former Royal Canadian Air Force base in Gimli, Manitoba that had been turned into a motor racing track.

And as if that wasn’t enough, there is a competitive side to soaring as well.

“We have several different ways to recognize achievements. There’s competing against yourself to say you’ve accomplished a distance, a duration or an altitude and you can get a badge for that. That’s internationally recognized, if you have a bronze, silver or gold badge, they’ll know that you’ve achieved this level of performance. And it takes some work; it doesn’t just happen because the weather is favourable; you have to plan and be ready for this type of goal.”

If you’re more of the type who likes to compete against others, there are two ways to do that too.

“There’s the live contest in person where all the gliders line up like race cars, and they have an assigned track on their GPS where they must round set turn points and then are scored for time and speed. We have provincial, national, and even international events competitions. Another type of contest is the online contest where we post our flights online and they are scored in various ways. We can compare those to any other flights uploaded at any place or time with any other gliders all over the world.”

Soaring Club President Glen Lowe also mentioned a program that helps give those who may not have the ability to walk or drive the ability to take to the skies.

“It’s called Freedom’s Wings that we’re part of, and we have hand controls to operate the glider so we have people without the use of their legs who can fully operate the glider.”

Kumar further explained it’s a charity that all members, happily, contribute to.

“We volunteer our time, we volunteer our aircraft, and we accept public sponsorship to pay for the costs of things like fuel to help fund the program. There are certain bits of equipment needed like a lift if we need to lift someone from a chair into a glider. We offer inspirational flights at no charge to the visitor for one flight a year, and however many come out are welcome,” Kumar said, adding they also offer training for paraplegic pilots with a couple of members in that category already.

Soaring is accessible to anyone, and it’s not a requirement for everyone to have extreme fitness because not everybody wants to do eight-hour flights.

A 30-minute flight or an hour flight is well within reach for anybody who can go for a walk, according to Kumar, and if you can do hikes, you can easily enjoy a couple of hours in the air to go into the mountains and back.

“Two hours is enough to explore and have some joy from it without being overwhelmed,” he added.

Anyone interested in purchasing a ride or learning how to fly will be able to ask club members and instructors who will be on hand May 1 about the club and answer any questions you may have at the Lethbridge Crossings Library. Or you can reach them by e-mail at lethbridgesoaring@gmail.com.

by Aaron Mahoney

Learning to fly – without an engine: Lethbridge Soaring Club looking to expand

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