Harris Hill Soaring Center

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= ARTICLES / ESSAYS / POETRY =

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Many people feel the urge to write of their experiences related to soaring, especially in the beginning. Soaring can be exhiliarating, relaxing, exhausting, competitive, spiritual, joyous or sometimes even a bit scary. This is a place to collect those memorable impressions in essay, poetry, or other literary form. Some of our members are also well-known authors in soaring circles; here is a sampling of their thoughts and their work.

Can we add your work to this page? We encourage anyone who has flown with us or elsewhere - perhaps on their first soaring experience - to share those experiences with others here. Please contact the HHSC Webmaster.

Technical articles are, of course, also welcome in this space.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Cross-Country Soaring - Kai Gertsen's excellent X-C tutorial, Part 1. (2.1 meg PDF file).

Off-Airport Landings - Kai Gertsen's excellent X-C tutorial, Part 2 (1.3 meg PDF file).

Thermalling - Kai Gertsen's excellent tutorial about the art of thermalling (0.7 meg PDF file).

Requirements to fly the new Discus sailplane cross-country - Specific requirements you must meet.

Spring is Just Around the Corner - A short essay by David Shelton, a young pilot at Penn State University's Soaring Club.

Top Ten Ways to Fail A Practical Test - An excellent animated training guide for soaring from veteran instructor Jim Burch.

The following two stories are linked from the Valley Soaring Association in Middletown, New York.

Flight to Purgatory - Chris Rose's experiences on his first landout.
Just Like a Hawk - A wonderful essay by Patricia Valdata about her first glider flight - on her 21st birthday.

And some stories and essays from Gunther Eichhorn's soaring mega-website.

Learning to Soar by Steven Philipson. This is an excellent overview of the road a student pilot follows during glider flight training. Lots of practical information on costs, and time invested to get your private glider license.

Here's a collection of Paddy Welles' finest soaring stories, which will make you laugh, and cry, and reflect on how fortunate you are to be in this sport of soaring. Most of these were published previously in Soaring Magazine.

"Grandma Learns to Fly" - The classic - and classy - answer to anyone's mid-life crisis.

"Crewing"- Life on the line, as a soaring contest crew member.

"SCUM SCATS" - More reflections (on the ground) as a contest crew member.

"Keeping a Good Thing Going: Fifty-Two Years of Snowbird Meets" Some history and stories from Harris Hill's riotous, annual Snowbird Contest. Includes details of the 1997 event.

"1997 Region 3 Contest Report" - Making the best of a rainy week in Elmira.

A heart-warming essay on "Getting the Bug" - about soaring.

Visit the extensive soaring articles on the National Soaring Museum's web pages.

Paul Schweizer's essay on the early days of the Snow Bird Contest held at Harris Hill each Thanksgiving weekend.

Rules and Score Sheet for the HHSC Snow Bird Contest.

Stephen Garner's article from Soaring Magazine on the Design, Certification and Installation of the Pawnee Wing Spar Repair STC.

A transcribed reprint of the SSA's "Soaring in America" pamphlet.

HHSC Web Site Index

03/12/2008

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