Sailing in the Sky...
Soaring is the sport of flying unpowered sailplanes. Typically, a tow plane takes you to about 10,000 feet, where you pull the tow release, then you turn up and to the right, while the tow plane goes down and to the left. Then you go around looking for thermals to take you higher. I took all the pictures below while soaring at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado (circa 1986).
Behind the tow plane, heading out towards the Great Plains. This is like water skiing in the sky! You can feel yourself jumping across the tow plane's wake.
Searching for thermals out over the Colorado Front Range.
The top of Eagle Peak. We used to love to overshoot these rock faces by 3 feet!
