RVer Soars With the Birds

Jim and Bronwen Soukup are full time RVers traveling in this 40 foot diesel pusher Tradewinds LTC made by National. Yesterday I watched as Bronwen broke the surly bonds of earth and took off for the wild blue yonder in a Grob 103 sailplane. Her pilot, Bruce Waddell has been flying sailplanes for 29 years and tells me this aircraft was made in Germany but is no longer in production. It weighs 860 pounds and the price tag of an equivalent plane if purchased today is around $90,000. When this plane catches an updraft and gains altitude it's called “soaring.” When it has to rely on the tow plane to gain altitude it’s called “gliding.” RVers are known to be adventurous and some are downright daring and Bronwen is no exception. This sortie is called the, “High Performance Deluxe” and cost $179.95. This included a 45 minute flight over the Estrella Mountains with views of Phoenix and the surrounding countryside. The tow plane released the “sailplane” 5,000 feet above the “sailport.” These sailplanes are sleek and usually only have one or at most two wheels up front for landing and one in the tail section. The landing gear wheel has a disk brake which allows the pilot to stop the plane right in front of the hanger. The pilots literally have to push these planes on and off the runway by hand, so they want to stop as close to the hanger as possible. The nose of the aircraft holds the tow rope in place with a single set of jaws which is released by pulling a chord inside the cockpit. Bronwen doesn’t weigh very much, so Bruce had to add 50 pounds of weight to the nose of the sailplane to adjust the center of gravity. Arizona Soaring is the nation’s #1 soaring school with a large fleet of sailplanes and professional instructor pilots. You can learn more at http://www.azsoaring.com/ Bronwen poses with Bruce after the sailplane adventure.Here is a video of Bruce and Bronwen coming in for a landing after “buzzing” the field at better than 100 mph.