My Gliding History

I don't really know how I caught the "flying virus" (it truly is a virus, you know), but I know who gave it to me, where I caught it, and when I caught it!

It was a friend of my parents, who is a captain on Air Calin (New Caledonia's international airline), who passed it on.  We met him at a local supermarket and he invited us for a drink at the cafeteria.  There he started telling us all about gliding; I was captivated by what he was saying without really understanding what was going on.  I was 15 years old at the time so some things are slightly blurry in my mind.  Anyway, he invited my family to La Ouenghi (a commune of Boulouparis about 45 minutes drive from Nouméa) for the following Saturday, 9th March 2002.

When we got there, he gave me a flight brief and strapped a parachute on my back. Surprise, the parachute only weighed about 5 kg.  He sat me down in the front seat of a Twin Astir (the front seat of a glider has a better view for a passenger) where I was slightly laid back; like in a banana chair, but very comfy.

The take-off roll with a winch only lasts about 3 seconds or 5 seconds at the most.  Then the climb angle rises very sharply; approximately 60° climb with an initial acceleration of about 2 G's!  It was awesome!  Once the cable hook had released us, we banked and glided to a slope about 6 km. distant.  There wasn't much dynamic or thermal activity that day as the sky was covered to 7/8th and the sea breeze was weak.  After 25 minutes of doing tight eights, I was ready to throw up all over the beautiful upholstery so we came back for a quick landing....

However, far from being discouraged, I came back the following Sunday, 17th March, where I took my first lesson with one of the club's instructors and co-founder in an Alliance 34.

I was released solo by my favorite instructor and club president, 7 months later on 31st October, 2002.  In January of the following year, I sat for the glider's flying test with a French examiner from Tahiti, who had come especially to test three or four of us.

To find the rest of the story go to My PPL page