Boulder’s glider pilots fly more than three times around the World - without fuel

BOULDER, COLORADO – October, 9th 2012 Glider pilots from the Soaring Society of Boulder (SSB) have flown over 86,800 miles (almost 3.5 times around the World) this year hoping to become the highest ranked soaring club in the nation. Fifty one pilots flew 637 cross country flights during the soaring year which started in October 2011 and ended 52 weeks later in October 2012. All this without engines or consuming fuel!

With their best showing ever, glider pilots from the local soaring club in Boulder finished the season in 2nd place nationally and 14th internationally in gliding’s prestigious Online Contest (OLC). This contest was developed in Germany and is run internationally with scoring based on how far individual glider pilots fly cross country. Sophisticated GPS-loggers are carried to record the gliders movements. Encrypted flight log files are uploaded via the Internet to the Online Contest allowing glider pilots from all over the world to compare their flights. In the United States, glider pilots flew an astonishing 2,144,622 OLC miles cross country.

Soaring is a quiet but exciting sport with few spectators, crowds, or engines except for the tow plane which lifts the glider into the sky. After releasing from tow the soaring pilot is typically alone in his or her glider, climbing in columns of solar heated air currents called thermals and moving on cross country. Such a soaring flight can last from only a few minutes to up ten hours depending on the weather conditions and the glider pilot’s skills. In 2011, a Soaring Society of Boulder member, using only the sun’s energy, flew to Santa Fe, New Mexico from Boulderand returned completing a 650 mile flight non-stop.

Founded in 1959 the Soaring Society of Boulder is located on the Boulder Municipal Airport. The club is the largest soaring club in Colorado with about 170 members. A non-profit, the SSB has provided basic and advanced instruction and equipment including gliders to its members for over fifty years. The club owns six gliders, including two high performance gliders allowing members to compete in the worldwide OLC contest. Still most of the competition miles were flown by club members in private gliders based at the Boulder Airport. The club supports the member’s cross country flying by training with experienced instructor pilots in a high performance two seat and then in single seaters.

Like any other sport soaring offers a lot of different opportunities to compete from Regional, National and International competitions, to gain internationally recognized achievement badges or to just have fun together. In August 2012 the World Gliding Championship was held in Texas. 100 pilots from over 25 countries competed for the title of World Champion. Two Boulder club members have competed as members of the USand the Serbian team.

To see the Online Contest on the internet or contact the Soaring Society of Boulder please take a look at the club’s website http://soarboulder.org/