- Destination
10am departure from Perth by car, but not before a hearty breakfast at home of smashed avocado on toast.
2 hour drive through scenic Avon Valley to arrive at the Gliding Club of WA in Cunderdin. It was 35 degrees in Perth and the soaring club said it was 42 degrees on the air strip. It certainly felt like it. It’s a cool setting for flying because the club resides at a former Austrlian airbase that was set up to defend against the Japanese during WWII. The orginal air base buildings still stand, unused and make for a dramatic and slightly eerie start for what is already a heart pumping activity.
12:30 pm and I’m getting buckled into my 1980, Romanian built glider. I’m reassured by the fact that my pilot has flown the same glider hundreds of times. It’s a pretty small feeling to take off in a glider. Ground crew hold it stable so the wings don’t scrape the ground while the tugger plane tightens the slack. I felt like I was in a paper airplane because I could feel every wind current and bump. Strangely, it wasn’t frightening! The tugger pulled us up to about 2000 feet at which point my pilot set us free, off to search for thermal vortexes that would push us up naturally to around 10,000 feet.
In the 30 minutes of flight time, we didn’t get lucky with thermal vortexes and only got up to 4000 feet. Still, the idea that you are flying with no motor and still gaining altitude is incredible if not physically dizzying because of the tight circles you have to do to try and go up. As one last hurrah, I asked for a trick and my pilot was all too happy to oblige with a jackknife spin. Thrilling!
Lyndon was up next, and his pilot was absoultely mad about gliding. He apparently loses track of time searching for thermal vortexes and goes well over the 30 minute point. The club members told me this to reassure me that Lyndon was fine, when at the 1 hour mark he still wasn’t back! He was up in a beautiful German-made glider from 2010 and they go up to more than 7000 feet!
Next time must bring (my own) hat, wear pants (dress was a dumb idea) and bring more water…
Cost: $150 per person for a 30 minute flight. They didn’t charge for the extra hour that Lyndon was up!
On the way home we stopped for pies at the Avon Valley bakery. Lyndon, who is our resident pie expert, rated them a 7.
Date: Saturday, December 11th
Activity: Gliding
Duration: day trip, 2 hour drive from Perth
Origin: Perth
Destination: Beverley Soaring Society, Avon Valley
Cost: $150 per person for a 30 minute flight
First Last Name
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I’m from Perth, Western Australia
My favourite trip as of late is New Zealand, solo travel in lots of nature for a soul-refresher.
My travelling style is to Book the first night, then wing it from there!
It’s a dealbreaker when I’m stuck around large groups of package tourists.
Continent I know best is Asia.
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