For those who know me, my sail-plane gliding days are numbered. It’s a fairly egotistical activity — it’s all about me! — and cost / benefit ratio just isn’t there.
So, I bought a 17ft sailboat (project) which I’m going to fix up and take family out on. Better returns for time/effort/$$ investment.
In the meantime, I’ve respectfully created a glider for Poser in Blender 2.70a. ‘Respectfully’, because the whole flying thing was prompted/initiated by this video:
If you have Poser, you can have a play with a very similar aircraft to that Schweizer 2-33 Lilly Mae did her training and solo in… it can be found here.
Click for a larger version…
Just a note: I actually did join a sailplane club in Boonah and started taking lessons. The first day, I flew with an old RAAF pilot, who had flown everything including heavy metal, for over an hour. We soared to cloud base. It was the best day ever, unforgettable. What a view on the Cunningham Gap and the lakes!
Unfortunately, I never saw him again, and my “stick-time” dwindled rapidly with each succeeding Sunday, as the club gave preference to joy-riders (who paid handsomely)… and so I ended up mostly pushing aircraft around and paying $200 a pop for the privilege.
Which, sort-of took the wind out of my sails.
Still, I will never forget that first day.