Lets go fly a glider...

I won tickets last year to do a Virgin experience, and chose tickets for me and Dave to go gliding as we'd never done that before. Our nearest airfield to choose from was Rufforth Airfield near York, and fortunately the weather predictions last week were accurate, and it turned out we had chosen a very good day for flying.

You get pulled up to 2000 feet by a little plane, then left (with an instructor) to glide back to land, catching the thermals that lift you up to prolong the flight. Dave was a little unlucky as his flight was only 14 minutes, but on my go we seemed to catch all the thermals and had to make our way down after staying airborne for 37 minutes! We ended up at 2200 feet high, after dropping to 1400 at one point.

I saw 2 birds of prey on par with us at our highest, I grabbed a quick photo of one and think it was a red kite.... I had plenty of time to try the dual control hand and feet controls, and ... and as it was really good visibility, saw the City of York from overhead, spotting the Minster even though it was a fair distance away.

On the photo you can see the plane that pulled up up to 2ooo feet, and a shadow of a cloud too, as well as my control panel.