Photo credit – Clement Allen Photography
Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen a bird of prey circling effortlessly, feeling the air with its wings – truly ‘free as a bird’? Most people at some point in their lives will have had a dream that they were flying, completely unaided, or looked to the sky and wondered what it might be like to soar like a bird… In this episode, we get stuck into a HUGE passion of mine in the aviation world, yet one I only got introduced to 8 years ago and that is the sport of gliding. Not only are we going to delve into what makes it so great as a sport, but also take a look at all of the huge benefits it can bring to anyone that aspires to become a professional pilot.
Competing in what is an elusive sport to so many pilots, this episodes guests Jake Brattle and Finn Sleigh are the future shining stars of the world of competition gliding, where pilots pit their wits against each other using nothing but the energy in the atmosphere to fly incredible distances at incredible speeds. Check it out!
“Gliders, Sailplanes – they’re wonderful flying machines. It’s the closest you can come to being a bird.”
Neil Armstrong – Astronaut
Pictured from left to right: Finn Sleigh and Jake Brattle, who were representing Great Britain and placed first and second in the Junior World Gliding Championships in 2019.
If you’d like to learn more about UK Junior Gliding and how to get involved, visit this link or follow them on facebook!
