My flying

Two years ago this April, I joined the local glider* club. I was just the minimum age for joining the local club. By eighteen months of membership, I had flown over 100 times, with over 6 hours of flight time. On August 15, 2012, for the first time, my flight instructor climbed out of the back seat of the glider and left me to fly on my own. I was the minimum age for soloing. That day was amazing! I haven't done much flying in these winter months, mainly for two reasons: one, the weather has just not been good; two, my instructor was gone in Europe. (You see, I can't fly unless there is a certified instructor either in the air with me or on the ground.) Once spring and better weather have kicked back in, I'll probably be in the air again, and more often.

Me climbing out of an airplane for the first time at the age of eight

* - For those of you who don't know what a glider is, I'll explain it to you. A glider is very similar to an airplane. It's not one of those hang gliders you see in the movies; gliders are shaped very similar to regular planes. Only, this is no ordinary plane; a glider has no engine. It has to be towed up to altitude by some powered mechanism, whether it be another airplane (called a tow plane for obvious reasons), a winch, (in Texas in some places) a truck, (or even in some mountainous parts of Europe) or people pulling it down a slope. Some gliders, though, are built with motors.

Me sitting in the front seat of a glider, getting ready for my first solo flight