Originally Posted by Robbie
My father and a bunch of mates( a fellow ex-RAF chap, the professor of engineering in UCD, An insurance manager, Ralf Slazenger-Who had the money - and an ex Lufwaffe Pilot who had crashed in the south of Ireland and never went home) formed the Dublin Gliding club just after the second world war so I grew up messing around gliders. The wave over the Dublin Mountains saw flights up to almost 12,000ft where we really should have had oxygen, but H&S was alittle more lax then. I loved gliding, but when Family came along money was too tight so have only sporadic scirmishes with the thermals since. Flights to 70.000ft must be fantastic --many thanks for the post
Cheers!

Reminds me of my first flight to northern Italy as a recently qualified PPL/IR in a Piper turbo Arrow. ATC put is up at FL120 for the airway across the Swiss Alps which was a little higher than hoped given we had no oxygen on this occasion. My co-pilot was a commercial second officer flying 757's. As we rumbled across with outside temp of -5°C and just a couple of semi circles to peer through from the windscreen demistor, we kept asking if the other was ok. The relief when we finally got a descent to Bergamo was palpable.


Richard

2018 Roadster 3.7
1966 Land Rover S2a 88
2024 Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450
1945 Guzzi Airone