Allan Adams: Searching for Lift

(screen graphics whooshing) (gentle music playing) - So, I'm a glider pilot.

It's one of my favorite things in the world to do.

(gentle music playing) In a glider, of course you have no engine.

So, how do you get altitude?

How do you keep flying forward?

(gentle music playing) You're always slowly falling down through the air.

So, the trick is to find air that's rising faster than you're going down through that air.

So, it's sort of like, if you imagined taking a ping pong ball the ping pong ball has no engine it's falling.

(Allan blowing the pin pong ball) But if you blow, you can shoot the ping pong ball upwards.

(Allan blowing the ping pong ball) So, you can do exactly the same thing in a glider.

You just have to find air that's going up.

(Allan blowing the ping pong ball) Of course, air's transparent so that's maybe not so trivial.

So, the trick in flying a glider is being able to look at the sky, look at the ground and anticipate where there's gonna be upward welling of air.

When you have hot asphalt surrounded by trees, you get a convection current.

So, as a glider pilot, you dive for that spot and when you get the lift, you know it cause the whole plane just gets pushed up, you feel viscerally the whole thing just lifting you and boo, you're in lift, that's fantastic.

So, then you circle in the lift and up you go.

(upbeat music playing) (wind blowing) My first soul flight, I was champing at the bit.

You're not allowed to fly solo in a glider in the US until you're 14 years old.

So, on my 14th birthday I skipped school and we went out into the countryside, I flew the glider and my dad was my toe pilot which was really cool.

He's a terrific pilot.

He was a jungle hopping guy, crazy, no fear.

Hi dad.

And I was terrified, oh, I was terrified, but the minute the to goes tight, all the nerves go away.

So, we towed up to a couple thousand feet my dad waved me off, and off I went.

So, normally we do when you saw you land but I cut lift and it was a beautiful day.

So, why not stick around for a little bit?

Meanwhile, my mom is down on the ground going, "Oh, please land, oh, please land."

So, I figured this is probably not a very good idea and came back in and landed.

I also remember vividly that my mom was the first person to the canopy, which was totally delightful.

(gentle music playing) (boy inhales and exhales) (woman chuckles) - [Man] Congratulations.