Soaring the Sky Podcast
E076: Mountains, Mishaps and Milestones
This is our third instalment of this ongoing series where we select and present episodes from Chuck Fulton’s highly-regarded soaring podcast. We have linked all of the services where you can find Soaring the Sky, or simply click the green play button below to start listening to this month’s selection . — Ed.
Our guest pilot today, Mitch Thomson, started his soaring journey 15 years ago picking up RC gliders after years of flying powered RC planes and building scale airplane models. He realized quickly that he wanted to scale up from RC into his own glider when the opportunity presented itself. Soaring in his own glider was something he put on his bucket list for over a decade, and culminated in an orientation flight at Warner Springs California back in 2018 where his first flight took him up into winter wave and so much altitude that he and his instructor in the backseat got to do some fun aerobatic maneuvers on the way back to the field. At that point he was hooked.
After they landed, he signed up on the FAA website for his student certificate and then started a rigorous training regimen at the Soaring Academy, finally taking his glider solo flight in October, 2019. After a COVID virus delay in the Spring of this year, he took his checkride and got his glider private certificate in May. Mitch is now soaring out of Crystalaire Airport, Charlie November 46 on the Los Angeles Sectional, located in the high desert of Southern California just northeast of Los Angeles, and is enjoying his days flying his ASG29 in the San Gabriel mountains. Today he will share some interesting stories about his learning journey, mountain soaring, and a couple of mishaps and learning experiences that happened along the way!
For our Safety Soaring segment today we are joined by aerobatic pilot and world champion Luca Bertossio from Italy. For our Soaring Tips and Technics segment today we are joined by Czech Republic National Gliding Team member Barbora Moravcová.
©2020 Chuck Fulton
Resources
- Soaring the Sky — From the website: “an aviation podcast all about the adventures of flying sailplanes. Join host Chuck Fulton as he talks with other aviators around the globe. You never know who the next guest will be on Soaring the Sky.” You can also find the show on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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