Albatross trophy travelling around country by glider
An albatross is the supreme glider of the bird world, soaring
for long distances on wind currents with hardly a beat of its
wings. It is an appropriate symbol, therefore, for a cross-country
venture designed to unite glider operators around the country.
Albatross trophy travelling around country by glider
An albatross is the supreme glider of the bird world, soaring for long distances on wind currents with hardly a beat of its wings. It is an appropriate symbol, therefore, for a cross-country venture designed to unite glider operators around the country.
This week the Hollister Airport was the latest stop for a statue of the seabird that is making its way around the state and, ultimately, around the country by powerless flight.
“It’s something to bring the soaring community together,” said Quest Richlife of the Hollister Gliding Club, which tows gliders into the air and offers flight instruction from the local airport.
On March 5, pilot Buzz Graves soared from Byron to Hollister with “Alby,” a bronze trophy shaped like an albatross. The goal is for the trophy to be carried aboard sailplanes from soaring site to soaring site across the continental United States.
Since then, the trophy has rested at the Hollister Municipal Airport, waiting for the right weather conditions to have it taken by glider to Avenal.
“The thing about soaring is that there’s no such thing as a scheduled departure,” Richlife said. “It’ll be someday soon that somebody takes off with it. It could be within the next week to 10 days. It’s hard to say exactly what the weather’s supposed to be. It’s a project that’s bigger than me.”
Alby’s voyage is being tracked on the Web at http://albysvogage.blogspot.com, through which visitors can check the location of the albatross as well as find out where it has been and where it is scheduled to go.
Richlife said he read about the trip in an online chat group to which he belongs, but he did not know when Alby was landing in Hollister until Graves’ glider was three miles from the Hollister airport.
“This is an obscure thing that nobody would think of happening if they were away from the airport,” Richlife said. “Aviation, and particularly gliding, is a small community and a lot of people just don’t know about it.”
There are parameters that glider pilots carrying Alby have to follow, such as which direction they must be towed into flight, the altitude at which they can glide and that they must make their trip from airport to airport without stopping.
Graves’ trip to Hollister, as detailed on the Alby blog, “was a ground-skimming experience,” as the amount of lifting winds were not ideal for passage from the Central Valley to Hollister.
“In order to make it to Hollister I needed to climb over the mountains,” Graves wrote. “On the first attempt I didn’t connect [with the wind] and retreated. On the second attempt I connected with a climb to over 4K (4,000 feet) with good lift being marked by clouds toward Hollister.”
The challenge at that point, Graves said, “was to dodge the columns of rain and hail that were falling from some very dark cumulus clouds that were very serious looking.”
Though he and Alby “got a little wet on the way,” they landed in bright sunshine at the Hollister Airport.
“We were greeted by the local glider pilots and congratulated on our flight,” Graves said, adding that the greeters were “a little surprised that I appeared out of that darkened sky to the east.”
As of The Pinnacle’s press time, it was not known who would take Alby on the next leg of its journey.
“It will hopefully be someone from the local soaring community,” Richlife said, noting that most glider pilots who use Hollister as a home base don’t live here.
In the meantime, pilots will turn their heads toward the sky, watching for certain cloud formations that will indicate the proper thermal activity exists to lift gliders to the appropriate flying height.
“It’s kind of like sailing,” Richlife said. “You’re always seeing where the winds are. When we see lots of big, puffy white clouds, it’s going to be a good day.”
Drew Pearce, owner of Bay Area Glider Rides, which offers scenic soaring rides from the Hollister airport, said Alby’s flight – which has planned stops in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and other southern states – “is partly to promote the sport and to bring camaraderie among the pilots across the country. Mostly, it’s something fun to do.”
