So... you think you've got big ones?

(shakes head) What would possess someone to come up with this?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1265891/Hold-think-youre-going-Skydiver-grabs-gliders-tail-fin-fly-2-100-metres-100mph.html

Lesley wrote: (shakes head) What would possess someone to come up with this? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1265891/Hold-think-youre-going-Skydiver-grabs-gliders-tail-fin-fly-2-100-metres-100mph.html

Red bull. It gives you wings but pack a 'chute just in case.

Hmmm... Lesley, I think you are the first woman to ever ask me that.

Why were they giving the skydiver all the credit? It seems to me that it was the glider pilots who made it all possible. The guy hung from one wing until another wing smacked him in the ass, then he stood on a wing until a tail came down to meet him.

It was bad ass though.

Bob

Well, yes, I do. But mine are more important to me than his are to him.

I'll happily take a ride-along with either of those pilots and come back giddy.

Best comment:

I'd be more impressed if I didn't know they did this same sh*t in the 1920's on biplanes without the parachute.

• Patrick, san francisco, ca, 15/4/2010 01:42

I didn't know gliders could fly upside down.

Der rot Stier Gemeinschaft fur die gewinn?

What's the point? Bigguns would be doing it without a chute.

What is even the point of a glider?

I've always like gliders better than engined airplanes. Nothing to go wrong. Unless you hit something...in mid flight...

CarKid1989 wrote: What is even the point of a glider?

It's like a regular plane with the added complication of having to find your own propulsion (lift).

It the challenge man.

It's kind of like someone asking why someone would drive a Miata when a Corolla will get you to work just as easy. (not really, but I think you get the idea)

CarKid1989 wrote: What is even the point of a glider?

Starting small before you move up to more powerful stuff. Ya wanna start track days with a F430, or a Miata? You have to know a lot about what makes a plane actually fly in the first place (and a ton of stuff about how weird the Earth's atmosphere actually is) to keep a plane without a motor off the ground for more than the couple of minutes it takes to crash.

Gotta admit, I don't fly for real..but even I learned that much from trying R/C airplane models. I still want to learn how to fly model sailplanes one day. It's like sailing instead of running a powerboat..you really have to pay attention to the wind, the waves, and the currents (my old Sunfish had to be finessed through stuff that my dad's Boston Whaler could just power through).

A lot of my aviation & WW2 enthusiast pals also tell me that the reason German fighter pilots were better at the beginning of the war than the end of it is because they'd started as glider pilots.

Bah! They've been doing this for years (without chutes.)