My son was in town for the weekend so I took him up in a two seater today.
Lift was marginal in the morning, we went up around 12:30 and it was good. We climbed 1,000 feet above tow release altitude, doinked around for 45 minutes or so and had a good time. Ian got a little queasy with the thermalling (high banked circling) so we headed back to the farm, toodled around near the airport at 2,000ft. We had to wait for traffic to clear so it was another 10 - 15 minutes hanging around all the warm air coming off the local junkyard, not a bad thing.
I'm wearing my lucky GRM flying bucket 
so all was well.
This is the landing, photos later. This is a different critter to land, you have to touch down tail first.
http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/1003/914Dan/IMG_1496_zps0y987kgq.mp4
Dan
Taking people up was the best part of flying for me. Their joy was my joy.
Very cool! What were you flying? Looks a few decades newer than the Blanik I did my few sailplane hours in.
Flying a Grob 103. I plan to get checked out fro the back seat giving better visibility to guests. We use Blanik L-23s for trainers and the 103 for advanced students XC training.
BTW, there's no room for guests in mine. (below)
"Thank you for flying Knucklehead Airlines" LOL. Going for a ride in one of those is on my bucket list.
Jimbob, there's one in Julian, Pa.; maybe your GoogleFu is better than mine, I couldn't find their website.
Anyone else, go to SSA and pick the one closest to you.
It may not be your cup of tea, but how would you know?
Dan
Here: http://www.ssa.org/map/map.html
tuna55
UltimaDork
5/7/15 1:11 p.m.
No, I want a ride with you. I'll be in Syracuse in August.
Seriously though, do people often give rides to strangers just like that?
In reply to tuna55:
I think so... I went for a motorcycle ride and was hanging around near the Seaman's Airport in the woods of NEPA watching ultra lights land and someone actually offered to give me a ride in is "go-kart/kite/doohickey" out of the blue. Even after I declined the offer he spent 20 minutes telling me all about it.
Sometimes Tuna. If you're young, cute and have on something low cut, absolutely!
Like Appleseed said, sharing is fun, exposing new people to the sport is wonderful; it's so hard to describe! People are not likely to walk all over an airport looking for a sailplane for security reasons. Most "Introductory Flights" are through word of mouth, we are not a commercial operation.
Dan
There are perks to being an airport bum. I've flown in a Cessna 140 and a T-6 just from hanging around.
Good times! I went for a glider ride when I was 10 or so. Two adult men plus me. A bit cramped, but still fun! It's weird at first not hearing anything but wind noise.
