Saturday Special: Gliding over the Great Basin

Check out this video of an epic glider flight over the Great Basin.

Jun 29, 2024

white and red airplane in mid air during daytime — Photo by Max Nüstedt on Unsplash

Phillip Lee, who labels his YouTube channel Orange Pants, flew his motor glider over the Great Basin, taking off from Truckee, CA and landing in Nephi, UT. On the return trip, weather got in the way and forced him to divert to a remote and apparently decommissioned airstrip. It's a spectacular journey that he filmed in this video:

Gliding, or soaring, is a form of flying that depends on thermals created when hot air rises, lifting the extended wings to carry the non-motorized plane's flight. Minden-Tahoe Airport is one of the world's best-known launch points for glider pilots, taking advantage of two mountain ranges that produce epic thermals. Some of these pilots have broken records in altitude, longevity of flights, and speed.

The tow plane flies over my house almost daily, pulling gliders over the Pine Nut Mountains. I've watched them spiraling lazily upward for hours. It's obviously a wonderful way to spend a sunny day. Beyond this type of flying, many glider pilots use the lift and flow of air over the Carson Range to the west of Carson Valley to fly over Lake Tahoe as well as up and down the Sierra Nevada mountains. Soaring Nevada supports many of the tours, classes, and flights that take off from the Minden-Tahoe Airport.

When Lee, aka Orange Pants, made this video, he wanted to inspire other pilots to get back in their gliders and see how far they can go. Because of the air currents and the empty skies over the Great Basin, it appears to be a great place to stretch your "wings."

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Book Review:

E.R. Flynn, Illustrator, Cartoonist, Storyteller and Creator of "Escape from Clowntown Comics" here on Substack.

"Ghost in The Forest" is a great read! Take note People. If you love stories about environmentalism and nature, its clash with urban mindsets, as well as personal transformation, this is the book for you!