Gliders With Ferdinand

Our friend Ferdinand "Ferdi" has been asking us to go with him to fly gliders for last several months. I remember when I first met him back in September he said that gliding was his passion. He is part of a club that flies gliders and they share aircrafts. He has invited us several times since spring and we had to decline for various reasons. So finally today it worked out and we went with him. The airfield is in Hajdúszoboszló which is a short drive from Debrecen. It is also where we went to the spa last week.

Dana standing in the air field. 

Me by our glider

Ferdinand checking it out.

Taking it to the runway

Getting in was interesting. The plane is made of very
light weight material and you can damage it if you put your
weight in the wrong areas. It was also kind of a tight squeeze.

Once I shimmied in it was actually pretty comfortable.
Also, to our parents, we were wearing parachutes so don't worry :)

This was the towing machine. It has a 1 km
rope that pulls the plane to launch it.

Guess what you are suppose to do when you see this car :)

Putting on the parachute.

The plane starting to be towed.

The take off is pretty fast you definitely feel a
little bit like your in a sling shot.

Lift off!

You can see the rope connected to the bottom. When Ferdi unhooked
 the line it was a little freaky. The plane starts to drop instantly which
catches you off guard. However, I wasn't worried since he is such a good pilot.

Landing

Me after a successful flight.

Dana's turn

Getting fastened in. 

Her glider way up there.

Just like a bird.

Command center with some of the other gliding club members.

Another successful landing thanks
 to our great pilot Ferdinand.

Dana parachuted up

I took some photos from inside the
glider. That is Ferdinand in front.

If I felt like crashing I could grab this and take us down ;)

My sun glasses kept falling off so I
improvised. This was up in the air.

View from the cockpit. That is the spa.

The town and the wing.

Ferdinand being an awesome pilot.

Having fun with the camera.

The view on our second flight.

We had an incredible time. It is very peaceful in the air. Ferdinand was a great pilot and we are extremely grateful to him for letting us have this experience. We are happy that we got to see some of this great country from the air. We really are going to miss this place. So if you ever visit Hajdúszoboszló come by the airfield and maybe you will see Ferdi taking part in his love of gliding.