Date Airline Flight Type Regn Routing Time Miles Remarks
Back 15 May 90 SGS 2-33A N2873H E68-E68 00:25 10 mi Next

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At the time my wife had a co-worker whose husband was a sailplane pilot. Bill invited me up one Saturday so I gladly accepted the offer. I readied the VHS camcorder and met Bill. We stopped for an early lunch at a Burger King (bad idea) and headed out to Estrella Sailport 'E68.' I had never heard of Estrella nor had I any idea where this place was even located.

May in Arizona has the potential to be quite warm...some would say hot. Once we were hooked up to a tow plane (registration unknown...no photos) we eventually took to the skies for our first sortie. Camcorder rolling I got some fun footage of us during the flight. Unable to find any decent lift we safely landed back at E68.

After a little while we were ready for our second sortie. Camcorder at the ready again I was hopeful Bill would be able to find us a thermal so we'd be able to stay up a little longer. We were up and flying around for a few minutes and that's when it hit me. Air sickness. The heat, looking through a small viewfinder, and the motion was all it took for me to eventually give up that Burger King lunch. The ballcap I was wearing became the recipient of that and thankfully I was able to toss it out the window.

I told Bill what had happened and he decided to cut this sortie short so we headed back to E68.

Some years later one of my Phoenix friends emailed me. He let me know about an article in the May 1997 'Private Pilot' magazine about soaring written by Bill Feebeck. Bill mentioned me (and my unfortunate airsickness) in the magazine. I was able to buy a copy and I have it to this day.

Some years later I went back to E68 and found N2873H and snapped a photo for posterity.




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