Soaring among the clouds, high above the ground with eagles, hawks, and condors as your companions, is among the most exhilarating experiences a person can have. Mankind has dreamed of flight since long before words were written, and gliding offers the purest form of flight. Gliders are airplanes without engines, and soaring is flying a glider using only what nature proivides to remain aloft for hours. Gliders can reach altitudes as high as 18,000ft (or higher under special conditions) by finding rising air under clouds and along ridges and mountains. Cross country flights of hundreds of miles are common, with some flights as far as 1000 miles!

Glider racing is a world wide phenomenon. Pilots race around a set of waypoints set tens or even hundreds of miles apart trying to achieve the shortest time. Lasting for hours, these contests challenge the best soaring pilots and their crews to use weather, navigation, and flying skill to maximum advantage! Oh, and there's no pit stops.

Soaring is not an individual sport. Every pilot needs help assembling and moving their glider on ground, getting into the air with a tow from an airplane, and sometimes pilots need help getting home when they don't make it back to home base (called "landing out"). This cooperative nature of the sport means that most glider pilots are friendly and eager to help, and we all love sharing our sport with others.