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19 Mar 2008Gunnar Blanke, RIP
Everyone's best glider friend in Boulder, Gunnar Blanke, passed away today at work. Gunnar had helped MHG film PR pieces and was a Director of the MHYGA youth gliding program, one of 2 organizations (with Boulder Community Sailing) suggested by the family for memorial gifts. He may have had more time in the wave than anyone and he was a great Colorado SSA Governor in the 1990s. A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, May 9, 10AM, at the airport Terminal building. 
5 Mar 2008TV News feature
We starred on Channel 9's "Wild Rides" feature with reporter Gregg Moss. This sparked numerous enquiries, particularly about our youth scholarships. Thank you 9News! See our top CFI Sean Mackinder (accent on 1st syllable) and owner Dave Campbell (Seymour?) in this video clip. 
1 Feb 2008Duo on line early, Grob check-up
With the acquistion of a new shareholder, N125DD is back a month earlier then expected. Meanwhile, N103LM will need a brief trip soon to a Grob approved Repair Station for a life extension inspection. If it is away, please consider dual soaring in the Duo instead (or at any time!). 
5 Jan 2008Raptor protection
As they usually do from Feb 1 to Jul 1, the Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks office has closed hiking trails in the vicinity of the Flatirons and Bear Peak, near nesting areas for Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, and other raptors. We do our part by flying West of or high above these areas. For details, see www.osmp.org. Meanwhile, these beautiful birds visit us at the airport to dine on prairie dogs (we think)! 
15 Dec 2007Finis Genesis
1 Nov 2007Get your rating here
Thanks in large part to Bob Faris, who brought a backlog of students with him (often hang-glider or airplane friends), we did record business this year in FAA licensing. We validated 1 new CFI, 9 CML, 16 PVT, and 10 STD Certificates, with 22 solos half overlapping higher grades, and half from accelerated ("5-day") programs. Thanks also to our fine Examiners -- Bob, Al, Stephanie, Chris! 
20 Oct 2007Cable TV coverage
The Weather Channel visited us in March and just aired the fruits of some filming done just as the sleet approached, augmented by some of our archival footage. Look for John, Sean, Pat... The 2 minute clip about the Boulder wave, "Riding waves in the sky" takes a litle digging to uncover on the TWC website, but follow links like Watch Online >... Weather Ventures. 
30 Sep 2007Surf's up!
Fall ushers in the season for waves set off by the Arapahoe Peaks West of Boulder. After braving some rotor turbulence, one can be rewarded with successive waves of smoothly rising air stretching for miles parallel to the Continental divide, sometimes above 30,000'. The wave shown here was unusually wet for Colorado, showcasing spectacular lenticular clouds at the crests. 
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10 Jul 2007It pays to be young
Each summer, we are pleased to work with teenagers and young adults on their first flying licenses after age 16 (minimum for passenger carrying) or age 14 (minimum for solo). For 2007, we especially congratulate new PVT pilot Karl Parsons (17) and new solo Mark Beaty (14), who both worked the line very nicely. Also new PVT was Jacob Leblanc (18), and new solos Eric Henry (18) and Thomas Matthew (15) ... most recipients of MHYGA and Sylvia grants! 
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for larger imageSee 2001 and 1999 Daily Camera articles. See Scholarship
27 Apr 2007Regional Champion
Congratulations to Bob Faris, who took his LS-3 to the Region 9 Championships in Parowan, UT, and won Sports Class with 3 1000 point days out of 7! He had stiff competition from famous pilots flying two up in Duos, like the legendary Karl Striedieck and New Zealand's Gavin Wills. The contest featured long flights in strong weather over beautifully stark terrain, which you can sample via IGC files at SSA. 
11 Feb 2007Video coverage
The Daily Camera, our local Boulder newspaper, and Boulder Public Access TV Channel 54, enjoy the video products of Ryan Van Duzer, an enthusiastic and humorous young Outdoors reporter known as the "Out There Guy". Ryan and his brother Ethan joined us on a Double Mile High ride, filmed from within and without! Check out the short video clip condensed from the TV program. 
6 Dec 2006Twin solos
Our intrepid line crew from last summer has fully joined the ranks of solo pilots. Still age 14, Pete Scherer got signed off by Bob Faris today, catching up with his twin Joe who went solo Dec 3. The two Boulder kids came to us from Civil Air Patrol and have easily earned a number of scholarships with us with their hard work and passion for flying. They are recipients of MHYGA awards, Sylvia Bond grants, and family gifts in memory of Heather and Dave. They will be ushering at the Colorado Soaring Pilots Seminar and Dinner, 2/24 at Centennial Airport.
4 Dec 2006Television coverage
One of our resellers, Cloud9living.com, brought out a customer to be filmed by local News on a Mile High Glider ride. Shaun Boyd of Channel 4 (who featured us once on "Colorado Getaways") was here to capture the briefing with Bob Carl, takeoff, and landing. May this spark holiday Gift Certificate sales! See the Channel 4 video clip. 
Renew with SSA individually
With a goal of cutting costs a year ago, the Directors of the Soaring Society of America eliminated long-standing rebates for group renewal through SSA Chapters like the "Mile High Gliding Club". With no financial incentive for MHG to do the processing, we have elected not to. As a result, those of you in SSA through MHG Club should get individual renewal requests from SSA. We encourage you to renew, the price is as before, it will not be redundant. SSA, now 75 years old, welcomes your support, and we wish you the many member benefits. 
22 Oct 2006
USAFA Cadets join us
Mile High Gliding has become the favorite place for USAFA Cadets to come fly gliders civilian-style and obtain their FAA ratings. It is a bit of a drive from the Springs, but they like our service-oriented FBO nature. Bill Daniels was very impressed with the flight skills of cadet Instructor Pilot leaders Joe Samek and Nick Hainsfurther and led them to CFI-G ratings. While Joe has gone on to USAF glider programs at Edwards AFB, Nick has joined our staff and regularly brings up PVT candidates.
4 and 5 Aug 2006
15 Apr 2006Celebration of Life
Two wonderful gatherings were held in Boulder to celebrate the lives of Heather McRoberts (19) and David Para (30), who died in the crash of a rented airplane up on Rollins Pass. Heather and Dave, two Boulder natives, were our full-time summer towpilots, and we will miss their exuberance and amazingly ever-present smiles. Dave's memorial at Scott Carpenter Park featured the release of dozens of balloons, floating messages up to the Flatirons, Heather's the freeing of a pair of doves. At both ceremonies, all 3 MHG towplanes did a slow fly by (thanks, John, Jerad, Nathan), joined at Heather's by Antique Airplane Association biplanes and Heather's own Luscombe (thanks, Pat). See our 2001 story on Heather's first glider solo with us.
5 Apr 2006Television coverage
David Wright, "Doctor D" of the NASA childrens' show "NASA Sci-Files", filmed a gliding segment with the "treehouse detectives" attempting to solve "the case of the Energy Crunch". Our G103, our beautiful site, and our sport of mining the air for energy were featured about half-way through the show aired this month on NASA TV and viewable online from http://scifiles.larc.nasa.gov/ 
Glider Pilots Ground School
Captain Dave Seymour, who we enjoy having on staff when he is in town, has revived the family business "Glider Pilots Ground School", a one-day guaranteed-pass prep. class for the FAA Glider Knowledge Tests. Started in the 1970s, it is newly revamped with modern PowerPoint visuals and accompanying Test Prep. books, stocked at MHG. A Denver area course is scheduled for April 30. 1-877-FLY-GPGS. 
18 Sep 2005
Legal Eagles
Our latest tour group visit was from lawyers in Denver for a legal office IT conference. 20 of them came out by bus for our "Mountain" ride to the ridge and back. Thanks to 8 pilots and aircraft, including our 2-33s, court was ajourned after only 3 hours. 
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30 Jul 2005
Celebration of Life
A gathering of friends was held today in Wheat Ridge to celebrate the life of Sylvia Bond, mother of MHG owner David "DC" Campbell. She passed away unexpectedly last week at age 81. DC has established a new set of youth glider flight scholarships in her name.
17 Jul 2005
25 Jun 2005Long Flights
Our instructor Bill Daniels flew his Nimbus 2C from Boulder to Santa Fe, NM, and back to Alamosa, CO, for a distance of 530 miles. This was the same day that 5Z and ZL from Black Forest went to Taos, NM and back. Nick Stong and Al Ossorio have gone into Wyoming and back launched from MHG tows. 
15 Jun 2005Hot Stuff
With the temperature getting to the 90s day after day, some spectacular thermal flights have been made late in the day. Visitors from all over the USA and Europe have been ecstatic about zipping around the Continental divide at 17,000' in our Genesis, with cloudbase still high above them. 
15 Apr 2005Television coverage
David Klingensmith, an 18 year old in a wheelchair, first soloed our Grob 103 with hand-controlled rudder over a year ago. While preparing for his Private Pilot certificate this week, David was featured on Channel 9 News in a story by weather reporter Nick Carter, himself a former teenage pilot from his days in Illinois Civil Air Patrol. Nick has done other stories about gliding here, including a film of him going to 23,000' in wave.
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15 Sep 2004Product Dealerships
We have been appointed Mountain Region dealers for Mountain High Oxygen E&S and have sold several portable EDS systems already. We also offer Borgelt variometers, MicroAir radios, and Volkslogger data recorders, as well as RAM mounting components. Private owners looking to upgrade should give us a call, and renters can enjoy demonstrators in our ships. For Colorado locals, we offer to match prices to the big soaring retailer, minus shipping, plus Boulder sales tax. Visit our Products page to also see the T-shirts and books we stock, not to mention Hoffmann props or Schweizer spare parts!
20 Jul 2004Youth Must Fly
Each summer, we are pleased to work with teenagers and young adults on their first flying licenses after age 16 (minimum for passenger carrying) or age 14 (minimum for solo). This year was a banner year and we congratulate new PVT pilots Sam Atwood (20), Carlin Getliffe (18), Ali Aschoff (16), Jordon Griffler (16), Loren Spears (16), and new solos Mike Kelly (16) and P.J. Chisolm (16) ... all recipients of MHYGA grants!
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for larger imageSee 2001 and 1999 Daily Camera articles. See Scholarship
Regional Championships
The Duo Discus went to the Region 9 (AZ, CO, NM, UT, WY) Sports Class contest in Parowan, UT, this year. MHG owner Dave Campbell and past National Champ Richard Hall placed 3rd overall, along with other team members Richard's father Dick, MHG Chief pilot Al Ossorio and his glider partner Dave Mencin. Two weeks later, their 3rd partner, Bill Kaewert, won the other Region 9 Sports contest (Hobbs), in their Nimbus 2!
7 Jun 2004
Long Flights
Outstanding Spring weather allowed impressive feats. 3 of our Flight Instructors (John, Al, Gary) recently soared in excess of 500 km (311 mi) from Boulder to complete their FAI "Diamond" soaring badges. Another, Bill Daniels, flew Diamond distance in a straight line from Alamogorda, NM, to Alamosa, CO. Congratulations also to John Seaborn, who flew 1,000km (624 mi.) from Boulder from a Mile High Gliding tow, nearly rounding both the New Mexico and Wyoming borders.
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12 Apr 2004
Kevin Cousineaus's "High Rent" Article.
Read Kevin Cousineaus's great article from the March 2004 issue of Soaring Magazine. Kevin raved about our spectacular views and his easy climb to 18,000' and the top of Long's Peak, 20 miles away. He was also impressed with our equipment and work with youth, including that his G102 rent subsidized their flying. 
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for article (thanks, SSA)
21 Mar 2004
Ride in a Historic Glider
An article in the April/May Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine (p.58) reviews observation airplanes developed for the Vietnam war, based on the efficient Schweizer 2-32 airframes. One of these QT-2PC aircraft was returned to glider service by Boulder soaring expert Bruce Miller. If you take a ride in N2472W, note the Lockheed logo on the tail. 
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18 Mar 2004
Quiet Towplanes for all
We have acquired an STC from the FAA to install 4-bladed propellers on Piper Pawnee towplanes. We pioneered their use in the USA and proved their low noise output in four years of trials. Now, we can license any USA towplane operator to make the simple bolt-on switch, and we can even supply the propellers as an agent of Hoffmann Propeller KG & Co GmbH . 
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for poster (453K)
20 Feb 2004
Group Field Trips
On occasion, we are pleased to give brief air experiences to large groups of visitors. On a weekday morning, we can manage a dozen discounted rides of a few minutes each in the space of an hour. Our most recent event was hosting the Boulder Emergency Rescue Squad, who considered it a training exercise in aircraft exit systems. Last month we welcomed school kids from Lakewood's Center for Discovery and Learning and last September we hosted 20 students from Lakewood's Longview High School who's flights counted as EAA Young Eagles flights. 
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for several Young Eagles images.
4 Feb 2004
Glider Displays
We like to make the public aware of our nature sport and flight training opportunity. Displaying actual hardware goes a long way to arousing interest and dispelling myths, and sailplanes can be dis-assembled and transported easily to other venues. Recently, we exhibited our Genesis inside Longmont's Twin Peaks Mall. Our Duo Discus was a star of the "Gears, Games, Gadgets" recreational trade show at the Denver Convention Center. 
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10 Jan 2004
Prize Winning Youth Visit Mile High Gliding
From sunny Texas, we were joined by a shiverring Mike Westbrook (2000 SSA Kolstad award), and Sylvia Szafarczyk (2001 SSA Bultman best crew), both 18. Sylvia was on a "Tom Bullington" MHYGA grant. Both had dual flights to 23,000 feet and were checked out in the G102 single-seater. (Now with A-14 high altitude O2 system) Sylvia got her Silver altitude badge. Congratulations!
17 Dec 2003
05 Apr 2003*** HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ***
Celebrating 100 years of powered flight: Dec. 17 1903 - Dec. 17 2003.
In celebration of this historic event, Al Ossorio and Nick Stong from Mile High Gliding flew the Grob 103 in the mountain wave at 18,000 feet for 100 minutes. A tribute to Wilbur for staying up at 18 feet for 1 minute in one of their gliders on October 1903. Their best duration. 
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09 Jun 2002Diamond Days
Between November 2002 and March 2003, almost every other day was a "wave day". Four visitors came to fly our equipment and succeeded in scoring their FAI "Diamond" altitude gain (16,404' ft.). Others, including locals, made easy "Gold" gains (9,842 ft.) on many days. 
30 Apr 2002The web site gets an overhaul and a new look.
We flipped the color scheme from elegant white-on-black to practical black-on-white. It improves legibility and saves a lot on black ink cartridges when printing. We also removed frames and enhanced images. Hope you like it. 
15 Oct 2001Facilities & Equipment upgrades
Come see our newly enclosed porch with drink & snack fridges, chairs and gas grill. The G103 has new upholstery and we can tail-tow it for West ops. Our flagship Pawnee, 18L, is resplendent in new fabric and "CU" black-and-gold trim. Enjoy 12,000' thermals while you're here.
05 Oct 2001Goodbye Chris
Chris Rollings has returned home to England and new pursuits (see www.tigerairways.co.uk ). After a year full-time at MHG, he left us with 4 fine new instructors and a training system through Cross-Country, CFI-G, and Contests. This included flying a Nationals with beginners and coaching USA champions out of Boulder. He may return for occasional special events. 
25 Sep 2001Coast to Coast in a 2-32
Our Schweizer 2-32 N2758Z made it in 3 days to Winter Haven, FL, behind our SuperCub "84A". The team on this epic flight, towpilot Rick, glider pilot Al, and owner Dave, is the same that ferried the ship from Lompoc, CA, to Boulder 2 years ago. "58Z" has now been towed coast to coast! 
06 Sep 2000Free to fly as normal
Following the 9-11 crisis grounding of all civil aviation, the FAA incrementally restored flight privileges. Private glider flying was authorized 9-20, commercial rides 9-21, and flight training to include Student Pilot solos 9-22. Area and event restrictions remain: No loitering near CU's Folsom stadium when full. 
31 Aug 2000Labor Day Salida Camp
Colorado pilots love to go on "camps", expeditions to sleepy mountain airports in scenic areas. Several of our staff and regular customers took the Duo Discus and joined the Soaring Society of Boulder at Salida over Labor Day weekend. Thanks to B&J Flying Service for being great hosts. Click on thumbnails
for big pix [courtesy David Hastoglis]
18 Mar 2000New Advanced Ships
A Genesis 2 has just been relocated to Mile High Gliding for leaseback. Come fly one of the newest designs in the Standard Class. It is almost as easy to fly as our Grob G102IIIIb, added early this year. The Duo Discus we just set up on leaseback as well as our own trusty G103C can orient to flying at high L/D.
10 Jan 2000In like a Lion, out like a Lamb...
Today saw the first use of the "low-noise" propeller for our high-powered Pawnee 260 towplanes. These four-bladed German props are not cheap (they cost as much as some gliders), but we want to be good citizens in a town that values quiet. Besides, no one appreciates silent flight more than we do!
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01 Jan 2000It pays to see "The Thomas Crown Affair"
- available on Video -
This Pierce Brosnan/Rene Russo "caper" movie was a hit in theaters last summer. Like the 1971 Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway version, it featured sailplane flying as one of the hero's exotic hobbies. During the premiere week, we displayed our own Duo Discus at the Westminster AMC 24 complex and we handed out the coupons at right. The "Duo" is the sailplane from the film, shown cavorting and soaring along Appalachian ridges near Elmira, NY, and State College, PA. It looks similar to our Grob G103C pictured here, in which we offer rides. 
MHG Club membership passes first dozen
To encourage participation in our frequent flyers Club, we offered free membership in the Soaring Society of America to those that enrolled by the end of January (value $55 over age 22, $27 under). The Mile High Gliding Club has been approved as a Chapter Member of the SSA. 
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For immediate questions and to schedule Rides, Lessons, or Rentals, please call (303)527-1122 9-5 MT. Read About Us. Write or visit us at 5534 Independence Rd., Boulder, CO 80301. You may also e-mail  , or submit our online form.
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