Pictures of the day: Flying without an engine

Frequent photo contributor Albert L Dyer sent in these photos, taken at Hinckley Airport in Illinois, just outside of Chicago O’Hare airspace.

“It is surrounded by farmlands rich in green crops,” he begins. “It’s a peacefully quiet airport. Hinckley is an airport with golf course smooth turf that primarily operates a glider operation. There are plenty of chairs outside the operations building to sit in for seekers like me to watch. This I found to be a very soothing experience.

Answering questions from the local folks that just stopped by to “set a spell” and watch, to those who fly in, one question seems to always be asked…and perhaps over time answered a thousand times already, “where can you fly if you don’t have an engine?”

“A flight experience is usually offered as an answer with distance flown and duration aloft from pilots with grins as though they had won the lottery.’

“Me? I flew in to “set a spell” and watch, asked perhaps too many questions, “set a spell” longer, watched some more, just relaxing and thought, “what a nice place to fly from. I think I need to get an intro flight logged sometime this year.” Sat a bit longer. It really was a nice day watching gliders fly.”