FLYING a glider is more exciting than being at the controls of a jumbo jet for Greg Schmidt.
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The former Cathay Pacific pilot swapped Airbuses for air currents after retiring from international airline flying in 2004.
“Flying a glider is a hell of a lot better because most of the flying I did was in the middle of the night from Hong Kong to Vancouver or Hong Kong to Toronto and there was 15 hours of sitting in the darkness with bad coffee and stale sandwiches,” Mr Schmidt said.
The Queenslander is at Benalla for the national gliding championships next week and took Border Mail photographer Ben Eyles for a flight yesterday.
Gliding is a passion Mr Schmidt discovered on New Year’s Day in 2004.
“It’s a very enjoyable sport and more than anything I like the social side but I also enjoy the feeling — it’s very challenging using the weather as your motor,” Mr Schmidt, 63, said.
“I’m lucky enough I learnt to fly at 16 and I was an airline pilot for 40 years and when I gave it away I still had aviation in my blood.”
The Kingaroy Soaring Club member, who lives on the Gold Coast, is one of 64 competitors at Benalla for the 31st Club and Sports Class National Gliding Championships.
Contest director Tim Shirley said Mr Schmidt was typical of many of the competitors who entered the sport as retired baby boomers.
“It tends to attract a more mature age group and that’s partly because of the availability of spare cash and having the kids off their hands,” Mr Shirley said.
“The sport is becoming more popular, being a fairly expensive sport it’s never going to have huge numbers, it’s not football or netball.”
The cost of a glider ranges from $50,000 to $150,000 with three classes, club, sport and 20-metre wingspan competing in the national titles.
The contest begins on Tuesday and runs until January 13 with pilots racing across distances ranging from 200 to 600 kilometres.
Mr Shirley says competitors, who have come from as far away as Japan, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands, would drink three to four litres of water during their flights.
