85: Soaring With Prince Charles: An Interview with George Lee Triple Gliding World Champion
02/02/21 • 60 min
Honored to have Triple Gliding World Champion George Lee MBE with us on the podcast today. George was Born in Dublin in 1945. Joined the Royal Air Force in 1962 as a technical apprentice. He then Became a pilot and flew primarily the F4 Phantom. He Joined Cathay
Pacific Airways in 1984 where he flew 747s for fifteen years before retiring to Australia.
George Started gliding in 1963, became an instructor and gained all three diamonds.
Started contest flying in 1970, and flew in five World Championships (all Open Class),
winning the first three (Finland, France and Germany), being the first person in
history to win three consecutive world titles. He also Flew in the Smirnoff Derby in 1977,
and flew in two Hitachi Masters in Arizona and Florida). George Instructed Prince Charles
for his first and only flights in a glider. Received numerous awards, including the
Lilienthal Medal, the Royal Aero Club Gold Medal, the Britannia Trophy and the
Air League Founders Medal.
George Ran advanced coaching courses for primarily experienced junior pilots in
Australia, the students coming from Australia, the UK, the USA, Austria and South
Africa. All this and more as we hear his amazing soaring journey.
(47:23) Dale Masters, author and glider pilot brings us another Soaring Tale and this one is called "Ballad From Button Bay"
(50:22) Glider Pilot, Powered Pilot and YouTuber Pilot Bambi for our Soaring Safety Segment.
(52:18) To finish up the episode we head to sunny Florida for our Tips & technics segment to talk to Bruce Patton. All this and more now on Soaring The Sky.
Honored to have Triple Gliding World Champion George Lee MBE with us on the podcast today. George was Born in Dublin in 1945. Joined the Royal Air Force in 1962 as a technical apprentice. He then Became a pilot and flew primarily the F4 Phantom. He Joined Cathay
Pacific Airways in 1984 where he flew 747s for fifteen years before retiring to Australia.
George Started gliding in 1963, became an instructor and gained all three diamonds.
Started contest flying in 1970, and flew in five World Championships (all Open Class),
winning the first three (Finland, France and Germany), being the first person in
history to win three consecutive world titles. He also Flew in the Smirnoff Derby in 1977,
and flew in two Hitachi Masters in Arizona and Florida). George Instructed Prince Charles
for his first and only flights in a glider. Received numerous awards, including the
Lilienthal Medal, the Royal Aero Club Gold Medal, the Britannia Trophy and the
Air League Founders Medal.
George Ran advanced coaching courses for primarily experienced junior pilots in
Australia, the students coming from Australia, the UK, the USA, Austria and South
Africa. All this and more as we hear his amazing soaring journey.
(47:23) Dale Masters, author and glider pilot brings us another Soaring Tale and this one is called "Ballad From Button Bay"
(50:22) Glider Pilot, Powered Pilot and YouTuber Pilot Bambi for our Soaring Safety Segment.
(52:18) To finish up the episode we head to sunny Florida for our Tips & technics segment to talk to Bruce Patton. All this and more now on Soaring The Sky.
Previous Episode
84: Hypoxia and Soaring: An Interview with Scott Ashton
Scott E. Ashton is President and CEO of Aerox Aviation Oxygen Systems, based in Bonita Springs, FL. Scott is an aerospace industry executive with more than 25 years of experience working in engineering, sales and marketing, and executive roles. He has extensive experience in aircraft sales, operating business aircraft and helicopter charter operations, and MRO operations. He has served as President of the Connecticut Soaring Association and also as President of the New England Air Museum, based in Hartford, Connecticut. Scott also currently serves on the Board of Patient Airlift Services, a charitable organization that arranges private air transportation at no cost for individuals requiring medical diagnosis, treatment or follow-up, and for humanitarian purposes. Mr. Ashton is an ATP rated pilot with ratings for airplanes, gliders, and helicopters, and is a Certificated Flight
Instructor with more than 2,700 hours of flight time. Scotts education includes a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a Masters in Engineering from the University of Hartford, and an MBA from the Lally School of Business at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Scott and his wife have three grown children and live in Naples, Florida.
(34:16) Author and glider pilot Dale Masters joins us for another Short story on "Soaring Tales with Dale" this one is titled "Space Walk" A story that teaches us the importance of securing the cockpit before our flight.
(37:10) For our Just Soaring Tips & Technics segment we catch up with Glider pilot Dennis Linnekin as he shares with us what it's like flying the ridges of the Appalachians to big thermals west of the Mississippi and mountain wave and convergence in California.
(40:36) For our Soaring safety segment we hear form Glider pilot Keith Schwab about incident and accident reports. All this and more now on episode 84 of Soaring the sky.
www.soaringthesky.com
Next Episode
86: Cross Country Soaring In the Canadian Rockies: An Interview With Patrick McMahon
Today our featured guest pilot is Patrick McMahon, Patrick is a Canadian cross country soaring pilot and flight instructor located in Alberta Canada. Today he flies at The Cu Nim Gliding Club, having learned to fly with the Royal Canadian Air Cadet Program, and learned to soar in southern Ontario at York Soaring Association.
During the week Patrick manages various energy efficiency programs across Canada, with an emphasis on residential retrofits. Soaring is an extension of this work as he considers it "energy efficiency as a sport".
He is an advocate for the sport in Canada, maintaining the social media properties of the Soaring Association of Canada, has served for over a decade on the volunteer boards of his respective gliding clubs, and is a co-founder of the Proving Grounds - an automated task scoring and ranking platform intended to turn glider pilots to soaring pilots in 3 simple steps.
Patrick co-owns an LS6-b "EH", but will fly anything he can when the weather is pleasant and there's a willing tow pilot!
Later on this episode we hear another great Soaring tale from author and glider pilot Dale Masters.
We than head to Blairstown New Jersey for our Tips & Technics segment and catch up with blogger and CFIG Daniel Sazhin. Today we will talk about the importance of being trained on how to handle landing out and one of his recent interesting experiences when he had to do just that.
We then wrap up the podcast with our soaring safety segment with Gary Kemp. Gary has flown gliders for over 40 years and has logged more then 4,000 hours in the cockpit. He will share with us some personal experiences that he has learned from that can help you stay safe to fly another day. All this now on episode 86 of Soaring the sky.
instagram.com/glidecunim
http://soaringtasks.com/
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