Glider Pilots-Old & New!
The scene: Henry Mason has just finished his successful Private Pilot Glider checkride with flying colors, has taken dad and mom for rides, and is making good use of his newfound freedom to call around the community to find out who else wants to take a glider ride with him.
The event: at this opportune moment, up drives a car, and out steps—among others—Othmar “Oats” Schwartzenberger, who promptly tells us that he first soloed a glider in 1944.
1944? Yes, 1944, in Switzerland—and his first glider flight was in a Zögling open cockpit single-place glider. Othmar remains involved in the soaring community in Texas and made a special effort to stop by to see our operation when he was in the area Saturday before going to WAAAM to look at some gliders he may well have flown himself over half a century ago.
So here you have this week’s newest and oldest glider pilots together at Hood River—one who soloed 80 years before the other’s checkride at age 16.
