MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Soaring through the Southern Arizona sky for a chance to represent the United States at the international level is what has brought pilots from all over the country to Marana for an eleven-day event.
The Tucson Soaring Club is hosting the Soaring Society of America’s national competition for gliders with 15-meter wingspans.
“Each day is pushing the edges of my ability,” said Chuck Pinney.
Pinney is a long-time pilot, member of Tucson Soaring Club and President of Freedom’s Wings Arizona – but competing in this competition is a first for him.
“It’s the community, the spirit, the camaraderie, that comes with a common feeling from these,” he said. “I feel proud to be part of that community.”
It’s a community, the competition’s Contest Manager, Eric Redweik, is part of, and describes as strong.
“For all of Arizona, aviation is actually a huge part of our economy and so we like to see it grow around, we like to do what we can to grow our sport and encourage more people to kind of explore the sport of soaring and see what it has to offer,” Redweik said.
The Tucson Soaring Club is hosting this national competition for the first time since 1983. The competition kicked off on May 26.
“They head out and try to finish the course as fast as they can and then come back, cross the finish line,” Redweik explained. “At the end of the day, we take all of the GPS recordings of flight, put them into a computer and the computer outputs a score based on who did the fastest time, the greatest distance.”
Throughout the competition, pilots fly between 70 and 350-mile courses. The course changes depending on the day’s weather.
“It’s all dictated based on what the weather gives us,” Redweik said. “So, if it’s good weather, good soarable weather, like we have today (Wednesday) with nice flat bottom cumulus all over the place, we can go on long courses like today.”
He explained that the region is a draw for soaring.
“Arizona provides us some incredible soaring opportunities,” Redweik said said. “ With the combination of limited moisture, but a lot of heat, we get a lot of updrafts, thermal. So what people normally see as dust devils going by – that’s usually a rising column of air that we try to find and soar over in our aircraft.”
The competition wraps up on Thursday.
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
