To the sailplane enthusiast, the best things in life are a cramped cockpit, a long slender wing, a stout updraft, and unending miles of sky. Given these things, plus ice to suck and fruit to munch, he will soar hawklike for hours on invisible fountains of air, wrapped in a silence so absolute that he can hear the faint whistle of a train passing below. Last week, in the 28th annual national soaring championships at Wichita's municipal airport, the pick of the U.S.'s 2,500 sailplane pilots were living the good life high above the Kansas plains.
The 36 contestants at Wichita needed...
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