OWL CANYON GLIDERPORT, Colo. (Jun. 27) -- A 17-year-old Civil Air Patrol (CAP) cadet soared alone above Wyoming and Colorado without an engine for five hours Friday, the longest flight to date at an ongoing 10-day glider camp near Wellington, Colo.  Chris Rothe, 17, of Colorado Springs, launched from the Owl Canyon Gliderport at 3:01 p.m. Following a circular path at nearly 14,000 feet, Rothe flew over Rocky Mountain National Park, Cheyenne, Wyo. and Fort Collins, Colo., before touching down at 8:00 p.m. Rothe said the tiring flight was his longest ever by more than three hours. "I had to sing songs to pass the time toward the end – it was just an incredible ride," said Rothe, a recent graduate of Air Academy High School. "I watched smoke from a ground fire rising through the air to help guide my flight path. And a falcon soared with me about 30 minutes into the flight."

A powered towplane released Rothe’s glider only a few thousand feet above the ground. A rising column of heated air, or "thermal," lifted him the rest of the way. Federal Aviation Administration rules prohibit gliders above 14,000 feet without oxygen, though Rothe said he could have gone higher. "The thermals were fantastic, very powerful," he said. The long flight will help Rothe in his effort to earn the Soaring Society of America Bronze Badge. Cadet Rothe is the Deputy Cadet Commander at Air Academy Composite Squadron in Colorado Wing CAP. He plans to attend Metropolitan State College in Denver this fall to study aerospace engineering. Rothe is one of 30 CAP cadets age 14-16 now learning to fly powerless aircraft from volunteer instructors with the CAP and Soaring Society of America (SSA) at Owl Canyon. The encampment is made possible in part by a 1996 Memorandum of Understanding signed by CAP and SSA. The agreement permits CAP to select promising young cadet members while the SSA offers ground school and glider crew operations – a full exposure to the aviation sport of soaring.

Participants represent 16 states, including Montana, Virginia, Oregon and Minnesota. Twenty cadets are attending their first glider camp; the others, such as Rothe, are returning veterans. Five attending cadets are female. Nationwide, nearly 400 CAP cadets applied for just 100 slots at five such encampments. The Owl Canyon Gliderport is a private airport north of Wellington [map attached], owned by the Colorado Soaring Association (CSA). It is an ideal training environment, with four marked runways up to 5000’ long and acres of landable prairie between runways. No power traffic is permitted, making it one of the few glider-only facilities in the nation. Event sponsors include the Colorado Soaring Association, the Black Forest Soaring Society, the Denver Soaring Council, Dunlop Aero of Salida, the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Young Eagles Program, LCCC, Knauff & Grove Soaring Supplies, and Bob Wander Soaring Books & Supplies. There are more than 59,000 CAP members nationwide: approximately 25,000 cadets and 34,000 adult volunteers. They wear the Air Force uniform with distinctive CAP emblems and insignia. Members operate more than 5,000 privately-owned aircraft, 530 CAP-owned aircraft and nearly 1,000 vehicles in support of the organizations programs.

Civil Air Patrol, the official Air Force auxiliary, is a nonprofit organization. It performs more than 85 percent of inland search and rescue missions in the continental United States. Volunteers also take a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to America’s youth through CAP cadet programs.

For additional information, contact Captain Aaron E. Kornblum, Wyoming CAP Wing PAO, (307) 773-4117.