GALEN CULVER reports

Updated: May 19, 2003 5:47 PM

HINTON, OK. -- If you have children then you know school is almost out for the year. If you're a wheat farmer, then you know it's almost time for harvest. And, if you're a glider pilot you know late May is the beginning of soaring season in Oklahoma.

One group of dedicated pilots have been soaring together for more than two decades.
 
In a place where wind is constant, all it takes is a little sun and that moving air will begin to heat and rise. The hotter it is, the dryer it is, the better it is for pilots who ride those currents of warm air.

"About right now the season is beginning," said one pilot.

Beginning in late May and stretching through the summer the Soaring Sooners dust off their gliders and look to the skies.

"This time of day, it's pretty early. This time of year," said pilot Steve Michalik, who has been around since the club's beginnings.

"You're going to see the last bit of these storms come through and after those end, and the farmers cut the wheat around here, it really picks up," he said.

Stu Pulley came here from New York a few years ago for work.

"And trim is set for takeoff. Dive brakes are set. Instruments are checked and set. And we're rolling," he says as he starts another flight.

But he continues to chase his passion for flying gliders.

"I always come back to soaring. It's flying at its purest," he said. "Not much lift today. Very stable atmosphere."

Once the towline is released, the only sound is the wind. Staying aloft is the game they play with Mother Nature -- riding thermals to more than 10,000 feet for hours at a time.

"The thermals. The hot air rising here in Oklahoma. There are other places like out west where you get what's called 'Mountain Wave' and you can get up to 20- or 30,000-feet," Pulley said.

Below him a pilot can see an Oklahoma plain still green with springtime. The good soaring weather is still ahead.

On this day, some of the only people truly looking forward to a hot, dry, windy summer are here already testing the early thermals and dreaming of longer flights.

Near Hinton, Galen Culver, NewsChannel 4. Is this a great state or what?
 
The Soaring Sooners Glider Club meets just about every weekend at the Hinton municipal airport where you can buy yourself a demonstration ride if you're interested.

They also have a new website at www.soaringsooners.com.