Date: Fri 06-Jun-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Grondal-soaring-record

Full Text:

Grondal Sets Soaring Record

NEW MILFORD - Newtown resident Louis Grondal has set a new Connecticut State

soaring record for standard-class gliders, traveling more than twice as far as

the previous record distance.

Mr Grondal flew his sailplane from Candlelight Farms airport near New Milford

to North Adams, Mass., and back on May 11. This flight of 159.2 miles has been

verified as setting a new state record for out and return distance, breaking

the old record of 67.7 miles, according to Wallace J. Moran, the Soaring

Society of America Connecticut state governor.

Sailplanes, or gliders as they are more commonly known, are initially towed by

another aircraft to approximately 3,000 feet above the ground. Thereafter they

are sustained by rising columns of air called thermals. Created by the sun's

rays heating the earth, thermals are the same columns that help hawks and

eagles to soar. To complete his cross-country task, Mr Grondal flew from

thermal to thermal to maintain his altitude.

Mr Grondal is a member of the Nutmeg Soaring Association and the husband of

Linda DeMarco, MD, who also holds a Connecticut state soaring record. An

article about Dr DeMarco's flight was published in The Newtown Bee last

October.