In The Presence Of Greatness With No Presence Of Mind - AVweb

Glider pilot “facilities” were mentioned. At our airport at Albert Lea, MN (just north of where Rozendaal holds court) we host a National Glider Contest each year. We get competitors from all over the world. On the years where we have the “big ships”–those that have ultra-long range (and wings to match!), they often carry water ballast. We get a lot of spectators coming to the airport (we’re adjacent to town) to watch them finish. When the glider had the field made, they would do a “high-speed finish”–dumping water as they flashed overhead. It often made a rainbow-like sheen as viewed against the setting sun.

As the gliders were being put away one evening, a family came out and said “we saw this fall off a glider when it was landing.” It was a piece of rubber attached to a tube. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that their “find” was a pilot’s relief tube–glider pilots spend HOURS under a baking aircraft canopy, so must stay hydrated–and what comes in must come out. They solve the problem with a condom-like relief tube, and rather than remove it on the ground, the pilot simply removed it and dropped it. I told them that it was “part of the launch system”–they asked if they could keep it as a souvenir. Rather than have it proudly displayed on a wall, I told them “I’ll return it to the pilot!”