ABHA, 25 July — The Asir Summer Festival 2001 has reached new heights with the latest attraction — gliding — proving to be a huge draw.
Prince Bandar ibn Khalid Al-Faisal, the deputy chairman of Asir Tourism Board and a connoisseur of gliding, was instrumental in organizing the gliding show, and it has been enthusiastically received by visitors.
Gliding, which is very popular in Europe, is the art of a heavier-than-air aircraft without engine using airflow to produce free flights. Today it has become a rage in the Asir Summer Festival. Flights are being arranged near the green mountain ranges of Al-Sawdah in Abha and Saudis and foreigners, for the first time here, are enjoying this unique flying experience above the scenic mountain ranges. And they just love it.
The gliding show includes joy rides and training courses. There are five professional French trainers headed by Eddey, the chief instructor. Eddey has 15 years experience as instructor in France. They train people and take them for joy ride.
The training course is for one week which includes training on Tendens, a 2-seater glider. The trainer explains the techniques of takeoff, flying and landing. “The second stage of training includes on-glider training and various other techniques with three sessions of 2 hours each,” Alex, a trainer, said.
A joy flight takes about 20 minutes covering a 2-km radius area flying at an average height of 200 meters. About 15 to 20 people take these joy rides daily. The flight speed of the glider varies from 20 to 45 km per hour depending on wind speed on a given day.
“If the wind speed is more than 25 km per hour we don’t fly,” Alex said. “The height which the glider flies also depends on the thermals (hot air). If the weather is sunny the flight will be good and we can go up to 600 meters,” Alex added.
The thrill and excitement of floating in the air contributes to this adventure sport’s allure. No doubt gliding is one of the most popular events in Europe. And from the thrills experienced by the local people it looks like gliding is here to stay.
The timings for gliding at the Asir Festival are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and will continue till the end of August. The charges for joy rides are SR200 per trip and for training SR2,000 per course, said Abdullah M. Qahtani, supervisor of the event.
