steve has definitely done some great things. has had some amazing
glider flights flying with amazing glider pilots. has he ever pulled
off any fantastic flight solo though? SSA doesnt show him having any
badges issued in the USA. For the record, I dont have any either.


Paul Remde wrote:
Hi,

I just read the new book "Chasing the Wind: The Autobiography of Steve
Fossett". Below is my review.
I am a big fan of Steve Fossett. I have closely followed many of his record
breaking endeavors over the years. I met him briefly at the Soaring Society
of America convention in February of 2005 just a few weeks before he made
the first nonstop around the world flight in the Virgin Atlantic
GlobalFlyer. He impressed me as a very friendly and down-to-earth person.
I've also been pleased to sell a few soaring instruments to his team over
the years - shipped to New Zealand and Argentina.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about his early life as an Eagle Scout and his
business career and especially liked reading about his adventures related to
endurance swimming, sled-dog racing, mountain climbing, yachting,
ballooning, and flying airplanes and gliders. He has an extremely
adventurous spirit and a "can do" attitude that I admire. While I have no
desire to climb mountains or go around the world in a balloon, I enjoyed
reading the entire book.

Upon first opening the book I was a bit disappointed to find that there are
no chapters dedicated to soaring and no photographs of gliders. In recent
years he has obtained many world soaring records. Thankfully, there are
about 7 pages in the beginning of the last chapter dedicated to his soaring
adventures. The section gives a good overview of his adventures setting
world soaring records in gliders with Terry Delore and flying with Einar
Enevoldson going for high altitude flights with the Perlan Project.

After the book was published he and Einar Enevoldson set a new world
altitude record in gliders of 50,671 feet (15,447 m).

I feel that all cross-country glider pilots have a bit of adventurous spirit
in us. I certainly felt like an "adventurer" while doing my first long
distance cross-country soaring flights and while going after state soaring
records. I found the book to be very motivational. It has rekindled my
desire to do long, memorable and record setting soaring flights.

The book is available he
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/books...ingTheWind.htm

You can also buy the book for a little less money at amazon.com, but please
buy from your favorite soaring book supplier.

Other new items at www.cumulus-soaring.com

Glider Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge by Russell Holtz
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/books...tsHandbook.htm

Flight Training Manual For Gliders by Russell Holtz
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/books...ForGliders.htm

Sailplane Design, by Vittorio Pajno
Discount - Slightly Damaged Copies Available
The first shipment of these books was unfortunately damaged on the way to me
from Italy. 11 of the 20 books were perfect, but 9 were damaged slightly.
Being a perfectionist and not feeling comfortable selling the slightly
damaged books as perfect books, I received a discount from the vendor so I
could sell the books at a discount. The damage consists of "bruises" to the
spines of the books and one or 2 with dents in the side of the spine (see
photo below). I will be selling them for $59.95 which is $25 off the
standard price. None of the books are badly damaged. I think the discount
is an extremely good value. You can select a discounted (slightly damaged)
book when you order. I will ship the least damaged books first. You can
see a photo of the damage on the web site.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/books...laneDesign.htm

TomTom Navigator 6 Street Navigation Software
The only complaint I had about version 5 was that you couldn't enter GPS
coordinates and then navigate to that location - as would be necessary to
navigate to the GPS coordinates of an off-airport glider landing. Version 6
can do that - which is nice. It's a great value at $149.95 for anyone that
already owns a Pocket PC and GPS. I also have a few copies of Navigator 5
left in stock that I'm selling for $75.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/tomtom.htm

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com