Who is oldest glider pilot

On Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at 7:35:34 AM UTC+12, Casey wrote:
Just saw this on the news. Oldest power pilot.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) -- It's a classic saying: There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no "old, bold pilots."

Last week, the Guinness Book of World Records named 98-year-old Ernie Smith, of Red Oak, Iowa, the oldest active pilot in the world.

"(They said) you need to come out here. I got something important to talk about. So I stepped in the door and, 'I know what, they found somebody older,' and he said there is nobody older," Smith said.

Back in January, the Red Oak airport manager and some of his friends nominated Smith for the title.

In April, witnesses watched Smith fly the airplane solo, recorded his effort on video, all to document that he is still an active pilot.

Smith beat the previous record by five years. He says he plans to keep flying a rented plane a couple of times each week, weather permitting.

http://www.witn.com/content/news?article=393908181

Paraparaumu club member Ian Barber passed away in January last year aged 98.. If I recall correctly, he was still instructing at 91 and flying his Cirrus for another year or so after that.

Many years ago, Ian held for a period the model glider world duration record of 9 hours and 4 minutes set on the local ridge behind the gliding club in 1960. He used a valve (tube) transmitter and receiver working on carrier wave with each pulse triggering a relay and allowing a rubber band powered escapement to cycle through a set of rudder/elevator settings.


My late grandmother's brother is 93 (hopefully 94 in December). He joined the RAF during the war (not as a pilot), later ran a small airline in west Africa, and then for decades worked for Nathans (later Lion Nathan) in NZ. He stopped driving (still often 500 km nonstop) about a year ago aged 92. One day while he was 89 he read about the imminent reopening of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow after a six year rennovation, thought "I've never been to Russia!", and promptly booked flights and nearby hotel and several opening week performances. I stink he stopped wading into rivers for fly fishing at 90.