SYLACAUGA — Weeks after getting his driver’s license, 16-year-old Casey Henderson spent Tuesday in Sylacauga getting certified to take people up in the air on a sail plane.

The Hoover native has flown the non-motorized aircraft for two years, and performed his first solo flight on one at the age of 14. Henderson said he had been flying planes of all kind for around five years.

He also recently performed his first solo flight in a motorized plane.

“I fly a lot better than I drive, I think,” he said.

Casey’s father, Marty Henderson, said flying was a family affair. He and his wife had both been pilots but had not flown in several years.

He said a trip to a flying seminar at the Shelby County Airport when Casey was 13 got his son interested in sail planes, and got him back in the air.

“You never lose your pilot’s license, but you have to stay current with it,” Marty Henderson said. “So I got with an instructor and got my license back. And we started flying together.”

The sail planes, or gliders, are towed into the air by a lead airplane. From there, the plane glides on thermal air currents like a buzzard or a hawk. Casey and other like-minded people are a part of the Sylacauga Soaring Society, a club of around 30 members devoted to flying sail planes.

Father and son Bob and Eric Hey, members of the Society, said the typical glider flight stays around 3,000-4,000 feet. But, depending on the thermal currents, flights could go much higher.

Bob recalled talking to his son during one flight.

“We launched Eric out of Sylacauga and he flew over to Shelby,” Bob Hey said. “He got on the radio and said, ‘Dad, I’m going to 10,000 feet.’ I said keep going!”

“I got another call saying, ‘I’m at nearly 11,000.’ I said, ‘don’t go any higher.’ After a certain altitude, you have to have oxygen.”

They said a typical flight could leave Sylacauga, fly over Shelby County and Bessemer airports, and come back. They also said flights could go much further, but the distance covered was not necessarily the point of the flight.

Casey Henderson said he enjoyed the freedom of the sail plane, as opposed to the motorized craft.

“The biggest difference is that you soar off the weather,” he said. “You can stay up for four or five hours. It is a lot different with powered airplanes, because they are ‘point A’ to ‘point B,’ just hauling. In these, you are just out there for the heck of it. No pressure, no time constraints.”



Contact Matt Quillen at mquillen@dailyhome.com