Free Dream Horse by Bonnie Bryant Page A

altitude, I’ll find more lift when I need to go higher.”
    “Boy, if the weather stays right, you can go on forever, then, can’t you?” Phil asked.
    “Not exactly,” said Uncle Michael. “For one thing, asthe sun goes down, the thermals disappear. For another thing, while there are thermals that give lift, like most good things, there is an opposite. That’s known as sink. Sink will bring you down as fast as lift will raise you up. Wherever you go, whatever you do in a glider, you’ve always got to leave room for sink. This is especially true where we’ll be flying today, over these beautiful mountains. Here, we get lift from thermals, but we also get lift from the updrafts that occur when wind hits a mountainside and is deflected upward. That can be perilous, however, since the currents that pass over the top of the ridges tend to drop quite suddenly on the other side.”
    “Sink,” said Phil.
    “Big sink,” agreed Uncle Michael. “So we fly carefully when we have to be near the mountaintops. There are a number of precautions glider pilots take to avoid risks. One of them is that one glider passing another near a ridge never, never passes on the outside of the other. That might tend to force the other glider closer to the mountain, where the winds are unpredictable, dangerous, and—”
    “Phil? Is that Phil
Marsten
?”
    Phil turned to see who was interrupting his conversation with Uncle Michael.
    “Veronica?” he asked, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
    Veronica smoothed her already impeccably smooth blouse and blinked sweetly.
    “Why, I was about to ask you the same question!” she cooed.
    “Uncle Michael, this is Veronica diAngelo. She rides at the same stable as my girlfriend, Stevie Lake,” Phil said. He wouldn’t normally have bothered to explain that Stevie was his girlfriend. Uncle Michael certainly didn’t need to know it, but from the way Veronica was blinking at him wide-eyed, it seemed to Phil that
she
needed a reminder that Phil had a girlfriend.
    “Ooooh, are you going to go flying in that thing?” she asked, pointing at Uncle Michael’s glider.
    “Yes,” Phil said, sighing.
    “I’m going for a ride in Daddy’s plane,” Veronica said, answering a question that hadn’t been asked. “It’s that big one over there.” She pointed to a plane that was parked behind the main building. Next to the plane a man was waving at Veronica, telling her it was time for them to take off. Veronica waved back at him, as if it were a greeting. The man began walking toward Veronica and Phil. “Daddy’s pilot, Hubert, is taking me up for a ride. It’ll be the first time I get to go up in the
private
plane. I just know it’s going to be great.”
    “I’m sure it is,” Phil said. He had long since learnedthat it didn’t pay to engage in any conversation with Veronica. The less said to or by her, the better.
    “Our tow is about ready,” said Uncle Michael. “Shall we go? Nice meeting you, Veronica.”
    A small golf cart arrived to pull the glider onto the runway, where the tow plane would take them up as high as they needed to go to find thermals—approximately two thousand feet.
    Ten minutes later, Phil had clipped on his parachute and was in the backseat of the glider. He fastened his safety harness securely and closed the clear plastic canopy over his head. Uncle Michael was in front of him. They finished their preflight checklist, including testing all the controls—the rudder, ailerons, elevator, flaps, and spoilers. Phil loved the sounds of the names. The very words were exciting to him.
    Uncle Michael snapped his own canopy tight and gave a thumbs-up to the pilot of the tow plane. With the help of the ground crewman, they double-tested the towline release. Then they were ready to go. The ground crewman held the glider level so the craft balanced on its single central wheel, then signaled to the tow pilot that he could proceed. The tow pilot moved the airplane forward,