CHERRY VALLEY — A spokesman for the Cherry Valley-based Memphis Soaring Society has explained the incident that occurred Friday afternoon.
The Cross County Sheriff’s Office responded around 2 p.m. Friday to what was initially dispatched as a glider crash.
Mark Olinger, treasurer/chief instructor for the Memphis Soaring Society, said what happened with the aircraft was a normal procedure known as a land-out and was the result of a loss of the lift necessary to return to the airport. Olinger said land-outs typically do not result in injury to either the pilot or the glider.
Olinger said when those incidents happen, the glider is disassembled and placed on a trailer to be brought back to the airport.
Gliders are fixed-wing aircraft supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air and do not depend on an engine.
