Gliding

Alright kiddo, let's talk about gliding! Imagine if you were a bird and you could soar through the sky without flapping your wings. That's what gliding is like!

When we talk about gliding, we're usually talking about gliding in a sailplane, which is like a little airplane without an engine. Instead of using an engine to fly, a sailplane uses the currents of air to stay in the sky.

So how does a sailplane stay up without an engine? Remember how your paper airplane goes up when you throw it, and eventually comes back down? That's because of something called gravity. Gravity is what keeps you on the ground, and it's what makes things fall down.

But what if you could find a way to balance out gravity so you don't fall down? That's where gliding comes in. Sailplanes use something called "lift" to stay up in the sky. Lift is created by certain types of air currents, usually in warm weather or near mountains.

When a sailplane pilot finds some lift, they fly their plane into it and it helps them go higher and stay in the air for longer. But if they can't find any lift, they'll eventually start to come back down to the ground.

So that's the basic idea of gliding, kiddo. Using the currents of air to stay up in the sky like a bird, and finding lift to keep flying. It's a way of flying without an engine, and it can be a lot of fun!