{"id":46904,"date":"2024-06-21T13:32:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T17:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=46904"},"modified":"2024-06-21T13:32:32","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T17:32:32","slug":"lakeland-teen-pilots-set-to-compete-in-world-gliding-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/06\/21\/lakeland-teen-pilots-set-to-compete-in-world-gliding-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland teen pilots set to compete in World Gliding Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a hangar full of planes, there\u2019s something special about the kind of aircraft Steven Tellmann likes to fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI took my first flight in 2019, in a glider, and since then I\u2019ve always been hooked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A glider is a plane that doesn\u2019t have an engine and, for Tellmann, when he\u2019s by himself in the air, flying one of these things is unlike any other plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more challenging,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always, kind of, a different challenge every time you go fly it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a surreal experience that has been part of his years of training and practicing with the Lakeland AeroClub<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s the team captain of the club\u2019s soaring team and they\u2019re about to do something no high school soaring team in the United States has done, which is glide competitively on an international scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s neat in itself, just going to represent the U.S., but it\u2019s also really cool, like to go with my friends,\u201d Tellmann said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tellmann will be one of four pilots representing the U.S. in the Junior World Gliding Championships next month in Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It happens every two years and he and the rest of the boys here have been working hard to get to this point.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While Tellmann is one of the pilots, his teammates will be a part of the ground crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really says something when we\u2019re able to kind of nurture that and keep bringing it up, because now our plane is not just to have me go, we\u2019re trying to work down the line of the kids,\u201d said Tellmann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which includes helping those younger kids train in things like virtual reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt gets you used to everything that\u2019s going to be in the airplane,\u201d said Qwest Hipps, a 16-year-old member of the team joining Tellmann in Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Hipps, before ever flying a real glider, he and the rest of the students with the club use this technology to better prepare themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything looks identical,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, if we if we\u2019re going, if we\u2019re planning to fly somewhere else, we\u2019ll set it up to the airport that we\u2019ll be flying at, and it helps us get to know the area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training that\u2019s perfect for Tellmann too, who, because of logistical and cost reasons, must rent a glider in Poland to compete with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, if you ask him, his dad is a pilot and flying has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. So competition is one thing, but being able to feel the air underneath these wings is a feeling that will never get old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always seen myself doing it,\u201d Tellmann said. \u201cNever really thought about doing anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, he gets to do it while representing his country alongside his friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The championships in Poland will be happening July 13 through 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the club say they\u2019ll be posting videos of the competition on their YouTube channel<\/a> for people interested in following their progress competing against nearly 20 different countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a hangar full of planes, there\u2019s something special about the kind of aircraft Steven Tellmann likes to fly. \u201cI took my first flight in 2019, in a glider, and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[8877],"class_list":["post-46904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-lakeland-teen-pilots-set-to-compete-in-world-gliding-championships"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46907,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46904\/revisions\/46907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}