What is Glider?
[[Image:dg800.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Modern glider flying above a lake called the Lac de Serre Ponçon in the [[French Alps]]]] '''Gliders''' are [[aircraft]] which do not have a [[engine|motor]]. Gliders are controlled by their pilots by using control-sticks. Some gliders can only carry one person; others can carry two. In gliders with two seats, each pilot has a control-stick. Gliders always have seats for the pilots. 'Sailplanes' are gliders with long wings so that they will only lose height slowly. In some places a [[vertical draft]] makes the air go up faster than the glider is going down. The pilot of a glider can make it climb by flying to these places. This is called [[soaring]]. Good pilots can travel long distances by always finding rising air. Some pilots race each other over hundreds of kilometres each day. Other pilots just fly for fun. [[Image:Glidercockpit.JPG|thumb|The pilot's seat and controls]] Gliders cannot get into the air by themselves. They are pulled into the air by an aircraft with a motor or they are pulled up by motor on the ground. There are two other types of gliders. [[Hang gliding|Hang-gliders]] have frames to give the wings their shape, but do not have seats for their pilots and do not have control-sticks. The wings of paragliders are like [[parachute]]s and so do not have frames to give them their shape. These other two types of glider are often launched from the tops of hills or [[cliff]]s. [[File:Archaeopteryx being footlaunched.jpg|thumb|A [[microlift glider]] being [[launch]]ed by a person. This kind of launch is called a footlaunch.]] The weight of a [[microlift glider]], can be as low as 54 kg (119 lb). [[Category:Aircraft]] {{aircraft}}