soaring in a sailplane vhs documentary 1985 featuring pilot Rolf Schulze

Soaring in a Sailplane

Soaring in a Sailplane

A 1985 documentary short about flying without an engine, filmed from inside the cockpit and from the runway below.

Pilot Rolf Schulze takes the sailplane up behind a tow plane, lets go of the rope, and flies on nothing but rising air: climbs, turns, a full 360, inverted flight, and long, quiet glides over the mountains before he lands.

Patty Mooney rode along in the cockpit with a VHS camera. Mark Schulze filmed from the runway and the hills around it. It’s one of the first films New & Unique Videos ever made.

Flight log1985
Pilot
Rolf Schulze
In the cockpit
Patty MooneyAerial cinematography, cockpit point of view
On the ground
Mark SchulzeGround cinematography
Format
Documentary short, in color
Collection
Cultural Films

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What you see

The camera follows the sailplane and its tow plane through takeoff, the climb together, and the release. From there it stays with the glider: extended glides, full turns, inverted flight, and smooth landings with the mountains behind. You see the runway up close, the aircraft from underneath and from the air, and wide shots that show just how big the sky is around it.

The shape of a sailplane flight: towed up behind a powered plane, released, circling upward in rising air, a full 360-degree turn and inverted flight, then a long glide down to landing. On tow behind the powered plane Release Circling up in rising air A full 360° turn Inverted flight The long glide Landing
The shape of a sailplane flight, and the moments the film shows along the way.
  1. On tow behind the powered plane
  2. Release from the tow rope
  3. Circling up in rising air
  4. A full 360° turn and inverted flight
  5. The long glide down over the mountains
  6. Landing

Two cameras, one flight

Nothing was staged. It was filmed in real flight conditions, so the camera work is quick and responsive, panning, tilting and zooming to keep up with aircraft in motion.

Patty Mooney, in the cockpit

Inside the flight

Filmed with a VHS camera inside the sailplane, this footage puts you in the cockpit with the pilot, close enough to feel every climb, turn and landing.

Mark Schulze, on the ground

The whole picture

From the runway and the terrain around it, Mark tracked both aircraft together, giving the scale and the sense of place you can’t get from inside.

Made in 1985

This is one of the earliest New & Unique Videos productions, made when VHS was just reaching people’s homes. Very few films about sailplane flying existed for home video back then, which makes this a rare one.

It shows the spirit the company started with: take a new kind of camera somewhere interesting and record a way of life that few people get to see.

Flying without an engine

Sailplane flying may be the purest form of aviation. It depends on skill, on reading the weather, and on restraint, not on power. Recording it from the air and the ground keeps a practice built on precision, trust and respect for natural forces.

It’s a film for aviation enthusiasts, for teachers, and for anyone who loves landscape, motion and quiet.

The original soundtrack

The music from the film is available on its own. Like the flight, it’s open, unhurried and calm. Listen on Bandcamp.

Watch the full film for $5. It’s also available for educational use and licensing. Contact us to ask.

Watch the full film

Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze are San Diego filmmakers and the co-founders of New & Unique Videos, making independent films since 1985.