Go! Go! Waseda Sports:
The Aviation Club of Waseda University ---Catch the updraft!

By Yoko Taguchi, General secretary, senior in the School of Commerce

Let’s do our best! Would you like to fly with us?

In front of Okuma Auditorium (in the middle is the captain Mazaki Seijiro)

This year, the Waseda University Aviation Club celebrates its 75th anniversary. The aviation club maintains a tradition that all activities are entirely managed by students, from piloting and controlling the gliders to maintenance, and boasts a shining record of no fatal accidents in seventy-five years. A glider is a sailplane without engines. Personally I started flying almost 100 times per year when I was a freshman and became quite good at flying alone. I got a Self-Operator License (as a glider pilot) during my sophomore and junior years, which means I was able to have training sessions for participating in any aviation contest. Climbing thousands of meters into the sky and keeping company with cumulus clouds for a few hours makes me feel very energetic, and I think that gliding is a very dynamic sport. In addition, winners of an aviation contest are decided by a race on an approximately 100-kilometer course. An important feature of competition is that there is no gender difference. All the school teams are coeducational.

The Waseda Aviation Club has about 30 members from all faculties of the university. For practice, we usually camp together near a dry section of the Tone River and have training sessions in Menuma Glider Port. In addition, we also hold other seminars, training sessions and meetings.

The atmosphere of our club comes in two very different flavors. It is strict during training sessions, but otherwise we have very friendly relationships with one another. And we promise and insure that safety is of the highest importance. Furthermore, it is not the case that we belong to the club for only four years. We continuously help out newcomers as a coach or a second grade ground crew, or practice more during weekends. It is not so surprising that many of us decide to train hard in order to become professional glider pilots. One such alumna, Reiko Morinaka, one of the world’s women record holders, succeeded in flying over the Andes Mountains for a distance of about 1,287 kilometers in January this year, and recently gave a lecture in Okuma Auditorium.

Don't most people dream of gliding through the sky? The aviation club can make this dream come true. If you're interested, just come join us and let us fly together. And you might find that gliding is a much deeper sport than you think.