- [Woman] How can you fly a plan that doesn't have an engine?

- [Man] Point it up a little bit You got the top of the car.

- [Woman] Where do you go to ski if you live in the city?

- [Instructor] Sliding all over It's not like you got a nice stable place to... - [Child] How do actors and actresses practice their work?

(bright music) (sailplane whistling) (bright music) - [Bill] I first got interested because while I'd always been interested in aviation and flying, and you can fly sailplanes when you're 14 and you can't fly an airplane until you're 16, so that's the easiest way to get into flying.

- [Ken] I met Bill about three y when I moved to Summerville.

One day, he told me about flying and about sailplanes and that he was gonna go next su and try and solo in one, and I said, you know, "I'd like to go."

I thought that'd be fun and I'd talk it over with my parents and I got really interested in i and we started looking for sailp and Bill called me up one night and told me his dad had found a sailplane up at Ridgeland, and I paid a third of it and Bill paid a third of it and his dad paid a third of it, and we just picked it up and brought it back.

When I first started, I thought, oh, piece of cake, we'll have this thing flying in about a month.

All it needs is good washing and and then about three months later, I thought, well, it's a little bit harder.

- [Bill] As we got into it, we found that certain things that we thought could just be mended had to be replaced, and instead of buying the parts, we had to make the parts.

- [Ken] Now I'm thinking that was quite an undertaking, and when we get through with it, that'll be something.

It's quite an accomplishment.

- [Bill] Before you can fly a sailplane, the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, has to check it and make sure that it's structurally strong and it's in good shape.

And my father is one of those inspectors that can do that.

- [Man] No, it shouldn't fray.

We're gonna have to attach it to keep it from sliding.

- [Bill] Oftentimes, he had to inspect the work that we did and made sure that what we did would turn out right.

- [Ken] Most of the things we've we've done wrong the first time.

One of the hardest parts to work on a sailplane are the wings, and they set us back a whole bun 'cause everything on the wings is fairly delicate and you have to get it just righ or the sailplane will lose all of its performance.

During the time that we've been working on the sailplane, we've picked up on a whole range of skills, things like rib stitching, and you have to know certain special knots, and the needle we just made out of a piece of welding rod.

- [Bill] While we were working on the sailplane, there were times that were really discouraging, but we held on because just the itch to fly kept us going, and we're hoping to get it finis for the spring regional meet in (bright music) (planes whirring) - [Clark] My name is Clark Schad and I had met Ken and Bill while they were working at the Summerville Airport.

They started aviation about the same age I did and I became very much intereste We came up here to Chester, Sout so that they could do their trai to Bermuda High Soaring Center.

People come from all over the Ea to the region five championships If you're ever riding down the h and you see a long cigar-shaped tube with a fin on the top of it, it's not a torpedo, it's a sailplane.

The wings are off of them, the tail's off of them.

Takes about five minutes to put one of them together.

The day begins each morning at nine o'clock in the hangar, where the officials are discussing the task where you're going that particul The nature of the sailplane comp is that you fly triangles of various distance and you try to get around the tr and back to the start line in the quickest time, and the man at the end of the co that has the most number of poin Everyone is very attentive for the briefing.

It consists of weather, aerial p of the place they're going so they know what it looks like when they get there.

They're given their film that they'll be carrying in the cameras in the aircraft to take pictures to show that they were actually The whole thing lasts maybe 45 minutes, but every morning, everyone is quiet for that perio because it's very important not to miss details, and that's the last questions that anyone can ask.

After they leave that meeting, it's out to the aircraft.

(bright music) In order to get the sailplane ai we use an aircraft that's called a tow plane that uses a ski rope that's 200 and at 2,000 feet above the grou the sailplane releases from on the tow plane.

Once the sailplane releases, we're looking for a thermal.

A thermal is a bubble of hot ris As long as the sailplane stays in the bubble, it rises.

Flights of four to six hours are not uncommon in a contest.

Like all races, you have to have a start point.

For a good start, the pilot must be below 3,000 feet and over a point on the ground.

To the observer, the sailplane must appear within the window and below the horizontal bar, which means he's below 3,000 fee The observer then radios to the that he has a good start.

- You hit the corner, man, perfe - [Bill] Soaring is different fr You're flying without the aid of so there's really more of a challenge to it, and it's all dependent on your s and on what the weather is.

- [Clark] A sailplane pilot has an incredible amount of control over his craft.

It's similar to putting on a glo and every time that he moves the it's like moving your fingers.

He can feel the response and sense what the sailplane is - [Ken] When I'm in a sailplane, I kind of feel at one with my surroundings, you know?

I feel like a bird, that my hand melds in with the stick and my whole body is the sailpla - [Bill] But it's really more th because it's a sense of power to The sailplane will do anything that you tell it to do.

- [Ken] Can't really explain it to somebody who's never done it but it's the greatest thing real (bright music) (bright music) - Here, Casey, here's your napki Which do you like best, something good that you plan and look forward to, or a surprise that just happens without any planning?

- I guess I would like the thing that just happened, you know, 'cause if it just happ or well, if I planned it and I didn't get to do it, you know, I'd be mad.

See, this way I won't, you know, and it'll, you know, make me hap - Sometimes if you plan something, you'd be a lot happie when it does come true 'cause you know it's gonna happen, and all those years of planning, and if it happens, then you'd be happy, but if it don't, you'd be sad.

- I like all-of-a-sudden things 'cause it just surprises you and I like surprises.

- [Ray] Moves on wheels the other day, it's terrific.

Whoa-ho, catch it, catch it now!

- [Suzanne] I got it!

(Ray laughs) Anyone lose a hub cap from a big - (chuckles) No, no, no, all right, cats and kitties, we got a record for you we're gonna play this afternoon.

Banana cream pie, anyone?

- Whoa.

(chuckles) - What are y'all doing with my F - Well, we're just changing it into different things.

- It's like a game, you see, we' We do this kind of thing all the - We're on our way to rehearsal Would you like to come with?

- Hey, sure.

- Hey, sure, that'd be neat.

- Okay, wanna step in my car, hu (people chuckling) - By the way, my name's Ray.

- [Suzanne] I'm Suzanne, who are - I'm Chris.

- Chris.

- I'm Julie.

- Julie.

- I'm Carl.

- [Suzanne] Carl, come on, let's all have a good time.

(cheerful accordion music) - [Ray] Suzanne and I are member of a theater group called The Pr and we're from Boston, Massachus and we're here on tour.

Now the kind of show that we do, we make up everything as we go a so we don't memorize any lines and we don't really have a scrip so the only way you can rehearse for that kind of a show is to play games.

It's a lot of fun, I think you'll enjoy it.

(cheerful accordion music) - [Suzanne] Hey, everybody.

How you doing?

- Hi.

- We got some new members for the rehearsal if it's okay f - [Susie] Sure.

- Okay, I want you to meet them.

This is Julie.

- Hi, Julie.

- And Chris and Carl.

- Hi.

- We got Susie, Peter, and Bob.

- [Bob] How are you?

Oh wow, hey.

(people chuckling) - [Susie] Good to meet you.

(people chuckling) - Really, what are we planning on doing today?

- We thought we'd do story theat That means that I will make up a story about whatever ideas that you give me and you'll act out the story, the, oh, the people in it and th and the places too, okay?

Okay, I need some ideas, though.

The name of a thing.

- A thing?

- How about... - Oh this, that you hit me with before, right?

- A Frisbee?

- All right, oh, but in this sto we're not going to be using our We'll have to become a Frisbee.

There'll be no props in this.

We become anything that's called so I think we should get rid of our props now, okay?

Bye.

(people chuckling) - (chuckles) Okay.

- All right.

- And how about a letter of the - Oh, a letter from the alphabet a letter from the alphabet.

How about a letter H?

- H, good, good, good, and also, that you might go to.

- The zoo.

- We've got a zoo.

- Far out, okay.

- Okay, I'll need a few minutes to think about it, and you can go over there and just stand there.

Oh, and also, Bob will help us by making some music while we do it on the accordion.

- Yeah, right.

- [Ray] Let's move over here so - [Suzanne] Right.

- [Ray] Watch each other, yeah.

- [Suzanne] Okay, this is gonna be a good one, you guys, all right.

- [Bob] You wanna stand here?

- [Suzanne] Yeah.

(lively accordion music) - Once upon a time in Alphabetla there lived a small letter H. (lively accordion music) And this letter H was very unhap because she had been called to the court of the great X.

(lively accordion music) At the court of the great X, there were several other mean le There was the pompous letter I, egotistical with that bouncing ball above her head, stupid, silly pompous I.

Then there was the curious lette always asking questions.

And then there was the terrifying letter T, who was always scaring people.

Well, X came up to little H and decided to banish her from Alphabetland because she was hopeless.

So a giant Frisbee descended in Alphabetland, (ethereal music) and H had to get on the giant Fr Slowly, very slowly, the Frisbee began to turn round and round and round until it lifted the letter H off the ground and through the air out of Alpha round and round until it dropped her on the ground in another foggy land, where off in the distance, she could see a sign.

It said zoo.

(scary accordion music) Z-O-O.

Little H decided to open the great gates of the zoo and enter in.

(scary accordion music) Inside she found a strange animal lying in a moat.

It had a giant body, and a huge mouth, and a tiny tail.

It was an ippo, an ippopotamus.

That's very strange, thought lit and so she wandered on down the until she saw a giant tree with and on one of the arms was standing an awk, flapping its wings madly.

And the awk said, "You have to h There's a monster here who's eating our H." "A monster?"

No sooner had they heard that wo than strange sounds struck their (man groaning) (scary accordion music) And over the corner, she could see a monster forming.

It was the ferocious eating mons It had gaping mouths all over it on its back, on its front, on it and it was making eating noises, disgusting.

While the monster was off after terrifying trip through the zoo, little H was running away until, she jumped in front of the cage that held an yena, a very sad yena, but as soon as H got in front of the cage, the hyena regained her laughter and started laughing madly.

(lively accordion music) (Suzanne laughing) Pretty soon, her laughter infected the entire eating monster.

(people laughing) And little by little, bits of the monster fell off into giggles, until the monster was dissolved into laughter and the hyena decided to be kept as a pet by little H, and they all lived happily ever after.

(giggles) Fantastic, that's great.

- [Suzanne] That was nice, that' - [Carl] How do you make this al You know, all the stories.

- [Suzanne] Okay, how we do it is a lot of hard work and practice.

We do the game that we just did to enable us to think quickly and also to become things quickly.

Life itself, you look around you and there are so many things that you can be and do if you just let yourself go.

When we were asked to be a hippopotamus, you know, you just do it, you jump into it, have a good time with it, and what better way to go through life, really, than to just have fun?

- [Ray] Yeah, yeah, it was a goo (door banging) (door banging) (bomb exploding) - Once, everybody was happy.

Everyone walked anywhere, no one feared anyone or thought of hurting anybody.

Then one day a man came with a n Mark your property so nobody can get any piece of it.

So the people started blocking off their homes, their lands, even their ideas.

They feared everyone.

They began to watch their neighbors and became suspicious.

No one was happy anymore.

Why did we ever create fences?

(door banging) (bomb exploding) - [Announcer] Poetry Power from Mary Teague, Bentonville, Arkansas.

(mysterious music) - [Narrator] Can city kids who a to concrete sidewalks learn to meet the challenge of an icy ski slope?

Boston kids say YES, and that st for Youth Enrichment Services.

It's a program that gives kids a chance to leave the city for a while to learn a whole new way of moving.

- [Instructor] Don't get in everyone's way now.

Just give people some room so they can walk up.

- [Narrator] It's really weird to be on skis for the first time.

You feel sort of klutzy.

Can't get your poles and your feet to move at the same time, your feet are long like the boards sticking off of 'em.

Your pole, you know, your poles just go on the wrong You miss stabbing people by a couple inches.

- Okay, so now.

- Good fun.

- Now that you're there, I'm gonna teach you a few exercises to help you get your balance on skis 'cause balancing... - [Narrator] When you lift up your foot with the skis on it for the first time, they're not very heavy, but you feel very klutzy, like you can't move around at all, and you look over your friends, and they're doing the same thing but it's still like you've never walked before in your life.

They're attached to your feet and you can't get 'em off.

(skis tapping) - [Instructor] Okay, all right, I'm gonna take your poles now.

Let's see you walk down, pick that hat right up.

Be right by you.

Let's take it on this side.

- [Child] Oh, amazing!

Oh!

(child laughing) - [Narrator] You really fall a l - [Instructor] Move your poles.

- [Narrator] And first, your thigh would hurt terribly and you look around at your frie and you notice, they're not looking at you, they're trying to pick themselves off off their skis, and something inside of you keeps you going, telling you, "Oh, you can do it, and you get a great accomplished feeling when you do it.

- [Instructor] Oh, she got it.

All right.

(children cheering) Bring the poles, okay, go back.

(skis skidding) - [Child] Hey, you!

- [Man] YES go, they go to different mountains all the time They bring a mechanic wherever t which is great because we always have problems.

They can't fit, the kids get fitted on each trip.

We divide the kids up into each and then they'll be on different slopes or different areas and the mechanic is notified whi and then he'll be going to them.

If a kid has a problem with his he'll call over to me and I'll f Put him in the shop like twist o - [Child] Yeah.

- Spin your knee a little and put your weight on it and see if you can twist out here, all right?

Ready?

- Mm-hmm.

(boot pops) - [Man] I say 90% of the acciden is from carelessness, not getting your bindings checked or greased.

We try to keep our skis in good working order.

We work on 'em all summer, and then when the winter comes on, we fit people.

We take good care of that and we have 'em twist and kick out of the bindings.

- [Man] What we do in the ski shop is wax the skis, so that they turn better.

- [Man] If it's not waxed, it's harder to turn and it's like steering a car with low tires.

You know, and you don't wanna st into a ditch or some trees, so you wax your skis.

- [Woman] There's a lot to learn about skiing before leaving for the slopes.

Ski boots have to fit right, bindings must be adjusted, and poles measured for the prope The YES ski shop is a busy place before a trip, and inside, it's the kids who are the teachers.

- [Man] Brady, hold on.

- [Woman] Try this one on first, Sit down.

- [Man] All right, that's... Is that comfortable?

- [Child] This has opened up a lot of doors for me, that a lot of city kids really don't get a chance to see, like the outdoors, especially in winter and in the summer.

It's really let me see a lot of different things.

- [Man] Okay, step down.

Okay, now see this right here, this right here is your safety strap, all right?

As soon as you put on your ski, always put on your safety strap, all right?

Never ski without your safety st and the way you put it on is you around your boot like this right - [Man] When I was, you know, yo I used to run the streets.

I had no place to go, but I, you in the summertime, when everything's gone, school is out there's no ice skating rink, you football seasons aren't in, you just go out and you hang the streets and you get in trouble.

This program keeps me occupied s so it's a really good program.

- [Man] I consider myself lucky to be a place like YES, doing something, doing your hobb you know, a lot of the time.

It gives me good experience too 'cause, you know, I've thought about going up to Vermont or going out west and, you know, you can get a job because you've now got a trade b - [Man] This is a pretty good job because you give a little, you take a little, and you recei I know a little trade about skii and I've worked with kids, I've watched them learn how to s watch their psych in their eyes.

Oh, you see a kid, beginning of the day, frustrated, not, you know, getting along.

Eventually, he starts getting a you see him near the end of the day and he's having a ball, he wants to go again.

You know, and you see his eyes are about big as a silver dollar - Thank you.

- You're all set.

Have a good trip.

(lively music) - [Man] At the YES, you know, they really do have some great skiing films, you know?

Like you can really learn a lot 'cause even no matter, really, on how much ability you have, you can still learn from some of those movies.

You sit there and you're watchin you see these people doing something that's really fantasti that you haven't never did befor so it makes you, deep down inside, really want to try it.

So the day when you know that you're gonna go skiing, you know you got the extra willpower in you from that movie to just drive you there.

You know, like you never wanna stop once you get into it.

(lively music) (mysterious music) (skis skidding) (skis skidding) - Okay, we're gonna have a little mock accident here today, all right?

We're gonna have John, John, give us one of your spectacular falls there, all rig - [Child] Safety's really important on the ski slopes and I guess that's what the ski patrol is there for, and our job is to get anybody who is hurt off the slopes and someplace where they can be taken care of.

- Go pick 'em up, all right?

- All right.

- Okay, take off, John, see one of those falls.

- Okay, see this.

- [Child] Well, we practice on e and once in a while, a member of our team will fake breaking t (gear rustling) - [John] Something happened.

- Oh, what happened?

- [John] Oh, my leg's broke.

- Coming through.

(ski skidding) - [Child] Let's fix him up and get him comfortable on the snow.

We wouldn't move his leg and, yo we just try to keep it still and bandage it up with a splint and keep it from moving.

Then after we've got it all tied we'd get him on the toboggan, and from there we'd slowly take him down the mountain.

- [Teen] Now we're ready kid, you ready?

- Yep.

- All right?

- Yep.

- [Teen] Here we go.

(toboggan skidding) - [Teen] Those guys and I on the racing team are, well, well, we're almost as close as brothers or closer.

You know, we stick together no matter what.

We don't let each other's feelings get hurt mostly.

Like what someone said racing or how we went to the gates, but what it really feels like to go down the hill really fast, it feels really great 'cause I'm a speed freak.

What usually goes through my mind when I go flying downhill is I usually try to, either I'm going one, two, one, two to get my rhythm or I'm thinking of a song in my mind and trying to keep in step.

- [Man] Go!

(exciting music) - [Man] And the way I see it, if I keep a sharp eye and stay at this long enough, wh The sky's the limit on skis.

- Did you know that all the forms of cartoons on Studio See are done by kids?

We want your ideas too.

Send them to Studio See, SCETV, Columbia, South Carolina 29250.

Take these now to Studio See.

(trucks revs) (bright music) - [Announcer] Major funding for this program was provided by public television stations.

Additional support was provided by unrestricted general program from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Ford Foundation.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Public Television Festival '79 is getting ready for a marathon, so why don't you?

It's 30 hours of outstanding tel and more than just special progr the marathon will be a national with updates on public TV activities around the country, and for the grand finale, you'll get a look at the public television of tomo So get ready for a marathon.

It's TV worth staying up for.

(exciting music)