Imagine A memorable cross country flight over rural England by Phil Hawkins.

Scottish Wave 21,000 feet in a wardrobe by Dave Weekes

Wave at Weston 8,000 feet over Oxfordshire by Phil Hawkins.

Imagine

Imagine - you are sitting in a reclined position in a tiny greenhouse with a domed roof that fits closely over your head. There isn't much room to move your elbows or legs, but at least the cushions are comfortable. It is springtime, the sun beats down hotly and you are wearing a hat and dark glasses to shade your eyes. You are going to be there for some hours, so you have a bottle of lime juice and a packed lunch.

Imagine - there are wings attached to this little greenhouse: long, slender, graceful wings of dazzling white that flex gently in the wind. They sing to you in muted, wistful chords as they carry you far above the earth on the currents of air we call thermals. Imagine - you are a glider pilot.

Imagine - snowy hawthorn hedges in ragged lines, and a pleasant dappling of cloud shadows inching across the countryside. Imagine - chasing seagulls and swifts, flying so high that you brush the undersides of the clouds. A curious upside-down feeling the world has from up here, with a clammy grey nothingness dangling darkly above your head and bright sunshine on the ground below.

Imagine - you are flying over Banbury Cross and following the road to Edge Hill. The Shakespeare theatre by the river at Stratford. Then neat Alcester, triangular Studley and sprawling Redditch, each town with its own character. The symmetrical clover-leaves of the M5 junction between Bromsgrove and Droitwich. You see the extensive forests to the west of Kidderminster and the little town of Bridgnorth with its ancient many-arched stone bridge across the Severn.

Imagine - flying over the Welsh border country, over Wenlock Edge, Ludlow castle and Presteigne. The brown heathery hills dotted with sheep and ponies. The bridge at Hay-on-Wye, carried on tall pillars above the shallow stony river. You watch hang-glider enthusiasts trudging up from the Gospel Pass and launching themselves off Hay Bluff.

Imagine - following the meandering river Wye back to Hereford with its squarish race-course and rather dark cathedral. The impressive railway viaduct at Ledbury, the footpaths crisscrossing the Malvern peaks with Great Malvern itself hugging the eastern slopes. In your carefree empty sky you watch a queue of traffic on the A44 slowly ascending Broadway Hill, overlooked by the folly tower at the summit.

Imagine - near Moreton-in-Marsh, that wonderful event in any flight, you find the final thermal after which you don't need any more height in order to get home. A gradual descent over Chipping Norton, Enstone and the Cherwell valley, with just enough height left to do a detour over your home before you land.

Imagine - returning to the earth, the grass tickling the glider's wheel and then you roll to a halt. The satisfying end to a 200-mile sightseeing trip using nothing but natural air currents. The fuel bill was zero. The bar is open, the BBQ is lit and your friends are close by, waiting to help you pack the glider safely away in its trailer. Until the next time.

Phil Hawkins