The TG-7A airplane is one of those rare birds you just won't see many places in the world. Rumor says it's flown only at the United States Air Force Academy and maybe on a few special CIA missions. It was made on special order from Schweitzer to perform similar to a 2-33, ...but with an engine: fifty-nine and a half feet of wing, and a 112 HP Lycoming O-235 up front.

The combination has a few quirks. I don't know of any other plane where you recover from inverted, stall/spin situations by yanking back on the stick. Specifically, in these situations, "..it is more expeditious to pull straight through to the horizon (Split S [or slice-back]) than to roll to a wings level upright attitude." Flight experience shows this to be true. Those long wings take a long time to roll wings level!

I have the chance to fly the TG-7 while stationed at the Air Force Academy, and while most of the flights are student instructional sorties, I have had a chance to investigate a few fun airports tucked into the crevices of the Rocky Mountains. The 94th Flight Training Squadron maintains their own web page with more mission information.

Here are some of the motorglider pictures I've taken. Note the elevation at the Leadville airport. Downwind for landing is flown over 10,000' MSL. Click on the picture to get the fullsize image.