TUCSON (AP) — Guests can delight in silent flights over Ironwood Forest National Monument this weekend as the Tucson Soaring Club hosts its first open house.

Members of the Tucson Soaring Club — based at the El Tiro Gliderport in Marana — will take people above the desert in glider planes Saturday and Sunday and amuse the crowd with aerobatic demonstrations.

The club wants to attract new members, Tony Smolder said.

Currently, the Tucson Soaring Club has nearly 105 members; the club would like to increase membership to 150 by the end of 2010, Smolder said.

Smolder, a past president of the club, will be out this weekend taking people up in one of the club's two-seat gliders.

Gliders, also sometimes known as sailplanes, are engine-less so occupants can expect a fairly quiet ride.

Pilots cherish the silence.

"It's really peaceful," Smolder said. "I love the days where all the nice puffy clouds are all over the sky and you're up there near the base of the clouds and you're looking ahead and there's one after another."

Smolder has always been attracted to air sports.

He started hang-gliding in the 1970s and received his glider license in 1991.

As a hang-glider, he once flew 157 miles from Cumberland, Md., to the Chesapeake Bay.

In his sailplane, he's recorded several flights of more than 600 miles.

One way gliders soar through the sky is by finding thermals, warm air masses that rise from the Earth's surface, to increase altitude.

Glider planes need help during liftoff so they are attached by a rope to an engine-powered plane and towed until they reach the desired altitude. Then, the glider pilot releases the rope.

Glider pilot Sheena Stogsdill once decided to remain connected by rope to a tow plane even after the plane's wingtip had hit the ground during take off.

Her decision to stay connected to the tow plane actually propelled the plane upward and the tow plane, and her glider, managed to stay in the air, she said.

Stogsdill, 18, obtained her private glider pilot license when she was 16 and is working on her pilot's license.

Her father, Pete Stogsdill, loves aviation and encouraged his daughter to pursue her glider license.

"Airplanes have been a big part of my life," Sheena said. "My dad loves them. He likes to go flying and works on them. I've been around it all my life."

Pete Stogsdill chairs the Aviation Technology Department at Pima Community College.

The Stogsdill family lives on an airpark in Sahuarita and Sheena sometimes flies the family's Cessna 172 to El Tiro Gliderport.

If she has to drive, it takes her more than one hour to make the drive from her home to Marana. By plane it takes 20 minutes.

Sheena wants to earn a transfer science degree at Pima before pursuing her biology degree at a university.

Right now, she has no plans to pursue a career in aviation, but said piloting glider planes always will be something she enjoys.

Sheena has her own glider and has taken in interest in aerobatics.

As for piloting a glider, it's amazing, she said.

"It's so serene and quiet up there," she said. "You get a different perspective of the world. It's you and your glider, and your flight depends on your flight skills."

Scott Jones and his wife, Susie, joined the club after moving to Tucson from Los Angeles nearly two years ago.

It doesn't get any better than the Tucson Soaring Club, Scott Jones said.

Plus, it helps that the weather in Tucson is so accommodating to glider pilots.

"I've been able to fly in a lot of places and this is as good as it gets," he said. "The conditions here are world-class."

With the proper time commitment, a student can earn a glider license in about a year, Smolder said.

New members are mentored by club members who are there to help students and new members get the most out of flying.

"We're going to see what they want to get out of soaring and tailor the instruction to that," Smolder said.

Sheena would like to see more women try the sport.

She is among only a handful of women who hold a glider pilot license and belong to the club.

"It's too bad because it's amazing," she said.

Information from: Arizona Daily Star, http://www.azstarnet.com