#SoCaltech: Keith Schwab

“I love exploring the limits of our natural world. I came to soaring late, [in my forties], starting my pilot training in 2014. On my first flight at the Southern California Soaring Academy, we released [the glider] at 4,000 feet, made contact with a gentle lee wave, and floated up to 14,000 feet. This was pure magic, and I was hooked—absolutely frightened, but hooked. Over the past four years, I have had the chance to fly in the lee wave of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and found it to be just as described in Robert Whelan’s book Exploring the Monster: exciting, powerful, sometimes terrifying. On one wave flight, I encountered rotor turbulence near Mount Whitney with pure violence, smashing me down and down, followed by sustained lift rocketing me up at a rate of over 3,000 feet per minute to 24,000 feet. I was tossed around, struggling to maintain proper attitude and was scared about how high this lift would take me. I retreated downwind to get out of the lift and regroup. A bit ‘sporty,’ as the old guys say. I was alive, the glider was fine, the monster was definitely up there, and I committed myself to the only reasonable next step: to put together the system to take me much higher and explore further.” 

— Keith Schwab, a glider pilot and professor of applied physics, who, in early 2022, was able to achieve the highest altitude glider flight in the United States in over 15 years, soaring to 36,630 feet.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.