The closest you can be to a hawk or albatross is to fly a glider &045; catching air in the wings to soar without using any machine power. Up in the sky where we do not belong, somehow you feel like part of nature rather than an intruder.

Twenty-four man-made birds from six midwestern states are in Albert Lea this week for a regional competition event. The pilots compete by relying on their skill reading airflows and handling the aircraft.

The craft are released into the air from a towing plane at 2,000 feet. By taking advantage of updrafts, the pilots can ascend as high as 10,000 feet. A flight lasts about three hours, and the flight path can be longer than 200 miles depending on the skill and will of Mother Nature.

&uot;Though the aircrafts get sophisticated year by year, the pilots rely upon the very basics of flight: Read the weather and use it,&uot; organizing member JC Cunningham said.

In the sky, a glider pilot needs to figure out the best path to follow by observing whatever information available to them &045;

the shape of clouds, waves on lakes, movement of wheat, smoke from factories. &uot;A different set of skills is necessary to be a glider pilot from navigating a powered-airplane,&uot; Cunningham said.

The competition will last until Saturday at the airport. The public is welcome to watch the take-off around noon and landing around 4 p.m. every day. Cunningham, who operates a flight school in Faribault, offers a trial flight for a fee after 10 a.m.