“Adventure is my guidon,” declared L. Ron Hubbard, and promptly proceeded to etch that statement across not only land and sea, but also across the skies.

It all began in the spring of 1931—not long after his return from the Pacific—when a twenty-year-old Ron Hubbard called a first fateful meeting of the George Washington University Glider Club. Initially, less than a dozen hearty souls replied.

The craft was the Franklin utility glider, and facilities were primitive: a ramshackle tower above patches of knee-high grass and ankle-deep mud, with a corrugated shed for the hangar. Nevertheless, the George Washington University Buzzards were born, and Ron Hubbard had now taken to the skies, to eventually earn the 385th American glider license.

For Mr. Hubbard and his fellow pilots, it was flying as Man intended to fly, “precariously, and by the seat of your pants,” as wits of the day remarked. Instrumentation was crude—an altimeter at best—while crafts were either towed from a bumper or flung from cliffs by means of shock cords. And make no mistake, it was dangerous. As of 1931, some three hundred souls had fallen to their deaths in powerless aircraft. Then too, bear in mind these were still largely experimental days: Lindbergh had only crossed the Atlantic four years earlier.

While in addition to glider flights, L. Ron Hubbard could also be spotted barnstorming across the US in a sixty-horsepower Arrow Sport biplane—“with the wind as our only compass.”

As for the contemporary impression of his aviation adventures, a 1934 article from The Pilot entitled “‘Flash’ Hubbard” perhaps states it best:

“Whenever two or three pilots are gathered together around the nation’s capital, whether it be a congressional hearing or just in the back of some hangar, you’ll probably hear the name of Ron Hubbard mentioned, accompanied by such adjectives as ‘crazy,’ ‘wild’ and ‘dizzy.’ For the flaming-haired pilot hit the city like a tornado a few years ago and made women scream and strong men weep by his aerial antics. He just dared the ground to come up and hit him....

“At present, our young hero is buzzing around on the West Coast, where he writes magazine stories between flights. He is now recognized as one of the outstanding glider pilots in the country.”