The gliding scene in the Fifty Shades of Grey book was one of the most anticipated scenes for the movie. When you add in the music they used and the scenery around them it truly is one of the best played out scenes in the movie. I believe the filming for the gliding was done at Boundary Bay Airport where they also filmed near the hanger with the car for their departure. The scene opens on a grassy field with Christian and Ana arriving in the Audi S7 with Georgia plates. The filming with the glider took place during the initial shooting 12/2013-3/2014.  I was able to watch the reshoots 10/2104 at the airport hanger area with the Audi S7 for their departure after the gliding.Beyond the main runway and hanger at the airport there are two other grassy runway areas. This is where I think they filmed the arrival of Christian and Ana and them getting into the glider. The glider did actually take off with the pull plane and flew over the airport when they were filming.

While searching for more information on the glider filming I came across a online conversation between several glider pilots talking about the filming, what was used and how it came about.

50 shades of grey glider: whose glider is that in the move trailer.

-Once based in Washington and dragged up to Canada for filming.

-Don’t ask too much, you’ll open a can of worms you don’t want to deal with. The dragging was done by a club’s towplane and was a very controversial.

I was able to gather some more information from a soaring club which worked with Universal. After contacting them they kindly sent me this information:

York Soaring Association sold a wrecked glider, a Grob Twin II, to the production company for use on an armature in front of a chroma screen.

This glider is similar to the DG 1000 that was used for the glider flight in the movie. The glider in the movie was flown by a pilot from Arizona who teaches aerobatics.

This confirmed what I had thought, that Jamie and Dakota never actually flew in the gilder but were filmed inside a partial one for the closeups in the movie. There is now also a behind the scene video which shows the real glider at the airport during the filming there. There is also video of the partial glider mounted with Jamie and Dakota seated inside. You can see in the video how they turned it so that they could get the affect of it flying upside down or sideways.

When you put it all together it makes for one of the more beautiful scenes in the movie. My only concern with this scene was some of the snow topped mountains in the distance. Not sure they have those in Georgia.

For more at Boundary Bay Airport click here.

For more on Christian Greys Audi cars here.

You can see part of the gliding scene in this video.

Here is one of the large filming apparatus they used out in the field for filming their arrival.

You can see more of the glider filming behind the scenes on the Fifty Shades of Grey blu-ray extras.