Peter was a Canadian soaring record holder and represented Canada and later the United States in the World Gliding Championships.

[2] In 1987, Peter Masak worked together with Mark D. Maughmer, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, to design winglets for his racing sailplane to improve performance.

Others had attempted to apply Richard T. Whitcomb's NASA winglets to gliders before, and they did improve climb performance, but this did not offset the parasite drag penalty in high speed cruise.

"[9] He flew a later version of this glider, with factory built Ventus 2 wings, in the 2004 U.S. 15 Meter Nationals gliding competition being held at Mifflin County Airport, the same contest he won 11 years earlier.

While flying a competition task, he crashed in a syncline fold in the Tussey Mountain ridge, a few miles south of the village of Alexandria, Pennsylvania at 40°29.94′N 78°08.49′W / 40.49900°N 78.14150°W / 40.49900; -78.14150.

He was attempting to cross the ridge line upwind, and encountered sinking air and turbulence in the lee of the mountain crest, resulting in an inadvertent stall/spin.

In it, he credited Dick Johnson, Wil Schuemann, George B. Moffat, Jr. and Richard Schreder for their pioneering work that inspired him.