On Feb 22, 12:57*am, "noel.wade" wrote:
I had a long post I started to write on this topic, but I can shorten
it down to two things:

1) No one is saying you have to be able to do aerodynamic calculations
or design an airplane, just that you understand aerodyanmics in
general and the cause-and-effect nature of your control inputs and how
the glider is going to react to different situations (angle of attack,
horizontal and vertical gusts, etc).

2) I continue to be astounded by the pilots out there who are
perfectly happy to GAMBLE THEIR LIVES by taking part in an activity
where they don't know what it is they're doing; AND they will even
state outright that they don't CARE that they don't know (like some of
the people who said so in this thread)!!

Do they really put so little value their well-being? *Or do they just
think that an accident will never possibly happen to them, no matter
how poorly (_or_ how well) they fly?

Bottom line: *If you don't know WHAT you're doing to the aircraft and
the air, then you have no way to judge risk or know how safe you're
being with your flying. *So you _are_ GAMBLING - its not a "measured"
risk, and you aren't able to manage your level of risk if you don't
know what it is! *And the penalty for failure is injury or death...
Seems like education and understanding are a small price to pay!

When you are in a stall or a spin or having an emergency, the glider
won't care if you were "taught a certain way" by more experienced
pilots. *The aircraft also doesn't care what the textbook says. *And
the atmosphere is _going_ to behave in ways that don't go along with
the textbook examples. *All the glider cares about is proper airflow
and aerodynamic principles - and if you don't know those things then
you aren't guaranteed to be able to recover from the problem.

Good luck with that...

--Noel

I'd say that in any of these situations, knowledge of aerodynamic
principles will not be of much use. Because you will not have the
time to work out a course of action from those principles DURING the
flight. The time to work out the course of action is ON THE GROUND,
BEFORE THE FLIGHT.

Todd
3S