What powered skills translate best to glider?

On Monday, September 14, 2015 at 6:39:06 PM UTC+3, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote:
On Monday, September 14, 2015 at 10:33:17 AM UTC-4, Joel wrote:
I'm just learning to fly and decided to start with gliders (aerotow launch). However, as I joined a club its slow to build time and get experience.. I was wondering if I could accelerate that with powered flight...

1) What powered flight skills could I concentrate on that would best accelerate the learning curve in the glider?

2) Would it be a better option to drive farther to get motoglider experience, or would the more nearby powered craft be just as good?

TIA,
Joel

As mentioned, pattern work helps, I would try to find a place with a taildragger. Something like a J-3 cub, Citabria or similar that is light on the controls, has a side throttle (similar to a dive brake handle, throttle controls sink-rate, pitch controls speed), the tailwheel makes you use your feet, stick (not yoke) and a light wing loading keeps the speeds down.

A major difference between power vs. sailplane is wingspan vs. fuselage length.
Power is "close to square" thus limited adverse yaw.
Sailplanes tend to have spans close to twice fuselage length, thus more pronounced adverse yaw.

Tiger Moth has very glider-like adverse yaw. But there are't a lot of them around now.

I don't think that's a big deal though, and neither are stick vs yoke or throttle position. Sure, that's all good if you can find a suitable plane, but there are a LOT more Cessnas around. The big thing, I think, is getting used to TLAR and dealing with when it doesn't look right, and how the ground looks when it's time to flare -- and practice with the actual hold-off.

Aerotows give you pretty good practice with extended flying near to the ground, and it's also good to do a lot of "hangar landings" at some point, with very little to no airbrake so you have even 20 or 30 seconds of practice in the hold-off.