First Soaring Experience

I always thought it was great fun taking my professional pilot friends
up in a glider for the first time. They find out their feet are used
for more than going back and taking a leak.

I fly power for transportation and gliders to really experience
flying. Nothing like circling in a thermal with a gaggle of hawks.
Once you get it in your mind that in most cases you can find some
place to safely land, you'll relax and have a ball. Realizing that
many glass ships have a glide ratio in the range of 35:1 to 53:1,
finding a landing place from 1000 AGL in most parts of the country is
not especially hard.

Get the rating -you'll be a better pilot for the effort.

Don Hammer wrote:

Once you get it in your mind that in most cases you can find some
place to safely land, you'll relax and have a ball.

You're scaring me. A glider pilot knows *always* where he will safely
land should the lift disappear. (And safely means with the glider
intact.) This is basic cross country tactics and essential for a long
life. Easy in some areas, some planning required in others.

Stefan

You're scaring me. A glider pilot knows *always* where he will safely
land should the lift disappear. (And safely means with the glider
intact.) This is basic cross country tactics and essential for a long
life. Easy in some areas, some planning required in others.

Stefan

Didn't mean to imply that. In the years of glider flying I've done
there has never been a time I couldn't find a safe landing spot from
where I was, cross country or otherwise. I can't say that if the prop
stops in the light aircraft I fly I would be able say the same.

Look at it this way - In a Cessna, on a standard 3 degree glide slope
or VASI, you won't make the airport from the outer marker without the
engine. Try it some time. When I'm in a light aircraft I'm always
tooking for a landing spot under me.

When flying a high performance glider, at any reasonable altitude,
your glide will take you to places you can't see, but yes you plan,
but you don't have to be obsessive about it. Can you get in a place
where you can't land? Sure. I once was on a flight test of an ASH-25.
We towed to 10K AGL on a cold day with little or no lift. We flew
over 50 miles from the airport and returned. Total flight time was 1
hour 55 min. With zero lift from 10K we had over a 100 mile circle to
find a safe spot to land. In my area, I'm sure that includes at least
a hundred airports or strips and at least 10 times as many farmer's
fields. Did I spend any mental time worring about finding a landing
spot? I think not, but I sure as hell enjoyed myself.

Don Hammer wrote:

I can't say that if the prop
stops in the light aircraft I fly I would be able say the same.

Thst's how I handle it (and I guess, most of us do): In a glider, I have
always an option to safely land without any damage to the glider. In a
powered plane, I have always an option to do a survivable crash.

When flying a high performance glider, at any reasonable altitude,
your glide will take you to places you can't see, but yes you plan,
but you don't have to be obsessive about it.

As I said, this depends on where you're flying. In the mountains, you
better be *very* obsessive about it, or you'll find yourself in a very
uncomfortable situation sooner than you've expected. There are
"outlanding field directories" for the Alps, and I have the known
landing options marked on my map. Plus, in the Alps, we do our landing
options calculations with only half the nominal L/D ratio, which
translates to roughly 1:20 for a standard 15m glider. Believe me, even
with this conservative approach, it can get pretty uncomfortable when
you hit an unexpected downdraft.

Stefan

Yeah I forgot the mention The Blanik is sort of the VW Bus of Gliders.

When you start flying the 35:1 Fiberglass gliders you find out what
Smooth and quiet really with nice light controls.

Brian

Great write up. I did the glider thing last year and it's awesome.
--
Gene Seibel
Tales of Flight - http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.