First Glider Flight

Had my first glider ride Saturday, July 26. It was at Sterling, Ma. with the
Greater Boston Soaring Club. Had to wait all day. Should have gotten there
earlier, but it was definitely a memorable ride. We had one of the shorter
tow ropes, so we were in real close formation with a Piper Pawnee. I cut
away at 3000' msl with a former P-51 pilot on the back seat. Can't remember
which glider we went up in. They have several. Once we cut loose, I got the
controls with the understanding that if I heard the pitch of Bob's voice
going up to give him the controls because we were in a thermal. There wasn't
a whole lot of thermal activity that day, but he did manage to get us up to
3600'. I took the controls back and did some turns. It's great being able to
talk without wearing any headphones. He took the controls again at one point
for a thermal and he started cranking around to turn back into it. I was
thinking we were pretty slow for that steep a turn (it was getting down to
40 knots with a 34 knot straight and level stall speed) when I felt a
distinct buffet. Next thing I know, the nose is falling through adn we're in
a spin. The stick is in my belly and I hear Bob saying "What the heck is
happening?" I tell him we're in a spin as I watch the Earth spinning in
front of me. I told him 3 times to let go of the stick before I finally took
it, centered it adn stomped the right rudder. We came out of it pretty quick
and the glider accellerated real quick. Vne was 125 and we hit 100 in almost
no time. I pulled the nose back up and slowed us back to our 45 knot target
speed. Flew around the airport for a little while. I got us set up on a
midfield crossover to downwind and Bob took us the rest of the way in. It's
sort of wierd speeding up to land. We set up at 60. Great landing and when I
got out, I got to drive the golf cart back to boot.

Bob gave me an A+ for my recognition and timely recovery from that spin. I
was kind of concerned tha the didn't recognize it sooner and thought that he
might have just been trying to get a rise out of me, but I think he really
didn't recognize it. He's an older gentleman, I'd guess in his 70's. When we
got down he said he'd never spun out of a thermal before. He was somewhat
apologetic since we lost about 800' and didn't get it all back in the
pullout. I didn't say anything, but I wonder if I should have. There was
lots of air between us and the ground, but what if I was a non-pilot? Don't
know if anybody on the ground saw it, but one guy wanted to check my pants
for stains. Told him it was not a problem. I'd get to wear them home.

Great bunch of people and a great day all around. I'm hoping to get weekends
off at my job so I can pursue this gliding more seriously. If you have never
done it, I highly recommend it. It cost me $75 with $30 going towards my
membership should I join. Ride would have been longer with some lift, too.

mike regish

'53 Tripacer

N3428A

Mike... I'd talk to other instructors at GBSC and see if the first
instructor was pulling your leg... good thing you had some air sense..

also, add rec.aviation.soaring to your news group list..

BT

"mike regish" wrote in message
news:FyUWa.49893$Ho3.6892@sccrnsc03...
Had my first glider ride Saturday, July 26. It was at Sterling, Ma. with
the
Greater Boston Soaring Club. Had to wait all day. Should have gotten there
earlier, but it was definitely a memorable ride. We had one of the shorter
tow ropes, so we were in real close formation with a Piper Pawnee. I cut
away at 3000' msl with a former P-51 pilot on the back seat. Can't
remember
which glider we went up in. They have several. Once we cut loose, I got
the
controls with the understanding that if I heard the pitch of Bob's voice
going up to give him the controls because we were in a thermal. There
wasn't
a whole lot of thermal activity that day, but he did manage to get us up
to
3600'. I took the controls back and did some turns. It's great being able
to
talk without wearing any headphones. He took the controls again at one
point
for a thermal and he started cranking around to turn back into it. I was
thinking we were pretty slow for that steep a turn (it was getting down to
40 knots with a 34 knot straight and level stall speed) when I felt a
distinct buffet. Next thing I know, the nose is falling through adn we're
in
a spin. The stick is in my belly and I hear Bob saying "What the heck is
happening?" I tell him we're in a spin as I watch the Earth spinning in
front of me. I told him 3 times to let go of the stick before I finally
took
it, centered it adn stomped the right rudder. We came out of it pretty
quick
and the glider accellerated real quick. Vne was 125 and we hit 100 in
almost
no time. I pulled the nose back up and slowed us back to our 45 knot
target
speed. Flew around the airport for a little while. I got us set up on a
midfield crossover to downwind and Bob took us the rest of the way in.
It's
sort of wierd speeding up to land. We set up at 60. Great landing and when
I
got out, I got to drive the golf cart back to boot.

Bob gave me an A+ for my recognition and timely recovery from that spin. I
was kind of concerned tha the didn't recognize it sooner and thought that
he
might have just been trying to get a rise out of me, but I think he really
didn't recognize it. He's an older gentleman, I'd guess in his 70's. When
we
got down he said he'd never spun out of a thermal before. He was somewhat
apologetic since we lost about 800' and didn't get it all back in the
pullout. I didn't say anything, but I wonder if I should have. There was
lots of air between us and the ground, but what if I was a non-pilot?
Don't
know if anybody on the ground saw it, but one guy wanted to check my pants
for stains. Told him it was not a problem. I'd get to wear them home.

Great bunch of people and a great day all around. I'm hoping to get
weekends
off at my job so I can pursue this gliding more seriously. If you have
never
done it, I highly recommend it. It cost me $75 with $30 going towards my
membership should I join. Ride would have been longer with some lift, too.

mike regish

'53 Tripacer

N3428A

On Sat, 02 Aug 2003 19:46:45 GMT, mike regish wrote:
Had my first glider ride Saturday, July 26. It was at Sterling, Ma. with the
snip; spin

Spinning is an occupational hazard in soaring. Fly a glider long enough,
especially an aerobatic capable glider like the Blanik L-13 or L-23, and
it's only a matter of time before you at least inadvertently stall or
go into the incipient stage of spin (especially if you're low time).

When conditions are weak (especially) and thermals are tight you need to
have a small turn radius to climb in the lift. To do this you are usually
nibbling at the edge of the stall, or at least, not far away. As you go
through the different parcels of air, it's quite common to have 5 knots
suddenly go away. Going this slow and turning, in many gliders, you
have some element of cross control to keep it coordinated. If you try
and lift a wing with aileron...

Spin training is very much on the agenda in glider training. I've
(deliberately) spun the Blanik at both the Soaring Club of Houston and
here at Andreas many times. In training, the instructor will often have
you enter stalls from a thermalling turn so you can recognise the
incipient spin that may happen.

Personally, I've never inadvertently spun a glider, but I've had several
unintentional stalls when trying to core tight thermals. It's just a matter
of life and you have to learn very well to recognise a stall and immediately
recover - not only to avoid losing the height you've been desperately
struggling to gain on a weak day, but to avoid a possible spin (especially
on a weak day as you're probably not very high to start with).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

"mike regish" wrote:
Had my first glider ride Saturday, July 26. .... and so forth

What was this in? Early in training (5th lesson I believe) we did
some spin training in a 2-33. My instructor bet me that I couldn't
get it to spin, and he won the bet... and that was with him telling me
what to do.

I'd like to try it now though. I'm approaching my first solo.

"mike regish" wrote
He took the controls again at one point
for a thermal and he started cranking around to turn back into it. I was
thinking we were pretty slow for that steep a turn (it was getting down to
40 knots with a 34 knot straight and level stall speed) when I felt a
distinct buffet. Next thing I know, the nose is falling through adn we're in
a spin. The stick is in my belly and I hear Bob saying "What the heck is
happening?" I tell him we're in a spin as I watch the Earth spinning in
front of me. I told him 3 times to let go of the stick before I finally took
it, centered it adn stomped the right rudder. We came out of it pretty quick
and the glider accellerated real quick. Vne was 125 and we hit 100 in almost
no time. I pulled the nose back up and slowed us back to our 45 knot target
speed.

Frankly, I'm concerned about this. Not about the stall, or even the
spin entry - that's an occupational hazard of soaring. Read Dylan's
post.

The problem is with the way the recovery was handled. Feeling the
buffet when working narrow, turbulent lift is pretty normal - but at
that point, recovery begins. If you had time to see that you were in
a spin, and then time to tell Bob multiple times, that makes me really
worried about his ability to recover. It worries me more that you had
to recover for him. Your point is well taken - what if that had been
a non-pilot in the front seat. "What the heck is happening?" is not
something you really want to hear from the PIC. It might just have
been a bad day, but it's cause for concern.

Bob gave me an A+ for my recognition and timely recovery from that spin.

Yeah, I would too. On the other hand, I'm not sure what grade to give
Bob...

Michael

(Michael) wrote in message:

Bob gave me an A+ for my recognition and timely recovery from that spin.

Yeah, I would too. On the other hand, I'm not sure what grade to give
Bob...

Michael

None of the instructors I know would pull such a stunt, but I'd like
to think he was screwing with you. Otherwise that would mean there's
one dangerous glider instructor out there. But you'd think if he was
joking, he'd tell you eventually.

If you find out for sure whether or not he was joking please post.
Either way a new instructor is in order.