Hey all, Thinking about getting into the glider thing. It looks so beautiful and graceful, especially the aerobatic stuff, and I'm really interested in the benefits that transfer to powered flying. I hear it is a relatively easy rating to obtain after getting powered ratings. We have a great old airfield nearby (Garner Gliderport) where glider operations happen every weekend year round. It's such a cool little grass airfield out in the middle of nowhere, much like something I would imagine while reading one of Bob's stories! I'm pretty excited about it. Anyway, just seeing what kind of experiences you folks may have had with gliding. Thanks!
There is nothing more satisfying and pleasant than flying a sailplane. I would have done more of it if I had more money when I was exposed to it. I have posted my sailplane experiences before so I won't do it again but soaring over the mountains in the eastern slopes of the Cascades was a beautiful and exciting ride. The thermals are amazing and powerful.Go for it!
Some years ago, I had a customer that was an instructor for a local soaring club. I worked on his XK-E and he gave me lessons with the club glider. It was a GREAT experience and I enjoyed every minute of it. The club was based at a small strip on the North Shore that is between the ocean and a spine of mountains that run up the West side of the island. The club glider was older. It even had wing struts. They had an old car that was just the frame and the powertrain. This old jalopy would race down the grass along the side of the runway, towing the glider into the air. When altitude was reached the rope was let go and then we would turn quickly to the ridge line and pass back and forth, gaining altitude on the updrafts from the tradewinds striking the mountains. This fun only lasted a few months as my friends job was transferred out of the islands. It was a lot of fun and I would certainly recommend it, if you have the chance!!
Thanks for the responses, guys! While I don't have access to scenery like what you both describe, I'm sure it will still be a lot of fun. I'll let you know when I do it. I went and met with some folks at the gliderport, and everyone seems very enthusiastic. One guy said he stopped powered flying completely after his first glider flight and has no plans to return.
Chupa, You have opened some memories from 1983 when I was invited to fly with the Boeing Glider Club. We had a cabin in the North Cascades next to Lost River airport( I think that it is still on the charts) at Mazama. Last night I found some poor snapshots taken then that I will post as soon as I can enlarge them. I rode with the tow plane for two days and had several flights in a two seater Blanik. The combination of ridge soaring and the powerful thermals was absolutely exhillerating. One of the funniest incidence was scaring a black bear that was running along an open shale field on the spine of Silver Star mountain. He must have thought that the biggest eagle in the world was after him. We towed one of the group up to 7000 for a release over a heated-up ridge and I wanted to form up with him to take pictures but he was always 300 ft. higher than we were after we did several 180's to join. We had to give up at about 9000. He took off on a cross country that lasted until 1800 that evening. He had to spin the airplane to lose altitude and did a few loops too. The guy was an old German about 70 years old and he loved to fly. he apologized for leaving us because he didn't want to waste the lift that he was getting. I couldn't blame him.
Speaking of Germans and gliders, I spent a happy year flying gliders in Germany with a soaring club that used the end of the Ahlhorn airbase runway as their strip. It was a great year of flying, good fun 'chasing' pilots doing cross-country flights, and the occasional 'oh crap we've got to get the aircraft away from the runway before the C5s start landing (and turn the sailplanes into kindling)' moments. Definitely let us know how your glider flights go.
It sounds like you have had some of the same experiences that I have had only more so. I have never experienced a more thrilling event than to feel the airplane respond to a silent and unseen force and to fly with a serenity that you can never achieve in a powered machine. Twice my experiences in a sailplane saved my bacon when I was in trouble and I used the benefits of slope soaring and thermals to prevent a forced landing in the mountains. It is much like sailing where one can feel and make use of the generosity of natural physics if he knows how. Nothing can beat the elation when a sailboat begins to move silently in response to the wind. A sailplane is the same. A tender kick in the seat of the pants and the variometer begins to accelerate its beeping and you feel that you are gently climbing. And then you work the thermal and sail around like a bird. There is nothing to match it.
I'm not sure my experiences can match yours, Bob. You've got a trove of flying memories that all here admire and enjoy. My piddling around in sailplanes made me a better pilot, no question about it. Definitely something every pilot should do at least once.
I'm afraid that I sound better than I was, you know the saying..." The older I get the better I was." I have always tried something once and I have many years behind me so that makes it possible to stack up the list. I hung around a lot of places at which there were a lot of different flying machines and I was lucky enough to try my hand at a few. I'm no expert at anything, just an addicted dabbler.
Learning to fly in a Glider FIRST is the best way to have a student learn about the use of all the flight controls including the RUDDER. When properly trained a GLider pilot will be a better Airplane pilot if he trains for that class of aircraft later. Also a Glider pilot learns to be smooth and judicious in the use of his/her flying controls to maximize the efficency of the Glider ie: more altitude gain. A wonderful way to fly. I only wish I could do more of it. Hey, maybe I just talked myself back into it!
That's interesting. Judicious use of the controls was going through my head also. Shallow but well coordinated turns when circling in a thermal. I will never forget how quickly the airplane accelerated from 55 to 85 MPH when I dropped the nose a tad bit to XC and nothing but the gentle sound of the air made it delightful.
I agree and that's the way I did it. Flying a sailplane teaches you to be very good at "energy management" as there is no throttle to add energy to the aircraft. I think the way you learn to fly landing patterns also carries over to power planes in a beneficial way. You don't see too many glider pilots on a 3 mile final at 500 ft agl.
That is the way I was taught 65 years ago when engine failures were still on every instructor's mind. You flew the pattern tight and spare and square, made crisp 90 deg. turns, and you hit the numbers or the end of the strip without touching the throttle. I had to do this six times hitting the mark within 50 feet or less before I got my ticket. You flew the pattern tight enough to make it after an engine failure at any point. My instructor gave me landings after power was cut so that I could see the difference between a wind milling prop and the drag of a dead prop. It was never a big problem to me to go through those sessions, it was part of the lessons. Sail planes are marvelous.
