Glider Safety

I have been looking into gliders for awhile. It looks like Houston has 2 different clubs and 1 of them claims to be the 4th largest club in the US. Gliding looks extremely interesting to me and I think it would be a great way for me to get into flying.

However, safety has become a concern of mine and I would love some input from you guys. In several threads I have seen where people say to give gliding a try because they love it.

Attached are a few charts of safety records. I know they are a few years old. Credit goes to CavalloRosso for the charts. He posted them in another thread.

I would appreciate any and all input. Thanks!
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Like you, I have been thinking about sailplanes. I have similar concerns regarding safety. I would imagine that the statistics in the charts reflect the fact that home-built planes and gliders tend to be maintained and safety checked by their owner/pilots. Other than an issue with the brakes, if I botch some of my Ferrari maintenance or repair issues the worst that can likely happen is that I get stranded on the roadside. On the other hand, if I miss a safety item on the glider I might fall out of the sky.

 

Yep, looks about right. Flying gliders can be dangerous - but not necessarily. The greatest dangers are from collision and complications of landing out. Re collision, gliders are very hard to see. I believe cross country is much more dangerous than flying around the patch because local airspace is marked and power aircraft know to be vigilant there. A glider 100 miles out on a cross country could be most anywhere. Helps to have a transponder in the glider and more are carrying those now. Landing out is also a matter of where you are. You will probably get back to the home field if you stay local, but may have to land on poor terrain if cross country. An invisible fencing wire can really mess you up.

So, take up soaring but stay around the field until you decide just how much risk you want to manage. If cross country is your thing, the risk is worth it.

 

ouch...
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I'm not at all surprised by the high accident rate, because off-airport landings in gliders are pretty common, and you can pretty easily hit a fence or something and cause substantial damage (the definition of an accident, I believe).

I'm a bit more surprised by the fatal rate. I would have thought that would be lower.

 

Based on the single metric it appears that you should go straight to jets!

TO and Landing in a glider is much more demanding of piloting skills than a typical single engine aircraft. It would not be surprising if the accident statistics are biased towards these two phases of flight. I live on an airport that is about 5 miles from another airport where extensive gliding activity occurs. We usual get a couple gliders a yr stopping in when they realize they weren't going to make it home. While gliding skills are said to be very beneficial to a pilot, I can imagine for a new pilot learning both regular flying skills and gliding specific skills the initial training could be challenging.

 

Successful landing.

He was in fact able to drag himself from the wreckage.


Makes one wonder what manner of approach that was...or started out as.

 

I've never done any gliding in a glider but I love doing it in a small plane.
Typically an instructor will pull the throttle to idle while in the landing pattern and have you demonstrate a dead-stick landing onto the runway.
I can only imagine what it is like to do this every time in a glider.

My best idle-landing was on a calm day, my instructor on final approach said to go around, climb to pattern attitude and step to the right of the runway on the upwind leg.
Before we got to mid-field, he pulled the power to idle and said "land the plane".
He was thinking I would glide to the end of the runway and land backwards (because it was a calm day) but instead I announced I would cross mid-field, glide downwind, then execute a 180 turn to land short final.
He said I probably wouldn't make that in a Cessna 172 that we were flying but to go ahead and let's see what happens.
I was amazed that I easily made that distance and smoothly set the plane down in the first 1/3rd of the runway.

I'm sure that getting some experience in a glider would make you a better propeller pilot.
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There is nothing like flying a sailplane.

 

Hey will please let me know if/when you go to check them out, I've love to see them as well.

Wonder how long they can stay up, and assume they're towed up by another plane?

I've had one flight in a glider in Germany, launched via a long cable. Not much wind that day and the 2-place glider was fairly rudimentary i.e. not light composite but old school aluminum so lasted much less than 10 minutes, but a great feeling to be soaring around without a noisy motor.

 

Sounds good Kurt, I will let you know.

Does anyone else have input on this?

 

Kurt, I learned to fly in sailplanes. I think it makes you a much better power pilot when you transition. You really learn a lot more about pure flying that way. Plus it is an amazing thing to do. Like all flying, safety is relative and a lot of it has to do with your competence and willingness to really train properly.

 

Good post Teak but Will started this thread
I took a couple (powered) flight lessons in Houston in 2005 (Tampico low-wing) and would love to continue someday, just not a high enough priority right now.
cheers!