Gliding

Gliding is meeting up with a bunch of friends and fellow aviation enthusiasts at an airfield, having a coffe, reading a magazine and talking for a bit. Then pulling out the gliders, doing the daily checks and you’re all set. Yes, quite a bit of pushing aircraft around – that can’t be avoided. But working a bit outdoors never killed nobody. Spending a bit of lazy time relaxing in the sun by the strip, reading and talking waiting for your turn to fly.

Then getting pulled up, releasing the aerotow as you ride over an invisible speedbump in the air and hearing the sunsoaked world go silent as the tow aircraft turns off.

Then hours of joyful playing among the clouds. Riding silent elevators up to the cloudbase. Constant manoeuvering, always flying, always acting as a pilot. None of that tedious straight line stuff spam can operators do a lot of (hoping to provoke one of them to throw an E6 at me here, I need one! Getting a bit of straight line flying every now and then as well).

Sunday I caught a thermal at 770m QFE, ten minutes to 1200 where it wore off so on to the next one. Solid 5+ m/s climb, in a 45 degree bank, straight up to the cloud base. Pulling airbrake not to get sucked in as I exited. Next one was a solid 4+, bumped my head into the airspace ceiling at 1800 QNH (field elev 205 m). Again had to pull airbrake to avoid climbing. Coming down was harder than going up!

Found myself at the top of a string of four gliders in the same thermal later on, beautiful sight.

A few evening tows, with no real hope of finding thermals but practising landings. All alone in the sunset, allowing myself the luxury to tow above the scattered 500 m QFE cumulus. A rainbow on the eastern horizon, the world below painted red by the sun. Playing my own brief game of hide and seek among the clouds before landing, finding the evening BBQ underway when the aircraft is tied down.

You get the best flying available in civvie world, with the possible exception of powered aerobatics. You get fresh air, time with mates and end up with a healthy tan. Yes, it is time consuming. If your flying is time limited, you will have to pay more to buy yourself out of the helping out at the club part and you will miss out on the above benefits.

To sum it up: It is what you make of it. If you want to have a good time at the strip as well as in the air, you will (in most clubs). If you think about the time spent at the strip as a tedious and unavoidable chore stopping you from doing what you came for, that is what it will become.

Cheers,
Fred

I found this page on glider club costs in the US. This webpage is about 8 years old, but still its shows how inexpensive soaring can be in the US.
http://acro.harvard.edu/SOARING/soar_sites_us.html

you are perhaps misinterpreting what I mean. Touring motor gliders lack the glide ratio to provide good cross country performance. No problem with self launching i.e. pop up types. As you say it removes some of the worries about landing out but only if the engine starts. Reminds me of the statement that is made in the operating manuals of most if not all motor gliders – “This aircraft should be operated in such a way that if the engine fails to start it may still be landed safely”.
The engine should not and must not be considered as an insurance policy against landing out. If you go out of gliding range of landable areas then you are taking a risk
Your mention of the DG505 albeit the motorised self launching version gives you an idea of our training aircraft. We operate ASK21’s with a DG505 for spin training in 18 metre mode and cross country in 20 metre.

jgs43- Your trainers have 45 to 1 glide ratios? now thats top of the line, as todays high end 15m racing gliders have 45 to 1 glide ratios. The DG-505MB which is a 45 to 1 twoseater motorglider has detachable wing tips to convert it to a trainer as most consider its regular performance to high for training. The Grob Twin Astir only has a 38 to 1 glide ratio, and in the US thats considered pretty hot for a trainer. It should be mentioned that the main trainer used for training in the US is the Schweizer 2-33 with a glide ratio of 22 to 1, and it shows no sign of going away. And the Ka-6 and Ka-13 I believe are still heavily used for training in europe. And yes clubs do vary greatly in the US, most using Schwiezer 1-26(22 to 1), 2-33 or Blanic (30 to 1) which are good for general club use. Some of the big name glider ports do have modern glass racers. And as to your comment about motorgliders not being of benefit in cross country…I dont get it. Thats exactly their advantage is that you dont have to worry about landouts which is a big hassle. Motorgliders open up alot of rugged terain which couldnt be flown over for lack of landouts.

And heres a pic of the Ximango motorglider(made in Brazil, a copy of a French design)

PS I forgot to mention that I own a share in a motor glider as well as a share in a pure glider so do know what each is capable of.

Each to his or her own however – clubs in the states vary greatly with a considerable number of glider ports? being run professionally. These is also a great interest in cross country soaring where I do not think that the motor gliders that you mention would be of much use except for ab initio training and field landing exercises.

As you say we are all entitled to our own opinions.

It all depends upon where you are situated. At my club in the UK the training gliders have glide ratios in the region of 1 in 40 to 1 in 45. The solo machines vary from 1 in 35 to 1 in 45 and the polars on both are considerably flatter than for any touring motor glider. In high altitude wave flying at high speeds the motor gliders do not have a look in.
A considerable amount of training in the UK is done from winch launches – motor gliders have their place in teaching basic effects of controls, circuits. and approach control. Since I fly both power and gliders I must say that I know which I prefer unless the aim is to go places when power takes precedence.
As a bonus we also have access to a national ASH25 for cross country and competition training.

jgs43- Your entitled to your opinion, but Id like to make clear my disagreement with much of what youve said. The two major touring gliders sold in the US are the Diamont and the Chimango. Both these gliders have 30 to 1 glide ratios and that for fixed gear, side by side seating. I think thats rather impressive compared to many club gliders which have the same glide ratio where you sit in a deeply reclined position in a small teardrop shaped cabin.
And as to the workload for extending/starting motors in auxilery powered gliders for training, I dont think that workload exists. And I dont see how that can compare to the emence workload and dangers involved in being towed. Self launchers lower cost and increase flying time. All these “purists” who resist the idea of selflaunching are just hitting your head against the wall in my opinion.

There is no requirement to hold a glider pilots licence to fly gliders,
hence there is no cross over in respect of experience.
You will have to convince the instructor that you are capable of safely flying the glider and dealing with emergencies such as launch failures etc.

Curent touring motor gliders (fixed engines) have some way to go to match pure gliders unles you consider the Stemme. Self launching gliders are however pure gliders but with a pop up engine that permits them to self launch. The latter are not practical for intensive training at this time due to the high work loads involved in extending, starting, stopping and retracting the engine.

If you want to achieve solo flying in a glider best way is to book a weeks course at a gliding club. If your power flying is up to speed you should be able to solo in a glider within this time.
If you simply want a flight to see what it is like then most clubs offer half hour introductory lesons similear to power clubs although they tend to be expensive compared to normal club member flying..

If you want to know more let me know.

Theres no reason club flying should be as Moggy describes. Id like to mention that motorgliders eliminate the landout problem which in my opinion is more of a hassle than a “challange”. Ive seen clubs in the US where there are no more than 30 or 40 members active that have a couple of gliders. Dues are only about $400 a year for unlimited use of gliders. The only cost is about $40 to $60 a tow. With motorgliders the cost could be alot lower than that and money saved could be spent in larger dues for aquiring more gliders.

thats about the size of it in my experience also moggy.

coanda

I’ve done a few glider flights.

Once you are up it is truly great. I honestly think it might be better overall than powered flight.

BUT

It is all terribly ‘clubby’

At a SEP school you turn-up ten minutes before your flight, go for your flight, pay, hang around the hut for a while talking to other flyers then get off home.

At a glider club you turn up at the crack of dawn. You help various people drag hundreds of gliders out of hangars and trailers. You go to the hut and make tea and coffee for the ‘Five Thousand’, you nip down to the winch with some sandwiches, you get co-opted onto the retrieve crew and spend hours bouncing over a rutted field in a fume-belching Mk1 Land Rover.

Then finally, just before dusk somebody notices you haven’t had a flight yet. Most of the gliders have been put away (You know, because you had to help) In the corner of the field there is some shabby old knacker. The CFI offers you a flight in this.

Your first launch is a cable break, your second launch is fine, but night is drawing in so it lasts about 2 minutes 50 seconds.

You help put the last glider away.

Everybody else has left.

You and the CFI padlock the gate in the pitch dark.

14 hours on the field, less than three minutes in the air.

Happens every time.

Moggy

Hi Mixtec,

Yes, I’m in the UK.

I actually quite like the idea of a winch launch, but think a towplane will be the best options for me – as I want as much flying as possible.

Motorgliders are not really my idea of gliding though – sureley it removes the element of challenge?

S’gull

Im also”into” gliding also but havent got my glider licence yet. The fact that you “fancy” the idea of gliding tells me your from the UK, I dont know much about european training except they use winch launches alot which is an idea I cant get into. Motorgliders have really taken off the last few years both with self launching racing sailplanes with props that retract into the fuselage and gliders that look like conventional aircraft with high aspect ratio wings that feather their prop in a glide, the Chimango and Diamont are two examples of these which can glide at 30 to 1. A new and inexpensive motorglider/trainer to look out for is the SZD PW-6, I believe this is the perfect club glider and look forward to it taking over for the Puchaz as the standard club glider with its self launchingand aerobatic ability.