Anyone been gliding ?

Emp_Fab

Just wondering.... I fancy taking it up but my nearest club is at least 1h30 drive away.

chillidoggy

I can feel a home-build coming on.....

Emp_Fab

Ha !!  I wouldn't dream of it.  There's no way on Earth I would put myself a few thousand feet above the ground in something I'd built.  Not that I think I'd do a crap job of building it, but I'd worry myself stupid whether I'd tightened all the bolts / put the correct mix of resin onto the fibreglass etc !  

guitarcookie1

Yes, about thirty years ago as part of (believe it or not) kids holiday club...

The things I remember are the winch tow (0-60 in just over 1s) & just how peaceful it us once you're up.

HAL9000

Yup, had a go some years back. Great fun. Very peaceful once you come off the tow.

Hertz32

Yes, and I bloody loved it!
Early starts though, you had to earn your turn on the winch by launching and recovering everyone else too which made it an all day affair. Gave it up because of the variable quality of civilian instructors (from brilliant all the way to "WHO TAUGHT YOU THAT? YOURE DANGEROUS IS WHAT YOU ARE" whilst trying to teach you their own bad habits such as slamming the controls into your groin during takeoff (leave yourself room, otherwise you are riding at the point of stalling all the way up and you'll fall out the sky if it snaps. its a habit common with older instructors who weren't taught the more modern, safer way of flying. Yes you get an extra hundred feet or so, but I'd rather be safe.))

It can also get a bit pricey too, and quality of flying is highly location and weather dependant. You cant fly well in cold or overcast weather at all. It's a massive help if your airfield is near a ridge, or you get regular warm weather near a heavily tarmac'd area for thermalling.
Theres an awful lot of theory to learn too, finding lift is a real skill and reading clouds is a huge part of it. As are all the checklists such as WULF and CBSIFTCBE which need to be memorised and performed. It's nice if you fly in modern gliders too.

Definately a bucket list activity at least though

fretmeister

Yes - I was an RAF Cadet in my teenage years.

It was fun, but oddly quiet. It feels wrong to be up there without an engine!

Hertz32

fretmeister;353260" said:

Yes - I was an RAF Cadet in my teenage years.

It was fun, but oddly quiet. It feels wrong to be up there without an engine!

Cadets nowadays have the vigilant and viking, brilliant bits of kit! One of which is a motor glider which takes all the fun out of it but having a little engine to keep yourself out of trouble is no bad thing really.

NervousJohn

Was a member of Southdown Gliding Club between 1999 and 2004. Gave up because I couldn't afford it. It's cheap flying but everything is relative.

It is an all day thing. You need bodies to drag gliders around. As you get established in the club you get to drag your mates out of fields when the lift runs out.

But if you have the time and the money it is one if the most amazing experiences you will have. Highlights for me were soaring with a pair of Buzzards in a thermal, trying to get as close as I could. Staying up for 5 hrs and getting a mile above the southdowns. Getting taught cross country flying for free in an instructor friends two seater (look up Duo Discus) and creeping it up from 800ft.

Do it.

Hertz32

No way did you fly in a Duo Discus?! Man those things are beautiful! Blooooody pricey too! Lucky...

Sambostar

chillidoggy said:

I can feel a home-build coming on.....

You can practice off Worthing Pier, you know, till you get it perfected.

I think the sound of silence, without wind rushing past my ears or an engine roaring would put the fear of jesus in me.

guitarfishbay

No but it looks immense. I think the lack of engines would be nice. Every single time I hear plane engine power reduce from takeoff to cruising level I panic that they're going to fully power down, but then a few seconds later I'm fine again.

NervousJohn

Hertz32;353273" said:

No way did you fly in a Duo Discus?! Man those things are beautiful! Blooooody pricey too! Lucky...

Completely lucky. I happened to be standing around and he said hop in the back. Spent a couple of hours scratching round the south east, brilliant. I just didn't think about how much it cost.

Fretwired

Great fun .. I've did some gliding at Dunstable Downs years ago. Give it a go .. you'll enjoy it.

holnrew

I'm too heavy

VimFuego

kind of, I was in a helicopter when the engine failed. Wasn't really the serene experience that gliding often is.

Hootsmon

Emp_Fab said:

Just wondering.... I fancy taking it up but my nearest club is at least 1h30 drive away.

why don't you fly there?

chillidoggy

Please see my earlier comment.

roundthebend

My career ambition was to be a pilot. I tried various routes in when I was younger but wasn't successful, and then along came family and mortgage and apathy. Now my kids are older, life has settled considerably and my income is good I'm seriously looking to do flying as a hobby.

One of my local gliding clubs is having an open day this weekend so I'm planning to go down and get involved and have a go. I've done it before, and flown powered planes a couple of times. I love it. I'm lucky to have 3 or 4 clubs locally, one of which offers an annual training programme for a fixed fee to get you solo. I find the actualy flying bit fairly straight forward, obviously there's quite a bit to learn about take off, landing and proper manoeuvring but the toughest bit is keeping your wits about what's around you, communication and reading the conditions.

I'm planning to get a good quality flight sim on the PC to help with the basics, there's some good ones out there that experienced gliders recommend.

Majorscale

Had a go once, the pilot was the same size and stature as Yoda and probably just as old! I was partly worried that he might die on me up there, but as it happened it was me that almost died after he put the glider through some intense aerobatics. I got him to land fairly quickly so that I could throw up!

Emp_Fab

Mine too.  I failed the colour vision test at the CAA Medical Centre in Gatwick - by 15%.  Ridiculous rules from a bygone era that they've not bothered removing but as supply will always outstrip demand they have no motivation to update them.  There's no need for a pilot to have perfect colour vision.  Anyway....  I managed to wrangle a few hours in a BAC 1-11 sim at British Airways and the same in a 767 at Britannia !  Awesome !