Відео

Being a training exercise, it was 400' AGL. You can see how much height is lost after release in the distance, and there's sufficient height for safety (in case the student makes a mistake or there is heavy sink) and to allow a nice long landing down the runway so it does not need to be towed down the whole length. In theory you could do a 180º turn and make it back from 200', but that's cutting it close. We teach 300' minimum as there are a good number of low performance club gliders out there.

@@davesgliding Well, I don't even fly. Medical grounds. Pun intended. But on the matter of height and speed I always remember a series of cartoons that were drawn to keep the pilots flying the F-104 Starfighter from entering some usually fatal situations. One said "Flame out Hy.Key 15.000Ft A minimum 245 KIAS... ... Plus 5 for the kids ... Plus 5 for the wife ...Plus 5 for my life Makes 260 KIAS Low Key 8000Ft On F.O landings, nurse your speed lovingly, 'cause if you don't, you will not love anything else!" Same applies to height, I guess. Great quickbit video. Looks like an eternity and it was just over two minutes.

@@The_Modeling_Underdog Sorry to hear about your medical. Oddly enough, I've been told (not confirmed) that a glider pilot license in the USA does not require a medical. Here in Canada, it does. With a love of aviation, even those who cannot fly can still enjoy the passion. There's a lot of folks who acquire a lot of time and expertise on simulators. It's not the same, but it can still be fulfilling and you gain a lot. With respect to speed and altitude, we say that airspeed is life, and altitude is options. With respect to airspeed, when approaching base and final I usually calculate my approach speed based on what the windsock looks like, wind forecast, and other visual indicators such as smoke, waves on rivers and tree tops. And then, if I'm not sure ... I add a few more kts.

They probably saw me. I was within 10km (5NM) of the airfield and procedure for traffic is to notify when traversing that area. They were aware of traffic and I had given a position report. I still would have liked a bit more separation.

@@davesgliding A private jet passed so close to me at 3,000 feet in England , in free airspace , that I saw the pilot jump up and point in my direction as he shot past. So I’m a bit biased 😁

Good observation. I think their peaks are not as forward either. I'd love to get my hands on one of the Japanese gliding team's hats!. For awhile I did wear a baseball hat when I was first taking lessons, but I did modify it by removing the metal button at the top. It's a decoration and provides no functionality, or at least not on the ones I've had. I had an action camera on the peak. In the 2-33 I was flying, there was lots of head clearance, but when I started flying other gliders, it was too close to the canopy. We've had some pilots who have had skin cancer scares, so we're sticking with our bucket hats on sunny days. Good sunscreen is a must as well.

Thanks for your comment. For sure, experience is going to go a long way. I'd say you really should be able to handle this before going solo, since something could happen anytime, such as a big bug splatting into your pitot tube on takeoff. If one is not comfortable with this, then I'd say they should take additional training. Even so, the one instrument I do consult pretty often after I pass my reference point and until I'm in the flare is my ASI. While my ears and site view are pretty good at detecting a wind gradient, a good ASI will be more sensitive to changes. Just the same, I'll refer to my instruments ... but I still won't put my full faith in them. Many new pilots avoid those windy days and are not so good at handling that situation because they only come to fly on super-calm days, but I'm a believer in taking the opportunity to practice circuits in pretty messy stuff to keep my skills sharp and able to handle unforeseen conditions. Flying too slow and entering a spin on the turn to final is still one of the biggest causes of fatalities in this sport. Mindeth thine airspeed, lest the ground cometh up and smite thee. Airspeed is life ... altitude is options. Fly safe!

It's an Amman ASC-50 Compactor we rented for a few days. It's pretty easy to drive. We had rain overnight that made part of the runway soggy (so much rain this year that we started our season a month later than other clubs) and it sank about 3/4 of a meter into the ground! It took a lot of effort to get it back up to ground level again. The end result is that there was part of the runway didn't get done. I can tell you ... it really did make a big difference where we rolled it!

LOL, very true! I think most of the noise is from the prop itself. The glider does not need much airspeed, so the pitch used may be more optimized for power and may make more noise than one would expect, but I'm no expert on these things. I wonder if anyone out there has some wisdom to share on it?

No, it’s definitely electric. I was there when he was putting in the battery packs.

Good catch. It's a Grob 103. Not the most nimble glider, but it's roomy. I'm usually flying from the back seat as the club usually uses it for guest and introductory flights. In the UK, the Air Cadets fly pretty much the same glider, but it's called a Viking T1.

​@@davesgliding ah, it just looks so similar. 😂

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@@davesgliding Did that include an FAI triangle ?

I also started working in the early 80's. I suspect we are close in age. Sorry to hear about the vertigo. I developed vertigo two summers ago but it turned out I had contracted Lyme Disease. After treatment, it (and other symptoms) went away. It is scary to think that someday I'll not be medically fit to pilot an aircraft, but it's an important consideration, and we'll all get there. Take care!

At least circuit height if you are at the circuit, or higher if close by. I mean, that makes sense. The only standard we have is that if there's a lineup of gliders wanting to launch, no higher than 2000' to give a quick turnaround. Otherwise if I've flown through at least one thermal and I'm high enough to release safely, I'll try the second thermal, but sometimes .. ha ha, it doesn't work. :-)

Too true. It's a mandatory to take control at our club if the instructor sees students doing this. As a community we have killed too many tug pilots and it has to stop.

Good point. I did those without thinking and was not exactly best practices or a good example. I normally leave the vario volume off and window closed on takeoff to avoid the vario distracting and the possibility of sucking in bugs (like bees) until I have enough height to at least do an abbreviated circuit, but I guess I've been doing that lower. I'll take care then. Thanks.

Yah, not my vario ... it was a club glider, and we've had times when the vario in that glider is not working the whole flight. I think in this case the lift was "burps" from a nearby swamp. My own glider does go silent except in the worse sink, but maybe I'll tune it to be more sensitive on that setting and see what happens this season and I'll try that technique. Thanks for your comment.

There's two schools of thought on that. The other is if you only have to re-light once every 5 flights, it can still be economical. 2000' AGL though is a good height as it gives you room to look around if things are not working out for you right away. I don't think there's a big difference between both strategies, other than the next person waiting for a tow probably appreciates the quicker turnaround.

My lowest release height was probably 800’ or so. Typically I release at the first thermal above 1,000’.

Thanks. I don’t know about genius. I think is was more like desperation to have some flight like experience when we were not able to get our annual check flights to be allowed to fly during the beginning of the pandemic. The sports code did not allow being any closer than 2m, even with masks, so we could not share the cockpit with an instructor.

Yes, certainly triangular structures are stronger. The pedestal is connected with 3 bolts, so in a sense that's a triangular structure moved close to the base. I actually built this in 2020 and it's been pretty stable. If it does present a problem, I'd consider a thin plywood sheet behind the monitor and down to the base with holes cut for the feet/legs to get to the rudder pedals. That would also work.

Well, it's not a droid sitting in behind the cockpit. 🙂 It's an electronic vario, which measures the rate of climb. The faster it beeps, the faster you are climbing. If it drones, you're in sink. It helps us keep centred in the thermals. We can keep our eyes looking out for other aircraft, and the sounds let us keep track of things with our ears. It's a bit tricky as there's a second or two delay in the measurement. While we can "feel" the entry into a thermal, once in it we can easily circle offside and get out of lift and not notice. The beeping (or lack of) will let us know when that happens. Flying takes hands, feet, eyes, and ears (and sometimes your bum ... to initially detect lift).

It must have been nice to fly in one when it was relatively new!

It's my Libelle H-201

@davesgliding Excellent! Both are probably the best handling sailplanes ever built. I had a Scheumanized 301 with the improved L.E. profile and other mods. It absolutely achieved, at least a 40:1 L/D. I did a comparison flight with a Discus. ( Previous owner).. I don't think he was happy. Considering the cost of his new ship.

It sounds like you've been able to enjoy flights in both multiple aircraft and locations, and with good company as well. There was a self-launching Janus at our club at about the time I was starting to learn to fly, but the owner sold it to someone in South America and a year or two later passed away. As for multiple locations, I've only flown from two, and both are flatland. During these cold dark winter months, I enjoyed reading your comment. Thanks!

@@davesgliding Thanks for the work and courage to upload videos, even failures. Always nice to learn. I on the other hand had never flown in the flat lands. The next 1000m elevation mountain is only 15km/10 miles away from the airfield and the first 2050m only 30km. Thats a beautiful playground to learn but leaving glide distance to the homebase puts a mountain between you and you airfield, so it ist quite challenging. on really good days we get cloud base up to 2400m near the mountains.

That's very observant. Being a time-lapse type of video, you would have seen a bit of this up/down motion. While flying along the clouds that had been lined up by the effects of wind, there would be pockets of thermal "lift" under the clouds, but also pockets of neutral or sinking air. To maximize the lift and minimize the sink, pilots will slow down in the lift, and to slow down we will lift the nose and trade speed for altitude, but then when we get out of the lift, we put the nose down a bit to speed up again, which loses a bit of altitude, but minimizes the time we say in sink. That way we spend more time in lift than in sink, and as a result, we stay up in the air. Keep in mind, we don't have an engine. Without making use of rising air, we would normally lose altitude at a rate of about 150' per minute, and would not make it very far. Ideally this is done gently. When the recording is played at normal speed, it's a fairly gentle rollercoaster and not upsetting to the tummy. This flight was over 2 hours long, so you could imagine the toll it would take on you if it was an aggressive rollercoaster! 🙂

@@davesgliding I'm learning new things, thank you!

I've not flown a 301, but I love flying my 201. While some deride it for the "snug" fit into the cockpit, I've heard some folks say that you don't climb into it so much as you strap it on. It's like the wings are coming out your back. With respect to flying it compared to other gliders I've flown, it's a more intimate experience. Mind you ... they're all fun to fly!

Yes. CPL3.