Any Glider Pilots?

Nsconductor

Nsconductor

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Montgomery, TX
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Nsconductor
Just started learning to fly gliders. It's an entirely different world from helicopters, as you can imagine, but what fun! Just curious if there are any glider pilots on the board?
 
Awesome. I'm five flights into the transition. Very cool and very fun. And a whole knew meaning to adverse yaw.
 
yep. where you flying? MGSA? Chilhowee?
 
Awesome! I learned to fly in gliders when I first started and wouldn't have had it any other way.

What kind of glider are you flying?
 
Got my 7 hrs back in 96 and had my check ride scheduled with the examiner. He cancelled at the last minute and I got orders overseas. Never did get the rating but had a blast doing the training for it. My plan this year was to get signed off again over at Chilhowee but my engine overhaul set me back a ways. Maybe next year.
 
Glider instructor was my first full-time flying job...salaried, even!:D
 
Started in gliders at 15. Certainly makes powered flying easier. Ive got solid stick and rudder skills to thank glider flying for. Feel free to chime in with questions.
 
Nsconductor said:
Just started learning to fly gliders. It's an entirely different world from helicopters, as you can imagine, but what fun! Just curious if there are any glider pilots on the board?
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Yep....some of the most fun flying I've done. Also some of the most expensive if you don't find lift!!

Enjoy!
 
tonycondon said:
yep. where you flying? MGSA? Chilhowee?
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That was a great reminder to update my profile. I flew with Sarah at Chilhowee one time a couple of years ago and then got transferred to the Houston area. I'm flying with the Soaring Club of Houston. As wet as it has been down here this spring, it was more like the SCUBA club.
 
acropilot said:
Awesome! I learned to fly in gliders when I first started and wouldn't have had it any other way.



What kind of glider are you flying?
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I'm sticking with one glider for my training, which is the 2-33. Not pretty, but pretty forgiving. In addition to,the 2-33' the club has a couple of L-23s, a Grob 103, ASK-21, L-33, and a PW-5. We also have a Taylorcraft and 3 Pawnees.
 
Great club. I Crewed for a friend at Region 10 South a few years ago and have a lot of friends down there. Keep us updated about your training. Dont worry someday it will stop raining
 
I fly gliders, though not as often as I should or want to.
 
Looks like it's going to be a great day to fly. I'm scheduled at 11:30 this morning. Now, if I can figure out how to fly on tow without looking like I'm fighting the Battle of Britain. I'll let y'all know how it goes.
 
the tow is a necessary evil to get to the fun part...
 
I am a power and glider CFI, I have owned a glider for about 20 years now and have over 1000 hours for glider time, 60 hours in 14 flights so far this year, hope to do another 20 or 30 hours in the next few weeks.

Brian
 
Been flying 40yrs, 17 yrs in gliders. Glider CFI.
Jean NV (0L7)
 
I took the commercial glider checkride a couple of weeks ago and will be flying rides starting tomorrow for the local operation here. The 2-32 is a fun sailplane to fly.
 
Thanks to everyone for chiming in. Didn't realize that there were several of you out there. Just don't see many Glider threads. Had a ball yesterday. Flying on tow still sucked. And that's all on me. I think I have to get my seating arrangement figured out better. The 2-33 I'm flying takes a lot of forward pressure on the stick, and my short little arms just don't want to reach that far forward. Going to work on a cushion arrangement this morning to see if I can get that corrected. The tow was to 3K and I logged .9 instruction received.

Other than that, it was a good flight. Turns, glides, stalls, all went very well. Thermaled a while. Lift was there and I could sort of figure out what to do to stay in it. Talked it through with my instructor as I was trying to center the thermal. I think I did ok for the first time. Pattern entry and flying was fine, except I stayed too high. Turned final and had to slip with full dive brakes to get down. Worked like the picture in the book..

Makes me nervous in the thermal with other gliders around. Just have never flown what I perceive as uncoordinated formation flight. Head on a swivel doesn't begin to describe what I felt like I was doing.

Flying again this morning. We shall see how that works out.
 
You are right about the 2-33 requiring forward pressure on tow. Double check your speeds, sometimes you are just getting towed too fast. Wait until you solo in it, it'll feel even more different.

Our tow pilot joke is to tell a glider pilot, "You did a great job of boxing the wake!" Then wait for the reaction when hes says, " But I wasn't... oh..."
 
Glider pilot here. Learned in a 2-22, which makes the 2-33 seem like a major step up. But they are crude aircraft. Try to get a chance to fly some glass.

In my experience learning to stay up and fly around the airport is fantastic... then it can be limited. Flying them cross country is the ultimate experience but few go that far. High performance sailplanes are fantastic aircraft, stick and rudder skills are rewarded, weather and geography are the playing fields, off field landings the character builder.

Pure sport, no pretense of utility.

It's all good, enjoy!
 
Thanks for all of the replies. Sunday was a much better on-tow day. Due to scheduling issues, flew the Blanik instead. Not as much thermal activity in the morning and flying on tow was pretty much a non event. I think it was the conditions vs the aircraft. Tended to fly a little to the left of center on the first tow, but on the second and third I changed my sight picture a bit and cleared that right up. Just lined up the vertical stab with the top of the cockpit.

We did a few stalls which were fun, and then flew at MCA and made some turns at MCA. No big deal there. As far as shallow and medium bank turns to a heading, they were within commercial PTS limits for airspeed and heading. Did my first steep turns and sucked at those, nothing that a little practice won't fix. Overall a great weekend of learning.

I really want to fly one glider as exclusively as I can through training and the checkride. But as Bill said, neither of the gliders I have flown are exactly high performance ships. I'll fly the Grob and the ASK-21 before it is over, but just trying to maintain some consistence at this point.

If the Wx holds on Friday, I may have the opportunity to go cross country with my friend in his Duo Discus. Looking forward to that experience.

Again, thanks for the input. More to follow after next flight.
 
flying with Keith in the Duo? Should be a great time and a great way to get introduced to XC flying!
 
Soloed an L-23 back in college. Got about 12 flights. Gonna do the Commercial rating after the ATP.
 
Yup, I personally blame Tony for my "addiction".

I now own two of them infernal machines :)
 
2 more flights today in the 2-33. Overall it went well. Flew the takeoff and tows unassisted. Did some thermaling and continued to learn to center the thermal. Conditions weren't great as I flew at 10:00am but at least we found some lift. Coordination in turns continues to improve. Patterns were fine and the first landing was fine. Second landing I let my airspeed bleed off after I was over my aiming point and that one was rough. Now I really understand the importance of keeping the airspeed up in the landing. I understood it from a conceptual standpoint, but that little exercise in slamming into the ground brought it home. I think is is really negative habit transfer from flying helicopters and naturally wanting to come to a 3 foot hover. Lesson learned, nothing was broke and no one was worse for the wear. I will just have to keep an eye on myself. Flying again tomorrow and I'll report back.
 
Great flight Sunday in the Blanik. Flying on tow has gotten much better. Learned to Box the Wake. Good conditions at the field. First time I had to land because time was up versus running out of altitude. Tow to 3K and found lift. What a ball. Heading back to the IP and still climbing. Full spoilers to get us down to pattern atlitude. Was high when I turned final and slipped to get down lower. Kept airspeed up on landing and greased it. great Day! Flying again next Saturday. Then have to travel for business on Sunday and a little vacation with my wife through the next weekend. I think the consistency has helped a lot.
 
Glider transitions from power planes is interesting. First, you feel like you've never been in an aircraft before, then something all of a sudden "clicks" in your brain and you get it.
 
Nsconductor said:
Great flight Sunday in the Blanik. Flying on tow has gotten much better. Learned to Box the Wake. Good conditions at the field. First time I had to land because time was up versus running out of altitude. Tow to 3K and found lift. What a ball. Heading back to the IP and still climbing. Full spoilers to get us down to pattern atlitude. Was high when I turned final and slipped to get down lower. Kept airspeed up on landing and greased it. great Day! Flying again next Saturday. Then have to travel for business on Sunday and a little vacation with my wife through the next weekend. I think the consistency has helped a lot.
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Blaniks fly much nicer than the trusty SGS 2-33A. Glad you're having fun!
 
Matthew said:
Glider transitions from power planes is interesting. First, you feel like you've never been in an aircraft before, then something all of a sudden "clicks" in your brain and you get it.
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People need to learn what their feet are for, do you remeber that adverse yaw lesson in your primary training?

Then relearn that pitch controls airspeed. No, you don't dive on final when you're high.

And please remember, you have a head wind on final, so why are you flying so far out on downwind before turning base? You have no throttle to get you to the runway.

7 degree glide path, not that 3 degree ILS/VASI final you are used to.

I've seen power pilots break out in a sweat when the visible source of lift (tow plane) went away. What do we do now?
 
I tugged 22 gliders aloft yesterday over the course of six hours in the Super Cub. I don't have time to soar at this point but I enjoy supporting the sport via towing when I can.

Six hours in a jet Saturday, six more in a Cub Sunday!
 
Nsconductor said:
2 more flights today in the 2-33. Overall it went well. Flew the takeoff and tows unassisted. Did some thermaling and continued to learn to center the thermal. Conditions weren't great as I flew at 10:00am but at least we found some lift. Coordination in turns continues to improve. Patterns were fine and the first landing was fine. Second landing I let my airspeed bleed off after I was over my aiming point and that one was rough. Now I really understand the importance of keeping the airspeed up in the landing. I understood it from a conceptual standpoint, but that little exercise in slamming into the ground brought it home. I think is is really negative habit transfer from flying helicopters and naturally wanting to come to a 3 foot hover. Lesson learned, nothing was broke and no one was worse for the wear. I will just have to keep an eye on myself. Flying again tomorrow and I'll report back.
Click to expand...

I am just behind you, also with fixed and rotary background. I find the heli background very useful, esp. when I think about run-on landings. Obviously the hover (or flare after auto) is not very useful. I am told most power (fixed wing) pilots tend to flare on landing, so having the "if you flare you chop off your tail" mentality in mind is helpful. :)
 
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