Gliders

mulligan

mulligan

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
Sep 27, 2015
Messages
1,289
Location
Birmingham, AL
Display Name
Display name:
Mulligan
So on my way today from KBHM to KAUO we encountered a glider riding the thermals. I was flying IFR and had him on the fish finder at my altitude and getting way too close.

ATC chimed in right before I was going to query about traffic in the area and he said yeah there is a plane at my 2:00 less than 5 miles out vfr at my altitude I don't know why he is maneuvering at ifr altitudes.

So my question is are gliders supposed to maintain certain altitudes? I would not think so but every time I encounter these gliders they seem like they are doing there thing and are some other frequency in a high traffic area and don't even know if they know we are flying right through.

Oh, and it was windy and bumpy for me so I'm guessing they were having a blast.
 
See and avoid. Gliders by definition cannot maintain specific altitudes. Which is kind of the point of gliders. LOL

And yes, they probably were having a blast.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
See and avoid. Gliders by definition cannot maintain specific altitudes. Which is kind of the point of gliders. LOL
Click to expand...

Haha. I was joking with a friend who only has the Private Glider rating that I was annoyed at how hard some of the ADM acronyms the FAA has graced us with, are to memorize.

He replied...

"We aren't tested on that stuff. Every flight is an emergency."

:)
 
What altitude was the glider at?
Most gliders won't show up on your "fishfinder", BTW.
 
Be glad he had a transponder. The ones I used to fly never had transponders. Some do, some don't. I know the FAA is looking at making it a requirement in the future though.
 
Hell you were probably of concern to the glider pilot, and he was wondering WTF you were doing "on his lawn". Probably saying to himself, damn Auburn fans, always on my lawn. Mulligan get off my lawn! Something like that anywho. ;) :D
 
RotorDude said:
What altitude was the glider at?
Most gliders won't show up on your "fishfinder", BTW.
Click to expand...

I was at 5,000. It's a short flight so no reason to go any higher when the bases are at 7,000 as by the time I hit 9,000 I got to go down anyway.

There are usually two to three of these gliders in the area on this trip that I do every game weekend and they usually have transponders.
 
mulligan said:
I was at 5,000. It's a short flight so no reason to go any higher when the bases are at 7,000 as by the time I hit 9,000 I got to go down anyway.

There are usually two to three of these gliders in the area on this trip that I do every game weekend and they usually have transponders.
Click to expand...

In our area it's the rare glider (maybe 1 in 50?) that has a working transponder. I am sure this is fairly common around the country, so I would definitely not assume that anything but Mark I Eyeballs will detect glider traffic. And on some weekends, esp. on "strong" days, there may be lots of gliders swirling around, potentially all the way up to 18,000' (though normally not in A-D airspace).
 
I was thinking the fact that the glider even had a transponder kinda hinted that they knew they'd be in the airspace.

Maybe someone forgot to call and open a wave window with the controllers or something.

Boulder has an LOA with Denver Center for a wave window above the northwest metro front range. It's not charted but when they open it and gliders head up in there up to the flight levels, Denver Center routes IFR traffic around them.
 
denverpilot said:
Maybe someone forgot to call and open a wave window with the controllers or something.
Click to expand...

I doubt anyone forgot anything. If they were thermalling around 5,000', that's well below 18,000' above which a wave clearance would be needed. As Velocity said, the OP should be glad they had a transponder because that's very rare for a glider, at least in my experience.
 
Gliders hardly ever maintain an altitude, they are always climbing in thermal or ridge/wave, or descending in sink or glide looking for the next lift source. Flying in wave they may be able to accelerate and cruise if the are flying parallel to the wave, ridge.

About 1/4 of our local fleet has a "voluntary" transponder installed.
 
denverpilot said:
Haha. I was joking with a friend who only has the Private Glider rating that I was annoyed at how hard some of the ADM acronyms the FAA has graced us with, are to memorize.

He replied...

"We aren't tested on that stuff. Every flight is an emergency."

:)
Click to expand...

Every flight will end in a power off landing, no go around option.
 
RotorDude said:
I doubt anyone forgot anything. If they were thermalling around 5,000', that's well below 18,000' above which a wave clearance would be needed. As Velocity said, the OP should be glad they had a transponder because that's very rare for a glider, at least in my experience.
Click to expand...

I didn't see anywhere where he said what altitude he was at. Did I miss that? I assumed higher.

BillTIZ said:
Every flight will end in a power off landing, no go around option.
Click to expand...

Yup. Haha. What they don't tell most of us power guys is that when they enter at pattern altitude, they still have enough energy to take them four miles away or more in no wind conditions that they need to dump to land. :)
 
denverpilot said:
I didn't see anywhere where he said what altitude he was at. Did I miss that? I assumed higher.



Yup. Haha. What they don't tell most of us power guys is that when they enter at pattern altitude, they still have enough energy to take them four miles away or more in no wind conditions that they need to dump to land. :)
Click to expand...
LOL, the glider instructor knew exactly when to tell me when not to turn base...
 
Clark1961 said:
LOL, the glider instructor knew exactly when to tell me when not to turn base...
Click to expand...

Hahaha. Not without sticking the boards out full and still needing a massive slip to make the first third of the runway. Maybe. LOL.
 
denverpilot said:
Hahaha. Not without sticking the boards out full and still needing a massive slip to make the first third of the runway. Maybe. LOL.
Click to expand...
I didn't panic, honest. I knew we could fly slow enough to land in the trees without much of a problem...
 
denverpilot said:
I was thinking the fact that the glider even had a transponder kinda hinted that they knew they'd be in the airspace.

Maybe someone forgot to call and open a wave window with the controllers or something.

Boulder has an LOA with Denver Center for a wave window above the northwest metro front range. It's not charted but when they open it and gliders head up in there up to the flight levels, Denver Center routes IFR traffic around them.
Click to expand...
A coupy guys in our local club have had enough close calls with powered aircraft that they have installed transponders and portable collision avoidance systems.
 
Matthew said:
A coupy guys in our local club have had enough close calls with powered aircraft that they have installed transponders and portable collision avoidance systems.
Click to expand...

Most of the gliders at Boulder have them these days.

Lear just about ran down one of the CFI-Gs in a glider equipped with one anyway, a few weeks ago. He says 300' separation. Lear was descending into BJC and unknown if it was VFR or IFR.

That Longmont, Boulder, Rocky Mtn Metro corridor up against the Flatirons is a mess.

Same place the Cirrus headed for BJC plowed into the Pawnee towing a commercial glider ride a number of years back and the famous "Burning Cirrus under a chute" photos.

That's one of my slight misgivings about working on glider stuff up there. Too much traffic and crossing traffic.
 
I was driving from Fort Collins to Boulder earlier this year. I was pretty close to Denver Center, drove right past it on whatever road I was on. Stopped at a light and there was a homeless looking guy in the median, almost arm length on my left. I looked over his shoulder and saw a towplane/glider. I watched for a while until the light changed. The dude finally wondered what I was looking at, so he turned his head and started watching. Maybe it inspired him to take lessons.
 
RotorDude said:
Yes, see above.
Click to expand...

Oh well. Haha.

A friend recounts a day when he about impaled an ATR-72 on a glider on the east coast somewhere.

That real high pitched panicky controller voice that's up about an octave above normal...

"Airliner XXX, traffic 12 o'clock less than a mile altitude unknown suggest immediate right turn, expedite!", said about 1000 words per second.

The glider went past the left wingtip at a horrendously fast closure rate, and the FAs weren't too happy about falling into some customers laps with their drinks.

Center controller then told them after life was back to straight and level and customers were wiped dry, that one second there was nothing and then the glider's transponder (good thing it had one!) showed up right off the nose of the ATR. Investigation of the recorded radar data backed it up.

The flight was short and below the flight levels.

That one is story three or four of his best "near hits" as Carlin would have called them. Most not in airliners with paying passengers aboard, however.

My closest near hit to another glider was thermalling with another one, but that was on purpose. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top