Captain Smithy
18th Jun 2007, 06:42
I learned a valuable lesson during yesterday's flight. No doubt it's a lesson that we've all learned at some point or another but as a low-hour student I thought I'd share my experience and my thoughts.
We (my instructor and I) left Edinburgh at around 1300 and proceeded North on the Kelty VFR lane. Shortly after passing Kelty and heading towards Balado Bridge (spelling?) at about 2500 feet (just under the cloud base) I spotted what I thought was a Jodel - could be wrong though - off the port wing and around 500-1000 feet below us. I was lucky to spot him since he was under the port wing, I had to lean forward to see him, and my instructor obviously had no chance of seeing him from his position. The other traffic spotted us however and he passed harmlessly behind us, doing an S-turn.
Being close to Loch Leven and the gliding club there we then turned West towards Dollar. It was then that I spotted the glider - suddenly appearing off our port side, just tickling the cloud base. I don't know how close he was, perhaps less than a mile away? I wasn't sure. Nonetheless we had visual, I presume he could see us too, but then again never presume anything! Again we both passed each other harmlessly.
My instructor pointed out that I did well to spot the traffic in both circumstances, and that this reinforces the importance of a good lookout. Too right. It's amazing how the glider seemed to "jump out" all of a sudden - of course, he didn't, he was there all along, but we didn't see him initially! I can now see how accidents can happen in similar circumstances. Okay so we had our strobes operating but even then there is no guarantee that you will be seen. I can also appreciate how difficult it must be to spot traffic if you are spiralling in a thermal, and I can see the sense in why powered aircraft must give way to gliders.
Valuable lesson indeed.:ok:
P.S. Off-topic but I spotted a rather nice Cirrus SR20 on the Business Av. Ramp at Edi yesterday afternoon... can't recall the registration but very nice.
Smithy
We (my instructor and I) left Edinburgh at around 1300 and proceeded North on the Kelty VFR lane. Shortly after passing Kelty and heading towards Balado Bridge (spelling?) at about 2500 feet (just under the cloud base) I spotted what I thought was a Jodel - could be wrong though - off the port wing and around 500-1000 feet below us. I was lucky to spot him since he was under the port wing, I had to lean forward to see him, and my instructor obviously had no chance of seeing him from his position. The other traffic spotted us however and he passed harmlessly behind us, doing an S-turn.
Being close to Loch Leven and the gliding club there we then turned West towards Dollar. It was then that I spotted the glider - suddenly appearing off our port side, just tickling the cloud base. I don't know how close he was, perhaps less than a mile away? I wasn't sure. Nonetheless we had visual, I presume he could see us too, but then again never presume anything! Again we both passed each other harmlessly.
My instructor pointed out that I did well to spot the traffic in both circumstances, and that this reinforces the importance of a good lookout. Too right. It's amazing how the glider seemed to "jump out" all of a sudden - of course, he didn't, he was there all along, but we didn't see him initially! I can now see how accidents can happen in similar circumstances. Okay so we had our strobes operating but even then there is no guarantee that you will be seen. I can also appreciate how difficult it must be to spot traffic if you are spiralling in a thermal, and I can see the sense in why powered aircraft must give way to gliders.
Valuable lesson indeed.:ok:
P.S. Off-topic but I spotted a rather nice Cirrus SR20 on the Business Av. Ramp at Edi yesterday afternoon... can't recall the registration but very nice.
Smithy