You're visiting a new airfield, what do you want?

[FlyingSportsman]

Afternoon chaps,

Finally got round to applying for the gliding scholarship for a bit of free gliding over easter, better than paying 160£ /hour or 7£ per launch and 30p a minute. Got a 10 day course at EGDO, Rnas Predannack. If you were heading down there, what would you want to have at arms length in the cockpit?

So far I've got:

-1:250000 chart for the area.
- A few print screens of Skydemon, differing zooms e.t.c
- General airfield info from various sites and a few google searches

Any other Ideas?

FS :ok:

[Genghis the Engineer]

Good question, and well done on getting the scholarship.

I'd add:

- a narrow A5ish kneeboard. Personally I prefer the tri-fold type, but there are a lot of personal preference issues there. With some paper in it!

- Lots of pens and soft pencils (and always know how many you started with, and make sure you leave the cockpit with the same number).

- Sunglasses or (better usually in gliders) a beany hat.

- Bottle of water.

G

[BackPacker]

You have not done any gliding before, and will be flying with an instructor?

Don't worry about charts or anything. You'll probably not go out of sight of the field, and the instructor will brief you on how/where the circuit lies etc.

Sunglasses, a hat, sunscreen, lip balm and a bottle of water are a good idea. A pair of boots is usually very convenient on a grass field wet with morning dew, but not ideal for flying so bring some trainers too. A sweater or jacket, a pen or two, your logbook, maybe some food if that isn't provided. But those are all left behind on the ground in your backpack.

Occasionally I also take up a camera and a track-logging GPS.

[FlyingSportsman]

@ Backpacker, I have actually done a fair amount of gliding before, on the civil side. Decided to apply for the gliding scholarsip as more of a refresher & CV filler! Hopefully something more to stick on the FPP application. The camera had gone over my head, so thanks for that! Will be nice to get some memories on camera! :)

@ Genghis- Fortunately I've got my a5 kneeboard as I'm currently doing the PPL, will just have to take out the piles of post-its with metars and clearances :E
Sunglasses are a good shout!

FS :ok:

[Heston]

All good suggestions, and I'd add the following thoughts;

- gliding sites (like all airfields) can be very cold and windy. You'll be outdoors all day and flying in winds that might ground some light aircraft. Take warm clothes as well as the sun screen and stuff cos the weather in springtime can vary enormously.

- I wouldn't expect to need a kneeboard during initial glider training and in fact I never had one in some 10 years of glider flying. The only things you need to write are altimeter settings and these can go on the map.

- the 1:250k chart will be good for orientation, what local features are like and so on, but its worth knowing that cross country glider pilots almost all use 1:500k

- beany hat NOT a baseball cap because of not wanting to restrict your lookout field of view

- gloves for warmth, but they also need to be pretty robust (and ones that you dont mind getting wrecked) because you will be doing a lot of handling of the launch cables and they can be vicious. Incidentally pay good attention to the safety breifings you will be given; cables can be very dangerous

Have a great time, gliding is wonderful :D

H

ps edited to add that I've just seen your post saying you are not new to gliding, in which case you know all this stuff (including how much fun it is) but I enjoyed remembering anyway and maybe someone else is thinking of gliding this spring

[chrisN]

I have a check list of what to take for different levels of glider flights. Send me your email address if you want a copy, to use/adulterate as you wish – it is a Word doc. (Same offer to any others interested.)

It does not refer to a kneeboard – I never use one. Never saw any other glider pilot use one either, though some I have not seen may (e.g. power pilots who do both and feel lost without it).

Chris N.

[FlyingSportsman]

Cheers for your replies guys,
@ Heston, was nice to read your post, very informative!

and Chris, you have a PM :ok:

any suggested reading? FS :ok:

[Heston]

Reading:
Ken Stewart "The Soaring Pilots Manual"
anything by Derek Piggott or Reichmann
Welch and Irving "The New Soaring Pilot" is great, but is long out of print

cheers

H

[chrisN]

If you are going to be pre-solo for several/many flights until you have regained currency, I would not suggest buying a book at this stage. If you want to anyway, to cover the basics, there are several. I have not read the later ones, but The Glider Pilot's Manual by Ken Stewart is often mentioned by others. See BGA Shop - (Powered by CubeCart) (http://www.bgashop.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=4) for other ideas, and/or the books on Gliding - afeonline.com, Europe's favourite online Pilot Shop, by (http://www.afeonline.com/shop/index.php?cPath=38_158) .

Download a copy of Laws and Rules from the BGA website.

If you are going to be winch launching, have a good look at “Safe Winch Launching” Feb 2010 edition and other stuff on:


British Gliding Association >> Safety >> Safe Winch Launching (http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/safety/safewinchlaunching.htm)

Chris N.

[stiknruda]

You're visiting a new airfield, what do you want?

1) avgas
2) a pee!
3) Earl Grey tea


Stik