PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Gliding - a question to the military guys
Old 22nd Sep 2012, 09:40
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Ali Qadoo
 
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I should like to ask whether your gliding experience has contributed in any way to your subsequent professional flying skills?
Anything that teaches stick and rudder skills and improves your airmanship has to be a good thing. However, it's pretty much impossible to quantify how much what you pick up on gliders will contribute to your future skills on more advanced types.

What I do know is that coming back the other way can prove a humbling experience. I left the F-4 with just under 1,000 on type and while on leave waiting for my next course managed to get the chance of a ride in a Tiger Moth at Redhill. Piece of cake thinks I, how hard can this possibly be....? Talk about a rude shock! Very soon I found myself struggling with an aircraft that needed constant re-trimming in pitch every time you changed the IAS by a fraction of a knot, no rudder trim and a slip needle that seemed to have only 2 positions: full left or full right. Then when it came to trying to land the bloody thing, 2 knots fast and it would float the length of the airfield and at the merest hint of crosswind would start going as fast sideways as it was forwards - and all this with an undercarriage made of pared-down matchsticks (or so it seemed to me). I don't think I've ever worked so hard in my life, and definitely learned at first hand why "simple" types like the Tiger Moth and the Chipmunk were so good for ab-initio flying grading.

So, my answer to the OP's question would be that even if being a good glider pilot won't mean you'll sail through military flying training, being a fast-jet mate won't necessarily make you an ace in a glider and certainly not in a Tiger Moth!

Last edited by Ali Qadoo; 22nd Sep 2012 at 09:46.
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