Gliding - a question to the military guys
 

Hi Guys,

Many of you, before joining the Service, will perhaps have been ATC/CCF cadets and will have done some gliding with them.

Alternatively, perhaps you were a member of a gliding club before you enlisted, or perhaps you glide now while in the UK and during your off-duty hours.

I should like to ask whether your gliding experience has contributed in any way to your subsequent professional flying skills? If so, what contribution has it made?

Regards,

BP.

I had no powered flying experience before flying training, I had solo experience on gliders. It helped a little bit, but not that much......

Your not kidding :E
:ok:

Having completed a gliding scholarship many years before going solo in an Army Chipmunk, I was prepared for the opportunity to sing loudly and tunelessly without being berated.

Having soloed on Gliders, it certainly helped in the respect of not being too overawed at finding myself alone in the cockpit later on, and it all contributes towards developing a good sense of 'Airmanship'.

It certainly cannot hurt....and it is great fun to boot! Loved my time at the London Gliding Club at Dunstable.

Lovely people....nice site....very interesting place to fly from.

Do avoid the Cricket Pitch not too far away from the place....they don't like gliders there.

SASless
 

With regards to the Cricket pitch, was it the noise they objected to?
BV;)

I had about 100hrs on gliders when I started my Army Pilots Course. The first sixty hours on Chippys were a doddle. :cool: The next 60 hours on Gazelles weren't. :eek:

About 300 hours on gliders - and an instructor rating. It helped for the first 60 hours (solo in about 6) but not much after that. But my PFLs were always good!

Later as an instructor at the elementary stage, I enjoyed teaching glider pilots more than PPL holders. Their airmanship (particulary lookout) was superior and they were better attitude flyers. And they learned PFLs quickly!

Dan,

On the other hand, I always enjoyed demonstrating rolling into a turn with no rudder to PPLs and watching them realize what adverse yaw really was!

Tiger Mate, I may have struggled a little.............. As I get older and memories fade, I like to think that my total lack of skill was actually caused by the RAF asking me to fly with deficient equipment and bad instructors. I was actually a God, it just wasn't my fault....... :ok:

Good thread and a good place to ask a question of my own. Not a flyer but curious - can you fly a power assisted glider on a BGA Licence?

As opposed to bad equipment and deficient instructors?....;)

The short answer is:

Self sustaining: YES
Self launching: NO

Ciao,

Dg800

EDIT - Straight from the horse's mouth: Welcome to the British Gliding Association

I know that the gliding fraternity is always anxious to promote the positive contribution of their activity towards other aspects of flying and I am sure that they are sincere in their beliefs. However I feel that gliding has about the same relevance to professional military flying as archery has to weapons skills.

YS

Stick back/houses smaller
Stick forward/houses bigger
Hold stick back/houses circle around windscreen
Sort of works like military training??

Yellow Sun,

Then you clearly have no experience of gliding in the mountains!

August bank holiday weekend, towards the middle of the last century. I was solo in a Sedbergh, at age of 16 (me not the glider - the glider was much older) approaching Catterick. Due to a sudden attack of incompetence landed short on the other side of the A1 - rescue party soon arrived and "helped me" to de-rig.

Unfortunately the wind was blowing across the A1 at the time; had to carry the wing into wind. We waited for 45 minutes for a gap in the traffic big enough to get a Sedbergh wing across both carriageways.

Then I decided to amend my RAF application form to read "Engineer".

Rgds SOS

Then please explain its relevance? I would suggest that those who have undergone primary gliding instruction prior to military flying training have no experience of gliding in mountains either. In fact a very small minority of glider pilots will have any experience of flying in mountains so its not really relevant.

YS

All "stick" time is beneficial