Getting back in to gliding
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2010
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From: Leeds
Getting back in to gliding
A couple of years ago I did my Gliding Scholarship through the Air Cadets and loved it, and soloed after 32 launches. However, it's been a busy time and I haven't flown without an engine since.
As funding will not allow any more powered flying for a long while (I soloed in a Flying Scholarship this summer), and reminded of just how good gliding felt by a very well written article in Pilot this month (has anyone else read it?), I'm now looking at getting back in to the sport, but know almost nothing about certification/requirements to hire from clubs etc. How far does my 32 launches + solo (all on the G103A Twin II Acro) and ground training get me? I'm wanting to get to the point where I can solo again and eventually take up the odd passenger.
BTW I live in the Leeds area so York or Sutton Bank will be my nearest clubs.
Many thanks folks.
As funding will not allow any more powered flying for a long while (I soloed in a Flying Scholarship this summer), and reminded of just how good gliding felt by a very well written article in Pilot this month (has anyone else read it?), I'm now looking at getting back in to the sport, but know almost nothing about certification/requirements to hire from clubs etc. How far does my 32 launches + solo (all on the G103A Twin II Acro) and ground training get me? I'm wanting to get to the point where I can solo again and eventually take up the odd passenger.
BTW I live in the Leeds area so York or Sutton Bank will be my nearest clubs.
Many thanks folks.
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,546
Likes: 2
From: Oxford, UK
Welcome back, 1470!
Funny thing, we were just having a meeting about you last weekend! Or how to bring back all those talented people who had discovered flying in the Air Cadets....
First of all, the British Gliding Association website has several links to finding your local clubs. Yes, Sutton Bank is one, York another, and there may be others. I presume you have a job that keeps you in that neighbourhood.
I strongly recommend you visit in person two or three of your nearest clubs and see which one suits you....where the welcome is warmest, where you feel you will fit in, talk to people, ask about the training. Most certainly your experience should help you to progress very quickly.
Instructors cost nothing. At my club, in middle earth, if you are a club member (students get special rates, ask for that!) a winch launch costs £7, an airtow £28 to 2,000'. A K-13 glider is 25 p a minute. Single seaters not much more, sometimes even less!
Recommend that you fly the club single seaters first, then contemplate if finance allows, joining a syndicate. There are certain requirements for flying friends and family, and one must complete a course before becoming an instructor. Sometimes a club will help with this financially, if you are committed to help out the club!
But the MOST fun is cross country flying! (If you get it wrong, you visit a farmer!) Flying in wave. Rock polishing in mountain areas. And eventually, competitions. In gliding, we help each other, which keeps costs down. Club members should help get the kit out in the morning, or help put it away in the evening when flying is done. And then we open the bar!
First of all, the British Gliding Association website has several links to finding your local clubs. Yes, Sutton Bank is one, York another, and there may be others. I presume you have a job that keeps you in that neighbourhood.
I strongly recommend you visit in person two or three of your nearest clubs and see which one suits you....where the welcome is warmest, where you feel you will fit in, talk to people, ask about the training. Most certainly your experience should help you to progress very quickly.
Instructors cost nothing. At my club, in middle earth, if you are a club member (students get special rates, ask for that!) a winch launch costs £7, an airtow £28 to 2,000'. A K-13 glider is 25 p a minute. Single seaters not much more, sometimes even less!
Recommend that you fly the club single seaters first, then contemplate if finance allows, joining a syndicate. There are certain requirements for flying friends and family, and one must complete a course before becoming an instructor. Sometimes a club will help with this financially, if you are committed to help out the club!
But the MOST fun is cross country flying! (If you get it wrong, you visit a farmer!) Flying in wave. Rock polishing in mountain areas. And eventually, competitions. In gliding, we help each other, which keeps costs down. Club members should help get the kit out in the morning, or help put it away in the evening when flying is done. And then we open the bar!
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 67
Likes: 0
From: Hove
[getting back on topic . . .]
Student1470,
Your Air Cadet experience will be very useful, once you've shaken off any rust. The BGA system relies on demonstrated competence rather than licences, and all of the ATC cadets I've flown with have been very competent, well trained pilots.
There will be extra training on stall/spin avoidance & recovery to do and circuit planning the civvy way is slightly different. Other than that you will find it all very familiar and shouldn't take long to fly solo again.
Rufforth's K13 will be quite different from the Grob, Sutton Bank's K21 is very similar to the Grob. Sutton Bank also benefits from a soarable ridge.
Passenger carrying is a little more complicated. Past history suggests that two club members in one aircraft can get into twice as much trouble as a solo pilot; flying with a non-flying passenger (even if a family member) involves an additional responsibility. For these reasons, clubs usually require a little more experience before allowing pilots to carry passengers. Nothing too draconian, something like Bronze badge and/or around 50 hours total airtime.
Blink182,
Silver C is an accomplishment and lasts forever. At the moment you need only satisfy an instructor that you are safe enough to let loose in the club's aircraft to be allowed to fly solo.
No-one knows what the transition requirements to EASA's Glider Pilot's licence will be, but a random guess would be equivalent to the BGA's 'Glider Pilot Licence'. Bronze badge + XC endorsement + 5 hours P1 in gliders in the previous 12 months required.
Student1470,
Your Air Cadet experience will be very useful, once you've shaken off any rust. The BGA system relies on demonstrated competence rather than licences, and all of the ATC cadets I've flown with have been very competent, well trained pilots.
There will be extra training on stall/spin avoidance & recovery to do and circuit planning the civvy way is slightly different. Other than that you will find it all very familiar and shouldn't take long to fly solo again.
Rufforth's K13 will be quite different from the Grob, Sutton Bank's K21 is very similar to the Grob. Sutton Bank also benefits from a soarable ridge.
Passenger carrying is a little more complicated. Past history suggests that two club members in one aircraft can get into twice as much trouble as a solo pilot; flying with a non-flying passenger (even if a family member) involves an additional responsibility. For these reasons, clubs usually require a little more experience before allowing pilots to carry passengers. Nothing too draconian, something like Bronze badge and/or around 50 hours total airtime.
Blink182,
Silver C is an accomplishment and lasts forever. At the moment you need only satisfy an instructor that you are safe enough to let loose in the club's aircraft to be allowed to fly solo.
No-one knows what the transition requirements to EASA's Glider Pilot's licence will be, but a random guess would be equivalent to the BGA's 'Glider Pilot Licence'. Bronze badge + XC endorsement + 5 hours P1 in gliders in the previous 12 months required.
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 200
Likes: 5
From: London, UK
How come all the gilders that I see now seem to have lawn mower engines that pop up from behind the pilot?
Makes a nice alternative to ending your day landing in a field and if your home club has unsoarable conditions you can always motor to a good area then back home for tea. You don't need a licence for them provded they are not powerful enough to launch the glider (if they are then they become a SLMG). Obviously they are much more expensive but for some it's worth the compromise.
The rest of us however get to visit the farmers and do the "where am I, who has a key to the gate, and can I get a car+trailer here" fun.
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,546
Likes: 2
From: Oxford, UK
The ideal location for a gliding club - hill top? or bottom!
Now in the good old days, before the war....they didn't know about thermals.
Hill lift was understood, so they started flying from Dunstable Downs, casting their flying machines into the breeze much like the hang gliders today.
A sturdy horse was employed to drag the glider back to the top of the hill. Until Dobbin got a fright one day when a clever dick pilot flew low overhead, he panicked and galloped away dragging the Dagling to destruction, or so the story goes....
Then they tried leaping off the Long Mynd. Or employing the manpower to bungee the primary into the empyrium - seven bods minimum, 3 on each end of the rubber band, one to release the tail when it got tight enough.
And of course the Bishop, that fabled hill north of Edinburgh -
Trouble with locating your club at the TOP of the hill is it tends to get lost in cloud. Which is quite exciting when you want to find your way home.
They compromised at Talgarth. Half way up the hill, nestled against the mountain. If the hill doesn't work or becomes covered in orographic, the way home is down, not up. And if you really screw up, there are fields in the valley. Dunstable relocated at the bottom of the Downs.
But Sutton Bank stayed at the top.....
Hill lift was understood, so they started flying from Dunstable Downs, casting their flying machines into the breeze much like the hang gliders today.
A sturdy horse was employed to drag the glider back to the top of the hill. Until Dobbin got a fright one day when a clever dick pilot flew low overhead, he panicked and galloped away dragging the Dagling to destruction, or so the story goes....
Then they tried leaping off the Long Mynd. Or employing the manpower to bungee the primary into the empyrium - seven bods minimum, 3 on each end of the rubber band, one to release the tail when it got tight enough.
And of course the Bishop, that fabled hill north of Edinburgh -
Trouble with locating your club at the TOP of the hill is it tends to get lost in cloud. Which is quite exciting when you want to find your way home.
They compromised at Talgarth. Half way up the hill, nestled against the mountain. If the hill doesn't work or becomes covered in orographic, the way home is down, not up. And if you really screw up, there are fields in the valley. Dunstable relocated at the bottom of the Downs.
But Sutton Bank stayed at the top.....
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,337
Likes: 59
From: At home
Now in the good old days, before the war....they didn't know about thermals.
With all the flying in the First World War and the need to get a height advantage in combat, someone must have circled under a cloud and noticed that their climb rate increased?
Nympsfield, the home of the Bristol & Gloucester Gliding Club is a hilltop site, and can offer some great winter slope soaring as well as buttock clenching approaches, depending on the wind direction.
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 212
Likes: 0
From: Suffolk
The Germans were exploring thermals in the 1930s, maybe even in the late 20s. In the 30s Robert Kronfeld came to Britain and made quite long cross-country flights using thermals. and of course, Geoffrey Stephenson's cross-Channel flight in 1938 or 1939 used thermals.
However, Mary is right so far as the early 1930s were concerned. I have a 1932 gliding book which says that the most successful club will be the one which has a horse to pull the gliders back up the hill.
However, Mary is right so far as the early 1930s were concerned. I have a 1932 gliding book which says that the most successful club will be the one which has a horse to pull the gliders back up the hill.
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,546
Likes: 2
From: Oxford, UK
As to world war I fighter pilots using thermals, I believe that the noise of an engine tends to overwhelm the sensitivity of the backside; it must have been very difficult to believe that a heavier than air craft could actually ascend in thermal, despite the evidence of buzzards, seagulls, and bits of paper....
Nympsfield is indeed an interesting hilltop site. Challenging in lots of ways, that dip in the middle, those wind turbines, etc. Observing a competition finish there one day, I saw the glider execute the customary low pass over the Committee, dumping his water ballast on the dignitaries, and then get caught in the curlover on the downwind leg. To everyone's delight, he landed out in the valley. Oh I say, good finish!
Nympsfield is indeed an interesting hilltop site. Challenging in lots of ways, that dip in the middle, those wind turbines, etc. Observing a competition finish there one day, I saw the glider execute the customary low pass over the Committee, dumping his water ballast on the dignitaries, and then get caught in the curlover on the downwind leg. To everyone's delight, he landed out in the valley. Oh I say, good finish!
