Glider Pilots Stay Up Longer!
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Oxford, UK
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Longest day was April 30!!
Couple of our Shenington pilots (one flies for BA) decided Tuesday, 30 April looked good for a cross country, so they planned to fly a 750 kilometer task; turning points declared as Carren Castle, north of Swansea, up to Sheffield, back to Senny Bridge, west of Brecon, and home.
They launched at 9.50, self launching in the Nimbus turbo, and turned off the engine, and only had to use it once more when they got too low on the last leg, having to use the iron thermal at Pershore to get home at 19.30.
Total distance covered as a glider, 710 kilometers. Total time flown, 9 hours and 35 minutes. And every step of the way challenging! cloud base was not all that high over the Welsh mountains! Spreadout over Sheffield.....
You can read all about it in flying reports on the Shenington website.
They launched at 9.50, self launching in the Nimbus turbo, and turned off the engine, and only had to use it once more when they got too low on the last leg, having to use the iron thermal at Pershore to get home at 19.30.
Total distance covered as a glider, 710 kilometers. Total time flown, 9 hours and 35 minutes. And every step of the way challenging! cloud base was not all that high over the Welsh mountains! Spreadout over Sheffield.....
You can read all about it in flying reports on the Shenington website.
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: South Norfolk, England
Age: 58
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Went up to Tibenham today with the intention of flying their Grob 109 motorglider. The wind was too strong to safely taxi it, so I decided to go for a glider flight instead. I loved it! It was the first glider flight for five years or so and the first winch launch I'd done since around 1991! I love flying gliders, but soon remembered why I gave up flying them ... had my name on the flying list (I was the sixth on it) at 9.30 but didn't fly until 5pm! ... Sigh!
SS
Edited to add ... That said, I had two flights, one was 15mins (so a little soaring) and the other was a simulated cable break. The cost .... £12.50!
SS
Edited to add ... That said, I had two flights, one was 15mins (so a little soaring) and the other was a simulated cable break. The cost .... £12.50!
Last edited by shortstripper; 4th May 2013 at 19:56.
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Valencia, Spain
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I gave up doing proper cross-countries a while ago - the chances of doing a successful outlanding off-airfield here are virtually nil, as are the chances of finding and identifying from the air one of the small airstrips known only to local users but marked on all maps! The local airstrip here is still on the map and the control tower still stands but the runway is in the middle of an unfinished industrial estate! Then again, if you do land out somewhere, even if you have arranged a crew - mañana! So the only option is an expensive aerotow retrieve, after flying has finished, after sunset, so - mañana! That said, according to the GPS flying around a triangle/quadrangle etc. with turning points at max gliding range from the airfield can produce some good distances, frequently 2-300 kms, twice over 300 and once over 400! But over the last few years our airspace ceiling has become lower and now varies between 8,500' & 10,000' ( before you start the airfield is almost 4,000'). Since the highest ground here is also around 8,500' there is not a lot of room for manoeuvre but once you know and understand the mountains it can be a lot of fun.
