the only time I have been beaten over the head with a rolled up newspaper was an experience flight in a Blanic glider.
I was flying in turbulent air. first ever flight in a glider.
whack
vuk me is you arse asleep, how could you fly zru a thermal like zat and not vuking turn.
whack
vuk me dead you vukwit, why can't you feel ze zermals.
whack
oh vuk me you didn't even feel sat wun. you dead head, you arse asleep.
whack
oh vuk give me ze controls ziss is too much to bear. look ziss is the vay ve fly zee glider.

I was actually trying to track back over the airfield we took off from....

Steve Gronan is dead now but I'll never forget his air experience flight.
thank heavens I fly powered these days.:E:}

Ah yes turbulent air :)
Many years ago flying (as near to the black box as poss :)) in the company Skoda we hit a bad 'air pocket' whilst flying in some really rough weather - it felt like the aircraft just fell out of the sky for a second or two (severe down gust/draught) - lots of worried pax and intakes of breath - except for Rog and myself (2 glider pilots) - we were giggling :)

When I was working in zimbabwe we knocked off at 1pm in the summer and I used to drive over to the GC to make use of some of that horrible bumpy weather :)

One of my more er 'interesting' barograph traces LOL,glider pilots will recognise the 'scratching' escape from the lowest point (as opposed to the very steep normal thermal climb) - took some very gentle and accurate flying in an extremely weak thermal - got me sweating - thats for sure :)
During one of my 'Cathedral city' 500k attempts !


http://i695.photobucket.com/albums/v...ibelle8086.jpg

Crikey, couple of close calls there!

Yeah it was a dodgy day :) - according to my old log book it was 4.35hr and ended up as just the first leg of the planned route and landed back at base !
The lowest point was 'somewhere near andover' :)

Hi, Wander00, it is G-BPUL. Tugging today, as the Rallye is poorly.

I recently heard about someone who turned up at a farmer's field with a trailer to retrieve a glider and on opening it up found it already filled with a nice three piece suite.

I've told this story before....one of the closest near accidents I was involved with was when a glider flew right over my aircraft from behind and touched down just in front of me as my student and I were taking off from an RAF airfield.

Had my student been solo I don't think he would have been able to avoid the glider in the circumstances and at his level of experience.

Exascot,

I have only just happened upon this thread:

A typical uninformed, unprofessional post from an ex-RAF truckie - still smarting over being chopped from fast jet training are you? Why would you need to "show up on radar" in the open FIR? Difficult to see? Yes, but I've been flying gliders (and powered) for over 40 years and the see and be seen principle of VMC flying is still serving me well. And I have full control of my flightpath at all times.

In your subsequent post you state that you were paradropping in a danger zone - you did, of course, assure the airspace was clear for dropping, didn't you? A danger area is not a prohibited area!

A danger area may be a prohibited area, too, depending on the bye laws appertaining. Check the AIP!

LOL - one of those 'Oh Bu66er' moments

I would imagine there are many 'trailer tales' around :)

Through luck :E or skill :hmm: - I did not land out that often - although I did a fair few retrieves for other people :)
I always used to fight hard to get home - one good piece of advice I was given by an experienced x country pilot was - 'never give up' (within safety considerations natch).

One trailer we did end up with was a huge affair with massive tractor wheels/tyres and which was a bitch to tow (good job syndicate partner had a 5hitroen BX :))
This trailer contained a Slingsby T53 (YS53) which we bought without a test flight off an oldish chap (what could possibly go wrong :))
But actually she was a really nice glider to fly - with a huge canopy and proper man sized stick :ok:

Who said winching is dangerous ?
 

http://i695.photobucket.com/albums/v...liderwinch.jpg


The top pic is a Copeland and Hatcher winch - with the operator standing in line with the cable/rollers etc - OOER ! :eek:


The lower pic is a Chrysler car conversion - which looks much safer LOL


Both pics from 'Soaring Flight' by Terence Horsley

PC - thanks. Will watch out for you. regards, W

Dear Mr Exascot

Interestingly I did most of my gliding from an airfield shared with a parachuting organisation within a danger area. We co-existed reasonably successfully, with the paras and their aircraft operating upwind of the airfield and us downwind.

One day however one of their (presumably) "professional" twin turbine pilots decided for unknown reasons (or mistakenly) to descend through cloud on the downwind side and nearly took me out as he popped out of the cloud

A quiet word was had with DZ control and it didn't happen again. But it doesn't make me brand all meat bombers as ******* amateurs or wish them all to the Sahara.

Since I didn't have direct words with the pilot I assume that it wasn't you though!

:ok:

ExaScot gets bent out of shape about gliders.....
 

He grumbles that they are "a bunch of amateurs who don't show up on radar, are difficult to see, and have very little control over their flight path!"

All quite true. Item one; can you imagine the enroute controller who has to deal with a gaggle of fifteen or twenty returns on his radar screen all going around in circles at different levels of the same thermal?

Yes, difficult to see, especially if you have so much equipment stacked up in front of your face there is not a lot of window left for you to see out of your fast jet transport, and so are dependent on the poor overworked enroute controller to keep your path clear of intruders....

And as for very little control over their flight path? Let me assure the grumpy expat Scot ex meatbomber, that the flight path of the glider will follow the energy as is necessary to gain height and to complete the flight as planned.

If he is actually flying now in Greece and Botswana, I very much doubt if he is dodging a lot of glider traffic in these exotic locations.

Presumably you are referring to Class G airspace? Do you really believe that any pilot would depend on an "en route controller" in that type of airspace?

what Mary said . . . . add to which .. . . . the glider pilot
can hear you coming most often before you have an inkling
there is a powerless one somewhere close by


RAF 32 Sqn, The Queens Flight, 10 Sqn, Monarch Airlines.


these are respectable credentials .. .
if accompanied by a little humility as opposed to that well known syndrome
sometimes engendered by the 'privileged' and rigorous

indoctrination her maj can afford

Thermaling a Robin HR200
 

A few years back out of EGSR in a Robin Hr200 doing PFLs on to the small strip on Lavenham disused. Good student and very thermic day with a massive towering Cu above us, dropped 10 flap and 70 mph and up we went like the preverbal luv sick angel, student was good with balanced left turn staying the thermal. Then we noticed we were not alone, the blokes from Rattlesden were in on the act first one then two glass fibre rockets and many more all following us around in the thermal. Point was we were making about 500 / 700 fpm roc but these blokes must have been doing double that, and one went by us giving a wave as he went !!!!!!!!!! We bugged out at FL55 but the others just kept going up to the TMA base.

***

I've gone down a cloud street in a PA28 with about 1700 rpm on (carb heat obviously), keeping altitude with 100 kts on the clock. Quite amusing.

message to orionsbelt....
 

Grand day, grand flight, you did very very well to make such good use of conditions and companions in flight!

The one who went by you giving a wave was doing the proper acknowlegement that you have been seen and appreciated! I'm sure he thought you were really a glider pilot, though only flying a Robin; the powerful Robin is often in use as a glider tug, and the tug pilot needs to understand how to find lift in order to give best launches.

But why have you waited all these years to fly a real glider? doesn't need a lot of money, a half share in a decent 40 to one club class competition glider could cost as little as £6 or £7 G. Only takes 15 minutes to rig or derig, kept in its roadworthy trailer, could stay in your drive, or at low cost at the gliding club; think of the hangar charges you save!

And best of all, you have mates to share your gliding stories with. I am still flying at 81, several older than me are still tooling around the sky. We don't get bored, every day is a different challenge.

Thermalling (a paraglider) with sailplanes is fun. We go round the inside, they go round the outside, we wave whilst outclimbing them :)