Flying Gliders

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Originally Posted by Gordie

Love flying and used to scoff at gliders when I was learning to fly cessnas at 17yo. Did a bit of flying again a few years ago, but have decided now that gliders might be worth a try, a lot cheaper flying for a start, and a new set of challenges to flying, rather than just having the roaring engine in front of you. Haven't got around to giving it a go yet.

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I had the opposite view. I scoffed at light powered planes.

I had been gliding for a year or so and was impressed with their performance. A friend took me up in his Cessna. I don't remember the model, but I think it was probably the least powerful model.

In his Cessna, I had the distinct feeling that I was in something that sounded and performed like a Volkswagen Beetle with wings

The Blanik I had been flying seemed to do things so much more easily than the Cessna which seemed to be struggling just to remain aloft.

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Originally Posted by vnx205

I had the opposite view. I scoffed at light powered planes.

I had been gliding for a year or so and was impressed with their performance. A friend took me up in his Cessna. I don't remember the model, but I think it was probably the least powerful model.

In his Cessna, I had the distinct feeling that I was in something that sounded and performed like a Volkswagen Beetle with wings

The Blanik I had been flying seemed to do things so much more easily than the Cessna which seemed to be struggling just to remain aloft.

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Yes well I was young and silly, petrol headed. I am sure if I have a ride in a glider, I will be sold.

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Originally Posted by Gordie

hope you bought a lotto ticket afterward! Lucky it didn't happen on take off.

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They didn't have lotto tickets back then - maybe a war bond [bighmmm]

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Originally Posted by vnx205

I started in a Kookaburra at Armidale where they have the worst thermals this side of Antarctica and progresses to a Blanik just north of Narrabri. The thermals were quite a bit better over the black soil plains.

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At Bellata? When I worked Moree Satellite Earth Station 1968-69, a couple of the other techs used to go there - I’d go down to watch. I think they flew a Slingsby in training.

I used to think of it as Edgeroi rather than Bellata, but we are talking about the same place. I flew there in 1969.

The strip was on a soldier settler property called "Plain Acres" that was owned by Lynn Garden, my brother-in-law's father.

The first day I turned up at the strip I was just in time to see the Slingsby T31 land. It was piloted by the caretaker from the interferometer just west of Narrabri. It was quite a sight because he had a flowing beard and the T31 had an open cockpit.

The T31 gave the pilot a lot of practice in take-offs and landings and very little time chasing thermals because it had quite low performance.

The Blanik was much better, but not as good as a glider that the Armidale instructor (Wally Stott, I think) brought down one day. He and I flew it from the strip all the way over to the foothills of the Nadewar Range.

I also flew with the Southern Downs SC at Warwick in Queensland, back in the 70's.

As a 200 hour power pilot, I soloed in a Blanik after 50 minutes training and then aero-towed with an Auster J5 and Pawnee 235 for a number of years.

Can't say that gliding ever did it for me, too much standing around doing nothing - waiting for a ride. Maybe if you had your own high performance glider there would be more to it!

While it was an interesting experience, I don't believe that gliding made me a better power pilot - nor do I believe the fairytale that glider pilots make better power pilots. I have never seen a glider pilot solo a power aircraft with less than one hour's training!

Barra,
Well, you are right on the time to solo in powered aircraft after gliding. It took me five hours, but I think that might be the legal minimum? We probably met back at Warwick. I spent a reasonable amount of time around the Club in '73, then was in Townsville '74/'75, then back to Brisbane and did a bit of gliding across 76, 77 and 78. After that moved to Melbourne. Ivor Harris did a lot of towing, Ivan Watt, Gus Mauch, Glen Hart and Alan Thorpe were the guys in the back seat for me.
Regards,
Alan

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Originally Posted by aussearcher

Barra,
Well, you are right on the time to solo in powered aircraft after gliding. It took me five hours, but I think that might be the legal minimum? We probably met back at Warwick. I spent a reasonable amount of time around the Club in '73, then was in Townsville '74/'75, then back to Brisbane and did a bit of gliding across 76, 77 and 78. After that moved to Melbourne. Ivor Harris did a lot of towing, Ivan Watt, Gus Mauch, Glen Hart and Alan Thorpe were the guys in the back seat for me.
Regards,
Alan

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I was in Warwick from 1975 to 1982. Gus Mauch did my glider and aerotow training. After I soloed in 50 min, Gus soloed Bob Keogh in 49 min - just to beat me!

I once raced Glen Hart from Warwick to Jondaryn (50 ? miles) - he was in his Libelle glider and I was in one of Bob Keogh’s C150’s. Glen took an aerotow to overhead the aerodrome and once he set course, I rolled on the runway.

I beat him - but only by a few minutes! I would not have believed it if I hadn’t been there !!

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Originally Posted by p38arover

Yes, before kids so must have been 40+ years ago. Trained in a Blanik at Camden using aerotows.

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The club my dad was in had a couple of Blanik's that we flew in often.

Hi everone - I trained at Waikerie on Blaniks, Boomerang, Pilatus then cross country on ASW19 and Libelle mainly.

A great sport but a bit hard on the family doing the occasional road retrieve! I converted to power (including towing) and the gliding dropped off.

This is me preparing the Libelle BA for a comp flight at Bordertown in 1974 - nice hair and shorts eh!

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