Flying Gliders

[Old Farang]

Anyone? Never tried them myself, but a lot of good points mentioned in the following article.

No second chances | Flight Safety Australia

Why gliding experience makes us safer pilots. Kreisha Ballantyne experiences the seven valuable skills advanced by gliding.

And some take off tips:

When the tug overpowers the glider | Flight Safety Australia

The author warns about gliders spearing off to one side at launch and, on a couple of occasions, being written off.

[JDNSW]

I've flown gliders on a couple of occasions (but not in recent years). I would agree it is a useful experience as a pilot.

But my experience was an awful lot of waiting round for a bit of flying. Possibly noticed this because my emphasis on flying has always been as a method of travel rather than recreation.

[101RRS]

Yes, I am a glider pilot from a while back - is great fun and yes it does teach you to know what the terrain is below you. Learnt on a Kookaburra Schneider ES-52 - Wikipedia and then did most of my licensed flying in a Blanik LET L-13 Blanik - Wikipedia.

I did lots of thermalling and circuit work but no cross country work - always airtow for launch. When landing, I found air brakes were better than spoilers and felt a lot better going over the threshold a bit high which the air brakes could handle - not the most proficient pilot but I always got down where I wanted.

Garry

[loanrangie]

My dad had 2 gliders when we were kids, a 2 seater and Jantar single seat he had brought out from Czechoslovakia. Quite often has 2 of us in the front seat , spent many a long hot day at Tocumwal aerodrome.
We hard a farm there that dad had bulldozed a run way in the middle of a 200 acre paddock.

[aussearcher]

I had the great good fortune to be taught to fly at Southern Downs SC at Warwick in Queensland. I was still at school in the early '70s and in the Air Force Cadets; our CO had been a flying instructor in WW2 and we often went gliding. A lot of the instructors at Southern Downs were ex RAAF of WW2 vintage, although one was an ex RAF Lancaster pilot and another an ex Luftwaffe FW 190 pilot. They got on very well!

Nothing beats sitting in a thermal with a big wedgetail going round with you, often just sitting above the wingtip getting a free ride...

[p38arover]

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

[vnx205]

Learnt on a Kookaburra Schneider ES-52 - Wikipedia and then did most of my licensed flying in a Blanik LET L-13 Blanik - Wikipedia.

Garry

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.

All my launches were winched. At Armidale it was on the back of a WWII Chev Maple Leaf truck and at Narrabri it was a purpose built winch with a V8 motor and an automatic gearbox.

I flew for long enough to go solo, but that was in 1968 -69.

[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.

[JDNSW]

This thread has led me to reflect that maybe my minor gliding experience was useful on the occasion that I found myself flying a glider when I did not intend to after the engine dropped a valve, although I did not think of it at the time. At least, for some reason I was flying at 9500ft, and knew exactly where the best landing spots were (made it to Wagga airport and did a straight in, downwind landing).

[Gordie]

This thread has led me to reflect that maybe my minor gliding experience was useful on the occasion that I found myself flying a glider when I did not intend to after the engine dropped a valve, although I did not think of it at the time. At least, for some reason I was flying at 9500ft, and knew exactly where the best landing spots were (made it to Wagga airport and did a straight in, downwind landing).

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