Flying or gliding experience?
Discussion
renmure said:
Get yourself in a flexwing microlight and do some proper flying 
This 
Huge fun, open to the elements, you really feel what you're doing and visibility is even better than in a glider - plus what other aircraft can you sit in starfish (legs and arms hanging out the sides) at 5000 feet
Relatively easy to fly the basics as well...
Zippee said:
renmure said:
Get yourself in a flexwing microlight and do some proper flying
This Huge fun, open to the elements, you really feel what you're doing and visibility is even better than in a glider - plus what other aircraft can you sit in starfish (legs and arms hanging out the sides) at 5000 feet
Relatively easy to fly the basics as well...
Just had the s**test day gliding - 10 hours of my life devoted for 8 mins of flying (2x 4 mins) - it's days like this I miss an engine!!
In all seriousness you really do have to weigh up how much you can tolerate the elements when deciding what to fly. Usually I'm cool - today was on the uber annoying scale!!
In all seriousness you really do have to weigh up how much you can tolerate the elements when deciding what to fly. Usually I'm cool - today was on the uber annoying scale!!
Ahh, was it one of those days when all the pundits are going on about what a good day it is and how they just did 300k in a K-8 - and when you finally launch you can only find the sink, try again then someone steals the glider? Been there done that.
If it's any consolation the ASH25 out of Dunstable did a 750km flight today
https://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=59...
If it's any consolation the ASH25 out of Dunstable did a 750km flight today
https://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=59...
RichB said:
Zippee said:
renmure said:
Get yourself in a flexwing microlight and do some proper flying
This Huge fun, open to the elements, you really feel what you're doing and visibility is even better than in a glider - plus what other aircraft can you sit in starfish (legs and arms hanging out the sides) at 5000 feet
Relatively easy to fly the basics as well...RichB said:
Petrus1983 said:
Just had the s**test day gliding - 10 hours of my life devoted for 8 mins of flying (2x 4 mins) - it's days like this I miss an engine!!
Sounds like you beat the tug down! 
It was a winch launch, no headwind so didn't get great height and both times released into a band of sink! Only had 400ft to play with trying to find some lift before needing to get into the circuit at 600ft :/
Andy_mr2sc said:
RichB said:
Zippee said:
renmure said:
Get yourself in a flexwing microlight and do some proper flying
This Huge fun, open to the elements, you really feel what you're doing and visibility is even better than in a glider - plus what other aircraft can you sit in starfish (legs and arms hanging out the sides) at 5000 feet
Relatively easy to fly the basics as well...
Petrus1983 said:
RichB said:
Petrus1983 said:
Just had the s**test day gliding - 10 hours of my life devoted for 8 mins of flying (2x 4 mins) - it's days like this I miss an engine!!
Sounds like you beat the tug down! It was a winch launch, no headwind so didn't get great height and both times released into a band of sink! Only had 400ft to play with trying to find some lift before needing to get into the circuit at 600ft :/
And gratuitous pic from cloudbase @ 3700 feet, 'cos it's the first time I've got up there and was feeling very pleased with myself
RichB said:
marcosgt said:
I won a glider experience day at an Aldershot Army day some years ago. Sadly, there wasn't much wind the day we went, so we were winched up and then more or less just spiralled down. It didn't inspire me to go again...
Sadly that's often the case with some clubs more determined to launch people airborne on poor days rather than be honest and suggest they come on a nice day with blue skies and fluffy white clouds. That is why I have been suggesting people look for hill top sites where they can usually depend on the wind for some ridge soaring. Incidentally flat sites don't need wind it's thermals but that's getting into the details. It's the bumpy bits that glider pilots love and power pilots shy away from! It was a hilltop location, supposedly a good one, but I just lucked out I think...
M
Right, finally a day off and some reasonable weather came together.
Off to Talgarth and the Black Mountain Club, thanks again Bearman for the pointer
Not much in the way of intro chat, pretty much straight on with a 'chute and into the glider (that's my instructor, not me)...
...which I just about fit in to
Seems the engine was u/s, so we had to get a bump start (this was really cool!)
Amazing views
Then I had a go for a while, with lots of help
We were up for about 40 minutes, but eventually it's time to come down - that's the airfield in the middle of the pic, it's tiny!
So, how was it?
Well, I really enjoyed it, but I don't think I've found my new hobby.
I did get some motion sickness after a little while, and that took the edge off the second half a bit. Also, at 6' 4", I'm on the very top end of fitting in the cockpit so I had a sore back towards the end and my legs had to held at strange angles to clear the controls; when I had a go they really didn't get the feel of the pedals at all, I think mainly due to my nervous tension and those angles. I kept losing my foot off the right pedal, in particular.
But I did love starting below the hikers on the hills; skimming along the ridge feeling like the ground is just a few feet from the wingtip (hopefully really quite a few feet!); then climbing, climbing, climbing on a tight loop (it felt almost around the wingtip to me; the instructor said it was about a 200m figure-of-8) and the hikers stood watching us going up and up, poor old sods stuck to the ground
I'm very glad I went, one off the bucket list, but I think that's it for me for gliding.
Thanks to all who contributed to the thread See you again next year, maybe, flying a different way?
Off to Talgarth and the Black Mountain Club, thanks again Bearman for the pointer
Not much in the way of intro chat, pretty much straight on with a 'chute and into the glider (that's my instructor, not me)...
...which I just about fit in to
Seems the engine was u/s, so we had to get a bump start (this was really cool!)
Amazing views
Then I had a go for a while, with lots of help
We were up for about 40 minutes, but eventually it's time to come down - that's the airfield in the middle of the pic, it's tiny!
So, how was it?
Well, I really enjoyed it, but I don't think I've found my new hobby.
I did get some motion sickness after a little while, and that took the edge off the second half a bit. Also, at 6' 4", I'm on the very top end of fitting in the cockpit so I had a sore back towards the end and my legs had to held at strange angles to clear the controls; when I had a go they really didn't get the feel of the pedals at all, I think mainly due to my nervous tension and those angles. I kept losing my foot off the right pedal, in particular.
But I did love starting below the hikers on the hills; skimming along the ridge feeling like the ground is just a few feet from the wingtip (hopefully really quite a few feet!); then climbing, climbing, climbing on a tight loop (it felt almost around the wingtip to me; the instructor said it was about a 200m figure-of-8) and the hikers stood watching us going up and up, poor old sods stuck to the ground
I'm very glad I went, one off the bucket list, but I think that's it for me for gliding.
Thanks to all who contributed to the thread
See you again next year, maybe, flying a different way? Ahh glad you had a good day of it.
Motion sickness is incredibly common on experience flights - usually with actual lessons you're concentrating more on the flying.
If you do go again, I think you'd be better off in a K21 (fibreglass two seater), you're more reclined and you'd have had more legroom. Some places wind the pedals out of the way when you're doing a trial lesson.
Motion sickness is incredibly common on experience flights - usually with actual lessons you're concentrating more on the flying.
If you do go again, I think you'd be better off in a K21 (fibreglass two seater), you're more reclined and you'd have had more legroom. Some places wind the pedals out of the way when you're doing a trial lesson.
RichB said:
Takes me back 30 years! 40 mins you did well obviously had some thermals and a chandelle by the sound of it.
I've looked up chandelle now, and yes, we did that for a good while.The Black Mountains Gliding Club seems to be blessed with their location - a long, nearly 300m high ridge runs NE away from the field and the wind was coming from the West. I think staying up forever would have been an option if my tummy wasn't that bit queasy
https://goo.gl/maps/KXn2gQ6Tac52
RichB said:
Puzzled why a K13 wasn't big enough but perhaps their rudder pedals are different to ours.
It's probably just me Perhaps with a bit more fiddling/wriggling time I'd have found a better position, and maybe different shoes.... as I said, not going to be my new full-time hobby, but never say never Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff