Here I have collected some experiences that don't fit very well into another category - especially anything weird or otherwise unusual.
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One day as I turned towards the airfield after falling out of a thermal, a rapidly moving black shape caught my eye. I looked sharply down and spotted an RAF Tornado fighter aircraft rushing past like a missile across our path from right to left, but probably more than 500 feet below us. The RAF practice low-level flying all over in the Highlands, and often approach Aboyne airfield very low keeping a good eye out for the slow white gliders. Anyone can do that as it is uncontrolled airspace - though all aircraft have to obey the rules of the air (like the Highway Code). Clearly any necessary avoiding action is in the hands of the jet pilot, probably moving more than five times faster than a glider. As it zoomed into the distance it was followed by the usual jet engine roar, breaking into the normal calm of a glider flight. |
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When I arrived at the club one rare sunny day the duty instructor was about to put Puchacz FWE through its paces: he was a qualified aerobatics pilot.I watched for a few quiet minutes while he was towed gently to 3,500 feet and then released the tow rope.
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| He immediately commenced a sequence of
impressive manoeuvers directly above the airfield. Loops, chandelles,
Cuban eights,... It was great to watch but probably a bit wild inside the glider. A couple of visitors walked by, intent upon an introductory flight, and I heard them hoping that they wouldn't have to go through such rigours on their first flight. They had little to worry about as there is a general rule that first-timers are handled gently so they aren't frightened-off. He finished off with a dive to a low circuit height, pulling up nicely at the last minute to a slower circuit speed for a gentle landing. |
As a bonus, after I had flown one day I was invited to join a lecture being given to three lads on a week-long beginners gliding course. This lecture covered a few familiar topics such as the life-cycle of thermals and how to centre a glider in a thermal. But it also included some new content such as why aileron reversal can apparently happen near the stall: When a wing is stalling and dropping, applying aileron to 'pick it up' in fact increases the angle of attack at the aileron, deepening the stall. E.g. if the right wing is stalling and dropping, the temptation is to apply left stick to raise the right wing. But that moves the right aileron down which increases the angle of attack of the wing at the end, deepening the stall, so the right wing drops more - the reverse of what was expected, hence 'aileron reversal'. This is why trying to 'pick up' a stalling wing with the ailerons is discouraged: you should always unstall by pushing the stick forwards and recovering. I also learned that most aircraft have a slight twist in the wings, reducing the angle of attach at the outer end. That encourages a wing to stall from the inside-out, staring at the root, leaving the wing-tips and the adjacent ailerons more effective to the last to aid recovery.
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One downside of this common wing design is that near Vne (never exceed speed) the wings tend to bend unevenly causing a 'W' like profile viewed from the front or rear (like a seagull's wings), which can result in earlier wing failure. |
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While preparing Puchacz Yankee Lima adjacent to the north runway, something caught my eye to the east. I looked up and saw a fast-moving dark shape heading straight for us from about 1000 feet. It was a single-seater sports glider. At first I thought he'd completely mucked up the circuit and approach for landing. Then with a discernible whizzing sound it rocketed past only 50 feet above the runway at what looked like Vne (never exceed speed - perhaps as high as 130 mph). As the glider passed the far end of the runway it pulled up abruptly, converting the energy of the high speed into height. In no time it was up around 1000 feet again and at a slower circuit speed - it then joined the standard circuit on the south side of the airfield and came round for a gentle landing. A little later I mentioned this interesting event to another pilot who explained it was a normal occurrence at the end of a competition - the flyer wants to get back to the finish line as soon as possible, so he/she approaches in a fast dive to cross the line then climbs back up for a normal approach circuit. The pilot had been off on a long distance flight and was simply returning in style. |
I was chatting to the three visitors who were taking part in a five day course and they told me a few interesting things. One of them on his second or third flight had just left the ground when the tug experienced a huge loss of power. The glider had to release the tow-rope immediately and turn 120 degrees for a rapid landing on the grass cross runway. His logbook showed a flight time of 1 minute. The glider had just enough height or else they would have landed out in the next field (which is very bumpy).
Also during the course they had seen a couple of tornado fighter jets passing nearby at a lower altitude. The tug pilot said that in recent months he'd been passed nearby by a USAF B-52 bomber and a Jetstream passenger jet.
As a parting comment after one very enjoyable flight, the instructor mentioned that a glider pilot's best friends are his ears and his arse. I suspected another dodgey flying joke, but he continued by explaining that the former can give important information about airspeed by always listening to the slipstream noise. And the latter can sense upwards or downwards motions, often via a discernible kick. With luck you could use these senses to fly accurately without instruments. This is clearly flying by the seat of your pants.
Rain sticks to the wings and causes a loss of lift which can be quite severe in some gliders. This increases the stall speed so you normally have to increase your flying speed to compensate for rain. Visibility is also badly affected: you may lose sight of the airfield, and some rain will stick to the canopy so you may have trouble seeing out. Condensation can also form inside the canopy reducing visibility further. There are Direct Vision (DV) vision panels (small sliding windows) set into the canopy that can be used to help increase visibility - but not by much.
Snow is even worse.
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Be careful you don't jam your shoe under the rudder pedal while in flight. |
The Space Shuttle is the world's highest, fastest, and most
expensive glider.
After re-entry from space it has no engine and glides all the way to a
landing.