Learn to Fly Gliders
If you're a beginner...
If you've ever ridden a bike, the Canberra Gliding Club can teach you to fly a glider. Glider flight controls are essentially the same as those used in light aircraft. Join the club, share the club's equipment and facilities, and learn to fly. New members are always welcome.
Through some 30 to 60 flights*, qualified instructors progressively teach you through a detailed syllabus and within a year you could be commanding a Canberra Gliding Club glider solo.
(*The number of flights required to reach solo depends on pilot aptitude, prior experience, frequency of instructional flights, knowledge and study habits, ability to consolidate training experience, fitness etc. We utilise a competency-based flying training syllabus. The real learning and enjoyment is developed post-solo!)
The training syllabus includes instruction in:
- The characteristics of a glider and soaring to the personal skill level where you can control the glider at altitude, thermal to gain height and fly accurately to an airfield.
- Controlling the glider close to the ground, controlling speed, pitch, roll and yaw, and glider direction in take off, circuit, approach and landing.
- Recovering from spins, unusual attitudes, and flight without complex instrumentation.
- Rules of the air, where you can fly, what airspace is controlled, how to communicate by radio, how to maintain a lookout and keep clear of other aircraft.
After perhaps year's participation you could be flying cross-country, covering 300 to 500 kilometres in an afternoon's soaring in silence without wasting fossil fuels. You have to be older than 15 to go solo, but younger pilots can undertake dual training, while many people learn to fly in later life. Also flying solo is like borrowing Dad's car: he won't let you take it until you know how to drive safely.
On 21st January 2003, Klaus Ohlmann flew a distance of 3,009KM using three turn points from Chapelco, Argentina; in a Schempp-Hirth Nimbus 4 DM. On 23 November 2003, our club member Rick Agnew broke the Australian record 100km speed triangle which now stands at 198.98kmh. Rick Agnew also achieved an altitude of 33,000ft in 1995, from our site (this flight set the current Australian altitude record). The sky, as they say, is the limit.
Gliding is affordable. Instruction is free. Costs can be less than $2,000 per year paid progressively as you learn or fly. Glider hire and launch costs can work out much cheaper than power flying. And unlike hang gliding, paragliding or parasailing, you don't have to own equipment to participate. The club's single seat gliders are more than adequate for all but the most competitive pilot.
Gliding satisfies on all levels - it's exciting or tranquil (your choice); you can keep it simple or delve into technical areas of extraordinary complexity; it's a team effort to get airborne, but once you're there you're on your own. You simply must try it, and share the experience with others.
Already a Power Pilot?
Many power pilots come to enjoy the purity and challenge of soaring flight. Whilst gliding builds upon the skills and knowledge base of powered flying, there are many challenges, new techniques and educational aspects to be explored.
In the context of controlling the aircraft, power pilots will notice the increased significance of rudder in countering aileron drag, elevator in controlling airspeed and attitude, and trim in reducing pilot workload. Attitude reference relative to the horizon is always emphasised as the primary reference, particularly for airspeed energy management.
Used to coordinating turns with the ball? Many gliders and sailplanes do not have the slip-skid ball, and use a yawstring affixed to the canopy instead. The yawstring operates in reverse to the ball: you pull the yawstring back to centre with rudder, or alternatively apply aileron towards the yawstring. It is a far more sensitive instrument than any ball or turn and slip indicator.
Circuits and landings present new challenges in judgement and energy management, without a throttle to adjust the approach path. Use of airbrakes to steepen the approach will be an enjoyable luxury; the opposite of normal power-off landings!
Many power pilots come to appreciate the learning curve associated with using the atmosphere to advantage, working lift and staying airborne without a powerplant. The challenges in soaring cross-country flight planning and execution are quite different to the usual A to B speed-time-distance-fuel planning in powered aircraft.
Oh yes, it is much quieter! Headsets are not required, except in some motor-gliders. The noise of airflow past the canopy (or the absence of noise) takes on new significance as an important indicator of airspeed and energy.
A huge difference will be the reduced cost per flight, as the fun per dollar ratio is very favourable!
Already a Hang Glider Pilot?
A growing number of glider pilots are also hang-glider pilots. Most hang-glider pilots will have to adapt to a reversal of their instinctive control responses. Instead of pushing on the bar to slow down and raise the nose, you will have to ease the stick back! Vice versa also - to speed up when flying too slow, in lowering the nose, you apply forward pressure on the stick, instead of drawing the bar closer to the body! Control use by three-axis control versus weight-shifting takes a little adjustment.
All the meteorological insights of hang-gliding are useful - but we usually do not work thermals as close to the ground as in hang-gliding. The speeds and altitude safety margins are a little higher. Landing at higher speeds also means using larger landing areas.
All hang-glider pilots find the gliding performance of even the most humble training glider and enormous advantage. The cross-country speeds and glide angles mean you can travel much further before regaining altitude in lift. You can also fly and land very safely in much more boisterous and gusty conditions, due to the higher wing loadings.
Most glider flights result in a landing at the same place you launched from. For many hill-soaring hang-glider pilots, this is sheer luxury! Long climbs and retrieves are less frequent when flying gliders and sailplanes!
Already a Balloonist?
We always land at or near our take-off location. Controllability when landing is improved, and landing on wheels improves the ground roll! Gliders handle more windy conditions in safety. The wind noise of air past the canopy will take some getting used to. Burner roar is non-existent!
These tongue-in-cheek observations aside, the finesse and atmospheric awareness, meteorlogical knowledge and airmanship skills of balloonists will be a tremendous advantage in gliding and soaring.
