Alex goes gliding
My brother (Grant) and sister (Pamela) and their respective clans, came up for a holiday. Knowing that his son, Alex (11), is aviation mad, we had made plans to take him to the gliding club to see the gliders.
The weather has been very Scottish lately, last Friday for example, I had been at the club, but I wasn't able to fly solo because the wind was stronger than the instructors were comfortable with, and the conditions deteriorated to the point that we packed up early (I did get a flight in though, so that was nice). I thought that Wednesday was looking good, with a possibility of some ridge soaring. So I took the day off and arranged to meet them at the gliding club.
When I got there things weren't looking too great. The weather was worse than predicted, and we'd actually stopped flying while we waited for the rain to pass. After an hour or so, things started to look a little brighter. I was wanting to get a solo flight in the Junior so I got it on the line and was just about to do the walk-around part of the ABCDE checks (Airframe, Ballast, Controls, Dollies, Environment) when they arrived. I quickly went off to fetch them, handed them over to the instructor (John H), and went off to fly.
The timing worked out quite nicely, because they got to see me get in the glider (after doing my ABCDE checks), launch, fly off to the ridge and come back safely. On the ridge I was finding 1/2kt lift, which was just enough to climb in (the Junior feeling very light compared to the K-21), but the clouds were low and as I got to about 1200ft I found that I had to descend a bit to stop from going into the cloud. I flew up and down the ridge for a while quite happily, but then decided I'd better head back. This, being my 2nd flight in the Junior, I thought I'd see about pushing the speed up a bit. Lowering the nose, I accelerated until I was flying nearly 80kts. However, I hadn't trimmed it for that speed, so the forces on the stick were quite strong and I didn't want to break anything, so I thought I'd ease back into more familiar territory. I wondered if Alex had launched yet, but looking back at the airfield I was able to see Grant, his wife (Anna), and 3 children with them, so it was clear he was still on the ground. I flew my circuit and landed, and it turned out that Grant filmed both my launch and my landing. :)
Then it was Alex's turn. We got him kitted out in the parachute (with his mother looking on nervously) and told him how to use it, then told him not to use it. He had to sit in the rear seat because he was below the minimum weight limit (and there's a limit to how much ballast we have) and we found that even with the seat back as far forward as it could go, the straps still weren't tight, so we had to get some cushions to put behind him. Wolf R flew him as he has the requisite qualifications. He explained to him what all the instruments did, made sure he was secure and got ready for the launch. I made sure that the rear canopy was closed and locked before hooking them up to the cable and running the wing. Grant filmed his launch and landing, and as it turned out later, Alex filmed the entire flight from within the cockpit. It's clear that he really enjoyed it and I suspect that he'll be back at a gliding club within the next few years as a student. I took the wing for walking the glider back to the launch point and Alex came up and held the wing too, clearly enjoying that part of the retrieve and wanting to experience it all. I told him that he can start training at 13 and go solo at 14. We'd had a braai on Sunday, but it was nice seeing Grant and his family again before they head back south. I'm really pleased that Alex was able to get a flight. I still remember the day I first went up in a private plane with my Dad's old instructor.
After they left I spent some time hooking on cables, running wings, retrieving gliders, manning the launch caravan, etc. There was another guy there who was quite busy making sure everything was running smoothly, with a hand-held radio, helping mainly with the aerotow side of things. We tend to use radio for aerotow launches, and lights for winch launches. Having a guy with a handheld radio who can radio "STOP STOP STOP!" is obviously important for aerotow if he spots something off. I didn't know his name so I asked, and it was Kevin S. This is quite funny, 'cause we've bumped heads a little on the forum, but as it turns out, in person we get on really well. I suspect it's because both of us enjoy the whole operation of gliding, and we're always looking to see what needs to be done and getting it done (or asking someone if we can't get it done ourselves). At one point I was manning the launch caravan and I saw one of the gliders landing. After noting down the time, I looked around but no one was going to retrieve, but there was this young guy nearby called Zac. So I asked Zac to go fetch the glider, he seemed confused, so I pointed at the glider and said, "Fetch!" (but smiling). Then I realised that it was his first day at the club, but at that point another guy came up so they both went off with the other guy showing him how to retrieve gliders. When he got back I told him that he looked so much in place that I just assumed he belonged on a glider field. Turns out he was there on a 1-day mini-course (2 aerotows and a winch launch) that his grandfather (who'd attended our open day) had bought for him as an early birthday present. Soon we had him running wings, hooking on gliders, retrieving etc., all of which he seemed to enjoy. Hopefully we'll see more of him at some point.
There were also some University of Strathclyde students there, who were being taken up with notebooks so they could note down various flight characteristics, to calculate things like glide ratio, sink rate, etc. They were all doing aerotows so we were keeping Kate, who was flying the tug, quite busy. By the time 17:00 came around she was pretty tired, and wasn't happy when Kevin asked her to do another 3 aerotows. I can understand, I'd helped her get the tug out of the hanger before the morning's briefing, so she'd had had a long day. Fortunately David C came along, and he was happy to take over the tug. I was particularly pleased, because that final aerotow launch was for me.
I found Ron S and explained to him that I hadn't flown aerotow since 2015, and now that I'm solo on the winch, I'd like to get my aerotow rating back, so needed an instructional flight on aerotow. I showed him my yellow pre-solo training card that had none of the aerotow exercises signed off (or even attempted). Ron was the guy who sent me solo in December 2022. He said that's fine and explained what we'd do. So on takeoff he wanted me to tell him when it was too late to land ahead, and when I would turn back if there was a launch failure. In the air he'd want me to maintain high tow position. Then when he told me I'd descend through the turbulence into the low tow position, then climb back through the turbulence into the high-tow position again. Then we'd go out to the side, hold it, then come back in without overshooting. After that he'd open the airbrakes and when I got the signal from the tug (rudder wagging the tail), to check my airbrakes and close and lock them (without looking at them, maintaining sight of and contact with the tug). After that the tug would wave me off (by rocking its wings), and I'd release.
With the briefing done, and the tug returned, and the tuggee appraised of the weird things we were about to put him through, we were ready to go. After you've been flying the winch almost exclusively for the best part of 2 years, the ground run on an aerotow feels incredibly slow and lasts forever. I came off the ground and then landed up back on the ground, but this is just normal as you go over bumps. After what felt like a very long time we were finally able to get off the ground and were flying, keeping low while I waited for the tug to leave the ground. I nearly forgot about telling Ron when it was too late to land ahead, but remembered a little late and told him, then said we were high enough for a turn for a reciprocal landing, wind being pretty negligible at this point. Ron said it would be a very low turn, but would be fine as long as you made it co-ordinated and kept the speed up. Not that I'd ever like to demonstrate, but I do think that I'd be able to handle it. For whatever reason I found myself slightly to the left of the tug (not massively but the tail wasn't in the center of my canopy, it was off to the right), and try as I might, I simply couldn't get it into the middle. Possibly I was being a little too cautious on the controls. I was able to descend through the wake and ascend again without difficulty, and fly off to the right without issue. When coming back in I overshot a little, and once again, couldn't get that tail centred! Ron opened the airbrakes but said that on launch, if your airbrakes are open, you're not going to hear the clunk of them opening, so he would hold them closed while I put my hand on the release (where it would be close to the ground). After a few seconds I felt the airbrakes open, but didn't react. When I saw the tug wag its tail, I released the release, and closed the airbrakes. After that I got the wave off signal and I pulled the release and lifted the nose, I started to turn right, but the tug turned right so I turned left. Wanting to make sure that the rope had released I lowered the nose again to look, but of course, that was a silly thing to do.
The scenery in the late afternoon sunshine was stunning, but there was no lift to be had anywhere. The wind had dropped to nothing and there were no likely thermal sources around. Ron asked if there were any exercises I'd like to try but I said no, I wouldn't have minded spins, but the K-21 isn't the best glider for spin training. Now that I'm thinking of it, I probably should've practised side-slips. He said that he needed to get a picture of the North field to check the area that's been repaired, so I flew that way to let him get some good pictures. I spent the time practicing my lookout which is crucially important (even though at this point I knew that we were the last glider up... you never know if someone else you're not expecting decides to pitch up). I flew the circuit and landed in the central field, and it was a beautiful landing. I heard Ron say, "Oh very good!" or something to that effect from the back, so I was quite pleased with it. As we debriefed the aerotow on the ground, Ron did point out that I need to be careful not to turn inside of the tug, and of course my issues centering the tug. Otherwise he was quite happy. He took my yellow pre-solo card and signed off everything in the aerotow section. He wrote in my logbook, "Aerotow check satisfactory. Recommend 1 tow with silent instructor!". He explained that what he meant was that all I need is 1 check flight with an instructor who says nothing (so no prompting etc), and if I handle it well then I should be able to go solo. This is great news to me! And unexpected. I was thinking that I was going to have to spend the next few weeks getting my aerotow rating back, but Ron is weirdly confident in my abilities. I guess the landing I greased didn't hurt any (and yes, considering how when you make a bad landing everyone and their dog are there to observe and comment, when you make a good landing you're allowed to take the win).