Flying over the Alps, circling with eagles, and discovering the magic of this planet from the air often takes my breath away. Flying a glider demands all of your senses, requires full mental awareness, and constantly challenges your own limits. In one second, it can be unforgivingly tough, and in another, it floods you with moments of happiness. Most of the time, it is difficult to find the right words to describe it. So, I decided to share my experiences as a learning glider pilot with you here, including my mistakes and my goodtakes. My aim is to gain insights into flying, as well as to contribute to the safety of our sport and motivate you to follow your dreams of flying.
Is this not part of training normally? In the UK, I must have been asked to do this maybe 10 times already, and I still dont have a bronze! (All but one demo successful BTW!) but in my club, you do it again and again before solo, and then on day checks you do it if you've got the height. Another point: this is why we fly a downwind circuit when we can. As you turn final, the wind tends to tighten you up, so you if anything you use outside rudder to stay aligned with the runway. If you fly an upwind circuit, then if you don't compensate in advance, the wind pushes you downwind of the runway line, and your instinct (which must be fought!) is you need inside rudder to remain on the line of the runway. And down you go, too low to recover. A few days ago my instructor casually suggested I fly an upwind circuit, and after admitted the purpose was to watch me for any over ruddering on final.
…yes, a little faster (110-120kmh) because of the traffic pattern close to ground and mountains, possible turbulences and the wind drop close to ground…🚀
This video topic is *no joke.* In my early days of gliding I lost a lady-colleague of about the same age who stalled in the final turn at an outlanding. I was shocked when this happened, but the natural reaction when getting too low is to pull on the stick - which of course when you stall, only makes you go down faster. I mentally prepare for each final turn, and I put the trim way forward in preparation: This _gives me a good force feedback_ on the stick - and in case I get disctracted for whatever reason ( *traffic on final, distracting Radio call, runway suddenly not free* ) the speed will go *up* rather than *down.*
I am very sorry for this experience to loose a colleague. Thank you for sharing, reminding the risks and give an insight how to handle with sudden reflexes. I just hope that this video abd and these comments help to increase awareness of these overruddered turns…
It's not a big deal when you've got a thousand feet under you, but on that final turn with only a couple or three hundred feet under you, well, you just made your last turn.
Thanks for video, first of all! Why do you think that, after "neutral elevator", you need "rudder against the spin direction"? I thought better to accommodate the stall to have greater speed and exit the stall itself?
thanks for your comment…i hope i did understand your question correctly …if the glider just stalls it is often enough to just release/gently push the stick to gain speed…if the glider is stalled and entering the spin the rudder against the spin direction helps to stop the spin…
I had the opportunity to have a former fighter instructor from the French Air Force as my glider instructor. He confirmed what you mentioned: typical spin training doesn't accurately represent how spins happen in real life. The only spin training I received was during turns… which is quite intimidating. I learned the hard way but became much calmer in similar situations while flying solo, and I was able to avoid entering a fully developed spin (in turns )by recognizing the cues early in the process.
Thanks for your comment. It seems that everyone is aware of this topic in gliding, but it is not generally represented everywhere in gilding training. I hope this video helps to adress this issue. Great that you had the opportunity to learn from a real pro! That is value.
As a not glider pilot (I'm a pro paragliding pilot), always wondered why it wouldn't be a plus to have airspeed indicators on both wingtips? Slow turns, with such epic wingspans means that inside wingtip is probably often flirting with a stall. An audio warning (different for left/right) might be nice? ❤
Thank you so mcuh for your comment. Yes, I guess the first one who will provde such devices will receive a lot of appreciation from glider pilots and glider schools. And yes, the inside wingtip is always the one more close to stall. In thermals I like to fly the glider very very slightly in a slip. It feels more safely exactly because of what you mentioned before and an additional effect is that the glider feels much more stable in a turn.
If you think that a cable-break at low altitude is dangerous, think of an engine failure at take off and low altitude. You don't even have these 3 seconds, reaction has to be instantaneous to push the nose down. The really challenging question is how much, which will depend on your altitude and speed already achieved.
@@flyneur ... My instructor "failed" the engine a few times on take off at different altitudes during pilot training. The one we practiced more frequently was let's say a couple hundred feet above the ground. That one is no big deal. You are already at best climb speed which is typically very close to best glide so you lower the nose to recover best glide and find the best spot to crash-land straight ahead or with small turns left or right. The "best place" might still be hardly survivable (imagine taking off over a densely populated neighborhood) but I say it's not big deal in the sense that it's not difficult to do the best that can be done, whether that's good enough is a different question but not useful because you can't do better than the best. You have to understand and assume the risks you are taking, decide beforehand what you'll do if the risks materialize, and then stick to the plan. A couple of simulated engine failures after take-off were several hundred feet above the ground. While the prospect outcome for these ones are better, that is actually a bit more complicated from a decision-making perspective. Do I attempt to troubleshoot and re-start the engine or do I focus on the landing strategy? Now I have much more distance and turn angles (even 180 degrees) to look for the best possible site (better if you had identified the potential sites before take-off), etc... Even returning to the field may be an option (an option I attempted only once when we had a strong quarterly headwind during take-off so I was still very close to the field when the engine "failed", but while I was correct in my estimation that I would be able to safely reach the field, I underestimated the effect of that head (now tail) wind and ended up touching way too long and a too high ground speed, I would likely not been able to stop in the remaining but the good thing about a simulated engine failure is that the engine is still working, so I just added power and took off again instead of stopping. Had it been a real engine failure and had I overrun the runway it would have still been survivable and most likely with no injuries, but the plane may have been damaged. The nastiest one, in my opinion, is the "just-after-lift-off" one. From a procedure point of view, it is relatively easy. And whether you have enough (or any) runway ahead is irrelevant because there is nothing you can do about that and it doesn't change what you have to do which is... don't stall and touch down at a landing attitude (don't hit with the nose). However, it is the most difficult and dangerous one because it requires very quick and sharp pilot execution. You are below best-climb/glide, nose is high, drag is high, power is lost and you speed will go down very quickly. There is no altitude to trade for airspeed. You definitively need to INSTANTLY pitch forward, the question is how much. You need to reduce that AoA to prevent a stall, reduce the drag and stop the climb to stop trading airspeed for altitude (which is what you have been doing since the engine failed), so that's a minimum. If the failure happened immediately after rotation, just a few feet in the air, that may be enough. Due to the low speed "level flight" will be with the nose somehow up, and then as you loose more speed the plane would descend and settle on whatever is underneath (hopefully some runway on which you can at least slow down as much as possible before going off). But what if you are somewhere between 10 and 100ft high? Then just leveling off will not work. You would loose The idea would be to assume a "best glide attitude" (you will never achieve the best glide speed though) and then flare "as normal". The problem is that. depending on your altitude, you may need to start the flare while you are still pitching down to (but before reaching) best glide attitude. All this process requires the pilot to judge a lot of things at the same time, and then execute flawlessly, all in an extremely short time span. REALLY challenging.
@@adb012 wow, thank you so much for sharing your detailed insights. I appreciate a lot and it was tense to read! One day I will fly with engine...I hope.
@@flyneur ... One day I will fly a glider, I hope. We powered-airplane people se you glider guys as the creme of the creme of pilots. For us "no engine" means we are living one of our worst nightmares. For you it's Tuesday.
Thank you for bringing up this topic. As an instructor I would like to add a part of the recovery procedure, which is often forgotten but vital: after rudder correction to stop the turning: rudder neutral. If not, you'd spin the glider in the opposite direction, which, close to the ground, is impossible to recover.
You are so very very good at this , it's amazing to watch your videos and see a true glider expert in action. Hard to even imagine taking one of these things up not knowing all you do, but that's probably a tall order for glider pilots as you are just amazing.
Thanks so much for your kind feedback. But I really have good news that entering into flying a glider is not that difficult as it seems, because there are many clubs and schools who made it easy to try and start flying gliders. I am happy to provide advice if your are interested in flying...
Aileron has to go to neutral for stall recovery. . . . Generally in a very slow turn to, say, the left - while turning your stick tends to be right of centre. The common mistake is when you are stalling, your left wing starts to drop a little more and you try to pick it up by turning the stick more to the right.... You say, "Stop using aileron near stall", well it's not done on purpose, but airleron position is very much part of spin recovery. . 2 things tend to occur: . 1. Incipient stall - to get yourself out of the incipient you need to catch it ie: stick forward and to the left of centre, left rudder, then pump it back - hard right rudder and enough right stick to flatten the glider but a little forward on the stick to pick up speed and not stall again. . 2. Full spin (as occurred in the video)- stick to centre (ie: flatten the ailerons), hard right rudder, pull back on the stick (as you are flying down with a lot of speed), LOOK UP!! to see what you may be flying into (very important if you were among a gaggle of gliders). . . Be sure to check your glider's handbook to see the exact procedure for the full spin recovery as there some differences between gliders. Reading and understanding the handbook is a flying requirement. . . The danger of the turn into final should not be underrated as stated in the video - it is true that too many accidents have occurred during this moment. You are too close to the ground for a recovery. . This is a well made and good reminder video. . Let's fly safe people!!!
You are absolutely correct, it is mandatory to do stall training before solo. I did it too. But I never had specific stall training in a steep turn...and that felt clearly different and in my opinion more 'realistic' to possible scenarios while gliding...
I had a spin training last year and I'm so glad I did it. Should be mandatory for every flight student to experience that and to train how to get out of it, just like a rope break training for winch launches.
...absolutely, the same experience you had, motivated me to make this video...I hope it helps to spread that stall training in a turn really improves safety a lot...
It is mandatory in the UK under the BGA curriculum. A number of clubs fly with the ASK21 that really does not spin very well... Until the addition of a manufacturer approved mod; the spin kit. Weights are fitted to the tail and a table of cockpit weights is generated by Schleicher. It works very well, but does limit the combined weight of pilots
It IS mandatory training! Those most caught out are the long term flyers. Those who SHOULD know but forget the basics, training shouldn't stop at all. Predominantly the old guard fall foul of that mantra, you see it happening time and again. The pilots with their own plane, just not enough time to fly regularly. Those with busy jobs, see as a nice hobby, the time to switch off from day-to-day grind. That is why it happens, not the professionals or those in a club environment.
this route is often the last part of the final glide to the airfield. i trained that route before higher and with plenty safety margins, as well with a flight instructor. through practice, calculation and monitoring the final glide I was asking myself how low it is still safe to fly that route. The result is the video. So that was no first try, but practice and training…
Great video my friend! Nicely done! Here's one note, take it or leave it, I'm not critiquing, it's just something to consider. The moment the cable is connected - hand touching next to the release (at the base of the tubing that the cable slides in) and it stays there. I fly way too many gliders to keep track of location to try to use muscle memory for finding it. It the winch operator accidentally gets a call to go, it could result in disaster. Again, just a note. How often do you guys do failure training?
Very good point! Yes, especially when you change glider types the search for the handle can steel valuable reaction time. I absolutely agree to keep the hands close to the handle (I guess I need to train this again), but not directly grab it, in order to avoid a sudden release by reflex or acceleration of the glider. Thank you for refining the topic, I appreciate your comment! At Unterwössen airfield pilots are obliged to train cable-breaks at the winch (high and low) and tow (low) once a year.
@@flyneur The British Gliding Association (who produced an excellent set of training material for winch launching, to reduce the number of fatalities they'd experienced) recommend putting your hand ON the release knob, not next to it. The French are the same, and I agree. If you drop a wing during the launch, fractions of seconds count.
@@lautoka63 Thanks for adding this point. I will check the documents out for sure. It does make sense, as long you are sure not to pull the release by mistake. 😃🙏
Durant un remorquage, seulement quelques vols sur un monoplace (libelle club), je me suis trop écarté au roulage pendant l'accélération. J'ai voulu larguer: ma main n'est pas tombé naturellement sur la poignée, j'ai cherché la poignée du regard, avec les rebonds au sol ma main n'a pas agrippé immédiatement la poignée, j'ai perdu. 2-3s. Quand j'ai tiré et regardé devant moi j'étais carrément a droite du remorqueur. Mais rien de cassé, juste l'adrénaline !
Just came across your channel. I am a former paraglider pilot looking forward to learning to fly sailplanes sometime in the near future. I love your short, clear format and the great footage-well done!
Nice! Hope you can start soon. It is very much different from paragliding, but I am sure you wont regret both flight epxeriences. I went the same way, starting out as a paragliding and ended up completely in love with flying gliders. All best!
Sehr schön und informativ Deine Alpenflug- stories. Ich habe vor vielen Jahren in Unterwössen am Haushang mit der Ka8 den L1 gemacht. Was mich allerdings stört sind die vielen Zeitraffer.
Danke für dein Feedback. Ja, der Haushang und die K8-Flotte ist legendär und immer noch rege in Betrieb. Mich würde interessieren, was genau störend ist...dass die Zeitraffer zu schnell und zu häufig sind oder ingesamt der Schnitt etwas zu flott?
Für mich machen die vielen Zeitraffer das video zu unruhig. Ich sehe aber, daß es sonst, um den ganzen Flug zu sehen, zu lang würde oder viele kurze Schnitte brauchte und damit auch unruhig wäre. Daß es die alte K8 nach 50 Jahren und bei diesem Schulbetrieb immer noch gibt!
Good question. Honestly, I still did not squeeze out the maximum benefits out of McCready theory. But here is my rough procedure, even I do not know if this is the best way to do it: After every thermal I check the average climb. Over 2-4 thermals checking I get a better average. This average climb I set as McCready and I adjust it a little up or down according to the weather ahead and time of the day. In general I think being selective with thermals has much more potential to gain speed and distance. Of course this effects vice-versa the McCready settings. For the final glide I focus more on how "needed" and "actual" glide ratio develop over time adn distance and adjust my speed according to that. Additionally and for safety I try to recalculate final glide manually. Please consider that my flying is not optimized for competitive context but I is more adapted to intensive training but enjoy flying and return safe back home. I hope I could answer your question? How is your McCready-method?
@@flyneur I'm a dilettante glider pilot, have the license but only about 50 hrs and nothing high performance. I used to tow gliders quite a bit, and now I mostly just fly my RV-8. So it sounds like you use the McCready ring. For a final glide like this are you constantly following the ring? Same for time spent between thermals? Just trying to get an idea of how you mentally work through different phases of a XC. Thanks!
The flight manual of the old Jastreb Glassflugel 304B that I fly says to use -2 flaps early on in the take off run to increase aileron control. I can not tell how much difference it makes, but I have noticed limited aileron control on roll out in some crosswind landings. Great that You show a video like this for benefit of others! I once had a serious problem on takeoff when the flap lever would not budge from -2 to 0. I sorted it out by briefly opening and closing the split flap brake which freed the flaps. No explanation was found and the problem could not be repeated on the ground. I believe something must have made the flap/airbrake interlock sieze, like a piece of gravel or similar. An unpleasant experience nevertheless. I since then always check "flap movement free" last thing before tow... I really like the flying qualities and comfort on long flights in this glider. The above is the only issue I had. The split flap system takes som getting used to.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience and sorry for letting you wait for some days. Your input is very helpful! Happy to hear that this scary moment of blocked flaps went out well. Yes, I agree that this glider seems not easy at first sight, but offer really good over all handling and especially a nice cockpit and very good gliding performance. It does really well run under the clouds.
Wonderful video, very educational for us to ride along! Is that a Shark? I sometimes fly an older Glasflugel 304c with the split flaps/airbrake. Very nice glider, but I would prefer conventional airbrakes as on Your glider.
In this video you see a LS4. In the other videos (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KU4T-sWP9O0.html and ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2F7V0BO0LFM.html) it is 'just' a 304C, no shark. In the beginning I had my struggles with the 304C, as you can see in the video(ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2F7V0BO0LFM.html), but I enjoy it more and more to fly Glasflügel/HPH. Thanks vor sharing your feedback!
I like the expression, "It is important to mention that I am a learning glider pilot... " aren't we all?.... ps: you are one hell of a good "learning glider pilot".... The amount of opportunities for sink along that entire route is still too much for me
...so true, we are all learning glider pilots! To learn to get into flow with nature, physics and mindset is a true adventure for life! I entered the sport late in my early 30s, so I feel I am defenitely a learning pilot compared to the lucky ones started in their tens... Thanks for sharing your thoughts and always happy landings!
