Sailplane Talk

Thread Starter

tggzzz

Joined Mar 14, 2015
4
If something does happen to force an off-field landing, maintaining control of the airplane is the ONLY thing that matters -- forget all else if that is what it takes. The saying is that there are 3 8's in aviation, Aviate, Navigate, Communicate -- in that order. The chances of surviving a small plane crash that makes a fully-controlled emergency landing are actually pretty high.
Well, in gliders "off field" landings are common - or rather field landings are common, and you are explicitly tested on it before you are allowed to go cross country. (Try to avoid horses, since they can be worth more than the aircraft.)
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
Well, in gliders "off field" landings are common - or rather field landings are common, and you are explicitly tested on it before you are allowed to go cross country. (Try to avoid horses, since they can be worth more than the aircraft.)
Cool videos! At around 0:43 I noticed that the towing rope passes directly under the front wheel. Why is that? is the wheel shaped like a pulley?
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
Well, in gliders "off field" landings are common - or rather field landings are common, and you are explicitly tested on it before you are allowed to go cross country. (Try to avoid horses, since they can be worth more than the aircraft.)
So? We weren't talking about gliders.
 

Thread Starter

tggzzz

Joined Mar 14, 2015
4
Wow! thanks for sharing... though the term "14 year old adults" kind of left me wondering... ;)
You're welcome. All the 14 year olds that I have known go solo are mature beyond their years. I don't know which is cause and which is effect.

Other experiences of gliding include:
spinning
which you must repeatedly demonstrate before you go solo
or playing with birds of prey
or ridge running
or thermalling
or simple intense relaxed concentration


and then there's the intense flying...
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
Wow! thanks for sharing... though the term "14 year old adults" kind of left me wondering... ;)
"Kids" that age are more than capable of being very responsible. When I used to run flight lines at airshows and at search and rescue mission bases I generally worked exclusively with 13 to 16 year old "kids" and most of the time they were running the flight line by themselves since I had lots of duties that required me to be elsewhere much of the time.

When we supported in 1-26 Soaring Championships at the USAF Academy's Auxiliary Airfield at first they didn't want our "kids" to be anywhere near the active runway. By the third day our "kids" were not only working the active runway, they were doing so without any supervision from anyone (including me, since I was hobbled up in the ops shack with a gout flare-up) and everyone that had been leery of having "kids" out on the runway at all -- with everything that is moving around when you are launching sailplanes every few minutes with tow planes taxiing past you while you are positioning sailplanes onto the runway and hooking up the lead plane and then wing-running until the pilot has sufficient control authority -- were now completely comfortable with the "kids" taking complete control of it. We expected the "kids" to meet certain levels of conduct and they rose to meet those expectations -- and had a great time in the process.
 

Thread Starter

tggzzz

Joined Mar 14, 2015
4
"Kids" that age are more than capable of being very responsible. When I used to run flight lines at airshows and at search and rescue mission bases I generally worked exclusively with 13 to 16 year old "kids" and most of the time they were running the flight line by themselves since I had lots of duties that required me to be elsewhere much of the time.

When we supported in 1-26 Soaring Championships at the USAF Academy's Auxiliary Airfield at first they didn't want our "kids" to be anywhere near the active runway. By the third day our "kids" were not only working the active runway, they were doing so without any supervision from anyone (including me, since I was hobbled up in the ops shack with a gout flare-up) and everyone that had been leery of having "kids" out on the runway at all -- with everything that is moving around when you are launching sailplanes every few minutes with tow planes taxiing past you while you are positioning sailplanes onto the runway and hooking up the lead plane and then wing-running until the pilot has sufficient control authority -- were now completely comfortable with the "kids" taking complete control of it. We expected the "kids" to meet certain levels of conduct and they rose to meet those expectations -- and had a great time in the process.
Just so. At our comps we have to get up to 50 a/c up within an hour, using 5 tugs. That's three movements per minute (i.e. more than London Heathrow) without any ATC. The youngsters do all the hooking up etc. They know what's what as well as anyone else in the launch team.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
Never heard of "thread drift"? AFAIK you don't get to determine when the conversation leads.
And, actually, you would be wrong about that.

But I wasn't talking about thread drift, I was referring to taking a post completely out of context in order to make a point that is irrelevant to the discussion. The side effect is that it is apparently an attempt to hijack the thread.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
Unless the TS (i.e., you) requests it, I don't see any pressing need.
I don't mind a little drift on a thread, especially if it's off-topic, but this glider conversation (that deeply interests me btw) belongs to a different thread. W, could you please move the glider conversation to a new thread and make @tggzzz its thread starter? I will gladly follow that conversation where you place it. I've always believed in keeping a clean house.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
I don't mind a little drift on a thread, especially if it's off-topic, but this glider conversation (that deeply interests me btw) belongs to a different thread. W, could you please move the glider conversation to a new thread and make @tggzzz its thread starter? I will gladly follow that conversation where you place it. I've always believed in keeping a clean house.
Sure thing.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
Now, @tggzzz, I'll be more than glad to continue our conversation here.
For starts, I noticed that the videos are from the UK, are you located there? What's the youngest a person can fly a glider in the US?
 

Thread Starter

tggzzz

Joined Mar 14, 2015
4
Now, @tggzzz, I'll be more than glad to continue our conversation here.
For starts, I noticed that the videos are from the UK, are you located there? What's the youngest a person can fly a glider in the US?
I don't think all are from the UK.

I don't know the US position, but I suspect that 14 is minimum age for solo in some but not all places.

This
is almost certainly in the US, given the glider type.

Have a look at http://www.ssa.org/ and rec.aviation.soaring for more info. In the US there is relatively little (cheap fun) winch launching, and more (expensive boring) aerotowing. You may notice a prejudice there; aerotowing bored my daughter, winch launches hooked her (ho ho).
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
I don't think all are from the UK.

I don't know the US position, but I suspect that 14 is minimum age for solo in some but not all places.

This
is almost certainly in the US, given the glider type.

Have a look at http://www.ssa.org/ and rec.aviation.soaring for more info. In the US there is relatively little (cheap fun) winch launching, and more (expensive boring) aerotowing. You may notice a prejudice there; aerotowing bored my daughter, winch launches hooked her (ho ho).
You mean the kid in the video is your daugher? and I guess you're the pilot then.
It's impressive... and still, your kid's a demanding one if she was bored with that!... surely with time this sort of thing will grow into her.
Just how much on average does it cost to fly one of those things? Assuming it's rented.
 
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