Took my first glider lesson today

You went all the way to Spain for that?

I love the way the spoilers stayed all the way down until he was already off the runway.

Gliders are fun, but I hope your real landing was better than that PIO POS.
 
I didn't really take a lesson today. I came across that video and thought it was educational.

I did one in like 2007 though. I would like to go back and do some more now that I have actual flying experience.
 
Gliders get tail booms broke with PIOs like that.
Gliders do not like to land when the spoilers are not deployed at least a little.

I pity the instructor that signed him off for PIC operations.
At one point it looked like he got it under control when he kept the nose up.
And then running off the runway and catching the wing tip ground loop.

Fugly.
 
I have had two glider lessons, neither of which were intentional. Only one led to an NTSB report.
 
BillTIZ said:
Gliders get tail booms broke with PIOs like that.
Gliders do not like to land when the spoilers are not deployed at least a little.

I pity the instructor that signed him off for PIC operations.
At one point it looked like he got it under control when he kept the nose up.
And then running off the runway and catching the wing tip ground loop.

Fugly.
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First solo? If so, he forgot everything he was taught! No spoilers at all until near touchdown then retracted. Fugly, indeed.
 
I took one glider lesson about 15 years ago in England. It was a winch launch at a field that had been a WWII bomber base jn Poklington just east of York. Had a lady instructor. She said that I was her second powerd plane pilot taking their first glider lesson of the day. We were equally ham handed.

The biggest problem I had was that the rudder pedals controlled the rudder by tilting the pedals instead of pushing them. After years of that being how you apply the brakes, I didn't adjust very well. England seemed to have two levels of instructor and she was the first level so couldn't let me fly below some threshold level (x hundred feet) which meant that she couldn't let me try the landing.

It was a club organization and very inexpensive. Seems strange how the gov't prices powered planes out of the air with user fees but encourages something that is very enjoyable but otherwise useless.
 
I was half expecting the glider to burst into flames a few seconds after it finally stopped.....
 
LDJones said:
First solo? If so, he forgot everything he was taught! No spoilers at all until near touchdown then retracted. Fugly, indeed.
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Looks like he was practicing a slip to landing. Nose is off to one side and no spoilers. Then he's got the spoilers flapping in and out as he tries to flare, and flare, and flare....
 
Not a good advertisement for glider flying.
 
Lindberg said:
Looks like he was practicing a slip to landing. Nose is off to one side and no spoilers. Then he's got the spoilers flapping in and out as he tries to flare, and flare, and flare....
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A qualified pilot practicing a slip to landing would have gotten it under control and stayed on the runway. No way would I suggest a student solo pilot attempt the maneuver unsupervised.

I hate it when qualified pilots flap their spoilers. Can't they just find an intermediate position that works all the time. None of this on/off stuff. It's like a light dimmer switch, if all you have is on/off, and on is too bright, then put a dimmer switch on it.

Pitch changes with spoilers popping in and out don't help his situation as the glider tires to get to the trimmed speed with drag changes.

Wait... With all those stick actuations, the glider never had a chance to find trimmed speed.:yikes:
 
Zeldman said:
I was half expecting the glider to burst into flames a few seconds after it finally stopped.....
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I'm betting that bush was scared to death seeing that glider coming at him. Then to get hit twice! :eek:
 
BillTIZ said:
A qualified pilot practicing a slip to landing would have gotten it under control and stayed on the runway. No way would I suggest a student solo pilot attempt the maneuver unsupervised.
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Agreed. I don't think I did any solo. On my checkride, it was a slip-to-spot-landing, which was a little bit frisky.

But it looks like this guy was trying for no spoilers, let the speed get away from him, ballooned, stowed the spoilers, bounced, rinse, repeat. It may also be that he wasn't holding the spoilers tightly and they were wagging inadvertently. I learned early on that I have to brace my wrist against the side when I pull the lever to avoid wagging the spoilers when it's bouncy on final.
 
Fuggly that!

I learned at a US club - very affordable.

First flights in the Schweizer 1-26 were 50:50 bets going to involve PIOs on takeoff or landings. Just a function of quicker pitch response compared to the club's 2-22.

That really was a fuggly solo. Looks totally self-inflicted.
 
Graueradler said:
I took one glider lesson about 15 years ago in England. It was a winch launch at a field that had been a WWII bomber base jn Poklington just east of York. Had a lady instructor. She said that I was her second powerd plane pilot taking their first glider lesson of the day. We were equally ham handed.
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My one glider lesson was in 2011 in the UK, but west of York. York Gliding Center. I was in York for EMC Europe and the head (a friend of mine) of the committee is an instructor at the local glider club. We played hooky from the meetings one afternoon and I got 0.4 hours of dual in a glider. Power tow to 4000 MSL, then off we went. He handled the take-off, I got some practice in the tow and off of it. We tried more aerobatics on that flight than I have ever done in a powered aircraft. York Minster is impressive from the ground, from about 3,000 MSL not so much. :D We came back around to the old WWII RAF bomber base they fly out of and I stuck the glider on the grass right where I wanted it. Love those spoilers.

I see how people get hooked on gliders. That was FUN!
 

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I took my dad and grandfather to fly grobs on father's day one year.
It was just awesome.
 
Lindberg said:
Agreed. I don't think I did any solo. On my checkride, it was a slip-to-spot-landing, which was a little bit frisky.



But it looks like this guy was trying for no spoilers, let the speed get away from him, ballooned, stowed the spoilers, bounced, rinse, repeat. It may also be that he wasn't holding the spoilers tightly and they were wagging inadvertently. I learned early on that I have to brace my wrist against the side when I pull the lever to avoid wagging the spoilers when it's bouncy on final.
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Play it back on a larger screen and watch closely. He's frakking waving at the camera with his spoiler hand at one point while he's still working on crashing. Haha.

Not kidding. Look closely. He's utterly clueless how bad the landing was and that he hasn't brought the machine to a safe stop at the end, yet.
 
After the first bounce, go around. No sense in damaging a plane.
 
orange said:
After the first bounce, go around. No sense in damaging a plane.
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Go around to where? Unless he's got a hell of a headwind or updraft, he's staying where he's at. There's no flight director and go-around. It's a glider.
 
denverpilot said:
Play it back on a larger screen and watch closely. He's frakking waving at the camera with his spoiler hand at one point while he's still working on crashing. Haha.

Not kidding. Look closely. He's utterly clueless how bad the landing was and that he hasn't brought the machine to a safe stop at the end, yet.
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At about :19, I see something pop up in the cockpit, but it looks like a card of some sort. When do you see waiving?
 
Lindberg said:
At about :19, I see something pop up in the cockpit, but it looks like a card of some sort. When do you see waiving?
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Admittedly, I was going off of a comment from a glider pilot co-worker who said he did. Oops. Well maybe oops. I'll have to go look closer.
 
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