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Mike's Gliding Page

How I started gliding, photos and links

This page is about my attempt to become a glider pilot.

Gliding is a fantastic way to spend weekends and holidays. Gliding clubs are wonderful places to hang out, full of friendly people and wonderful characters.

Sometimes exhilarating, often rather scary, gliding is always a tremendous challenge, it seems impossible that I will ever be good at it, but it's great fun learning.

Hotel Alpha Bravo, our 1967 K6CR

Click on photo to go to Ka6CR homepage

People always seem to think that flying a glider means floating silently around the sky looking at the view. On rare and awe inspiring occasions it is like that, but mostly (for me anyway) it is a desperate struggle against the elements to stay airborne for more than 5 minutes. Trying to stay in a thermal, monitor speed so I don't spin in and kill myself, keep an eye on the site to make sure I have height to get back, watching all the other aircraft in the sky (sometimes 5 or 6 in the same thermal) taxes my brain to it's limits at times.

As time goes it is all getting easier, sometimes I even enjoy it, and just occasionally it completely blows my mind.

How I started:

I started gliding in 1984, I had played with making model gliders as a kid, and always dreamed about flying. I saw an advert in the local paper to go for an air experience flight in a glider for £5 (this was 1984 remember) so off I went and found the gliding club. After much waiting around etc., which is all part of the game, I was finally strapped in to a K13 two seater. The winch launch was like nothing on earth, I can still remember it, screaming up through the sky at 45 degrees with a loud howling noise all around. Eventually at the top of the launch it all settled down and we were floating around the sky. Wonderful! After a couple of minutes taking photos and admiring the view the instructor demonstrated that you can convert height into speed. He did this by sticking the nose down till we were going about 100knots (120mph) diving below the height of the ridge. From the front seat I watched as little fluffy dots grew into sheep desperately running away from this howling monster diving at them out of the sky. At the point where I could easily identify the gender of said sheep, the instructor calmly informed me that it was also possible to convert speed, of which we had plenty, into height. He did this by pulling back on the stick, generating about 4g in the process, giving me the impression that my eyeballs were about to end up in my boots, and screaming over the top of the ridge and down onto the runway.

Why he decided to do this to me has always been a mystery as all the other air experience flights I have seen have been very sedate. It did the trick, however, as I was back the next week with my membership fee in hand, totally hooked.

This is a photo of the old Staffordshire Gliding Club site at Morridge which I took on my first flight. The Hangar is in the middle, the building in the foreground is the Mermaid Pub. Let's play spot the runway.

In those days the Staffordhire Gliding Club was based at Morridge, on top of a ridge near Leek. It was a pretty awful site, pilots from other clubs were told never to land out there, but to select a field instead. It was a great club though, really friendly and enthusiasstic, and also very cheap. I have many fond memories of my time there.

As the weeks went on I learned the basics of gliding:

• Turn up early and get your name on the flying list to make sure that you get to fly.
• Work all day getting all the equipment out, pulling cables, pulling gliders, driving the retrieve winch, keeping the log, putting all the stuff back in the hangar, all for 2 or 3 flights of 5 minutes.
• Learn how to do Daily Inspection of the aircraft, drive the winch, maintain equipment, build a new clubhouse.
• Wear silly hats and plenty of suntan lotion.
• Alternatively wear all the clothes you possess and still freeze to death.

Messing about with cables, Staffordshire Gliding Club 1983

Lift was scarce in those days so most flights were only 5 or 6 minutes, not much time to learn how to control this strange machine that seemed to have a life of it's own, but slowly I began to feel that I had some control over what I was doing. At this point the only goal I had was to go solo and fly one of the single seaters.

The club K13 on approach

When I first started I asked someone how many launches it took to go solo, and I was told about 75. After about 3 months I had got to 47 launches and was beginning to realise that I might actually go solo one day, a rather daunting prospect. The next Saturday was a nice day, I did 3 flights with an instructor which went well. He asked me if I wanted to go again, and never refusing a chance to fly, I agreed readily. I got in, strapped myself in, and the instructor said "you don't need me this time" and walked off. (Bastard!) This was rather unexpected, but I managed a good first solo flight, which left me feeling on top of the world.

That was 15 years ago. I gave up gliding for a long time to have a family etc. I started flying again 4 years ago at the Midland Gliding Club on the Long Mynd near Shrewsbury. Its a great club, one of the few places in the country where you can still take a bungey launch. I now have a half share in a 1967 K6CR. (Click on top photo for K6CR page) After much tatting about trying to get my silver certificate and have a go a cross country flying, I finally got to go cross country in August 2000. Despite apalling weather this summer I managed to complete my cross country endorsement, get all my maps and get a GPS navigation system and flight recorder sorted out.

Eventually the big day came, I declared a 100km triangle and set off. After a bit of a dodgy start I managed to get all the way round in a resonable time. They say you always come back from your first cross country with too much height, well I hit a stonking thermal on my final glide from the last turning point and took it to just over 6,000 feet to get my silver height (The mynd is at 1400 feet) so got back over site at about 5,000 feet QNH. I don't mind admitting that I was scared shitless most of the way round, but I felt a tremendous sense of achievement when I got back.

I have tried several times to fly cross country since then, but a combination of weather, technical problems and fear has prevented me from doing so, and now the cross country season is at an end. Roll on next summer!

Latest Update: I did my 5 hour duration flight in July 2002, hoping to have another go at the 50 km cross country in August

Photo Gallery

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On final approach in a K21	On the way up the launch from the inside.	K21 on a winch launch from the outside
Midland Gliding Club site from the top of a loop	Midland Gliding Club site from K6CR	Midland Gliding Club site from K6CR
Aerotowing out of Aboyne into a wavy sky	Bungey Launching a glider.	HAB in the launch queue
K21 on approach	Marit getting ready to fly a K21 with John Blackhurst.	Beth at OSK
Looking towards Church Stretton

Further Info

For more info on gliding check out the British Gliding Association.

Or find out about trial lessons at the Midland Gliding Club .

Or check out the demo copy of SFS3, a truly excellent soaring simulator available from RC Simulations.