Clunk! That’s both the sound of the tug
rope leaving the glider and the sound of your brain realizing you’re up at
2000ft without an engine. In that moment, a powered pilot must own and
acknowledge that they’re going to have to land without the energy of an engine.
There are no second chances at landing a glider, a fact
all too blatant to Captain Bob Pearson, pilot of Air Canada flight 143, the
Boeing 767 that lost both engines due to fuel
starvation, and became the Gimli Glider (www.damninteresting.com/the-gimli-glider/#continue).
Captain Pearson’s near-perfect dead-stick
flying, and the skills he utilised in landing
the powerless jet serve as the definitive demonstration, for
every pilot, of the value of gliding experience.
In an attempt to understand these skills first hand, I
was invited by glider pilot Leonie Furze to the Bathurst Soaring Club, based at
Piper’s Field, just to the north-west of Bathurst (http://bathurstsoaring.org.au/default.asp).
Myself a powered-pilot with around 600 hours, I asked Leonie how she expected
my glide experience to differ from a ‘normal’ powered flight. “The most
interesting thing about gliding,” Leonie explained, “is that every flight is
different. In order to succeed as a glider pilot, you have to harness so many
things: your understanding of the weather becomes critical; you become an
expert in energy management; you spend so much time looking outside, always assessing
the options for landing. You’re critically aware of your altitude, your
surroundings, your attitude relative to the horizon at all times. You won’t
believe the way it extends your skill set as a pilot.”
“I’m often asked
by powered pilots, ‘How long before I can solo a glider, as I already know how
to fly?’” commented instructor Nick Wills. “My standard (tongue in cheek) reply
is “slightly longer than if we picked a random person off the street!” As an
instructor in gliding and powered flight, Nick extolled the benefits of gliding
experience. “I cannot recommend it highly enough,” he said “The advantages are
enormous: a glider pilot must fly accurately and efficiently, being in balance
at all times, because energy management is critical. Adverse yaw in turns needs
precise coordination of stick and rudder - those pedals are not footrests! You
learn to gauge height and distance (glide angles) with instinctive accuracy at
all times during all phases of flight –you don’t have an engine dragging you
through the sky – so you are constantly looking for options to land safely. When
you do land, you have got one chance and one chance only. There is no going around! What do you call a
Cessna 172 when the engine quits?
Answer: a glider (although not a very good one!) In addition, the GFA
require full spin recovery checks for all pilots once per year (in my opinion,
this should be a requirement for any pilot who flies an aircraft capable of
spinning –which is most of them).”
 |
| Graham Brown |
Keen to experience these benefits myself, I’m
introduced to my instructor for this session, Graham Brown - a glider pilot
with over 40 years experience - and my long-winged bird, a sleek looking ASK
21, a glass-reinforced plastic
two-seater mid-wing glider with a T-tail.
Touchy
Feely – fly by senses, not just by instruments
Aside from the enormous wings, which boast a glide
ratio of 36:1, the obvious difference between a glider and a powered aircraft
is in the cockpit instrumentation: there’s barely any in a glider. An ASI, AI,
compass and the glider’s unique instrument, the variometer, which used to
determine rising or sinking air, are the main instruments in the ASK 21. But,
as Graham is about to demonstrate, a competent and experienced glider pilot can
manage without any of them. “Gliding is very much about feeling the sensations
of flight,” he explains. “Your attitude, along with the thermals, will
determine your altitude. The sound of the wind will indicate your airspeed. You
will feel, in your seat, whether you are climbing and descending. And, at this
stage, you will know where you are in relation to the airfield, because we will
not go far, and you’ll be able to see it.”
It’s a very tactile experience, one that emphasises why the senses of
vision, hearing and balance are so important to a pilot.
As we hook up to the tug, Graham reveals the airbrakes which increase drag,
reduce lift and are used to control the rate of decent during the approach to land.
The ideal approach is a “half brake approach”. They can also be used to descend
rapidly from altitude.
Graham’s safety briefing includes the tug release
control (“please don’t touch that one” he comments, sardonically) and the trim,
which sits alongside the stick. “No throttle!” I remark, pointlessly.
With the wind straight down the runway, we begin
rolling and Graham demonstrates how to stay out of the tug’s slipstream by
adopting a high or low position. At 2000ft, Graham asks me if I’m ready, and clunk, the tug banks to the left, we
bank to the right and we’re soaring. I suffer an initial moment of panic before
calm descends over me. Without an engine, the sounds are so different; you can
hear only the wind and it becomes immediately clear that you are soaring; that
you are experiencing flight’s most pure form. Graham shows me how to listen to
the wind to judge our airspeed, and by changing attitude, we change the sound
of the wind, first in the climb (quieter) and in the descent (when the wind
howls). In this, I’ve learnt how, in a case of instrument failure, a glider
pilot could be confident in landing the aircraft without the instrumentation on
which a powered pilot is so dependent.
Fancy
Footwork – learning (again) the importance of rudder
It’s a wonderful day for gliding, with plenty of
cumulus clouds providing us our desired lift, and we experience no problem in
climbing to 6000ft. Graham hands the ASK 21 over to me, and instructs me to
turn, to climb, to descend and to have a ‘good feel’ of the controls. “One of
the benefits of a glider is that it allows us to demonstrate adverse yaw,”
explains Graham. “This is turn shows the importance of using the rudder in
keeping the aircraft in balance,” he says, giving the right rudder a huge boot
to demonstrate.
These rudder skills are also vital in a non powered
landing; without an engine to provide power close to the ground, and with a
go-around a non-option, a glider pilot’s landing requires a great deal of
rudder skill. I think back to the times I’ve relied only on power to rescue me
from an ugly approach, and shudder.
Seeing
is Believing – improve your situational awareness
The cockpit FLARM starts beeping, and I immediately
look out for traffic, spying another glider heading our way. “It’s common for
glider pilots to all head for the same cloud, invariably the best cloud,”
Graham explains. “This is why situational awareness is paramount in glider operations. Sighting and avoiding traffic is a critical
skill. You can’t assume other aircraft
are also FLARM equipped.” Another hazard is birds, particularly eagles, who
often confuse gliders for other birds. However, because there are so few
cockpit instruments to monitor, it’s very natural to spend most of the time looking
out, scanning for traffic and searching for clouds, like a surfer seeks waves.
Watch
the Birdies – learn more about the weather
Curious to learn more, I ask Graham for clues. “ The
birds give us a lot of information,” he tells me. “Have
you ever seen a flock of pelicans circling high in the sky or a seagull
hovering motionless over a headland? The pelicans are flying in a column of
rising air (a thermal) and the seagull is flying in the rising air deflected
upwards by the cliff face. In both cases the birds are in an air mass that is
rising faster than they are descending through it. Gliders exploit exactly the
same natural phenomenon.”
While knowledge of the weather is vital to all pilots,
it’s paramount to gliders, particularly those participating in a cross-country.
“On poor soaring days you will be restricted to within glide range of the
airfield,” Graham says. “However on good days, once you are competent, you can
attempt recognised flights of 50, 300, 500 or 1,000km. The straight glide
performance of gliders varies immensely. A typical club glider will easily
glide 10km for each 1,000 feet without encountering any rising air. You soon
learn to spot the banks of cloud that facilitate long range gliding.”
Be
Aware, Be Spatially Aware – and improve your judgment of height and distance
Typically gliders fly at around 70 - 100 knots between
thermals. When circling in lift, the speed may be as little as 40 knots;
gliding is all about energy management and this is best demonstrated in the
approach and landing. While the wind whistles about us, we commence our descent
to the field, and Graham demonstrates the importance of our height and distance
from the strip as we fly a circuit. He deliberately overshoots on final to slip
off a little height, but just as I remark that we seem terribly high, he deploys
the air brakes. We sink like a stone. We aim for the latter part of the strip, to
avoid turbulence from the hill. What happens if we undershoot? “We don’t,”
answers Graham, with a laugh.
No
Second Chances – learn advanced energy management
Short final in a glider is much like any other – we
are certain to land on the nominated point. However, what becomes clear to me (other than
the clear absence of engine power), is that landing a glider is like landing a
tail-dragger. Turns out all gliders are tail-draggers, which I discover when I
ask what prevents us from taking off again, given our weight and the into-wind
position we’re in. “We stall the aircraft onto the runway,” explains Graham.
It’s another example of energy management: “we will run out of lift, and then
bring the stick back to pin the tail down. Eventually, we’ll use up all the
energy.”
And indeed we do, and I soon realise there’s no energy
left to get us back to the hangar.
Smells
like Team Spirit – join a culture of safety
As we wait for the pick up car, Graham details the fundamental
importance of teamwork in gliding. “It’s not a solo sport; it takes a team to
glide. Someone has to fly the tug, there’s someone at the wing to aid with the
take-off, another person to collect you from the field. It’s a club sport, and
with that comes a club spirit. We’re extremely sociable here; we have a
clubhouse, and a series of caravans in which people come and spend the weekend.
A lot of our pilots live in Sydney and spend the weekends up here. A benefit of
the sociability of gliding is that it promotes airmanship and safety. We constantly
discuss our experiences, and the old mentor the new. We encourage each other to
share tips and tricks, and that breeds a culture of safety and respect.”
Upon arrival back at the club I’m introduced to club
CFI Bob Hall, who is very keen to hear about my experience. I discover that
gliding in Australia has one the best safety records in the world. Before long,
Leonie and Nick are joining in and we’re discussing the many merits of gliding
and the way in which it stretches your skills. As they kindly invite me to join
the club, and to participate in their next social event, I can’t help but
wonder if gliding not only makes you a better pilot, but whether it makes you a
happier, more sociable person as well.
Huge
thanks to Leonie Furze, Nick Wills, Bob Hall and Graham Brown
This article was first published in Flight Safety Australia 103 - March - April 2015
