rcbif
Member
It's been about a year now since I had my first glider flight.
My interest in aviation started with Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 in, well, 1998. My dad brought that sim home with the joystick, and I thought that sim was the coolest, most realistic professional thing ever. My dad was a private pilot for a number of years, and I thought it was cool I could be just like him flying - though be it on a computer. I could land a plane on the aircraft carrier in that sim at 8yrs old
Then flash forward to my teens I got into R/C parkflyers and all sorts of other R/C's. In the past 8 years or so I've been dabbling with home-build r/c planes and multicopters. I dont have stacks of em, just a few I fly and mod/ maintain.
But...thought great as it was, I just wanted to get my feet off the ground.
I looked into everything from getting a general private pilot license, to para-motors, light-sport, and even skydiving. That is when I remembered the glider club I always pass when headed out toward Cedar Point amusement park every summer. I've known it was there for a long time, but just never really considered it. I guess gliders always seemed kinda boring to me. I mean, you just glider...what's the point? Seemed kinda limited at the time.
Well after looking at the clubs website and learning a bit more about what gliders are capable of and how affordable they are to fly, I took a side-trip out to the club on fathers day 2014 after visiting a nearby flea market. At 11am nobody was flying, but someone was mowing the grass. Just as I was about to leave the man mowing the grass called me over. He gave me info on the club and showed me around. As it would turn out, I'd spend many hours with him, as he became one of my instructors. I told him I would come back next week and I did. (Had fathers day stuff to attend to)
So the next week I head out for my first glider ride. I went up with another instructor I had not met. He later became my second instructor. It was a good day for soaring, but a bad day for a newbie. Despite being a hardcore roller-coaster fanatic I got motion sick for the first time in my life. Nope, didnt puke, just felt disoriented for a day. I'm not sure if it was really the constant circling, or the heat, or a partially blocked ear, but it was not love at first flight
Anyways, that flight was mostly spend me just looking around and trying to enjoy the view.
But undeterred I went back the following week. After my second flight and being able to take the controls for about half the flight I felt more confident it was a fluke the first time. I did feel a bit funny, but after my 3rd flight, these feelings of unease went away, and I felt just as good after a flight as I did before. After my 3rd flight, I joined the club, and told my instructor I was in it for the long haul.
After spending a fun summer at the airport meeting new people and learning to fly, I was ready to solo in the fall.
My instructor brought me to the clubhouse and talked to me for atleast 3 hours and gave me a test to take. After being also hit with the final requirement before solo - a 200ft "rope break" drill (180 turn and back to airport) I knew that was the day for my solo.
My instructor tried to play it off as another flight, but I knew better. I asked if I was going to solo, and he said "what do you think?". Flight #33 - Solo
My solo flight video - thanks to a gopro zip-tied to a baseball hat
The glider popped into the air a bit quicker without my instructor in the back, and I was quick to correct.
It was a surreal feeling on solo. Gliding/ soaring is nice and quiet, but this flight was much more quiet that normal.
Where my chatty instructor usually sat, was just the empty seat cushion tied up with the restraints. Though my instructor was not there, It was a rather ordinary flight - I was well prepared.
I arrived on the ground to a nice welcoming. Got the traditional shirt tail cut (which now hangs on my bedroom wall) and a bit of a soaking.
Blanik L-23...
It was dead calm for my solo, but on my 3rd solo, I had a 1-3/4 hour flight - the longest flight anyone got all day with the second longest coming in at 45min, and my longest flight period. Climbed back to my 3,000ft tow altitude 4 times. Only left the tiny thermals I was picking up to land because I had to go to the bathroom :lol:
These aircraft are amazing
Anther member with a fancy carbon fiber glider was telling a guest that he basically flys 3-4 hours at a time - that's just 5-7 bucks an hour! (tow fees range from $15/1500ft to $29/3000ft)
To be continued....
My interest in aviation started with Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 in, well, 1998. My dad brought that sim home with the joystick, and I thought that sim was the coolest, most realistic professional thing ever. My dad was a private pilot for a number of years, and I thought it was cool I could be just like him flying - though be it on a computer. I could land a plane on the aircraft carrier in that sim at 8yrs old
Then flash forward to my teens I got into R/C parkflyers and all sorts of other R/C's. In the past 8 years or so I've been dabbling with home-build r/c planes and multicopters. I dont have stacks of em, just a few I fly and mod/ maintain.
But...thought great as it was, I just wanted to get my feet off the ground.
I looked into everything from getting a general private pilot license, to para-motors, light-sport, and even skydiving. That is when I remembered the glider club I always pass when headed out toward Cedar Point amusement park every summer. I've known it was there for a long time, but just never really considered it. I guess gliders always seemed kinda boring to me. I mean, you just glider...what's the point? Seemed kinda limited at the time.
Well after looking at the clubs website and learning a bit more about what gliders are capable of and how affordable they are to fly, I took a side-trip out to the club on fathers day 2014 after visiting a nearby flea market. At 11am nobody was flying, but someone was mowing the grass. Just as I was about to leave the man mowing the grass called me over. He gave me info on the club and showed me around. As it would turn out, I'd spend many hours with him, as he became one of my instructors. I told him I would come back next week and I did. (Had fathers day stuff to attend to)
So the next week I head out for my first glider ride. I went up with another instructor I had not met. He later became my second instructor. It was a good day for soaring, but a bad day for a newbie. Despite being a hardcore roller-coaster fanatic I got motion sick for the first time in my life. Nope, didnt puke, just felt disoriented for a day. I'm not sure if it was really the constant circling, or the heat, or a partially blocked ear, but it was not love at first flight
Anyways, that flight was mostly spend me just looking around and trying to enjoy the view.
But undeterred I went back the following week. After my second flight and being able to take the controls for about half the flight I felt more confident it was a fluke the first time. I did feel a bit funny, but after my 3rd flight, these feelings of unease went away, and I felt just as good after a flight as I did before. After my 3rd flight, I joined the club, and told my instructor I was in it for the long haul.
After spending a fun summer at the airport meeting new people and learning to fly, I was ready to solo in the fall.
My instructor brought me to the clubhouse and talked to me for atleast 3 hours and gave me a test to take. After being also hit with the final requirement before solo - a 200ft "rope break" drill (180 turn and back to airport) I knew that was the day for my solo.
My instructor tried to play it off as another flight, but I knew better. I asked if I was going to solo, and he said "what do you think?". Flight #33 - Solo
My solo flight video - thanks to a gopro zip-tied to a baseball hat
The glider popped into the air a bit quicker without my instructor in the back, and I was quick to correct.
It was a surreal feeling on solo. Gliding/ soaring is nice and quiet, but this flight was much more quiet that normal.
Where my chatty instructor usually sat, was just the empty seat cushion tied up with the restraints. Though my instructor was not there, It was a rather ordinary flight - I was well prepared.
I arrived on the ground to a nice welcoming. Got the traditional shirt tail cut (which now hangs on my bedroom wall) and a bit of a soaking.
Blanik L-23...
It was dead calm for my solo, but on my 3rd solo, I had a 1-3/4 hour flight - the longest flight anyone got all day with the second longest coming in at 45min, and my longest flight period. Climbed back to my 3,000ft tow altitude 4 times. Only left the tiny thermals I was picking up to land because I had to go to the bathroom :lol:
These aircraft are amazing
Anther member with a fancy carbon fiber glider was telling a guest that he basically flys 3-4 hours at a time - that's just 5-7 bucks an hour! (tow fees range from $15/1500ft to $29/3000ft)
To be continued....
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