VINTAGE INSTRUCTOR
THE
DOUG STEWART
Try it . . . you’ll like it! The takeoff on this formation flight was going to be with a slight tailwind, but the downhill slope of the grass runway would compensate a little bit. We were taking off with the tailwind primarily because of the increased options we would have, going in this direction, in case anything went wrong. Going the other way meant clearing trees at the end of the runway, and then nothing but a busy highway beyond the trees. As long as the wind didn’t increase, there should be no problems. I was surprised at how quickly we were up off the bumpy runway, and flying in ground effect, especially with two of us on board. This time, rather than sitting in the back as the instructor, I was sitting in front, and Tom Decker was sitting in the back coaching me. It felt really refreshing to be receiving instruction for a change, rather than offering it. Because we had become airborne before the Piper Pawnee in front of us, we stayed in ground effect until the Pawnee lifted off. We then flew through the turbulence behind the Pawnee and settled in for the climb, staying exactly 200 feet behind it. Tom instructed me to aim just a little below the Pawnee’s tail. He told me that if the Pawnee turned, I should aim the nose of my aircraft toward the outer wingtip of the Pawnee. A big smile was spreading across my face as I settled in for the challenge. As the Pawnee banked into a turn to leave the pattern, I realized I was going to have to match his bank perfectly to stay in trail. If I banked too steeply, I would cut inside his turn, and if too shallow, I would fly outside of the Pawnee’s arc. This didn’t present too much of a problem, but I found that I was having trouble maintaining my vertical distance. As the Pawnee hit some lift, I found I could anticipate and thus maintain my relative vertical position. But when the Pawnee encountered sink, I often found myself flying right up into the prop wash and wake
turbulence of the lead airplane. Gosh, I hadn’t had this much fun in an airplane in a long time. As we reached 2,500 AGL Tom told me to pull the red knob in the center of the panel. “Oh no, the big red one!” I thought. As I pulled it, the towrope that had been maintaining that perfect 200 feet between the Pawnee and us shot forward toward the towplane. I guess if you hadn’t figured it out yet, I was on an aerotow, in a glider. As that towrope appeared to shoot forward, we banked to the right, and the Pawnee executed a diving turn to the left, to head down and tow yet another glider back up into the sky. Now the fun was about to start in earnest! This was not my first time in a glider. My first glider flight had been about 50 years ago. (In fact, that flight had been the first time in my life that there had been more than a few feet between my posterior and the earth, and to this day, I have not forgotten it!) I also got to fly in the same glider I was now flying about two years ago, courtesy of the Valley Soaring Club, based at the Randall Airport (06N) in Middletown, New York (www.valleysoaring.org). It was a 1967 Schweizer 2-33 glider, one of the more common training gliders in use today. A client of mine, and now a good friend, Matt Blades, is the VP of the club. We had first met when he came to me to acquire his ASEL (airplane single-engine land) rating. He then later came to me to get tailwheel transition training in my PA-12. He had always given me a standing offer to come to his club and experience the exhilaration and joy of flying a glider. Thus, I found myself eagerly headed to the Valley Soaring Club at Randall, to pump some new excitement into my flying experience. I cannot recommend in strong enough terms my feelings that every power pilot should spend some time flying a glider. There are so many things to be re-
I cannot recommend in strong enough terms my feelings that every power pilot should spend some time flying a glider.
28 SEPTEMBER 2005
membered, relearned, or perhaps learned for the first time when flying a glider. To begin with, your feet are going to have to experience a reincarnation if they have been sitting flat on the floor of your spam can. Tailwheel-current pilots will not have as much difficulty, but even I found that my feet did not work as well as they could have, at first. Gliders, with their much wider wingspan, have much greater adverse yaw whenever they are banked. If you are not prepared to compensate with sufficient rudder whenever rolling into or out of a bank, you will find the glider slipping through every turn. There is no inclinometer (that’s the ball in the turn coordinator) to help you out, but there is a yaw string attached to the pitot tube in front of the windscreen. Unless you know how to use your feet, when flying, you’ll probably find that yaw string resembling a windshield wiper as you fly through your first few turns. The next thing to be remembered and refined is what it is like to fly in slow flight for extended periods of time, not only in straight and level flight, but more importantly, in turning flight. As we all know, one of the best ways to maximize flight time in a glider is to find some lift. Thermals (rising columns of air) are one of the best sources of that lift. To make the most of a thermal you have to fly a glider at a speed just slightly above the stall. And since most thermals are rather small in diameter, you need to constantly circle to stay in the thermal. But that’s not the only challenge of flying a glider. We all know that as bank increases, so does stall speed. So here you are flying just above the stall, but to remain in the thermal you need to bank. If you bank too steeply, you’ll quickly feel the first buffets of a stall, and now you’re no longer climbing in the lift. If you don’t bank steeply enough, you’ll fly out of the lift. And then you’re no longer climbing. Plus if you don’t keep your turns coordinated, you’ll find that slipping turns will rob from the benefit of the thermal. The last challenge that I have room to discuss relative to flying gliders is the landing. I have said more than once in this column that one of the least practiced maneuvers in flying is the go-around. Well, in gliders, you’ll never get to practice that. Every landing is a dead-stick, spot landing. In gliders we have several tools to help in that regard. Spoilers, dive brakes, and the good old forward slip can all be used to aid us in putting the aircraft on the ground exactly where we want it. Needless to say, there is little room for error. If your only flying experience has been in a Cherokee or a Skyhawk, you’ll have never really experienced a serious forward slip. Those of you used to a Cub, Champ, or T-craft are more experienced in that technique, but not to this extent. Because gliders have large rudders to counter all the adverse yaw, these same rudders can
be used to get the glider almost perpendicular to the centerline of the runway while on final approach. By combining the slip with the use of the spoilers (on the upper surface of the wing) and dive brakes (on the bottom of the wing), you can easily control the altitude. Pitch controls the airspeed. And just like a powered plane, you can fly final “on target…on speed” to a perfect spot landing. All without any power! There are many other challenges that flying gliders present—enough challenges to keep flying a glider an exciting and enthralling endeavor for what I would think could well be the rest of one’s flying career. I am not suggesting that you give up flying powered aircraft, but I am suggesting that you should try flying a glider at least once or twice. Why, you could even fulfill the requirements for a biennial flight review or Wings program in one. Regardless of your reason, I can guarantee that flying a glider will teach you some new tricks and remind you of some you might have forgotten. It will definitely put a smile on your face, and it won’t disappear overnight. It’s almost been a week since I flew that glider, and I’m still glowing. In fact, I think I might have to make the time to get my glider rating. Why don’t you try it? I think you’ll like it. Doug Stewart is the 2004 National CFI of the Year, a Master Instructor, and a DPE. He operates DSFI Inc. (www.dsflight. com) based at the Columbia County Airport (1B1).
VINTAGE AIRPLANE 29