A tale of two gliders
I didn't fly last weekend, because despite some very hard stares - the plaster on the walls of my new kitchen didn't dry in time, and so painting had to take priority. The room looks amazing, but it did mean that it had been a good three weeks between flights of any significant length, so it was good to be able to spend two full days this weekend at the gliding club, with the bonus of a promising looking weather forecast.
I arrived a little late to the Saturday morning briefing but apparently there had been talk of 4000' cloud-bases and great skies. The presence of a number of club pundits suggested that there was definite optimism for the day ahead.
The briefing room emptied and most of everyone disappeared to go and rig their own gliders for flight, and it soon became clear that we were a little short handed for help with club flying, so I spent my morning doing my best with launching and logging aircraft away. It had been a while since my last flight, so I needed to take a check flight. Other students were making full use of both K-21's and the day was wearing on, so I arranged to go in the DG-500.
I duly informed my instructor that the 500 was my least favourite of the club fleet, and therefore the one I had flown the least - you know, just in case my flying was terrible. On the occasions I have flown it, it's always felt heavy and difficult compared to the other club gliders. The K-21's just obediently do as you command, whilst the DG-1000 is far less forgiving but far more rewarding when you get it right. The Astir is just heaps of fun.
The check flight was as uneventful as you'd want it to be - a good aerotow out, and what felt like some reasonably gentle and fairly large thermals to climb away - the aircraft seemed to handle better than I remember, or maybe it's just that my flying is generally better since last time. After about 20 minutes flying, the instructor suggested that we lose the excess height, and head back and land. As much as it always feels like a waste to airbrake away hard fought gains, the objective of the sortie was complete and assuming I didn't cock up the landing, I would be good to go solo again.
The landing was actually one of the best landings I've done onto runway 24 - or that's how it felt because it's a runway we most normally associate with blustery conditions, and on Saturday the headwind was gentle and it didn't seem to be excessively gusty - I'm actively trying to work on the smoothness of my flying and was quite pleased with my approach and round-out.
With our Astir out for the day needing a spot of rewiring, I was offered the DG-500 solo. It's not something I've really made a point of pursuing before (even though it seems to be available quite often) because of my feelings towards it - but having just completed a good flight in it, and with nothing else that I could take for any length of time - I thought why not?
On the check flight, I hadn't had any of the problems I remember with the glider feeling sluggish, but take out the rear pilot completely and wow, what a difference. All of a sudden, the heavy beast feels nimble and quick; and so, so quiet.
The more nose-down attitude caught me out for the first flight and my general flying was a little slower than I'd wanted, but I was able to stay up for 1:35 in busy skies, topping out at around 3500' in thermal lift. I don't think anyone caught any wave, but when the sky went a bit crap causing me to land, I decided to put it down to interference from it, whether it was there or not. I feel like an important part of gliding, as with any sport, is finding a believable explanation for why you ran out of talent when discussing things in the bar later on.
I stayed over to fly again Sunday. Just using the basic forecast, I'd figured that it would be as good or perhaps better - a few people were talking of storms, but I was seeing no rain and that proved to be the case until I left just before 5pm.
We had the fleet out and ready on the field by 9am but no real flying took place until after 11am when the skies finally started to open up (as forecast) - until then, the cloud-base was low and there were few, if any blue gaps.
After lunch, Astir DPO was once again ready to fly again having been rewired and fitted with a brand new battery, but I was beaten to it - I hadn't put my name on the single seater list, assuming that it was not going to be serviceable all day. I spoke to the chap who wanted to fly it, and the duty team, and we came to a solution that I would fly the 500 once more. The decision rewarded me with another 1:10 before I hit sink, and the ridge which had been providing a means to wait for the next thermals to pop went from reading zero to four knots down.
So the two-hour flight is as elusive as ever, but I managed to squeeze another new experience into my short gliding career and add another aircraft type to my logbook.
What do I think of the DG-500 now? I like it - great solo machine and not even so difficult as I recall with weight in the back.
Next stop Ka-8?
I arrived a little late to the Saturday morning briefing but apparently there had been talk of 4000' cloud-bases and great skies. The presence of a number of club pundits suggested that there was definite optimism for the day ahead.
The briefing room emptied and most of everyone disappeared to go and rig their own gliders for flight, and it soon became clear that we were a little short handed for help with club flying, so I spent my morning doing my best with launching and logging aircraft away. It had been a while since my last flight, so I needed to take a check flight. Other students were making full use of both K-21's and the day was wearing on, so I arranged to go in the DG-500.
I duly informed my instructor that the 500 was my least favourite of the club fleet, and therefore the one I had flown the least - you know, just in case my flying was terrible. On the occasions I have flown it, it's always felt heavy and difficult compared to the other club gliders. The K-21's just obediently do as you command, whilst the DG-1000 is far less forgiving but far more rewarding when you get it right. The Astir is just heaps of fun.
The check flight was as uneventful as you'd want it to be - a good aerotow out, and what felt like some reasonably gentle and fairly large thermals to climb away - the aircraft seemed to handle better than I remember, or maybe it's just that my flying is generally better since last time. After about 20 minutes flying, the instructor suggested that we lose the excess height, and head back and land. As much as it always feels like a waste to airbrake away hard fought gains, the objective of the sortie was complete and assuming I didn't cock up the landing, I would be good to go solo again.
The landing was actually one of the best landings I've done onto runway 24 - or that's how it felt because it's a runway we most normally associate with blustery conditions, and on Saturday the headwind was gentle and it didn't seem to be excessively gusty - I'm actively trying to work on the smoothness of my flying and was quite pleased with my approach and round-out.
With our Astir out for the day needing a spot of rewiring, I was offered the DG-500 solo. It's not something I've really made a point of pursuing before (even though it seems to be available quite often) because of my feelings towards it - but having just completed a good flight in it, and with nothing else that I could take for any length of time - I thought why not?
On the check flight, I hadn't had any of the problems I remember with the glider feeling sluggish, but take out the rear pilot completely and wow, what a difference. All of a sudden, the heavy beast feels nimble and quick; and so, so quiet.
The more nose-down attitude caught me out for the first flight and my general flying was a little slower than I'd wanted, but I was able to stay up for 1:35 in busy skies, topping out at around 3500' in thermal lift. I don't think anyone caught any wave, but when the sky went a bit crap causing me to land, I decided to put it down to interference from it, whether it was there or not. I feel like an important part of gliding, as with any sport, is finding a believable explanation for why you ran out of talent when discussing things in the bar later on.
I stayed over to fly again Sunday. Just using the basic forecast, I'd figured that it would be as good or perhaps better - a few people were talking of storms, but I was seeing no rain and that proved to be the case until I left just before 5pm.
We had the fleet out and ready on the field by 9am but no real flying took place until after 11am when the skies finally started to open up (as forecast) - until then, the cloud-base was low and there were few, if any blue gaps.
After lunch, Astir DPO was once again ready to fly again having been rewired and fitted with a brand new battery, but I was beaten to it - I hadn't put my name on the single seater list, assuming that it was not going to be serviceable all day. I spoke to the chap who wanted to fly it, and the duty team, and we came to a solution that I would fly the 500 once more. The decision rewarded me with another 1:10 before I hit sink, and the ridge which had been providing a means to wait for the next thermals to pop went from reading zero to four knots down.
So the two-hour flight is as elusive as ever, but I managed to squeeze another new experience into my short gliding career and add another aircraft type to my logbook.
What do I think of the DG-500 now? I like it - great solo machine and not even so difficult as I recall with weight in the back.
Next stop Ka-8?
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