Glider Training

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to take an introductory glider flight with the late Phillip LaBerge, an icon in the soaring community. I knew then I wanted to learn how to soar but didn’t have the time thanks to college and the flying club. A few months after graduation, I had scheduled my training but the Air Force had other plans and I had to cancel as I was moving to Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi.

After settling in Biloxi, the glider bug bit again and I was pleased to find the Coastal Soaring Association online. Emailing the President, Emmett, I set up my first lesson for the following Saturday, two weekends before Christmas, 2017. Arriving early, only Emmett was around and he quickly put me to work helping to prepare for a small fly-in pancake breakfast. A few airplanes and some pilots showed up soon after and I was already enjoying the camaraderie of the soaring community.

Shortly after breakfast, I was taught how to pre-flight the club’s Grob 103 glider and helped tow it out to Elsanor Gliderport’s Runway 09. The day was filled with training flights for several students but Emmett had enough time to take eight flights with me! Before each flight, he would brief in detail what we would be doing from the back seat of the 103.

Emmett gave me the controls shortly after takeoff on our first tow. He trusted me more than I trusted myself and I was definitely having doubts as we went weaving up, down, and all around behind the powerful Pawnee tow plane. Releasing at 3,000 ft the air was smooth without a sign of thermal generated lift. It was December in the south so this wasn’t much of a surprise. The high overcast didn’t help any either.

As soon as we were off tow, I tried to get a handle on the glider. We went slipping back and forth across the sky as I struggled to coordinate the ailerons with the rudders. With such long wings, gliders have quite the adverse yaw, way more than the Luscombe, and require significant rudder application for only a little aileron.

Gliders, in contrast to airplanes, don’t have a ball or turn coordinator. Instead they have yaw strings which are pieces of yarn taped directly in front of the pilot on the outside of the canopy. The problem with a yaw string is that it goes in the opposite direction in which the ball travels for the same sideslip. It took over three flights to rewire my brain to use a yaw string. Now that I’ve learned both its not difficult at all going back and forth between the two.

After only practicing turns and some closed-spoiler stalls on my first flight or two, Emmett upped the ante on the next flight. Instead of just sticking right behind the tow plane, we practiced boxing the wake--a maneuver where the glider is flown down through the tow plane’s wake and then flies a rectangular pattern around the wake which is quite a challenge when flying in tethered formation with a big old Pawnee.

For the last flight of my first day, we did a simulated rope break, where we actually released at 200 ft AGL from the tow plane. This is an everyday training event for a glider and we made a normal right turn back and landed on runway 27 without incident. By this point, the sun was heading west and it was time to call it a day. I asked Emmett the age-old student pilot question, "When will I be ready to solo?" I got a noncommittal answer and an invitation to come out the Saturday after Christmas.

Thankfully, some of the issues I worried about in flying gliders turned out to be non-events. Emmett warned me against flaring a glider which is a big no-no for an airplane that sits in the level flight attitude with both wheels on the ground. Somehow I was able to quickly break a power-pilot instinct and get nice and comfy with the ground without pulling--something I attribute to learning wheel landings in the Luscombe. 

I was also concerned about misjudging my glide and possibly descending too low to make it to the field on arrival or coming up short on approach. Most power pilots will quickly grow accustomed to the seemingly astonishing glide capabilities of a modern sailplane. Emmett also taught how to approach at half-spoilers which sets you up for a nice tight approach, similar to approaching power off in a typical piston single. The spoiler handle then effectively becomes a throttle on approaching, pushing it forward to reduce spoiler and get more glide while pulling back would open the spoilers and increase the descent. In effect, a half-spoiler approach gives margin in both direction. You can get too steep or too shallow, within reason of course, and still correct for it.

Chomping at the bit to solo, I made the drive out on the appointed day to fly with Roger, another great CFI-G. We flew three flights and then went inside to do the pre-solo quiz and endorsements. Just like my first solo eight years prior, I could feel the difference in the glider with only one soul aboard. Lift off was sooner and I got a little more float, which was promptly killed by a little extra spoiler, on landing. It was a uneventful flight and I got in a few more solo hops before the others were ready to pack up and head home.

Over the ensuing two months, I kept flying to get in my twenty solo flights required for the Glider Commercial Certificate. Bad weather worked against the examiner planning to travel out to give several of us aspiring soarers our check rides so we just kept flying. With each flight, I was learning more and more from the Grob 103. I was getting a little aggressive with my maneuvering, especially enjoying lazy eights and sixty degree wing overs.

Also checking out in the Schweizer 2-33 with Rus, another club CFI-G, I learned some tricks for steep turns and emergency descents. Rus is very intense with his training and holds your feet to the fire both in terms of knowledge and skill. I learned how to use opposing screws on the instrument panel to maintain a perfectly banked steep turn sans attitude indicator. Rus also demonstrated a high speed full spoiler descent. With the spoilers fully open and the nose pushed down to 90 mph, it felt like we were dropping like the Space Shuttle on approach to Kennedy.

Weather and calendars finally cooperated and we prepared for our check rides on the second weekend of February, 2018. Heading early out to Elsanor that Saturday, we met Piet, a glider examiner who travelled from Pennsylvania just to fill the gap for Glider Examiners in our area. An overcast hung above the field but was expected to lift. Jumping right in, we began my oral portion of the check ride which was less than stellar but certainly still passing.

Walking outside, we found the ceiling starting to break apart. Piet put the go-no-go decision firmly in my lap. Not wanting to bust a check ride for illegal operations around clouds or reckless decision-making, I elected to hold. I got a weird vibe from him and the more senior glider pilots around. I wasn't sure if they liked my decision or if they thought I was being too cautious. Piet provided some hinting and commented that the "rope break might happen first." This was the hint I was looking for so I organized the launch party to make the long trek to Runway 27 which was the one farthest from the club office.

I made sure to cover all of my bases and brief Piet in detail on the glider and all safety procedures. I briefed our emergency return plan and got it in my head that we would be turning back for Runway 09 if the rope broke at or above the turn-back altitude. Launching into a stiff headwind, the Pawnee pulled us eagerly skyward. Pulling the handle at a generous 400 ft AGL, I made a right turn but didn't like our closeness and the necessary tight turn to get back to 09.

Going out on a limb, I announced a change of plans to land on the crossing runway with my previous turn putting me on a tight low base. The turn to final couldn't have been at more than 50 ft AGL but Piet never said a word as we got out and set up for the next flight.

By the time we were staged for our second tow, the sky had cleared enough for me to be comfortable with the flight. We talked over what we would do on this tow and I mentioned we would do "power-off stalls" Piet and the other old glider hands each gave a disappointed chuckle. Reaching 2,000 ft, we hit the local ceiling but several large holes were around and we took one nearby.

Only having a few thousand feet of room to maneuver in, we quickly ran through each of the maneuvers. Lift was nonexistent and we were back on terra firma in a matter of minutes. A final tow took us back up to the same hole and we finished our maneuvers just as we caught a small dose of sustaining lift. I played around for a few minutes applying my very limited thermalling skills.

As we approached the field for the final time, I was instructed to fly a no-spoiler approach. On very short final I was given my spoilers back and made a final safe landing. Heading back into the club house we filled out the necessary paperwork and I was an official commercial glider pilot!

My next goal after passing the commercial was to complete the CFI-Glider, CFIG, postehaste. The FAA had different plans thanks to their rule which requires 15 hours PIC in category and class to be eligible for a CFI certificate. This is usually no problem in powered airplanes but in gliders short flights are the norm unless the weather is really cooperating. I needed another twleve hours of PIC and that was going to take some time. Thankfully, soaring is an addictive past time and I spent the next several months having a ball.

Only a month after passing the commercial in February, the Gulf Coast was blessed with a bout of beautiful soaring weather. Cool nights and mildly warm days provide ideal soaring conditions since the earth's surface gets a chance to make drastic temperature changes which means tall thermals in abundance. In addition the coast also experiences sea breezes in the afternoon which brings in cool moist air from the ocean, heats it over the coast which then causes it to rise quickly making cumulus clouds. On one such afternoon in March my little buddy Jefferson and I got to experience both of these conditions in abundance. 

As usual, I signed up to tow gliders in the Pawnee all day that Saturday. Flying the Pawnee never gets old and since the weather was so good the glider guys were out in force. Reports started coming in from exuberant pilots as they were getting lift up above 5,000 ft, a rarity on the Gulf Coast. For once, I wanted to be in a glider instead of the Pawnee. I waited impatiently until my reservation came up in the Grob 103 and also convinced somebody to pull us in the Pawnee. It was nearly 3:00 pm before we were on tow and ready to go. 

Heading south from Elsanor, we passed over a small forest which are usually areas of sink instead of lift. Passing over farmland we felt the pushes in the seat and the lifting of wingtips which hint at the nearby presence of thermals. We took all the altitude we could get from the Pawnee and then Jefferson pulled the release. We started hunting and quickly found a strong thermal which took us from 3,000 to 5,000!

With plenty of altitude we started heading for the coast; only fifteen miles distant. We new that if we made it to the coast their would be no way to return unless the thermals kept up, but we weren't too worried about that. Besides, Jack Edwards Airport and several outlying Navy strips would be available to us if need be.

We passed through more thermals as we made our way but passed them up. For once we didn't need them. Within about a mile of the coast were down to 3,500 ft and searching for a thermal. A small cloud was forming above us and it seemed like a good sign. We headed for it and wow what a thermal! As soon as we centered it we were doing over 800 ft/min and it was staying steady! We took it all the way up into the base of the cloud where we could see vapor actively converting from a light haze into stringy swaths, and then finally join the base of the cloud. We were over 9,600 ft MSL, which turned out to be the clubs altitude record for the year and it took hardly any unusual skill on our part!

We circled in the base of that cloud for over ten minutes watching it form. We couldn't get any higher than where the water was turning into cotton. Several birds had also found the lucky thermal and were enjoying our pirch with us.

We slowly made our way back towards Elsanor, the altitude just gently melting away with barely a care. After some formation with some other gliders we finally pulled the boards out and dropped into Elsanor. It was the end to a perfect soaring day.