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Behrentzs  SurClaro senior forum member Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Total posts: 574 Location: Denmark Age: 17 Gender: Male
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Yesterday I had another glider lesson. The weather was pretty good with the "right" clouds and local thermals.
The instructor and I made ready for a take-off. This time he handed me the controls on the t/o, and it went fine. We got up to 300m and then I was asked to turn left. I applied full rudder and moved the stick left. I remember the plane began to shake, and then it happened! I was too keen on the stick, too high on the angle of attack, which resulted in too little speed. And suddenly the plane turned to the side and began a spin! I remember seeing the ground right in front of me, so we might have dived a lot. Also, I rememer a lot of G's!
Ok, my first action was to pull the stick back, but nothing at all happened. The instructor suddenly shouted "DON'T TOUCH THE CONTROLS, DON'T TOUCH!". Scared I moved my hands and feets from the controls and he got us straightned up. He began the approch with a strange silence in the cocpit. We came down safe, but I only took 1 more flight that day...whoa, that was scary! |
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Brain Licker  SurClaro.com Regular Forum Member Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Total posts: 126 Location: Dundee (EGPN) Age: 17 Gender: Male
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harkonnen  Addict to SurClaro Joined: 08 May 2005 Total posts: 1142 Location: Brampton, Ontario, Canada CYYZ Age: 45 Gender: Male
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Wow, 300 meters isn't a lot of altitude to play when. Good to hear you guys were able to recover quickly! Wow. Were you really calm or really scared, or somewhere in between? Did you have time to worry or was it all good before you really had time to react?
Hark (Living vicariously through others.) |
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Behrentzs  SurClaro senior forum member Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Total posts: 574 Location: Denmark Age: 17 Gender: Male
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You're right, not much altitude!
Well, I think I was somewhere in between... When it happened I just pulled the stick back and when nothing then happened, I just sat there, didn't know if I should worry or not, looking at the ground. I actually felt like it wasn't real..It's kinda hard to explain. Then, when we had recovered I wasn't actually scared, just enormous dissapointet over myself. It was actually first when I got down I got a little scared.. And then, on the flight after that one I couldn't really turn as sharp as I'm used to, without to feel a little fear... So next time I'll get up there, I have that fear to overcome before I can feel totally calm again.. But it was an experience I'll never forget! |
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harkonnen  Addict to SurClaro Joined: 08 May 2005 Total posts: 1142 Location: Brampton, Ontario, Canada CYYZ Age: 45 Gender: Male
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| Pretty cool story Behrentzs. How do you find the gliders in FS? Fairly close aerodynamics or is it a whole different feeling? |
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mel wilson  Forum Moderator - Master member Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Total posts: 1675 Location: England, Biggin Hill, (EGKB) Age: 62 Gender: Male
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FS Gliders dont hurt as much when you hit the deck in an uncontrolable spin. Plus you get a second try at the same manover. Beats playing the harp.
Mel. |
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Behrentzs  SurClaro senior forum member Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Total posts: 574 Location: Denmark Age: 17 Gender: Male
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Hark, honestly it's whole different in the real world. I think that the gliders in FS are ... hmm... in some way easier to fly... (yeah of course, but still). It feels like you have lift all the time too. In the real world you won't stay up more than 10 min without thermals.. (if you have a winch start, of course it's different if you are pulled up by a tow plane) However I have found some few decent ones, which are kinda like the real thing..  |
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harkonnen  Addict to SurClaro Joined: 08 May 2005 Total posts: 1142 Location: Brampton, Ontario, Canada CYYZ Age: 45 Gender: Male
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Interesting, I guess the more challenging flights in FS gliders would be the ones where you don't start yourself off with a lot of 'safety' altitude to play with. Very cool that you're doing it in real life, great post...keep 'em coming.  |
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King OF air350  SurClaro.com Regular Forum Member Joined: 25 Mar 2006 Total posts: 211 Location: Butler Co/Scholter (KBTP) Age: 16 Gender: Male
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gliders are fascinating, but i can never manage to avoid breaking the tow rope
My question is: how do you make it to an airport with the right amount of altitude remaining. Do you always shoot for the same airport? How do you know if you are going to make it back? |
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Behrentzs  SurClaro senior forum member Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Total posts: 574 Location: Denmark Age: 17 Gender: Male
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| King OF air350 wrote: | gliders are fascinating, but i can never manage to avoid breaking the tow rope
My question is: how do you make it to an airport with the right amount of altitude remaining. Do you always shoot for the same airport? How do you know if you are going to make it back? |
In my area we don't have that many airfields close to each other. And considering I'm still a trainee I've only flown out and in of one airfield with the glider. We have a rule that you should be at about 150m when you go for the base leg. If you are that high you won't have a problem making it down to the field.
Well, you don't know for sure if you make it back... However when we go up, we search for some thermals. If we don't find anything, then we know it's time to start the approch. But that's one of the cool things about gliders: It's a challenge to keep em' up, you really have to concentrate and find thermals all the time if you want to stay airborne. However if we don't make it to the airfield it's no problem as we're surrounded by fields. Then we just land on one of them.
Hope that answeared your question  |
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sonicboom2885  SurClaro.com Regular Forum Member Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Total posts: 211 Location: Debrecen, Hungary - Hometown Chicago, IL Age: 22 Gender: Male
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| during a flat spin, depending on which way ur spinning, dont u push down on the stick n not pull up, and apply rudder to the opposite of the spin? |
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Behrentzs  SurClaro senior forum member Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Total posts: 574 Location: Denmark Age: 17 Gender: Male
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| Yup Sonic. You have to apply full rudder depending on what side you spin to. And don't touch the stick, just make sure you get her level on the wings, and THEN you can start pulling the stick. |
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sonicboom2885  SurClaro.com Regular Forum Member Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Total posts: 211 Location: Debrecen, Hungary - Hometown Chicago, IL Age: 22 Gender: Male
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| i knew those tutorials in those combat flight sims would work! =P |
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Behrentzs  SurClaro senior forum member Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Total posts: 574 Location: Denmark Age: 17 Gender: Male
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| sonicboom2885 wrote: | | i knew those tutorials in those combat flight sims would work! =P |
Haha Sonic, I should have browsed a few of those before I got up there..  |
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Cat1  Forum Moderator - Master member Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Total posts: 1021 Location: KFTW (Meacham Intl, Ft. Worth) Age: 38 Gender: Male
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Ahhh the 80's! When one hit wonders were an off the shelf commodity.
And depending on the band, they had better shoes, hair, clothes, and make up than some of the gals I dated...
Seriously though, very glad you you made it back to the ground in one piece Behrentzs. |
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