Flight Training - April 2015 - 32

WHERE ARE THE
GLIDER PILOTS?
Finding the soaring community
The Soaring Society of America (SSA) is headquartered in
Hobbs, New Mexico. On its website (www.ssa.org), you can
find more information about soaring or search for available
soaring sites-or gliderports, as they are also called-
around the country. Gliderports seldom are located near
urban areas, because gliders generally are not flown over
densely populated areas. In the event that one encounters
sink and gets low in a glider, the pilot sometimes has to
"land out," or land off airport. This is a normal part of soaring, especially when on a cross-country flight.
The glider community is a relatively small but close-knit
community when compared to other niches within aviation,
and it is scattered across the United States and abroad.
There are approximately 25,000 glider pilots in the United
States; about 11,000 belong to SSA. -JM

GET YOUR GLIDER WINGS
No medical, no problem
So how does one learn to fly a glider? The requirements
are spelled out in FAR 61.109(f). An FAA medical certificate is not required of glider pilots. You can solo a glider
at 14 years of age if you have successfully completed the
required presolo training under the tutelage of a glider
instructor (CFI-G) and are proficient to solo. You can earn a
private glider certificate at age 16 and a commercial glider
pilot certificate at age 18. If you have no previous flying
experience, you must log at least 10 hours of flight time,
including two hours of solo time. You also must pass a
knowledge test, along with a practical (oral and flight) test
with an FAA designated pilot examiner.
Pilots who hold certificates in heavier-than-air powered
aircraft can add a glider rating. For airplane pilots, the minimum requirements include, for private pilot glider, at least
three hours of flight time, which includes at least 10 flights
beyond solo-and for the commercial glider, 20 flights
beyond solo, as a minimum.
Keep in mind that unlike airplane training, glider flights
are not necessarily one hour long. You are up there without
an engine. Depending on local weather conditions and
how high aloft a glider is towed, a training flight might be
shorter than 30 minutes, especially if there is no lift on a
particular day. If you encounter sink, you might be back
sooner than you had planned. -JM

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FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Without an engine up front, there is
no p-factor or torque-and no leftturning tendency.
However, there is another instrument found in a glider, which is
similar to the vertical speed indicator
found in airplanes. It is a variometer,
which is very sensitive and gives the
pilot information on the performance
of the glider with reference to lift
and sink. The variometer provides
the rate of climb or descent, typically shown in knots, or sometimes
feet per minute. So the face of the
vario is similar to that of a VSI, with
'0' indicating no lift or sink; plus 10
indicates very strong lift (updraft),
while minus 10 means very strong
sink (downdraft). In other words,
the vario measures the amount of
lift, instead of climb or descent in
hundreds of feet per minute.
It is said that glider pilots make better power pilots. There are a couple
of reasons for this. More time is spent
in slow flight and in steep turns when
thermaling, so stick and rudder skills
generally are better. Glider flying or
soaring is a "thinking" sport. There is
more planning involved. You can't just
bore holes in the sky, in a straight line,
on your way to a destination while
letting automation fly. You cannot
wander aimlessly and must always have a plan, seeking sources of lift and maneuvering to them so as to
avoid areas of sink. If you find yourself getting low,
you want to be close to the airport or gliderport for
an easy return.
As a glider pilot, you will learn to read the sky
more closely than power pilots, and you will look
more closely at clouds and cloud formations, such as
cumulus and stratus clouds. Are the cumulus clouds
building or dissipating? That might depend on the
time of day and atmospheric stability.
There are some unique skills required to fly a glider.
These include a basic understanding of micrometeorology (the study of weather conditions on a small,
localized scale) and flying the tow, which is a skill
unique to glider pilots-as is the proper use of air
brakes. Also, gliders don't necessarily fly rectangular
patterns.
Think of flying a glider as similar to flying a Piper
J-3 Cub or Aeronca Champ: relatively slow moving
with a light wing loading. One really needs to learn

http://www.ssa.org http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Flight Training - April 2015

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