Climbing into gliders

My high-performance glider has released from the towplane at 3,500 feet. Climbing steadily now, I am in good lift. Below me are the verdant hills of Warren, Vermont, and the Warren-Sugarbush Airport. I am in mountain wave conditions—where winds strike terrain at right angles, creating updrafts—so strong that the altimeter resembles a rapidly winding wristwatch.

Today’s conditions are ideal. After an hour spent soaring in some of the smoothest air I have ever encountered, with an altitude gain of more than 5,000 feet, it is time to return. But the lift in these wave conditions is so strong that I need to fully extend the speed brakes to get back down—devices that extend to create drag, without increasing lift. I have never experienced lift like this before. Welcome to soaring!

Flying gliders, or soaring, is to airplanes what sailing is to boating. You can learn to fly a glider in less time and for less money than an airplane. Also, no flight physical is required for glider pilots. If you are in the right part of the country, such as the West or Southwest—where there are more good-weather flying days—you could earn a glider rating in considerably less time and for about one-third the cost of learning to fly in an airplane. If you are still interested in learning to fly airplanes, you could transition to power, which is how glider pilots sometimes refer to airplanes, after earning your glider certificate. (See “Where are the Glider Pilots?” p. 32.) Your understanding of the basics would put you ahead of the game.

Soaring is the art and science of being able to stay aloft in a sailplane by harnessing the natural energy in the sky, resulting from solar radiation heating the air above the Earth’s surface. The air becomes warmer, less dense, and rises as a narrow thermal updraft. Soaring can be endlessly challenging and rewarding. It’s sometimes frustrating, as one searches for lift—the rising currents of air—and tries to avoid sink, the descending currents of air. Nature always seeks to find a balance. What goes up must go down.

Lift can come from a variety of other sources, including ridge lift and mountain wave conditions. Ridge lift results from upslope winds moving over rising terrain. A key to soaring is knowing where to find these types of lift.

So, what’s it like to fly a glider? While the mechanics are straightforward, it can be very challenging, requiring concentrated effort and practice to do well. The primary flight controls are the same, with the addition of speed brakes, also called air brakes. These are control surfaces that extend above and sometimes also below the wing. They are operated by a simple mechanical handle in the cockpit. Pulling back the handle opens or extends them. They disrupt the airflow over the wings and create drag, which is necessary to help control speed and altitude, or rate of descent in the traffic pattern. This is because gliders are aerodynamically clean as compared to airplanes, which have much more drag, and they typically aren’t equipped with flaps.

The instrumentation and controls sometimes can be quite sparse, like those of a Piper J-3 Cub. There is a stick instead of a yoke, and there are rudder pedals or bars, but obviously no throttle and mixture controls. Without an engine up front, there is no p-factor or torque—and no left-turning 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 and properly employ energy management. Power pilots can rely on the throttle to get themselves out of a tight spot. Glider pilots cannot afford to get low and slow.

There is nothing worse than suddenly finding that you are too low and too far from the runway. When you are in the traffic pattern, you only have one chance to land. If you overshoot or undershoot, there are consequences. A glider cannot go around.

Making the switch. For most transitioning power pilots, perhaps the trickiest part of learning to fly gliders is learning to fly the tow. Since gliders (not motorgliders) have no engine, the means available to get airborne include aero-tow and winch tow. Aero-tow is when you are towed aloft by an airplane, with a 200-foot polypropylene line connecting you to the towplane. Essentially, this is formation flying. It takes some getting used to, and you have to maneuver to stay properly positioned behind the towplane. It can take all of your concentration to stay in position.

There is also a winch launch, which is really an exhilarating ride lasting about 45 seconds. For this, the glider is connected to a cable about 5,000 feet long that is reeled in very quickly, typically by either an automotive-like diesel engine or an electric motor controlled by a winch operator. Within a few seconds, you are very quickly accelerated from a standing start to flying speed. As you accelerate and pitch up, the glider begins climbing rapidly. Fly it to the top, about 1,000 to 1,500 feet; point the nose toward level flight; and release. What a ride!

If you want to improve your piloting and general flying skills, or are looking for that next challenge in flying—or a new next rating—consider soaring. Arrange an introductory glider ride. If it is horsepower and pure speed that you are after, you may be disappointed. But if you can appreciate what soaring has to offer, you will find new adventures, and you will improve your airplane flying skills in the process.