{"id":5185,"date":"2019-04-19T15:13:26","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T22:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=5185"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:51","slug":"get-some-glider-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/get-some-glider-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Some Glider Time!"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry Lansburgh<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few hours of stick time in a glider can give you a deeper knowledge of the environment in which you fly\u2014knowledge that many airplane pilots lack.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My glider experience came in handy one summer day when I took off in a rented Citabria from the Medford, Oregon airport and turned south toward the airplane\u2019s base in Northern California.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ashland passed beneath me, and soon I was over the state line. Ahead and off to the left was Mt. Shasta, just over fourteen thousand feet high. Flying to the west of Shasta, I thought I might be facing downdrafts that could make the ground come up uncomfortably fast, so I wanted some extra altitude just in case. I raised the nose and gave the engine full power, but the altimeter and vertical velocity indicator gave me bad news. I was hardly climbing. The day had turned hot, and density altitude ensured that the airplane would not get me to the safe altitude I wanted.<\/h3>\n
\"\"
THe first day I ever got my son, Hooper, to put on a uniform shirt and work for me. No luck with shoes, however. 2008<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was not facing an emergency, just an inconvenience. If I couldn\u2019t put enough space between myself and the rocks below, I could turn back north and climb in cooler air. Then I could turn south again and probably get past the Shasta area. Or, if I really had to, I could land back at Medford, call the airplane\u2019s owner, and tell him it would be another day before I returned the airplane.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I knew he would agree that this action was far better than making an unscheduled stop against some granite.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Until now, the air had been smooth. Then I hit a bit of turbulence, and the airplane bounced up. A second later, the air was smooth again.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because of my time in gliders, that little bump was a familiar friend. I had flown through a thermal. With the throttle still all the way forward, I circled back and felt the bump again, but this time it lifted my left wing. Again, a familiar experience. I was on the edge of the thermal, so I steepened the bank to put myself in the middle of the rising column of warm air. Now I was circling in the thermal, nose up and full throttle. The Citabria climbed like a rocket.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After circling to the altitude I wanted, I pointed my nose to the south and abandoned the thermal. The terrain flattened out, and I was over the Central Valley of California. Every now and then I went through some bumpy air. The seat of my pants gave me a familiar message\u2014thermals again\u2014but I no longer had to take advantage of them. I landed at the Citabria\u2019s base, and handed the key to the owner.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When this happened, I was a low-time private pilot, competent in good weather and uncrowded airspace. My use of the thermal was not a feat of extraordinary airmanship. It was simply the result of knowing how to gain altitude in a glider.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The good news is that you don\u2019t need to go for a full glider rating. A few hours in a fixed-wing aircraft that has no engine will really help you. It will sharpen your stick-and-rudder skills. Your landings will improve, since a go-around is always impossible. It will deepen your knowledge of the complex and constantly moving ocean of air that directly affects you and your airplane.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You will be a much better pilot.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u00a0 Larry Lansburgh   A few hours of stick time in a glider can give you a deeper knowledge of the environment in which you fly\u2014knowledge that many airplane pilots lack. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My glider experience came in handy one summer day when I took off in a rented Citabria from the Medford, Oregon airport […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,67,173,174],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}