Wear Sunscreen: Flight 1

July 24 2005

Nearly all Soaring Schools (Gliding Clubs) offer introductory flight packages. The most common options are a single flight (up you go, you get to hold the stick and fly around until the air runs out), or a 5-pack (which counts as your first five flying lessons). The introductory flight is usually offered in one of the snazzy modern-looking gliders, and the 5-pack is offered in the rugged trainer that everyone starts learning in.

And this was the decision I was offered when I showed up at the club. In effect, am I going up as a one-hit wonder, and see if I like it? Or am I going to start taking lessons and working towards getting my license? I'm an analytic, and I've had no time to analyze.... two hours ago I was having lunch on the patio and thinking I'd be at home cutting the grass this afternoon.

I went with the heart, and I signed up for the 5-pack. Money paid, and (of course) the legal releases were signed.

Nancy (my wife) had done her homework, and out of the back of the car came a bottle of SPF-45, a hat, and a few bottles of water. And a book for her to read in the shade.

When you're in a glider, you're sitting under a plexiglas canopy with a terrific view in every direction (the better to see other aircraft), and there is zero shade. Zilch. Nada. I'm a redhead, and under a July sun it takes me about 10 minutes to start burning.

And so sunscreen is mandatory. Wearing a hat (no baseball caps, please, they cut off your view of part of the sky) is strongly urged. And the field is hot, and failing to stay hydrated significantly affects your reflexes and alertness (I'll speak about this more after I complete the ground-school session on the medical factors of flight).

John, the instructor for the day, coached me as I did the pre-flight (CISTRSCO -- more about that later). I had no idea what I was doing, or why, but under John's very detailed supervision a proper pre-flight was done. The tow plane applied power, we headed down runway 08, and within a very short distance we were flying at an altitude of a few feet as we waited for the towplane to get enough speed to get off the ground.

I released at about 2300 feet (2,000 AGL), and we dipsy-doodled around the sky upwind of the runway, found a few mild thermals, and I was introduced to some gliding basics.

The first flying lesson was limited to the very basic elements of gliding: flying straight, adjusting pitch to maintain a constant speed, gentle turns, learning to scan the sky in a thorough and methodical manner, and constantly exercising Pilot Decision Making. We did a gentle stall (the 2-33 did the recovery for us by dropping the nose as the stall approached), and an abrupt stall (pull back the stick sharply, lose speed, drop like a stone, and the pilot does the recovery).

When driving a car you manage two factors: how fast are you going (presumably forward) and direction (left/right). When flying you manage six factors, consisting of three rotary motions (pitch, roll and yaw), and three translations (logitudinal speed, lateral speed, and vertical speed). Which is a long-winded way of saying that I completely forgot to use the rudder, so I flew the stick and John managed the yaw by working the rudder pedal. If there were any coordinated turns while I had control, it was the result of John's dexterity, not mine.

Then, as we approached minimum altitude we entered the circuit. The radio is in the front seat so I did the radio call: John calling out a phrase, I echoed into the microphone, repeat.

A sideslip or two to lose some altitude, half-spoilers, onrushing ground (I don't think I lifted up my feet as we got closer), touchdown and rollout.

Lesson #1 complete. More on the details in the next postings.