Gliding (Pics !)

T

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This weekend we drove out to Bathurst, 215km west of Sydney, to go flying. Good Fun !

The Piper Pawnee - ex cropduster. Its power-to-weight ratio without a pesticide load makes it ideal for towing gliders.



The Orion. High Performance 2 Seater .... very slick ! Has GPS and Integrated Glider computer. Note Winglets for enhanced slow airspeed manueverablility



****ing Flies were everywhere.



I've just started learning again, after 7 years out of the cockpit I took off and landed twice without a hitch. (You don't get to go around and have another go in these things.)
 
If there was a hitch, would you have died? That would have really sucked if you forgot something simple.
 
crazymike said:
If there was a hitch, would you have died? That would have really sucked if you forgot something simple.
i know i'm not him, but i talked to him last night (he wont' be on till tonight because he's on future time) and he basically said that even if it rains you're screwed.
 
Its a relatively safe undertaking, provided that you are ANAL with safety precautions.

All aircraft receive regular maintenace checks as specified by the manufacturer and Govt regulations.
Every day each aircraft flown gets "D.I.'ed" (Daily Inspection) and checked for any faults, problems, failures etc.

Statistically the drive there is more dangerous than the flying. I have seen cases where people have had to ditch (we usually dont wear parachutes unless cross country flying, as the altitudes we reach are too low to successfully bail out if something went wrong.). If for soem reason you cant make it to the airfield you find a friendly looking field and outland there.

Hehe you can still "fly" in the rain, RB, but just not as well !

That all said, theres nothing quite like sharing a thermal with an eagle at 7000 feet !
 
Very cool.

There's an airfield that has a few people doing gliding out of it on the way home to my place from my mother's house.

Once we saw a glider that had managed to just stop short of the left highway lane coming up an embankment, maybe 3 feet from traffic.

Lucky bastard was unhurt and already had people from the airfield swarming up the hill.