Sailplane & Gliding 1966 - Lakes Gliding Club

THE CARE AND FEEDING
OF PASSENGERS
By George Locke
Reprinted by courtesy ·Qf "London Gliding Club Gazette"
F
EEDING them L'le old guff~ that is.
Gliding, in the eyes of the public, is
something of trans.celidant beauty. It is
the soundless, graceful sensation of being
wafted round the sky by gentle winds.
Since this is a better image for recruiting
purposes than the real one (of steep,
sick-making tbermalling and savage
wind-gradients) we are quite happy to
keep it in front of the public.
Thus, care must be tak.en. when We
carry passengers, to make gentle turns
and keep our tJying so smootb we get
laminar flow over the wings of the T-21.
The first thing which is explained to a
new passenger,canying pilot is the need
to inspire confidence in the passenger.
This isn't necessarily achie\led by skilful
flying, but by skilful talking. Okay,
let's sce how the passenger can be kept
cool, calm and collected. even when tne
pilot is in a state of fear and trembling.
. Assuming he (or she: Jireferably she.)
IS strapped in, waiting, you saunter
airily to the T-21. You admire the
bea.uteous expanse of leg revealed by
the curious configuration of the control
column and get in with a cheerful smile.
Your teeth are' bared against a 25-knot
south-westerly. Cloudbase is 500 ft. ano
shows no signs of lifting. Bits of the
cloud are very black indeed; it looks
suspiciously like a front. "It's a glorious
day," you proclaim, even though the
birds are walking. You ignore remarks
made by other, jealous (because you've
snapped up the sexy-looking blonde)
club members calculated to increase her
faith in you: "I see you've recovered
from that crash you had last wedc"
"How's your wooden leg?"
You give her a bit of the old chat, to
tell her wh'at's liable to happen to her.
Half-way .through your carefu'lly prepared
spiel, the cable-man sticks the
rings into the Ottfur mechanism and the
batman starts wagging his bat. Bef9re
you have time to explain that the winch
launch might look a bit steep but is
really quite normal, "all out" is given.
The winch-as though it heard youhas
an epileptic fit, and you're yanked
into the' air.. You climb, standing on ):our
tail.
The passenger gives a squeak. You
can't make any comforting remarks at
this stage because the noise of the wind
is too great. Just as well, really, as you
think you inadvertently let a few fourletter
words drop during the early part
of the blast-off. (You must never swear,
as this implies that things have: gone
wrong, even if they have gone wrong.)
By the time you've sorted matters out
and are in a normal climbing attitude,
you find that cloudbase is somewhat adjacent.
More than somewhat.
"Where'.s the ground gone?" she asks.
You don'!' say "That's what I'd like
to know"; you say "Oh, it's quite all
right. We've gone into clOUd. That's
where a glider feels most at home, Did
you know that gliders can go into clouds
but that birds can't? That's because a
glider has a special instrument fitted
called a Turn and Slip indicator which
353