Sailplane & Gliding 1966 - Lakes Gliding Club

top of the hiII we use to soar on when
the wind's right."
"Isn't it a long way off?"
"It isn't really. The glider is designed
to cover great distances with the loss of
very little height."
"As great as this?"
"Vh-huh. Actually, you're a very
lucky girl. Very few passengers get the
chance to experience one of the most
rewarding aspects of gliding-the ..."
You stop. Don't call it that. "Final
Glide" sounds too much as though it is
just that-final.
"... the Straight Glide. It is the most
refined part of gliding, used by the top
pilots in competitions." YOu explain it
all to her. while you watch the top of
the hill getting higher and higher on the
Dunstable. She has a think while you
search round for a suitable field. Most
of them have corn in, but there is one
possibility. Her face lights up. ''I'd love
to do a field landing. Can we do one?
Or do they want you to land on the
flying field?"
This is splendid! You're not sure
whether it was due to your chat or not,
but she's accepted the idea of an out
landing. "Well-they'll have to retrjeve
horizon. 2,000 ft. You're not winning.
Not by a long shot. You'll be lucky if
you get past the A5. And you haven't
run into' any lift yet. Not that that
would help you much. You've never had
much success going upwind in the Skylark
5, so what you'd do in a T-21 you
shudder to think.
"What happens," she says, "if you run
into a lot of air which is going down
during the Straight Glide?" You'd only
mentioned the possibility of meeting air
which was going up. of course. This is
it! The crunch! The ultimate in awkward
questions.
"You QO not achieve your objective,"
making it sound as nice as possible.
"You mean you crash. Are we going
to crash?"
"Oh, no. If we failed to achieve our
Straight Glide, we'd land in a suitable
field. They're very easy, field landings,
and gliders are designed to land in small
spaces."
"Suppose there isn't a field?"
"Ah, but there is.; I know this area
very well And almost any field I picked
would be bigger than the one we'r.- used
tQ flying from at Dunsta·ble."
"And flatter?"
She'd noticed the undulating nature of
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us by Land-Rover, and it'll cost a pound
or so, but-well-lees do it, shall we'?"
"Oh goody. goody."
And you start a circuit. She's chatter~
ing happily about everything now, and
is obviously enjoying every minute of it.
You have succeeded in inspiring confidence-and
some! Presently, as you're
about 600 ft. above your field, she
says, "Which field are we going to land
io?"
''That one there. The green one, with
the cows in the far corner."
She grabs the side of the cockpit and
screams her head off. A hundred decibels
at least. A bit later, she runs out of
wind.
"What's the matter'?" you ask, warried
as hell.
"P-please can we f-find another
f.-field," she blubbers.
"Why?" There aren't any other fields
available. Not now.
"1 dOIl't-oon't like cows."
Oh Lord. You'd thought you made
the perf.ect job of cementing relations
between the passenger and the unnatural
element into which she had been thrown.
But you hadn't. You'd failed miserably
-and the chances are she'H never go up
in a glider again. At least, not until
agricultural economy has made the
change-over to polythene cattle.