Volume 16 No 1 Feb 1965.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

TIME TO THINKBy M. C. WOOlDRIDGEOI?AY I had my' first ever ~!iderT- flight where I had time to think. Onp'revious occasions my mind has beentaken up with either circuit-planning orsearching for thermals, and trying toremain in them once they were found.AlI this changed with hill-soaring.After 10 or ;20 minutes of beating up anddown the Dunstabte ridge, looking forthe best lift, I realised tbat my altimeterh~d settled down to a steady 580 ft. anddid not want to budge one way or theother. despite a1l my efforts to get higherand despite my occasional slipping hlrn~and other imperfections.I 'Yas thus f.reed from constantlywatchmg the vano, and could concentrateon other aspects of flying. For thefirst time I reali!'ed how important it isto allow for drift, since this problem isac.centuat~d when one is trying to maintama track a few hund~ed feet abovethe crest of 3: hill with a strong windconstantly trymg to blow the aircraftbeyond this crest.Secondly, some of the air laws~rearil'y learnt for the C test, sprang t~hfe. Smce, the Ii~t is .confi~ed to a fairlYnarrow belt, flyu'Ig m thiS belt can belikened to driving on a road. Laws about'~vertaking. meeting head-on, and tum­109 outwards become essential. Howeverthere is the additioJlal factor, not en~c?untered on roads, of height. Hewhigh does the glider, approaching headon,have to be in order not to worryabout "tllrning right"?Thirdly, I really had time to in.vestigatethe lift distribution over the ground~nowing that if my .survey led me out of11ft I merely had to point back towardsthe easily visible hill crest (as comparedwith the invisible core of a thermal) fora "power injection".My method of finding the best lift wasto fly .on a zig-zag along the ri$lge. Afterrepeatmg several times, to allow forfluctuations in wind strength, I had afair idea of where the strongest lift occurred,by watching the P.Z.L. needle.Apart from spending more time inthinking about flying, there was also54more time to appreciate the view. Oneof the eJl;citements of hill-soaring is thefact that on one side of you there is adrop of, say. 580 ft.-a safe height forplanning one's finat approach, while onthe other side the ground may be lessthan 300 ft. away. Low fiying in powered.aircraft is fun. and when such flymg canbe done safely in the serene quietness. ofa glider it is exhilarating.However, after a wI:lile some of thenovelty of apparent low flying wore off,and I was looking for new interest. Ibegan ~o look forward to the turns at "tneends of the beat and experimented withshallow turns, steep turns, fast turns, andclimbing turns (nose down first).1 also started venturing further al