We’ve been listening to the complaints—often justified—of the erosion of stick and rudder skills of modern pilots, of overreliance on automation and of pilot graduates of “puppy mills” who can’t make a crosswind landing.
While there are rarely simple answers to problems in the real world, we happen to think that there may be a good way for a pilot to reduce the risk of looking stupid in an NTSB report after a loss-of-control event in an airplane: Add on a glider rating.
We’re serious. We’ve been instructing long enough to have repeatedly seen that pilots who have flown gliders do much better when learning to fly airplanes than those who haven’t experienced the demands imposed by gliders on stick and rudder skills as well as general situational awareness. We’ve done tailwheel checkouts for pilots with glider experience and watched how much faster they make the transition because they know how to use their feet. We’ve also observed how much better pilots with glider experience handle spot landings and engine-outs in airplanes because they are used to constantly evaluating an approach and making corrections early, when they don’t have to be large.
After all, the Wright brothers would never have been able to fly their wildly-unstable-in-pitch Flyer if they hadn’t learned what to expect after making scores of flights in their own gliders.
Putting all of the serious stuff aside, the underlying truth about flying sailplanes is that it is just plain fun. Sure, you can put all sorts of gadgets in a glider, but when it comes down to it, it’s just you, up in the sky in a quiet aircraft that is pure flying. Who cares that it’s a less expensive way to fly than renting airplanes or that getting a glider add-on rating counts as a flight review—what matters is that you are probably have more fun per flight than you’ve had in a long time.
The REGs
If you hold an airplane pilot certificate, a glider rating is what is known as an add-on. You don’t need to take a written (knowledge) test, just a checkride that consists of an oral exam and a few short flights—because it’s really tricky to do touch and goes. Prior to the private glider pilot checkride FAR 61.109(f) requires logging at least three hours in a glider learning and demonstrating glider-specific operations, including 10 solo flights and three training flights with an instructor in preparation for the practical test (checkride).
That’s all there is to it, plus, you don’t have to have any sort of FAA medical. We’ve seen pilots do a private pilot glider add-on rating in the course of a weekend—while enjoying themselves immensely.
We’ll point out here that if you hold an airplane commercial or ATP certificate, we recommend that you do a commercial glider add-on rather than just a private ticket because it doesn’t take an unreasonable amount of time and, why not? Besides, if you do the private first and commercial later, you have to pay for two checkrides rather than just one by going straight for the commercial.
For the glider commercial you have to have at least 200 hours of flight time in heavier-than-air aircraft and at least 20 flights in a glider as pilot in command, including three hours of flight training on 10 training flights on required areas of operation, five solo flights performing required areas of operation and three training flights in preparation for the practical test.
We’ll note that when training, you’ll probably make a number of very short flights known as pattern tows. You get towed to about 1000 feet AGL, get off tow, enter the pattern and land. It’s essentially the glider version of a touch and go in an airplane.
Getting started
Before you do anything we strongly recommend going to the Soaring Society of America’s (SSA) website (www.ssa.org). This nonprofit organization’s website has massive amounts of information about soaring and glider flying generally. For a start, rolling over the “start flying” section on the header will pull up a page where you can click on “map” and open up a map showing all of the glider operations in the continental U.S.
Rolling over one of the little glider images reveals the name and location of each operation. Clicking on it takes you to information about the operator. Some years ago the SSA told us that they were going to update their website. They did. It’s great and some quality time can be spent on it by anyone interested in gliders. It includes training programs, information on insurance and insurance available to SSA members. We are of the opinion that if you are going to fly gliders that you become an SSA member. If you join a glider club, it will probably require that you become a member because of the insurance provided. We think it’s a worthwhile $80 a year.
Training
There are two approaches to glider training: going to a commercial flight school that offers glider instruction and joining a glider club that offers instruction. Each has its advantages.
Our research, and the SSA website, indicate that glider clubs are more common that commercial glider operators. The commercial operators usually have a computerized scheduling system so it can be realistic to schedule ahead and get a rating in a few days. That’s handy when you have to travel some distance to get to an operation.
It is almost certainly less expensive to obtain a rating via a glider club; however, it is usually more difficult to schedule a flight and you will be expected to help out with ground operations because most of the clubs use volunteers for almost all of the operations—and glider operations can be labor intensive.
During our research we found that the majority of glider clubs are at full strength only on weekends, so flying during the week can be problematic. That’s not 100 percent true, but if you are considering a club, get information as to how often flight operations take place. When they are operating, plan on getting in line for your flights and helping on the ground with launches and recoveries.
Ed Figuli, who took many of the photos for this article, became a member of the Philadelphia Glider Council, a club based at the Perkasie, Pennsylvania, airport. He picked up his glider add-on after he joined the club and this year checked out as a tow pilot. He spoke of the pleasure he got in coming out to the grass runway airstrip on nice days, watching and flying gliders and “spending time with awesome people.”
Figuli also spoke of the safety culture at the club. He said that he was impressed by fact that there were always two spotters who did nothing but monitor the traffic pattern to ensure that it was safe to launch a towplane and glider.
Club president Christopher Lee told us that every person working on ground operations has the authority to shut down launches if there is a concern.
Bill Barry learned to fly gliders at the Air Force Academy. Retired from the Air Force, he continues to fly them and told us that he counts himself lucky to live where he does in New York state as there are four clubs within a two-hour drive of his house. He also stressed the importance of a strong safety culture within a club and said that he’s been fortunate over the years to have been in good clubs. He remarked that he would not stay in a club that had a poor attitude toward operational safety if he couldn’t influence a change.
Barry told us that he selected his current club because it needed instructors and he liked instructing in gliders, plus he liked the overall atmosphere of the club and the fact that it has several gliders so he can fly different types.
Clubs vary widely in membership fees and expectations of members. Some clubs finance everything with a buy-in fee and annual dues—members only pay for tows to altitude and instructors and tow pilots volunteer their time. Other clubs have dues and small charges for glider use, tows and instruction. Some pay their tow pilots.
We also think that it’s important that clubs operate their finances so that they have the cash reserves to update and/or refurbish their equipment on a regular basis. Being stingy often means letting little maintenance issues go until they become expensive. Get a look at the club’s books before you join.
We think that any glider operation that has multiple gliders and towplanes should equip each with ADS-B In and Out for traffic information. When there are a half-dozen gliders and a couple of towplanes maneuvering within five miles of an airport, having real-time traffic information is, in our opinion, an important safety item.
Overall, we think that it is possible to pick up an add-on private glider rating for as little as $3000 through a club.
The Experience
Even though you don’t have an engine, expect the glider to generally fly like an airplane. Most glider operators use towplanes to get gliders to altitude, so we’ll talk about the procedure. There are still some winch tows, but they are rare.
After the preflight you’ll strap in and run a brief pretakeoff checklist. When it’s your turn to launch, the person assigned to hook you to the tow line will go through the procedure of attaching the tow rope and confirming that you can release it by pulling on the release knob in the cockpit. The towplane will then taxi forward to take the slack out of the tow rope.
Once the preliminaries are out of the way, everyone involved has checked the traffic pattern and you’ve signaled your readiness to launch, the towplane goes to full power and things start to happen.
Launch
You’ll break ground in a short distance, but then need to stay just a couple of feet up so that the towplane can lift off. From there on, you’re flying formation with the towplane and will start learning how to do it—plan on overcontrolling a bit at first. You’ll also discover that with long wings there’s quite a bit of adverse aileron yaw, so it’s time to learn how to use those things in front of your feet.
At the desired altitude you pull the release knob, watch the tow rope fall away, make a right turn away from the towplane and decelerate to the desired speed while listening to the quiet.
Almost immediately you’ll learn more detailed situational awareness than you’ve ever had in an airplane along with truly thinking in three dimensions as you find or don’t find lift and continually plan and revise your plan to arrive at the right altitude for the traffic pattern for landing. There’s no engine to fix your mistakes.
Once in the pattern you get to play with one of aviation’s greatest inventions—spoilers. The handle is on your left where a throttle would be and by judiciously extending and retracting them you can make amazingly accurate spot landings. You’re going to love them.
Landing is slightly different than in an airplane because you don’t pull the nose up as far—you touch down in a nearly level attitude.
As you progress you’ll learn about different tow positions (high and low), when and why they are used and how to “box the tow,” moving into different positions in a square around the towplane, avoiding the turbulence directly behind and slightly below it.
Emergencies
Gliders have their own set of potential emergencies, most of them while on tow. Even though a tow rope is inspected frequently, they do break. You’ll learn that once you get to 200 feet AGL that you can suffer a broken tow rope, make a 180 and land back where you started. You’ll practice it.
Compared with an airplane, you spend a small portion of your time in a glider with the wings level and your stick and rudder skills will go up significantly—and they’ll carry over to your airplane flying.
Going forward
Once you get the rating a new world opens up. There are a series of badges sanctioned by the SSA for distance and altitude flights and competitions between individuals and clubs. There are organized gatherings at various locations, including even vintage glider events.
Sophisticated GPS-based flight computers record details of flights for badges and competitions.
Some clubs emphasize competitions or aerobatics (glider aerobatics are a lot of fun) or SSA badges.
Towing
Another way to add to your flying experience is to check out as a towplane pilot. You’ll need a tailwheel and (probably) a high-performance endorsement first. From there you’ll go through training specific to towing gliders. Then depending on circumstances, it’s free flying time or getting paid to fly a powerful, responsive airplane frequently. Plus, you will really learn how to nail spot landings.
Conclusion
We like what a sailplane pilot told us a few years ago: “When the tow rope is yanked away, you’re hanging there in space, with nothing but air to dictate how long you remain aloft. With nothing but thermals, sink and wind, you learn to trust yourself. A glider changed my view of the world and gave me a respect for my flying skills in a way a powered plane has yet to.”