Day Two - Lessons underway...

The start to my second day of gliding lessons was somewhat bittersweet.  As before I got away before dawn and headed up the hills towards Cunderdin, however when the early news bulletin came on the radio I was greatly saddened to learn that one of my heroes, Neil Armstrong, had passed away overnight.  He was one of those figures I just assumed would be around forever, and his loss shook me up considerably.  Shortly after hearing the news however, I was passing through the hills west of Northam just as the sun was breaking the horizon, and I was treated to one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen... a gloriously clear sky with clear sunlight streaming between the hills and illuminating a cluster of hot air balloons, drifting slowly west above a mist shrouded landscape.  I hurriedly tried to find somewhere to safely park and take some photos, but alas this was not to be - by the time I'd stopped and gotten my camera out the balloons were almost down and mostly hidden behind a hill.

Arriving at the club early, there was little activity about and the gliders and towplane were already out for the day.  I helped out with minor jobs around the club until briefing, after which I assisted in rigging and doing the weight and balance on a Nimbus up from Narrogin for inspection.  The rest of the morning was spent helping out with putting up new cornices and mouldings in the newly refurbished clubhouse.

Trusty Piper Pawnee, VH-FSJ, our primary tug

The Pawnee was back from it's inspection and service, so we would be towing from that instead of the old Auster today.  Also different was the glider I would be flying.  There were a number of check flights that needed to be done today, so the PW-6U was set to doing those.  My instructor for today was Rod Carter, and we flew in the IS-28B2 that had recently been acquired from Southern Cross Gliding in Camden.

IS-28B2, Rod Carter in command taking up an Air Experience passenger

Sitting in the IS-28, much bigger control panel than the PW-6U, roomier all round actually

After a brief quiz on the ground to assess what I had learned in my previous lessons, Rod had us out on the lineup and towing up to 2,000' for some work on control coordination - lots of use of the rudder.  As with many others, this was something my previous experience had failed to prepare me for... I had hardly had to touch the rudder pedals in the Cessna while banking.  Nevertheless, after a little instruction, I was able to demonstrate the primary and secondary effects of each of the controls, and how to counter them effectively.  There were some weak thermals around and the odd turn here and there allowed us to stay up a few minutes longer to practise, but soon enough we were down to circuit height.  Rod quizzed me on circuit planning and had me fly the bulk of the circuit and approach.  My speed control was way off, I kept chasing the airspeed indicator and over compensating for changes, and needed a fair bit of control input from Rod to safely make the landing.  I expressed some anxiety with the landing afterwards, and Rod reminded me that I'm only 5 lessons in at this point, and can't be expected to be landing properly for some time yet.

The second flight of the day was quite a bit longer than the first, with nearly half an hour in the air.  I flew most of the 2,000' tow myself with some great encouragement from Rod, and released into a weak thermal of around 2.5kt lift.  Rod got me started on thermalling, helping me into the thermal core and coaching me through the turns.  We stayed with it for about 10 minutes and reached a height of around 4,000' before the thermal became too weak to continue with.  I had been querying Rod on some safety aspects, such as stalling speed with and without the spoilers deployed, and while circling.  Rod advised that the best way to learn this was to try it out, and given that we had a little height, he demonstrated a stall and recovery.  First, however, he performed and had me repeat the pre-aerobatic checklist (HASLL.)  The IS-28 stalls quite gently, with plenty of pre-stall buffet to warn the pilot, so I then had the opportunity to try it myself to learn to recognise the symptoms and correct recovery.  I performed three stalls - two with the spoilers in and one with them out, and had a good enough handle on stall and recovery that Rod signed off my stalls competency after the flight.  By now we were getting low but were still over the airfield, so it as a simple matter of joining downwind and making the approach.  I got this one down a bit better, flying the stick and rudder myself, with Rod on the spoilers and giving instructions.  Felt a bit happier after that landing :)

Flight three was another quick one, up to 2,000' for some more control coordination  then circuit and landing.  I flew the aerotow independently, and the landing as per the previous flight.

IS-28 on tow behind the Pawnee, heading off into a blue sky over lurid golden Canola

While I only had three launches today, I learned quite a lot.  Rod was an interesting instructor to fly with, his friendly nature and laid back attitude make learning from him a pleasure.  He found lots of things to quiz me on during our flights, and at the end of the day he signed me off on a number of skills - including preflight checks (ABCD, CHAOTICCC) and the primary and secondary control effects.  He also signed me off on making sustained turns after the time spent thermalling.

After packing up the gliders for the day, there was still some daylight left so it was back to the renovation work in the clubhouse, before heading back on the drive home.  A great day overall!

Day One - My journey begins...

Well, here I go.  Today I took the plunge and drove out to Cunderdin to join up at the Gliding Club of Western Australia.  I've wanted to do this for years, I took my first glider flights over 17 years ago with a friend from my time at Curtin University whose father had his own glider and have been biding my time ever since.  I have a couple of hours flight lessons in a Cessna 152, but soaring is really what I want to do.

The drive out from Perth was lovely, I got away before dawn and the weather was crisp and cool, and wonderfully clear.  Clearing the hills and into the wheatbelt at dawn I was treated to a spectacular sunrise - along with my anticipation for the day's activity this had me in excellent spirits right off the bat.

I arrived at the airfield about 8:30 and met up with Iain Russel, my instructor for the day, who signed me up as a club member and got me all sorted with paperwork and induction into the club.  Iain was extremely helpful, and went to a lot of trouble to show me what was what and get me involved in the club activities right from the word "go."

The first item of business for the day was to get all of the aircraft to be used that day out of the hangar.  The club has two two-seater training gliders - a newish PW-6U composite glider and an older aluminium IS-28B2; and four flying single seaters - two Jantar Std 2's, an old Ka6 and an old Pilatus.  In addition, there are two tugs for aerotowing - a Pawnee that was down at Jandakot for servicing, and an Auster J5/G which was the towplane on duty for the day.

Agnes, the Auster J5/G towplane

Once we'd gotten the PW-6U out, Iain ran me through the need to do full daily inspections, and walked me through the process so I could see what was involved, and how thorough the inspection must be.  He also gave me an orientation of all of the components of the glider, both inside and out.  He showed me the controls, and the effects of moving the controls on the glider's control surfaces.  I was lucky for my first day, I was the only student for the day, and other than a few annual check flights for members, I had Iain and the PW-6 all to myself.

PW-6U two seat trainer, built by SZD in Poland

Another shot of the "PeeWee"

The front office of the Peewee.

After DI'ing the Peewee and meeting some of the other members who were present, it was time for the morning briefing in the clubhouse.  I got to meet some more of the members and was introduced to the way in which the clubs activities are run on a daily basis, with a briefing on the expected weather for the day, what training and other flights were taking place, and who was flying solo and what their plans were.  After the briefing, it was back out to finish maintenance items and assist with preparing other gliders.

Around about 11am it was time to actually get started, and we towed all the gliders and the hut out to the lineup on Runway 05.  It had become a reasonably warm day for July with a mildly cool breeze coming in from the NE - most pleasant for winter.  Iain opted to take me straight up for my orientation flight straight away, then do the other guys check flights while I digested the first lesson.  Lesson number one consisted of doing the pre-takeoff checks and launching behind the towplane.  The launch was hands off for me so Iain could demonstrate the proper procedure, but once we'd released at 2,000' I had a chance to try out the controls and see for myself the effects of using the stick and rudder.  My earlier flying served me well and I was able to maintain attitude easily.  After a few minutes of playing around with the controls, it was time to land and Iain explained to me how we enter the circuit for landing in a glider.  Flying downwind he explained the pre-landing checklist and then we were turning base and final for the runway.  I had forgotten how steep the approach path is is a glider, and it took me by surprise!!  Nevertheless we were safely down and on the ground and I was keen for the next lesson!

Iain in the front seat taking up Vic for his checkflight

Iain took a couple of the members up for check flights while I waited on the ground and chatted with other members - the open friendliness on display was fantastic and I was really made to feel at home here.  Soon enough though, it was time to go up again.  The following two flights were pretty much like the first, although from here on I was hands on to feel what control inputs were necessary for takeoff and landing.  On my third launch, I was able to fly a fairly decent aerotow myself!  The majority of the airtime was spent practising maintaining control of the glider, maintaining and changing airspeed, and making gentle turns.  I learned a fair bit about stability in gliders and was actually surprised at just how stable they are in the air - I had always sort of assumed that their light weight would make them unstable, and this is just not the case.

The final flight for the day was a lot longer than the first three, Iain located a thermal shortly off tow and showed me what soaring flight is really all about... staying up in the air and not just gently gliding back to earth!  The thermal was pretty weak and drifting a fair bit, but we managed to circle in it up to a height of about 4,500' and enjoy the scenery for a while.

Thermalling at about 4,500' in the "house thermal" near Cunderdin Airfield

I flew the landing mostly hands on and managed a credible effort with Iain's guidance and corrections.  The day was rounded out with packing up and general maintenance before I was treated to a lovely sunset over the field and said farewell to Cunderdin... until next time!!

A WA Wheatbelt sunset over Cunderdin Airfield