Ideally, every flight you undertake should have
a specific purpose. This could be anything from a simple handling
exercise like doing steep turns, to a more general exercise like
learning to use the barograph and analyse the trace obtained from
it.
Using this structured approach to post-solo flying,
rather than bumbling about the sky aimlessly, should help you
to develop your skills more rapidly and identify any weak areas
you may have. It may be useful to compare notes with someone who
is at the same stage as you are, or even plan to go through the
exercises together.
The purpose of the flight should be decided well
before you get into the glider, and should be discussed with an
instructor.
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Use of Barograph Learn how to use a barograph
as soon as possible. Take a barograph on every flight. Learn
to compare your impressions of, say, how rapidly you were
climbing, with the merciless evidence of the barograph. There
is much to be learned from its trace.
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Lookout Keep a count all the aircraft you
see while you are in the air. Try and spot as many as possible.
You may even want to keep a note of the total and see if you
can beat it on a later flight. Sounds childish, but it is
a way of forcing you to do what too many people forget about
- looking out.
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Straight-and-Level Flight Something that the
average pilot often does quite badly. Pick a landmark and
fly straight at it, keeping the speed constant. Will help
train you to detect small changes in angle of bank.
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Sow Flying Find out how good your speed-control
is by flying as slowly as possible without hitting the pre-stall
buffet. Note that the controls will not be as responsive at
low speeds. And don't do it near the ground
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Stalling If you are nervous about this, as
many people are, then start off gradually. Do a HASSLL check.
Very slowly bring the glider back to the buffet, then relax
the stick pressure. Keep on doing this over a number of flights
until you build up the confidence to do fairly steep stalls.
Note the precise speed at which the glider stalls with your
weight in it.
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Stalling Speeds in the Turn Most pilots get
nowhere near stalling speed when they are thermalling, but
a few find themselves in a spin for reasons they don't immediately
understand. You can extend the previous exercise by investigating
the well-known fact that the glider will stall at a higher
speed when it has a higher g-loading. It is obviously useful
to know the speed at which the glider will stall when it is
at a certain angle of bank. Establish this by doing a HASSLL
check, then simply rolling to the desired angle of bank, and
progressively moving the stick back until you reach the buffet.
Recover by relaxing the back pressure on the stick.
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Wing-drop Stalls Many pilots are anxious about
spinning on their own, and sometimes never spin between one
annual check and the next. A way to ease yourself into a more
confident mood is by the same sort of gradual approach used
for straight stalls. Ask to be shown how to induce a wing-drop
stall and recover from it before it develops into a spin.
Bear in mind that most low-level unintentional spins start
out in the same progressive insidious way. Go and practise
it by yourself.
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Spinning Most people do not practise solo
spinning for one simple reason. They are not confident of
their ability to sort things out if something unexpected happens.
Of course, the accidental spin is always "unexpected"
The only real answer to this lack of confidence is
to build it up by going through the various stalling exercises,
particularly wing-drop stalls, until you are happy with solo
spinning. It teaches you a lot about yourself and improves
your handling skills no end.
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Timed Turns Bring some consistency to your
flying by doing some turns at a constant angle of bank, and
timing them to see how long it takes to do a full 360°.
Experiment with different angles and see how much longer or
shorter the time is for a whole circle.
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Steep Turns You can test your speed control
and co-ordination by doing much steeper turns than normal.
Aim to pull about 2 g.
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Figures of Eight (Turn Reversals) It is surprisingly
difficult to roll the glider from a well-banked turn in one
direction to a well-banked turn in the other while keeping
the string in the middle. Try it. But make sure you take a
good look before you reverse the turn. There is a large blind-spot
behind the upper wing.
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Rolling on a Heading. Pick a landmark, or
perhaps a cloud, and point straight towards it. Now practise
rolling from side to side while keeping the nose pointing
directly at the landmark. Needless to say, you will have to
keep the string in the middle, and try and keep the speed
constant. It is not as easy as you think.
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Rate of Roll Do a HASSLL check. Stall the
glider to find out the precise stalling speed. Trim to fly
at 1.4 times this speed. Make a turn at 45° angle of bank.
Apply full aileron and rudder in the opposite direction. Count
how long it takes to reach a 45° angle of bank on the
other side. Now you know your rate of roll.
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Sideslipping This is a technique that is not
much used nowadays, but it is worth at least experimenting
with it. Ask for a demonstration and then try it on your own.
The Junior does it quite nicely.
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Spot Landings It is essential to do these
before you go cross-country. But get a good briefing before
you try them, and find out what the real object of the exercise
is. In other words, depositing a pile of shattered fibreglass
as close to the airfield boundary as you can is not really
what we are looking for.
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Soaring Most people try and do this all the
time, of course - but not many of them try and do timed climbs
to see just how long it is taking them to reach a certain
height, nor do they compare this evidence with what the averager
on the vario is telling them. It is worth doing. Simply look
at your watch and see how long it takes you to climb 1,000
ft. It is particularly instructive to find out how long you
spend trying to wring the last 200 ft out of the top of a
thermal.
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Circuit without Altimeter You have done it
in the two-seater, why not in a single-seater?
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Re-setting Altimeter to QNH/QFE Simple enough.
Find out how to do it, then try it in the air.
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Use of Radio PROPER use of the radio is all
too rare among glider pilots. Learn how to use it correctly.
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Indicators of Wind Direction When you fly
cross-country you may lose any sense of which way the wind
is blowing. Try looking around to see if there is any smoke,
rippling of the crops, or some other sign that will give you
a clue.
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Field Appraisal Pick nearby a field and note
all the characteristics that might be important if you were
considering landing in it. These will include: its size, slope,
surface, whether or not it has any stock (animals) in it,
any obstacles on the approaches to it (wires, trees, etc).
Go and look at the field from the ground when you land. It
is surprising how different it will seem
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