Hurrah! I’ve gone solo in a glider – again. I first went glider solo at the age of 16 in the air cadets in England and finished gliding in England about 35 years ago, so it has been a while.
The instructors at Southern Cross Gliding Club have been very helpful and very trusting. I went solo after just 12 flights, which is rapid progress even given my 1100 hours of power flying experience. I must admit to a little nervousness – after all, in a glider if you get too far away from the airfield or too low, you have to land in a field somewhere!
But I had a lovely flight in the ASK-21, an aerotow up to 3000 feet then a flight of almost an hour on a hot, sunny day with some puffy cumulus clouds.
Contrast this wood and fabric T31 trainer in which I flew my first solo in 1965 with the ASK-21 I flew this week.
There was lots of lift about in thermals and I am getting better at finding the lift and circling in it. I stayed up near cloudbase at 4000 feet for a while, then had to fly back into the wind to get closer to the airport at Camden. I went gradually down to about 1600 feet before I found another good thermal and went back up to cloudbase.
- Shiny fibreglass ASK-21.
Eventually I thought I had better return because other pilots wanted the aircraft, so I pulled out the airbrakes and dived away all that height to get back into the circuit and land.
It was exhilarating, I loved it.
