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In
my previous talk I remarked that after my last op and Air
Force flight I said to myself, ‘That’s it. I’m never
going to fly again’.
One
Sunday in 1956 - I must have been a nuisance around the place
- my wife said, ‘They’re forming a gliding club at
Mooloolaba. Why don’t you go?’ She didn’t know what she
was starting. Actually it started 20 years of intensely
interesting family participation. Our daughter went solo,
Daphne launched gliders, she acted as crew chief at National
contents. More on that later.
At
the meeting where I expected to meet people experienced with
gliders an ex RAAF navigator was the only one who had even
seen a glider- let alone fly in one. As for actual flying
experience there was only ‘yours truly’. We ran raffles in
Currie Street, dances at Kureelpa, and sharefarmed beans at
Woombye. Two years after the meeting we started flying with
four ex RAAF pilots two of whom had been instructors. The
Department of Civil Aviation had just previously delegated
authority over gliding training to a very embryonic Gliding
Federation of Australia. But at that stage they could offer
very little help - Get a copy of 1732A the Air Force manual of
elementary instruction. At least we knew about that
publication.
Two
years later I would have expected even a pre-solo pupil to
have some skill at soaring. At the beginning I had never seen
a glider soared nor spoken to someone who could soar. Under
these conditions I found teaching myself to soar more
difficult than I had found IF on primaries.
So
early the club turned to aerobatics and night flying as
alternatives.. We flew winch launch night circuits (both
moonlight and dark night) using the electric flare path at
Oakey and kerosene flares at Kingaroy and Evans Head. Daphne
usually acted as duty winch driver and this earned her the
hanger flight - a low glide the length of the 5000 foot strip.
She did not take to flying but her remark after the night
glide caused some amusement. ‘I like flying low and slow at
night’.
In
the first ten years I
gave about 3500 instructional flights, mainly circuits, and
flew competition and made flying safari holidays each
Christmas May and August stretching from Mt Isa in a wide
inland arc to Gawler just north of Adelaide. Daphne could
launch me with the family car auto-tow if necessary.
Two
pilots generally work together for such gliding holidays. I
paired with a grazier’s daughter in her thirties who became
one of the family. Thus for competitions I was lucky enough
almost always to turn up with an all female crew. My wife, my
daughter until she married and Marj. Women crew
better than men. They
don’t get on the grog at night, don’t chase females, and
they are far more dedicated.
No one can be as dedicated as a wife who is interested
in the sport. And women can clean and polish aircraft better
than men. Insects that come up in the thermals, the rising
currents of air we use, get stuck on the wings and have to be
removed each day.
What
sort of flying? I’ll come to competition itself shortly.
There is no gliding licence. Pilots qualify for a series of
International FAI awards. The lowest is a C which requires
five minutes of actual soaring. It moves up to triple Diamond
award (1) A flight of 300 kilometres - 189 miles, to a
designated goal. I flew from Longreach to Wild Duck Creek
south of McKinley, (2) A flight of 500 kilometres (311 miles).
Mine was from Benalla to Narromine. (3) A gain of height of
5000metres (16404 feet) which
I did in cloud on the Darling Downs. How did we in Australia
with our superb flying conditions stack up internationally? My
full diamond was No 1 on the Australian register but 412 on
the International register.
The
1960s flying had been in gliders of wood and fabric though the
Americans were using metal. About 1970 there was a
technological breakthrough when the Germans introduced
fibreglass and glide angles
jumped into the thirties - an air performance increase
of about 70%.
PERFORMANCE
and my figures are probably not the latest.
They are
...
How
Far:
Designated triangles of over 1000 klms. An ex Luftwaffa pilot
flew quite a few such triangles (and larger) out of Alice
Springs. Triangles of
over 850 miles have been flown.
How
Fast:
Closed circuits at over 120 mph. On a good competition day we
could have speeds 60 -80 mph.
In 1999 a 500 klms out and return was flown in
two hours using the Sierra wave in USA.
How
Height: Climb terminated in mountain wave at 49000 feet.
My best two climbs - one wave one cloud to about 24000 feet.
One of these in USA.
Rate
of Climb: From struggling in no sink and bad drift for
over 15 minutes with no gain, to 300 to 600 fpm as good
averages with my best ever of 2000 fpm in USA.
How
Low: Club rules could require a junior pilot to have a
paddock picked by 2000 and must land from 1000 to no limits in
contests. I have got away twice from 500 feet once after
drifting about 10 miles and once from 400 feet in USA.
The
aeroplane rate of climb meter has its capacity capsule in the
instrument. The matching glider instrument which is called a
variometer has as a capacity a two little thermos flask. It is
compensated either mechanically or electrically to remove all
aircraft or stick influences - it shows what the air is
actually doing. It will record a climb if you walk quickly up
a flight of stairs, reacting to the change in atmospheric
pressure. We usually fly with two. Parachutes are compulsory
in contests.
A
turn and bank is not accurate enough. A piece of wool is fixed
at its lower end to the outside of the canopy and its reaction
to slip or skid is instantaneous - and no head in the
cockpit. Five hour races with pilots selecting their own
starting time - not flying together as in a car race- and
contests won or lost by 10 seconds. Of course round the course
many gliders do come together but at other times the sky seems
empty.
The
distance an aircraft can glide ... I repeat GLIDE ... is
independent of aircraft weight provided the correct speed is
flown. The heavier the aircraft the higher the optimum glide
speed. If conditions are good pilots carry water ballast in
the wings ... maybe 40 gallons. This can be dumped if
conditions weaken in whole or in part, and must be dropped
before landing. It is considered bad form to drop water on a
glider flying below. Of course weight affects the rate of
climb and this results in interesting decision making
... balancing lower rate of climb against faster optimum
inter thermal speeds.
Let’s look at an actual competition:
12
days with two days of practice. 10 days for contest with
hopefully 8 contest days flown. Perhaps fifty hours of intense
contest flying of from 5 to 8 hours a day. By the seventies
almost all closed circuit flying averaging maybe
300 kilo tasks. A pilot thus appreciates a good crew
chief. The crew under the chief would relieve the pilot of as
much ground work as possible.
8.30
The task setting committee meets hears the met briefing etc.
and decides the task for the day. Task setters can make or
break a contest. In Australian contests The Dept. of Civil
Aviation supplied
weather and other help free of charge. A well set task means
about 80% would get back. It’s rare for everyone to get
back. I have flown
on a day when no one got back. I was chairman of the task
setting committee for the World Contest at Waikerie SA in
1974. Fingers crossed - we didn’t pull a blue and this was
after the previous contest in Yugoslavia when task setting was
a catastrophe.
9.00
Briefing in the hanger. Sometimes a WWII hanger. 70-80 pilots
at tables and maybe 250 crew standing behind and to the sides.
The contest director removes the covers and says NOT “The
target for tonight is.- but “Gentlemen, the task for today
is...’Then task briefing, met, launch order etc. are
covered.
At
the end of the briefing the crew leave to attend to their
pilot’s aircraft. Inexperienced pilots rush off too while
the experienced stay and do their detailed flight planning -
courses, tracks, estimated speeds, times for legs etc.
On
the strip - 80 gliders in four rows- half a dozen tugs. Launch
order by lot on the first day then rotation to a decided
pattern. Eskys with drinks and large umbrellas to shade
cockpits.
15
minutes to launch. Grid
cleared of non essential crew.
One launch every 30 seconds which means a launch or a
tug landing every 15 seconds. I can’t remember a foul up at
launching.
Aerotow
following a set pattern to 2000 feet but a pilot can drop off
earlier if he wishes. Many do as they fly through a thermal
they like. On tow at about 400 I would test my radio. There
was an official frequency for starting and finishing
and other frequencies for pilot-crew use. I would use
my official number on one and a personal call sign to Daphne.
Procedures were short. I
used kilo from VH-GUK. Me - Kilo testing. Daphne Kilo strength
five, Me Kilo. End of test. Pilots and crew chiefs could
recognize voices and in fact it paid to get to know the voices
of the top pilots. Many pilots chattered on the radio and
thereby gave away intelligence. Top pilots almost never
initiated a call. Anything that was public knowledge could be
broadcast and Daphne had to make judgements on this.
She would confirm my official start time when it went
up on the board about 10 seconds after I had made the start..
If a pilot out landed he would phone in details - necessary
for his crew to retrieve him Outlanding information thus went
up on the board also as did the finish times. If it was
someone whose performance I had to
put into my decision making Daphne may say “Debonie
is down” or, especially if I made a latish start, often
deliberately ) - “You have 20 minutes to beat Terry”. She
had a busy day. Crews
with low performance base radio could ask her to broadcast a
message for them. She would - sportsmanship was friendly.
Well,
back to me before the start. After takeoff I could have
decided not to start for maybe one
and a half hours. There could be 80 gliders within 10 miles of
the aerodrome - all required in this area to do left hand
turns only. Still, this was the only relaxed part of the
flying day. On
track first pilot into a thermal set the direction of turn for
that thermal Any number of starts were permitted so we made
false starts to draw in any “followers”. It also gave an
opportunity to test the air on track. Starting was by radio
permission after a request and involved
crossing a line at below 1000 metres.
You would aim to cross the line at maximum speed then
pull up using the excess speed, hopefully into a strong
thermal with other thermals marked for you by those who had
just started.
In
still air there is an optimum speed to fly. In sinking air the
speed is higher, in rising air it is lower than for straight
flight. In a climb-glide cycle the fasted you climb the higher
the straight inter thermal speed. This speeds varies slightly
with air movement between thermals. Thus the contest pilot
does not fly at a set speed. If a very fast climb indicates a
very fast inter thermal speed for highest speed over the
ground and the rate of loss of height on the glide means the
pilot does not reach the next thermal he often works his cycle
on the lift he expects to find in the NEXT thermal. All of
this of course gives interesting decision making.
It
is not quite as mentally complicated as it may seem. Speed
information can be mathematically put on a speed-to-fly ring
rotatable round the climb meter which helps with the mathematics
but certainly does not remove the decision making. One gets
the feel of it, or more correctly, a pilot develops his own
technique for his speed flying. What really matters is the
overall average speed or speed round the task. But normally we
are talking of hours in the hundreds developing the personal
pattern. I flew in a
World contest with about 1400 hours of gliding.
If
you’re lucky there are cloud streets and you can porpoise
along through almost joining cores without turning for maybe
50 miles It is seldom that good and the pilot is working
separated clouds or at times working so called “blue
thermals” i.e. no clouds at all. But there is ground
patterns, avoid irrigation areas, birds, trash, other gliders
and if you are lucky, dust
devils.
Thus
the fastest time between two points is seldom a straight line.
Sometimes deviations of up to 30 miles may be
warranted. All of which makes navigation interesting.
Turning
points were photographed as way of proof. At least after
wartime PRU I had no problem there. In the 1974 World
contest we had 50 turning points to task from and each pilot
had a card giving details of the turning point.
The
most exhilarating part by far was the final glide. This could
be initiated from maybe 40 miles out before the aerodrome was
visible. Final glide theory is different. Oversimplified the
optimum speed is related to the rate of climb when you leave
the thermal rather than the earlier average rate of climb. The
speed does not depend on the wind but the height needed
certainly does. So you try to get a strong thermal for final
glide. Should you go through a stronger one
than the one you selected you could take the necessary
extra height and so
increase your speed from
there in. Of course you must check and recheck the situation
as you proceed. A miscalculation or air different from
expected could mean the need
to take more height or hopefully, increase speed
further. Map reading thus becomes detailed working usually
from a 4 mile to 1 inch sheets. Then you can spot the aerodrome
and you look low and hopeless relying only on your
calculations As you get closer it looks worse until about 4
miles out a miracle happens. The drome seems to move the other
way and it becomes obvious you’re OK. In theory the fastest
speed would get you over the finish line at the end of the
field at zero feet. Pilots invariably add in a safety margin.
I used 300 feet. When it is obvious you’re right this
surplus height can be converted to more speed. One mile out
you call up ‘58 one mile’ there could be up to a dozen
aircraft also on final glide. Lookout is critical and with
gliders landing all over the strip you pick your spot and wait
for your crew to arrive with the car. Then you’d probably
stay in the seat with the canopy up as they towed you in
drinking the beer they handed you.
Summary
of my gliding experience:
2,250
hours of which 500 was as an instructor.
340
cross country flights totaling 40,000 miles of which 32,000
were in the Libelle.
2,000
miles per outlanding.
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