Went gliding yesterday. For my birthday [last October], B bought me a trial flight at Cambridge Gliding Club. I finally got round to booking the day, and yesterday was it. I deliberatly booked for 9:30am so that I wouldn’t have to spend the whole day feeling terrified (unfortunately we had to get up early to get there, but that was ok). With more than a little trepidation that I drove over to the airfield. Luckily the weather forecast (wet) was wrong and the sun was shining with only 1 or two clouds in the sky. When we arrived people were moving the gliders out of the hangers and onto the grass so we parked up and found someone at reception so that I could fill in the appropriate forms and stuff. In the clubhouse we found several other people waiting for their flights too. After a little while Pete (who was to be our instructor for the day) introduced himself and gave a quick guide to safety on the airfield. Pete then took us out to the glider we would be using (a Puchacz two seater) to show us the controls and instruments.
I was to first go because I was having an aerotow to 2000ft while the others were having winch launches, so rather nervously I strapped on the parachute (Petes advice - “If it goes wrong, release the canopy, hop over the side and pull the cord”) before climbing into the front seat and strapping in. [Luckily the fear and nausea had gone at this point and I was looking forward to the flight]. The tow cable was hooked up, Pete strapped in, and the tug moved into position. At this point B had to do some energetic armwaving to the tug pilot as there was a shortage of groundstaff, the slack was taken up and we were off. I few gentle bumps across the airfield and we were in the air, 5 feet off the ground until the tow plane took off too and we started to gain altitude. I was amazed to be feeling so safe as we climbed, and had time to enjoy the view (50km - plus visibility) and Pete talked me through the controls.

At 2000ft we detached the tow and with a bank to the right we were on our own. Now in free flight, Pete gave an “If I do this on the stick, this happens” demonstration and we did a couple of turns. With the ground warming a few clouds were bobbling up and Pete managed to find us a bit of a thermal climb in, which took us from about 1900ft to 2100ft, extending our flight by 5 minutes or so. Unfortunately, the contiunous turning was making me feel unwell [ever spent a while looking out the side of a moving vehicle?] so we leveled out for some straight flight. Pete then offered me control and then I was in control of an aeroplane!! I started by dipping the nose to raise the airspeed before trying a 90 degree right turn. Check the right wing is clear, ease the stick right, apply a little back pressure to the stick to keep the nose up and unroll to level flight after the turn. Another right turn and I was flying parallel to the take off runway. My final manouver was a 180 turn so that Pete could set up the approach for landing. As we started the turn to come into land my body decided that was enough and it was time to grab the barf-bag….grrr.. that done with I enjoyed the straight run towards landing with the grass rushing towards us, and it was a soft landing right next to the take off point. I climbed out and was pleased to see that I had been in the air for about 25 minutes, 20 of that being in free flight.

It was then someone elses turn and it was fun to watch them going up at 45 degrees on the winch launch… the thermals were a bit better by now and they were able to stay up along time, though I don’t think I could have kept my stomach under control during all those turns.. We watched another newbie take off on the winch (aswell as some single seaters) before making our way off the airfield and away. A great fun morning, (even with the fear and airsickness).

Now I want to go again, but am uncertain if I will ’cause it is scary to think about, and I was ill, but that is often the case with new flyers and usually goes away. Maybe I shall find out….

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