One of those things mom said not to do…
Gliding
Yes, although she didn’t specify it, I think that "flying in a glider while watching lightning bolts out the cockpit window" definitely falls into the category of stuff Mom said not to do!
Not as dangerous as it sounds, though, and it was sure a highlight in Perth. In Perth I stayed with Ian & Joyce Caddy (and their son, Tom!). I tagged along with Ian to the Beverly Soaring Club, about 1.5 hrs drive from Perth. All you engineers I know would’ve absolutely loved looking around in the clubhouse – interesting altitude/temp charts everywhere, etc. I spent the morning helping tow planes out to the runway (I did the "no skill" job of walking along with the planes and being ready to pull the yellow lever to release the plane from the car’s tow line if necessary)
Here I wave goodbye to the world before my training flight! My plane is called "The Pooch" because nobody can pronounce that name written on the side!
The basic premise behind gliding is to ride "thermal columns" - some features of the landscape (tin roof, hill, etc) will give off more head than others. Air above an area giving off heat, rises, cooling off, until it hits equilibrium at a certain height. A small plane towed us up to 2000 feet, and then glided around listening for the altimeter to beep wildly, indicating we were rising and had likely hit a thermal column. At that point we circle around, riding the column up and gaining as much altitude as possible.
Here I’ve got the controls (obviously Ian will override when necessary) and am desperately trying to STRAIGHTEN THAT HORIZON!
Note the dark sky over to the right – that’s were the thunderstorm was brewing, and I actually saw lightning bolts from here. The flying club kept a close eye on the weather and we packed it in for the day soon afterwards.
I was sooooo scared about the landing, than as we landed I started to cross my fingers that all would go well – suddenly I thought that Ian, sitting behind me, might get insulted that I didn’t trust his skill, so I uncrossed them!
After landing I got a certificate saying that I’d completed a flight, 28 minutes or so long… felt like 5 minutes to me!!
What a day!
