Gear

Here's a list of the stuff I take along for a day of local soaring in club ships at my home airport. If you're just starting out you might not think of some of these items. There's a lot MORE stuff I would need for cross-country soaring!

Flashlight A little Maglight for looking inside the wings and fuselage during preflight inspections.

Multitool The first time I went on a club trip, when we started to assemble the ships, everyone had a Leatherman on his belt, so I figured I better get with the program. I always used to take it off before flying (just more junk on my belt), but then I read accounts of in-flight emergencies wherein the pilots had to use pliers to crimp a wire, or a knife to cut something that was jammed, so now I leave it on.

Stopwatch I got a cheap digital stopwatch for timing my flight. Then I learned that cheap digital stopwatches black out when they get hot, so I wear it on the inside of my wrist to keep it shaded.

Sunscreen There's no shade at our field!

Ziploc bags Airsick bags. I've never needed them but passengers have. Get the kind with the slide closer, so if you do need one while flying it's easier to close with one hand on the stick.

E6B electronic flight computer Used more during training and the written test than in real life.

Hat Sorry, I just can't do the "bucket hat" that seems to be so popular with soaring pilots. I like the AOPA's baseball cap because it has NO BUTTON on top. These are really hard to find elsewhere. In a tiny cockpit, a button is a real hazard to your skull and the canopy!

Radio Our trainer doesn't have a built-in radio, so I got an ICOM IC-A5 handheld. Also handy on the ground for accessing AWOS, learning communications techniques and keeping in contact with local pilots.

Radio gear:

• Headset I cannot hear the handheld with the wind noise, so a headset is a must. I got a cool little earpiece-type that clips onto my sunglasses.
  
• Push-to-talk switch This has velcro so you can stick it to the stick.
  
• Patch cable This ties the radio, PTT switch, headset, and mic together. Also makes for quite a tangle in the cockpit.
  
• Velcro strap So what do you do with the radio in the cockpit? Stick it in the dumb little pocket where you can't reach it? Get a wide velcro strap and clip the radio to your right thigh. It's visible and within reach but out of the way.
  
• Battery pack The ICOM NiCd only lasts so long... I got the extra pack for alkaline AAA's.
  

Log book

Notebook To keep all my training materials, glider manuals, sectional, plotter etc. in one place. I got the view kind and I stick the Soaring Forecast in the front and the wind forecast map in the back and leave it out so others can use the info.

Personal soaring notes I have a "cheat sheet" on which I list things I need to work on or remember. Once those things have become instinctive, I drop them off the list. Actually, this is a note in my PDA so I can jot things down as I think of them wherever I am.

Pen For the preflight checklist, aircraft flight log, and my log book.

Plotter Cheap plastic one.

Sectional chart Current!

Lunch If I have time to pack one.

Snack In case I don't.

Spare contact lenses

Eye drops

Soaring Flight Manual Gotta have it.

Soaring forecast Our local NWS office produces a daily soaring forecast for the whole Southern California region.

Water bottles A little twist-top one that fits in the cockpit pocket. A quart one that I freeze so it lasts nearly all day.

Camelback water pack I got one of these 'cuz it looked like a good idea. It doesn't work out in the Blanik because of the cushion shape, but I think it'll work out in the PW5. Try out every model you can find because they vary widely in capacity, comfort, and the location of the tube can interfere with radio etc.

Wind forecast I print the winds aloft map from ADDS (See the Java Tools tab at http://adds.aviationweather.gov ).

Coat or sweatshirt

Rags

Sunglasses This is a whole subject in itself. I use American Optical's FG-58.

Handkerchief For cleaning my sunglasses.

Digital camera Since I write the club newsletter, I need to take pics of members, activities, etc. It would also be important to have a camera in case of an incident or accident.

Cell phone

PDA Several soaring-related things in my Palm. I'm going to change from a Palm to a Pocket PC with dedicated soaring software and a GPS.

• HandyShop is a program intended for shopping lists, but makes a great checklist tool.
  
• Weight and balance calculator You can use your e6B for this, but a dedicated program lets you store the moment arms for your particular aircraft. You can buy/download these. I wrote my own in a database called HandyBase.
  
• Soaring notes mentioned above.
  
• Phone numbers of club members in case of a land-out!
  

Books

Books I have read over the last two years:

Soaring

The Art and Technique of Soaring by Wolters
Very good

Glider Flying Handbook by the FAA
Very good - goes into much more depth than the FAA standard Soaring Flight Manual

Going Solo by Piggott
OK - not really about going solo, just about soaring in general.

The Joy of Soaring by Conway
Very good as a training book. Now rather dated.

Learning to Fly Gliders by Bob Wander
Not so good. It's a syllabus with not much real info.

Soaring Accidents that Almost Happened by du Pont
Very good, lots to learn from. Don't show this one to your spouse.

Soaring Flight Manual by the SSA
Good, the standard manual used by instructors and referenced by the FAA tests.

Transition to Single Seat Made Easy by Bob Wander
Very good workbook

With Wings as Eagles by Halacy
Wonderful!! One of my favorites. The first chapters are a great non-technical, inspirational intro for non-pilots.

Aviation in general

Aerodynamics of the Airplane by Millikan
Very technical, tough to get through

The Art of Instrument Flying by Williams
Good, assumes you are working with an instructor. I haven't finished this one yet.

Private Pilot Test Prep by ASA
Very good practice material

Congested Airspace: A Pilot's Guide by Garrison
Good

More with Less by Ciotti
Bio of Paul MacCready, very good

Pilot's Guide to Weather Reports, Forecasts & Flight Planning by Lankford
OK

The Proficient Pilot by Barry Schiff
Good

Simplifying the FAR/AIM by Guilkey
Bad. doesn't simplify or explain anything, just quotes the FAR/AIM

Stick and Rudder by Langewiesche
Wonderful!! This one tells you how an airplane really works.

Understanding Flying by Taylor
Good

Weather Patterns and Phenomena: A Pilot's Guide by Turner
Good

Welcome!

This blog will focus on the sport and art and science of soaring - that is, sailplanes and gliders. I hope this will be helpful to other student pilots... and maybe fun for others as well. (When I started out, I found a wonderful web site about a student's experiences in Aboyne, Scotland. It's offline now... if anyone knows where it's available, please post! This won't be nearly so organized... )

I got my Private Pilot Certificate - Glider a couple of months ago. It would have been good to blog from the beginning, but I was too busy at the time. I did keep a journal, tho, and have posted all of it here. So the past is in reverse order from here down.

Because my experiences may reflect on other pilots, instructors, examiners etc., I won't use their names and for now I won't post much that will identify me and my club...

Finally into the glass ship!

4-9-05 First flight in the PW-5 single-seat glass ship (first in ANY glass ship). I had been signed off many months ago, but weather, scheduling and focusing on the PPG prevented me from ever taking it up.

I had worked through Wander’s book on transition to single seat, and J went over many aspects of it with me, so I really wasn’t nervous or worried. Well… I did fail to finish the pre-takeoff checklist, so I wasn’t perfectly focused, but it really did go well.

Wind was from the left quarter about 5 kt, no bother on takeoff roll but did push me sideways a bit after liftoff. Climb was really fast compared to the Blanik – I was at 500’ by the time I’m usually at 200’ (maybe the wind helped, too). But I seemed to be below the ideal position for about the first 1000’ of altitude. I finally got up where I should be.

I let off at 4500’ MSL and tried out turns, slow flight, near stall, and spoilers. First time using an audible vario, so I had to get used to that a bit. The PW5 has a bit of a nose-high attitude compared to the Blanik, so it kept fooling me into flying too fast: the pitch that felt right went about 50 or more, but the min sink is 40 and the best L/D is 44. Finally I trimmed back a notch and that helped.

VERY responsive. It also overbanks a bit in 45 degree turns, so I need to remember to use top aileron next time.

Lots of lift – a post-frontal day about 68 degrees with lots of CU. Turbulent but not bad. I thermaled up to 5300’, just below cloudbase. A little jet went by me about a quarter mile away and 500’ above. Some turbulence over the hills but not a lot of wind that I could tell, although it was a windy day elsewhere. Lots of sink, too, so I headed back to the IP area. At 1100’ AGL (or less) I found some lift, at first 100-200’, then stronger and stronger. I ended up about 4500’ MSL again. With so much sink around, I did not go far. In the last 500-800’ before reaching pattern altitude at the IP, *LOTS* of sink, 800’ to 1000’ DOWN! I got to the IP at 1000’ AGL, but was worried about sink on downwind. Fortunately that never materialized, and the PW5 is efficient, so I was OK and actually used spoilers on downwind and then on base.

Final was pretty good – I experimented with spoilers and found they are very effective and immediate. Pop them out, go down steeply. Push them in, float for a long way. Cool! I did end up just a bit short but no problem. Nice smooth landing, and Dave later complimented me on it. No bounce or balloon. Rollout was not quite straight, but not bad. 46 minutes total.

Second passenger - great thermal flight

3-20-05 Long time no fly! Weather, camping, weather, SSA convention, etc. have really gotten in the way.

Today, the day after a minor storm, lots of little CU marking lift of up to about 350 fpm. Daughter N’s first flight. I let off at 5300’ MSL, or 3800’ AGL, just about cloudbase. She was OK on the tow and the first bit of flying around (lots of 400-500’ sink!), so when we hit some lift and she insisted she was fine, we worked it. One or two thermals got us back up to 5300’ so we could cruise around. Lots of fun.

My radio quit after just a few minutes. I had charged the NiMh battery the night before, so maybe I have a bad pack. Not much traffic to worry about, but we did get to see a couple other gliders in the area. Didn’t find any more significant lift, so we came back in, ending up with a 50 minute flight.

Landing critique: the wind sock seemed to indicate crosswind, but our thermal drifting indicated more of a headwind. On final, the headwind component really took over and I ended up landing steeper than I expected. Looking back, I should have tightened up the base leg a bit. With the field all covered with flowers, I couldn’t spot the lines so I ended up landing (quite nicely) in the rough and just stopping at the start of the box. Need to look at the paved runway for reference next time.