Gliding
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
FLYING is one of the best things you can do on this nice little planet (and anywhere else, what already Arthur Dent discovered). But flying without a plane is either very painful or very difficult and with the bigger planes and helicopters it is not that fun (and too expensive), so I looked a bit around and soon came to GLIDING.
To glide you only use the thermal (temperature-caused) and orographic (mountain-caused) upwinds, like the big birds. And sometimes you really feel like a very big bird (gliders have a wingspan of at least 15m (glider pilots usually use the metric system because gliding originally came from Germany and is still mainly there successful)) when you draw your circles with them.
;-)Could you follow this text? I don't want to write in this way, but when I come to talking...;-)
;-)You can also see (the brackets, you know): Maths is actually one of my favourite subjects;-)
But gliders today aren't the same as 40 years ago (except the oldtimers):
Gliders today can fly
-fast: Some aerobatic gliders easily reach 400 km/h ><>
-high: The world record is over 10000m altitude ><>
-far: In some areas, for example South America, 2000km-distances are possible ><>
All pilots, mainly those in the big planes, but also glider pilots, LOVE checklists. So here my small personal before-flight checklist (which shouldn't be taken too serious, of course):
-check you're sitting in a plane and not in a car or anything else that doesn't fly properly
-check you have at least two wings to your sides: flying is not that fun with only one or even no wing
-check you've drunk the right dose of alcohol: that goes from nothing (that's what I usually drink) to - well, some nice little drinks (for some pilots)
-check you're wearing your sunglasses 8-) the sun can be very bright up there 8-)
-make sure that you can throw your passenger out if you have one (there are almost no gliders with more than two places); after some hours, passengers can really get on your nerves
But ><> DON'T PANIC ><>
The last one was a joke, of course, and should never stop you from trying: If you like freedom and silence, go to the next airfield and... You know what I hope you'll do then, don't you?
8-) Highflyer 8-)
To glide you only use the thermal (temperature-caused) and orographic (mountain-caused) upwinds, like the big birds. And sometimes you really feel like a very big bird (gliders have a wingspan of at least 15m (glider pilots usually use the metric system because gliding originally came from Germany and is still mainly there successful)) when you draw your circles with them.
;-)Could you follow this text? I don't want to write in this way, but when I come to talking...;-)
;-)You can also see (the brackets, you know): Maths is actually one of my favourite subjects;-)
But gliders today aren't the same as 40 years ago (except the oldtimers):
Gliders today can fly
-fast: Some aerobatic gliders easily reach 400 km/h ><>
-high: The world record is over 10000m altitude ><>
-far: In some areas, for example South America, 2000km-distances are possible ><>
All pilots, mainly those in the big planes, but also glider pilots, LOVE checklists. So here my small personal before-flight checklist (which shouldn't be taken too serious, of course):
-check you're sitting in a plane and not in a car or anything else that doesn't fly properly
-check you have at least two wings to your sides: flying is not that fun with only one or even no wing
-check you've drunk the right dose of alcohol: that goes from nothing (that's what I usually drink) to - well, some nice little drinks (for some pilots)
-check you're wearing your sunglasses 8-) the sun can be very bright up there 8-)
-make sure that you can throw your passenger out if you have one (there are almost no gliders with more than two places); after some hours, passengers can really get on your nerves
But ><> DON'T PANIC ><>
The last one was a joke, of course, and should never stop you from trying: If you like freedom and silence, go to the next airfield and... You know what I hope you'll do then, don't you?
8-) Highflyer 8-)
