Glider Time

Aviation school adventure. 

Tom invited any student who was interested for an introductory gliding flight and lunch at Country Field a little over an hour to the west of Greensboro. We had to pay a small fee to pay for lunch and the gliding time. I drove up with Ryan. The airstrip was grass and it was way too small to have anything like a control tower. Before taking this program, I had no idea how many small airports there were. Many started to have second thoughts when we saw the glider we would be using. It looked like something out of the 1940’s. The pilot sat up front and the passenger or student sat behind the pilot under a Plexiglas canopy. There was only one landing wheel right behind the passenger. The glider had no need for a lot of instruments. It was just the basics, an airspeed indicator, altimeter, and attitude indicator. That was all there was to it. Tom asked who would like to go first and was met with silence. After a few minutes, some brave student agreed and climbed in behind Tom. It was more like getting into a bathtub than climbing up into a airplane as we knew it. A tow plane pulled the glider to its release point and when he was ready, Tom would drop the towline from the glider. The towing plane, a powerful homebuilt Maule, did not look much newer than the old glider but it was more than up to the job. It was much stronger than the planes most of had trained on but not much bigger. It eased forward until the towline was tight. Then someone had to lift the ling wing off the ground and hold it level. When the tow plane started to take off he had to hang on to it and run holding the wing a few feet until the glider stayed level on its own. It only took a few steps. We watched as the plane raced down the runway covering the glider in a trail of dust. I don’t think any of expected what happened next. The glider lifted off the ground first. The Maule quickly caught up and towed the glider high into the warm afternoon sky. Soon Tom released the tow like and the Maule quickly came into land. After about ten minutes or so of soaring, the glider safely returned. I watched the process several more times ad soon enough my turn came.

“I’ll help ya in man.” Ryan said.

He lifted me up and gently sat me down in the seat behind Tom. There was a control stick and a few levers I had no plans of touching. Ryan belted be in and stuck on my headset so I could communicate with Tom. The belts came across each shoulder and my lap. It was like strapping into a fighter jet except this thing did not have any engines. I knew right away I was in for a fun ride.

“Ready?” I heard Tom ask.

“Yes.”             

He radioed the pilot of the Maule and we were hurling down the runway. Just like the other flights, we lifted off first.

Tom told me “We have to hold the glider’s nose down until he lifts off.”

I noticed the stick pushed forward mirroring what Tom was doing up front. Then he eased up as we were towed higher and higher. The scene was beautiful. Hills covered in dark green trees starched out as far as the eye could see in any direction, large cumulus clouds loomed over head not yet threatening our afternoon of fun but building.

“Okay Paul, its time to release from the tow plane.”

Tom radioed the pilot pulled the release lever and the line snapped towards the plane like a rubber band but quickly straightened out. We banked left and the plane banked right. The practice is separate from each other for obvious reasons. Then everything went silent. We were alone soaring through the air as if in a vacuum. The only sound at all was the glider gently slipping through the air. It was barely auditable. The other sensation was a rapid slow down.  In just a few moments it felt like our speed was cut in half. I don’t know what flying on a magic carpet feels like but I bet this was pretty close. If we were descending any, I could not tell nor could I see the instruments Tom had up front.

“How long could we stay up, Tom?” I asked.                                                                                                                                     

“If we could catch some thermals, as long as we like. Some in the mountains ride several hundred miles. In other places, big parking lots generate good thermals especially in the summer.”

“That’s amazing!” I thought out loud.

A few minutes later Tom asked, “Ready to play fighter pilot?”

“Okay.” I answered nervously.

“We have to aim the glider at the ground in order to land and we pick up some pretty good speed.”

“Alright.”

Tom aimed for the grassy runway and our speed slowly built. At the last second he pulled the nose level with the ground and I felt the wheel behind me come in contact with the ground. We rolled quickly slowing down and came to a stop and the right wing tipped and touched the ground. It had been a fantastic ride. Tom opened the canopy and everyone clapped for our safe return. Ryan helped me unhook and take off the headset and then lifted me out with astonishing ease. It felt good to be back on the ground.

The last of the students went up and then we had a grilled hotdog and hamburger lunch. It was a fantastic afternoon. The clouds had given us just enough time for flying and lunch. Ryan and I drove home in a monster thunderstorm.