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What is Soaring? Visit the Soaring Society of America website. How does a glider stay up? Have you ever seen large birds, such as hawks, circle in the sky without flapping their wings? Watch them for a few minutes—they are riding currents of rising air called thermals. As a glider pilot you will learn more about weather systems and air currents than you ever thought possible. Many of our members have been aloft more then 5 hours in a single flight and on a soaring vacation to Nevada, one member reached 30,000 feet! What is a thermal? The sun’s rays warm the ground and in turn the ground warms the air above it. At some point this warm body of air will begin to rise. Thermals rise in the form of large columns and bubbles. A thermal will continue to rise as long as it is warmer the air around it. At a given altitude the air will cool to the due point temperature. At this point large white cumulus clouds will form. Glider pilots like thermals. What is sink? As the air in a thermal rises it cools down until it is no longer warmer than it's surroundings. This air then begins to sink back to the ground. Sink usually is more spread out than thermals. We don't like Sink. How far can we go? In neutral air, The Schweizer 2-33 will glide 23 feet forward for every foot of altitude lost. In other words we can glide 23,000 feet forward for every thousand feet we lose in altitude. This works out to approximately 4.3 miles per thousand feet. Do we need wind to fly? A glider is moved by wind in much the same way that a boat is affected by current. In normal thermal soaring wind is a directional issue only. It will allow you to travel faster while going with it but slower going into it. How do we get back? Just like powered airplanes glider pilots have complete directional control over their ships. What happens if we don't make it back? This is highly unlikely! However, we would safely land in an open field, disassemble the ship, place it on a trailer and drive back! What about birds? We may be lucky and get to soar with some birds. Red Tailed Hawks and Turkey Buzzards are frequent companions. We look to birds to help show us where the thermals are. Isn’t a glider more dangerous then a powered airplane? Let me answer that with another question. Is a sail boat more dangerous then a motor boat? Usually a glider flies much slower than a powered airplane. It can land in a smaller area at a lower speed. Without an engine it is much less complicated to fly and there are less things to go wrong. Like running out of gas. Gliders don’t usually fly when the weather is bad. The FAA says that with the proper training a person can solo a glider at 14 years old. For a powered airplane it’s 16 years old. |