Frequently asked questions and training details.
INTRODUCTION. The Sunraysia Gliding Club has been operating for over 50 years. It owns four gliders and operates from its own airfield a few minutes drive from Mildura. It has about 25 members and is open men and women ranging from teenagers to later years. Flying operations are carried out at weekends throughout the year, mainly on Saturdays. Flying gliders is like nothing on earth, so to speak. Launched by a winch into an afternoon sky, you are in free flight, at one with the elements, silently exploring the magnificent Sunraysia countryside on columns of warm rising air called thermals. On a warm summer’s day, glider pilots can stay airborne for hours at a time and fly hundreds of kilometres.
STARTING OFF. To share in this pleasure, all you need to do is come out to the glider field one afternoon for an Air Experience flight in one of our two-seat gliders. An experienced instructor will take you for a flight of about 15 minutes duration. You will be shown the controls and feel what it is like for yourself. The cost of this flight will be about $50. More about costs later though.
YOU TOO CAN LEARN TO FLY. If you enjoy your Air Experience flight and want to do more, the next step is to join the club and learn to fly for yourself. The club has its own qualified flying instructors and can train you to solo standard in the dual control two seat gliders. The tuition is free and you only pay the standard member rates for the aircraft.
HOW SAFE ARE THE GLIDERS? Gliders are built to stringent standards and are built tough. They can easily perform manouvres that are totally forbidden in the average powered light aircraft. They are always maintained to stringent standards specified by the Civial Aviation Safety Authority and structural failure is virtually unknown in today’s gliders.
WHAT IS A GLIDER ANYWAY? A glider is a high performance motorless aircraft, powered by gravity. It has a high glide ratio compared with a powered plane. The glide ratio is its ability to fly expressed as a ratio. A modern training glider has a glide ratio of about 30:1. That means when flying, for every metre of height it loses, it goes forward 30 metres. By contrast, a powered light plane has a glide ratio of about 10:1.
HOW DO GLIDERS STAY UP WITHOUT AN ENGINE? After launching to about 600 metres by a powerful winch at the end of a kilometre of steel wire , the pilot searches for a thermal. A thermal is a rising column of air, warmed by contact with the ground. Because the thermal rises faster than the glider is sinking back to earth, the glider naturally goes up. The pilot circles the glider gently within the thermal and gains altitude.
HOW HIGH CAN A GLIDER FLY? Thermals around Mildura often go to 3,000 metres and more in summer. Around mountains, gliders can fly in “waves” of air in the prevailing winds. The world record height is 14,000 metres.
HOW FAST CAN A GLIDER FLY? Some modern gliders have a top speed of 240 kilometres per hour. Our training gliders fly best at a speed of about 100 kilometres per hour
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU LET GO OF THE CONTROLS? Nothing much at all. When trimmed to a set speed, the glider will fly by itself without any untoward effect. If anything, it will wander a little bit off course. A glider is an extremely stable aircraft and you have to do something terribly wrong to make it misbehave.
HOW CAN A GLIDER TRAVEL LONG DISTANCES WITHOUT AN ENGINE? The pilot gains altitude in a thermal, then sets off in the desired direction. Before too much height is lost, the pilot seeks another thermal, gains height in it and sets off on course again. By doing this over and over, large distances can be covered.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THERE ARE NO MORE THERMALS TO BE FOUND? If a pilot finds himself away from the airfield with no more thermals, he prepares for an “outlanding” in a suitable paddock. Because of the slow descent rate of a glider, there is ample time to find a suitable landing place and the pilot is always prepared for this procedure. The next step is to contact the club and a crew will be sent out to de-rig the glider and return with it on a trailer. It may be possible to relaunch the glider with a tow plane.
IS IT HARD TO LEARN? Most people can learn to fly if they really want to. You get a training manual called Basic Gliding Knowledge. This covers all the theory and basic knowledge you need to understand how to fly a glider. Then you get hands on instruction right from your first instructional flight. Normally, students take between 40 and 70 flights to go solo. This is one day in your life you will never ever forget. Being in control of a glider in three dimensional flight is such an achievement and pleasure that words cannot describe it.
SO HOW MUCH DOES IT ALL COST? There is a start-up joining fee of $100 that is simply a credit to get you going. That covers the gliding Manual, log book and your first few flights. A full year’s club and Gliding Federation of Australia membership is $250. There are discounts for juniors and family members. Flying costs 75 cents per minute plus $8.00 per winch launch. While learning to fly, you can expect three instructional flights each day. Duration of each flight depends on the day. Usually about an hour in total. As a rough guide, it may cost about $1,200 to become a solo pilot after about 60 instructional flights.