Soaring

What you will learn

From the first glide to competition flying: why a glider glides, thermals, the polar and speed to fly, ridge and wave, cross-country and final glide, and the emergencies that matter. For students, licensed pilots and anyone curious.

Who this course is for

• Glider pilot students (SPL)
• Glider pilots moving on to cross-country and competitions
• Powered pilots who are curious about gliding
• Anyone who finished Aviation for beginners and wants to fly without an engine

Course content

10 video lections · 34 videos · 1 h 12 min

1. 1

   Gliding from the ground up

   4 videos · 9 min

   What gliding is, why a glider glides, the glider up close, and how it gets into the air.

   • What gliding is Free

     Flying without an engine, in three steps: why a glider is always going down, how it still climbs in air that rises, and what a day of gliding looks like from launch to landing.

     2:23

   • Why a glider glides

     Gravity is the engine: part of the weight pulls a glider along its path. Lift and drag decide how flat it glides, which is why gliders look the way they do, and speed and wind decide how far it gets.

     2:05

   • The glider up close

     Around and inside a glider: the long slim wing, the airbrakes that set the glide path, the tow hooks and the yellow release. Then the instruments from the vario to the yaw string, and the classes gliders race in.

     2:11

   • Getting airborne

     A glider needs help to get up: a winch pulls it to about 400 m on a cable in half a minute, a tow plane takes it as high as you like, and some gliders carry an engine of their own.

     1:52
2. 2

   Climbing in thermals

   5 videos · 10 min

   Where thermals come from, the variometer, centring the core, reading the sky and sharing a thermal with others.

   • How a thermal is born

     The sun heats the ground unevenly, and warm air breaks loose as a bubble that rises while it is warmer than the air around it. Where it stops: the inversion that caps the day, and the cumulus whose base you can work out before you fly.

     2:16

   • The variometer: hearing the lift

     The instrument every glider pilot listens to: it shows how fast you climb or sink, beeps higher in lift and drones in sink. Why it lags a little, and why it always includes your own sink.

     1:56

   • Centring the core

     Find the core of a thermal and stay in it: turn towards the lifted wing, bank 35 to 45° at minimum sink speed plus a margin, and flatten briefly as the lift gets stronger to move your circle into the core.

     2:02

   • Reading the sky

     A growing cumulus with crisp edges and a dark, flat base has lift under it, a frayed one is dying. Plus cloud streets, blue thermals, spread-out shade, and the thunderstorm cloud that tells you to leave.

     2:04

   • Sharing a thermal

     Many gliders in one thermal: the first one sets the direction, everyone else joins from outside and keeps the others in sight. Blind spots, what FLARM does and doesn't do, and how to leave safely.

     2:06
3. 3

   What your glider can do

   3 videos · 7 min

   The polar curve, wing loading and water ballast, and what span, flaps and bugs do to the numbers.

   • The polar curve

     Every speed has its own sink rate. Put the numbers on a graph and you get the polar, which shows the speed for climbing, the speed for distance and the glide at any speed, with an LS8's real numbers.

     2:26

   • Wing loading and water ballast

     Why racing pilots fill their wings with water and dump it before landing. Wing loading, the same glide at a higher speed, slower climbs and wider circles, and when water pays.

     2:19

   • Span, flaps and bugs

     What a longer span, camber flaps and a leading edge full of insects do to a glider's polar. Why the LS8's 18 m tips glide further, how flaps are set, and why racing pilots carry bug wipers.

     2:07
4. 4

   Ridge and mountain soaring

   3 videos · 6 min

   Slope lift, the rules on the ridge, valley winds, sunny faces and convergence in the Alps.

   • How ridge lift works

     Wind blowing onto a long hill has to go up. Which wind and which hill work, where the lift band is, and the sink and turbulence waiting behind the crest.

     2:06

   • Rules on the ridge

     Many gliders share one narrow band of lift next to a hill. What the rules of the air say and what ridge rules add: turning, meeting head-on and overtaking.

     1:56

   • Valley winds, sunny faces and convergence

     How the mountains work through the day: slopes that face the sun, valley winds and convergence, with the Enns valley as the example. And the landable fields you plan the flight around.

     2:04
5. 5

   Going cross-country

   4 videos · 8 min

   The first glider flight away from home, tasks and badges, landing out safely in a field, and the final glide home.

   • Your first cross-country

     Leaving the home field for the first time: what to prepare, how to stay within reach of a field all the way, and when to decide on a landing. Landing out is part of the game.

     2:07

   • Tasks, triangles and badges

     The shapes a cross-country flight can take, from out-and-return to the FAI triangle, and the turn point zones that prove you flew them. Then the FAI badges from Silver to the Diamonds, and how online contests score a flight.

     2:16

   • Landing out

     Every cross-country pilot lands in a field one day. Decide in time, check the field from the air, fly a normal circuit into it, and know what to do once you are down.

     1:52

   • Final glide

     How high you need to be to glide home, worked out for an LS8 in a headwind, and how fast to fly the glide. Plus the reserve that stops sinking air from turning the last glide into a field landing.

     2:10
6. 6

   Speed to fly

   3 videos · 7 min

   MacCready theory: how fast to glide between thermals, in sinking and rising air, and which setting to fly.

   • MacCready: how fast between thermals

     How fast to glide from one thermal to the next: the next climb sets the price of height, and one line on the polar gives both the speed to fly and the average speed of the whole flight.

     2:25

   • Speed in sinking and rising air

     In sinking air fly faster, in rising air slow down: the air moves the polar, and a cloud street can carry you a long way with hardly a circle. The vario's speed command shows the way; follow it smoothly.

     2:12

   • Which MacCready setting?

     The setting is the climb you expect next, not the last one. Lower it when low or far from a field, raise it high on a strong day, stay in the working band, and don't worry about being a little off.

     2:15
7. 7

   Instruments that think

   3 videos · 6 min

   The glider cockpit instruments that think: total energy compensation, netto and relative climb, the averager, and the final glide computer.

   • Total energy and the stick thermal

     Pull back on the stick and a plain vario shows a climb that is only your speed turning into height: the stick thermal. A total energy vario counts height and speed together, so it shows the air, not the stick, as long as its probe sits in clean air.

     2:14

   • Netto, relative and the averager

     Three readings, three questions. Netto shows what the air is doing, relative what you would climb if you circled here, and the averager how good the thermal really was.

     2:02

   • The final glide computer

     How a glide computer works out whether you make it home: distance over glide ratio plus a safety height, the wind it measured in your circles, and your MacCready setting. In the mountains it also checks the pass on the way.

     2:08
8. 8

   Wave soaring

   3 videos · 6 min

   Mountain waves, rotor, getting into the wave, and what changes when you climb very high.

   • Mountain waves

     Strong wind across a mountain range sets stable air swinging up and down downwind. Lenticulars mark the wave crests, and just upwind of them a glider climbs in smooth air, far above any thermal.

     1:55

   • Rotor, and into the wave

     Under the smooth wave turns the rotor, the roughest air in gliding. How to climb from it into the wave, stay in the lift band, and come down before the clouds close the gap below you.

     1:54

   • Flying high

     The higher you climb, the faster you fly through the air for the same indicated speed, so the never-exceed speed comes down with height. And what cold and thin air ask of the glider and of you.

     2:17
9. 9

   Competition flying

   2 videos · 4 min

   Racing tasks and assigned area tasks, and the tactics of starting and flying with the field.

   • Racing task and AAT

     The two competition tasks: fixed turn points where the fastest speed wins, and assigned areas where you choose the distance but must fly for a minimum time. Plus the start line, the finish ring and how a day is scored.

     2:09

   • Start, gaggle and leading

     When to start a competition task, whether to fly with the gaggle or alone, and why leading costs while following has its own risks. With the rules and habits of team flying.

     1:53
10. 10

    Launch and landing emergencies

    4 videos · 8 min

    Winch launch failures, aerotow upsets, the stall and spin in the turn, and the approach in a wind gradient.

    • Winch launch failure

      The cable breaks with the nose high in the air. Push the nose down at once, wait for the speed, release twice, then decide calmly: land ahead, a short circuit or a full one.

      2:09

    • Aerotow: wake, slack and upsets

      Where to fly behind the tug, how to take up a slack rope gently, and the moment the glider climbs so far above the tug that it pulls its tail up: release, at once. Plus the tug pilot's signals.

      2:03

    • Stall and spin in the turn

      A turn raises the stall speed, and the classic glider spin starts in one: low in a thermal or on the turn onto final. Why bank costs stall margin, how crossed controls stall the inner wing first, and how to recover.

      2:08

    • Airbrakes, approach and the wind gradient

      A glider has no second try. Airbrakes set the glide path to an aiming point, the wind gradient takes airspeed away near the ground, and the approach speed carries margins for wind and gusts.

      2:07