I started gliding again after a break of almost 10 years. In this post I tried to share my story, my feelings and the obstacles I found while going back into flying cross country.
I am a glider pilot. Or, to be more precise, I use to be a glider pilot. As a lot of pilots, when I started to work, I had less time and energy to fly. Weekends become busy with stuffs that can’t fit in the week and, before you know it, you go from 100 hours every year to 4 goods flights and taking a few friends on their first flight. With the lack of training, mistakes are more likely, and the inadequate habit gained over the years finally ended in a poor out landing. Nothing bad: I was fine, the glider too, but it was a shock for me and I started to stop going cross-country.
I know a lot of people fly only near the airfield or only double seater, however what I loved was cross-country flight and competition so it was not long before I totally stop gliding.
However, things are changing and last year I finally got time on my hands, Hahndweide airfield nearby where I live now, and Schempp-Hirth gliders available. It was time to go back in gliding…
First step: flying solo again
If you never really forget how to ride a bike, you can easily say that you can lose a lot of the feelings necessary for gliding. In addition, the steering accuracy that I had built over my 500h of flying, had become what I would qualify as a good propensity to correct my mistakes. It is better than nothing, but clearly not satisfying. At that time, even if I was able to land on an airfield, I got the feeling that it was only by chance. In addition, we are traveling a lot and before finally flying alone again, I flew from 3 airfields in six different glider types (from K13 to Nimbus-3). If you are a pilot from more than a year you may not see why I am telling you that; How we learn to land allows normally to clear almost all the differences between planes or airfield. That is true, but it is still easier to land if you have a proper home airfield to easily correct your mistake from one flight to the next one. Without those subterfuges, I needed more training to find back my marks and my confidence. In addition, I flew with 7 instructors. They were all really enthusiastic and they were giving me good advises but with only one (sometime 2) flight with them, they would not let me go solo…
I kept very good memories from when I was a flight student. Chatting on the ground, helping with the activity, sharing stories with other pilots and instructors. I still like that, but I must say that spending the day in the airfield for maybe a 10min flight (it happened) is more frustrating at 35 than at 15.
At the end, it involved a total of 15 takes off and Stéphane Bertrand in Pont-St-Vincent (Aeroclub Albert Mangeot) for me to fly alone again. My first flight alone in the K13 was properly fun and surprising as I have a very limited experience with vintage or even early plastic era gliders. Objectively, I was feeling more comfortable when, half an hour later, I was ready to take off in my good old love: a pégase.
Gosh, I missed flying!
Second step: go cross country!
Two or three flights in single seater to find back the joy of flying alone, but very quickly the need of going cross-country was back and even flying amazing plane (Thanks Tilo for let me try the Ventus-2ax) was not enough. However, if I had the will of doing it, I was still missing the confidence. Never mind, I went back in double seater. This time, it was more an unofficial training and Benjamin could do it. Few landings later with the Duo Discus from Pont St Vincent and he thinks I would be fine if I need to outland. It was the beginning of Pont St Vincent training period and the weather was just perfect. Back into a good routine, with an instructor who was giving me a new task every day and cloud base at more than 1800, I managed to go cross country every day, improving my speed and my confidence.
After a few flights, I got low (Some things never changed in life :/ ). I chose a good field and I was ready to go, not stressed, just focus. Finally, I found a small lift and I managed to finish the task. It was absolutely brilliant to feel like a glider pilot again.
And now? The very good feeling of going back after a difficult fight kept me going during the winter, but I can’t really say that I am back. I cannot fly enough for me to lose that feeling that I am improvising something new every time I try to fly. However, I am still going cross country almost every time I am flying. Ok, to be fair, I mainly use the Discus2c FES from Schempp-Hirth. I like this agile and performing glider, but I must say that what I prefer is the FES system. That is perfect for ME. I can have an engine without having the mental charge of dealing with a Turbo while I am low. It makes my flight more enjoyable and even if I cannot (yet) fly as efficiently than Benjamin in the Discus-2a, I am having a lot of fun trying.
I will still need to fly more and more often to feel as comfortable as 15 years ago, and I hope that 10 days of flying with Benjamin in Châlons-en-Champagne for the FAI Pre-world championship, will allow me to gain rhythm and will improve my speed on task. Let’s see next week….
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