Since moving to the USA and looking for a place to resume my gliding, I am constantly surprised by the large number of Schweizer gliders that clubs have (2-33s for training and 1-26s for solo), and how few have more modern high-performance two-seaters like ASK-21s, DG-505/1000 and single-seaters (pretty much anything that’s fiberglass and built since the 1980s!)

What drives that trend? Is it just me “being picky” based on my former club owning ASK-21, DG-1000, IS-28B2 two-seaters (plus a “classic” ASK-13), as well as (at the time) SZD-51 Junior & SZD-48 Jantar Std 2, plus Astir CS single-seaters.

Or is it just that gliding clubs in the USA are viewed more as a “stepping stone” to private ownership if you want to fly something more modern (i.e. a “plastic fantastic”) ?

Genuinely curious!

Different Res have different optimum AoAs. A higher Re means a lower AoA. With a large range of altitude, say 0 to 50,000 feet, the Re ought to change a lot. You can change the AoA of the glider by using the elevator. However, this changes the glide ratio, which I've been told doesn't change with altitude. Using the elevator also changes the pitch and speed.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this matter?

Quick note: I am designing a high-altitude glider that is dropped from 80,000 feet.

Since L/D ratio does not change with altitude, glide angle should not, either. I'm deriving the pitch my glider should be flying at by directly having the pitch be equal to the glide angle. I trim my glider on ground by placing the CG so the glider is pointing down by whatever the glide angle is. What would happen in the descent if that's how I trimmed my glider? Would it be stable?

Wanting to know the big clubs that may employ an instructors.

Any recommendations on clubs that employ instructors between October ish- May in the Southern hemisphere or anywhere in the world during this period would be much appreciated.

Must be English speaking

What clubs operate 7 days in Australia during the soaring season? I’ve heard Lake Keepit and Narromine. Are there any others? Thanks in advance.

I found a help article to supposedly 'remove the registration', but either I need a different sdcard or something else is wrong. Anyone done this?

https://kb.naviter.com/en/kb/remove-registration-from-oudie/

So I got this graph from Blanik L-23 manual and can't seem to figure out how to read this. According to the manual, at 90 degrees crosswind, the max the glider can/should take is 16kts, but how do you get that info from this diagram? What about headwind? What's the max this can bear for that?

A side question: I realize that not all gliders have same specs in the manual. Given that some are built nearly half a century ago, it does make sense (but it makes it really hard). Is there a database of all the info on all/most gliders and general numbers on them? What about polar curves? - I'll probably create a new post for this question since this is a different question

https://preview.redd.it/9q3qa6o5hqtc1.png?width=846&format=png&auto=webp&s=3ef0362c82168a23c8c29c309a419586485c41d8

Here's the situation: I am on the cusp of joining a club/learning to fly gliders. I have many many hours flying paragliders, where the ease of taking your gear means destination travel for soaring is commonplace. Is this a thing with gliders?

A friend of mine has a small plane - we are planning a trip for a week this summer, and I thought it would be good fun to join the two things - fly to a gliderport, camp & fly gliders. Obviously first I have to get certified, but could then take him soaring for a few days in a two seater. If this is a thing, we could possibly hit up a couple of locations.

I'm going to guess reality is probably more restrictive than my dream scenario here, just thought I'd ask if this is even remotely possible.

Could be I'm just overthinking things but here goes.

TL;DR: I flew a lot, bought my own glider, changed job that would pay much more. Felt sort of pressured to only fly my own glider when weather was good, thinking it's not really worth it to drive almost 2 hours for 2 hours of flying and rigging etc. I moved closer to work but further from an airfield which made work a lot better but justifying flying harder. Doing shift work and other obligations makes planning weekends a lot harder too. I sold 50% share of my glider and almost a year later I regret that decision and I should've sold it completely. Now I'm not really sure what to do or even keep gliding.

Long story (and rant):

I started flying in 2015 when I was 19, went almost every weekend and weather was always good to great (1000-1800m cloudbases and not many blue days). I started flying short XC flights in the clubs SZD 51 Junior (100-150km at a time) and even flying for an hour was fine, I was satisfied.

In 2017 though, I got a bit tired of trying to fly XC since we ask for a glider at the briefing every morning. Since I already flew some XC flights, pilots who have not got priority. About 50% of the time they didn't even leave the home airfield and would just fly local for the entire afternoon while I got 30 minutes to an hour in an ASK8 or ASK13. I decided it was time for me to get my own private glider.

I settled on the DG-101. I love it, and I still do. I flew my first 200, 300 and even 500km in it, but was held back a little to fly when weather was better to rig it, which wasn't always the case. I almost stopped flying club gliders and didn't think it was worth it to fly 1 or 2 hours in weak weather while driving 45 minutes to and 45 minutes back from the airfield.

I started doing shift work in 2022 so would sacrifice 3 out of 10 weekends at work (rotation of 10 people. It pays almost double as before though). Right now, we're with 8 people rotating shifts at work so sacrifice 3 out of 8 weekends that I can't go. Weather in 2022/2023 was terrible here, only flying about 20 hours in 2022 and maybe 3 hours in 2023 with not a single launch with my DG.

I thought I'd sell it, to fly club gliders more often and get back into it, but when the sale was approaching, I kinda felt regret and decided to back out. A fellow club member was looking for a private glider for a year now and approached him to maybe buy 50% share, by doing this I would still be able to fly the glider I love. After a test flight, we agreed on it and we now both own the DG-101 for 50%. In 2023, I also moved in with my girlfriend and distance to the airfield has almost doubled to 1h30 and 70km. Closest airfield now is 1h15 away, but it's only 10km from work, where I used to drive 40km to work. It's save a lot by driving this short distance to work (time and fuel).

Fast forward to 2024, I kinda regret selling 50% share. He is an aircraft technician who likes everything to be 100% correct, but he can't agree on my own opinion. For example, we share the wingstands and towbar. They're in the back of the trailer next to the tail, where there is room. When he's done flying, he puts everything in the middle of the trailer, very gently lifting over the wings where there's not much room and can easily scratch the bottom of the wing or the tail. I don't like that, but he keeps doing it. We rigged and derigged it together a few times to be sure he knew everything. Before he had his own wing wheel, he used mine for a few weeks. On one of the first flights he rigged it himself, by towing it to the grid he didn't secure the wing wheel properly and it fell off, rotating the glider over 90 degrees and a wing closely missing the back of his car. In the beginning, before and right after purchase, everything went rather well but communication from his side is getting worse by the day.

Now, today at 29 years old, I'm not really sure if I want to keep on gliding. I love flying and sharing it with friends and family, but it's becoming a bit of an annoyance to not be able to plan weekends in advance just in case weather is good, and me working 3 out of 8 weekends already. Thinking it would be better if I sold the glider completely and just quit altogether. I don't want to move closer to the airfield since that would mean driving more than 2 hours a day just to get to work. I've kind of lost the drive to keep on going.

Gliding is decently expensive, so how old are you guys and how do you afford this hobby.

Does anybody know if in Poland there are courses for gliding taught in English? I spoke to few schools but no luck

For people that fast regularly (12-16 hrs w/o food and water), would flying be considered hazardous? I imagine dehydration would be the primary risk component, but what if you are used to it

And what about when you are intermittent fasting (with water but running on no food)?

Thoughts?

Being a flat lander with any mountains being a day’s drive away, I’m hoping someone with more firsthand experience can help answer this:

If I have a glider that thermals really well, but XC is more challenging (perhaps a 1-26 or a PW-5), would it be able to outrun an XC super ship that doesn’t thermal as well on a ridge by virtue of being able to convert more of the upward energy into forward speed? Or maybe just in a range of updraft strengths, perhaps?

Just thinking about it, it seems reasonable, but I admit I might be missing something. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I am using this app called Avia Maps from the Play Store on android. The app has downloaded some of the maps somewhere on my phone. Is there a way I can have those maps printed out on paper?

Hello, I'm designing a high-altitude glider. I'm wondering how to calculate the pitch the glider should be at, along with the AoA. I'm curious how this will change in a long flight with a large variation in altitude. So far, I know the speed and hence the AoA changes with altitude. This will affect the pitch presumably. If the AoA changes in flight, how do I make up for that with the pitch of the glider? Additionally, should the angle of incidence equal pitch + AoA? I'm very new to this so please excuse my ignorance though I would like to see the math behind it, too.

In the past 2 weeks or so, a lot of libelles have been listed on soaring.de for sale. I've heard that there will be an update to the IGC handicap ranking and am wondering if it has something to do with that. However, the proposed factor is lower, so I'm wondering what's happening.

https://www.fai.org/sites/default/files/10_2_2_b_review_of_handicap_factors_for_igc_club_class_2024.pdf

Hello All,
I'm 31 M from Asia living in Mannheim, South Germany for quite some time.

Language skills: English: Native/Business level German: A2/B1

I have been keenly interested in flying and recently asked for recommendations for Flying schools on r/flying in either Mannheim(where I live) or Baden-Württemberg.

Interestingly, many commented that I being in South Germany would be perfect if I learn by gliding and insisted I check out this sub and start with gliding and then transition to PPL-A/LAPL.
On searching online, I could not really find gliding schools around me.

Many as well told me how nice the gliding community in Germany is. Could you please help me by recommending good gliding schools in and around Mannheim? I am mostly looking for gliding schools as I want to spend a lot of time in a short duration for the training. I don’t really want to wait 2 to 3 years to finish my training. Please guide me, if I am wrong in my understanding.

Thank you very much.