On Aug 27, 3:12*pm, Mike Schumann
wrote:
On 8/26/2011 8:01 PM, Bruce Hoult wrote:



On Aug 27, 9:15 am, Mike
wrote:
There's a big difference between doing these kinds of maneuvers at a
private strip where you aren't going to kill anyone but yourself, vs.
doing them at a public airport where there's lots of other traffic you
may or not know about who aren't particularly appreciative of having
someone hotdogging in the pattern.

Missed approaches are a standard thing that is practiced by power
pilots all the time. It is true that glider low passes are a bit
faster followed by a steeper climb than Cessna missed approaches, but
they're a very similar speed and climb angle to 737 ones.

So It all just depends on how mixed your traffic is.

I learned to fly Tomahawks at Wellington International (110,000
movements/year), where most of the traffic was in fact 737's,
WhisperJets, A320s plus the odd 747SP/767/777 depending on exactly
which year you're talking about. But there aren't gliders there.

At our actual glider field there is a lot of light aircraft and
helicopter training, plus small turboprops (e.g. Cessna Caravan), plus
a Q300 ("Dash 8") service starting in October.

If you're flying somewhere that's only got single-engine 1950's spam
cans from Wichita or Vero Beach flying around fat dumb and happy then,
yeah, gliders could exceed their expectations.

There's a big difference between a missed approach in a power airplane
and a low pass in a glider. *A power plane has the option to change
course and/or extend the pattern if unexpected traffic shows up. *A
glider doesn't have a lot of options.

I don't care what airport you are flying out of. *You never know when
someone unexpected comes out of no where, clueless about the existence
of gliders and their limitations. *This was drilled home to me a number
of years ago when I was turning on to base at a remote airfield (after
announcing our pattern on the radio), only to discover a helicopter
hoovering 5' above the ground just off the arrival end of the runway.
We barely avoided a collision. *It turns out the helicopter pilot and
his instructor where so engrossed in their BFR they were oblivious that
anyone else was in the pattern, particularly a glider that didn't have
the option to do a go around.

A glider doing a low pass is *precisely* one that has the option to do
a go around! It's the one on a normal approach who doesn't have many
options (but still has options, unless dangerously low on energy).

You reinforce my point. All pilots should be aware that there can be
other aircraft around, and perhaps with different performance
characteristics to their own.