New student pilot apprehensions

Hi all,

I’m a new student glider pilot. I have a grand total of 77 minutes
flying time in six flights. The challenge of all of this has been
immensely satisfying.

I’m hoping yall can help me out with some “okay, that was a little
different than I expected” items.

First, when I am flying straight and level, the glider does not follow
a direct path, but rather is buffeted about a little bit. The nose
will go a little left and right and also up and down and I have to
make small adjustments with the stick. My instructor noticed I tend
to way over correct. In my youth, I played those very primitive
flight simulators (Apple II SimLogic anyone?) in which the flight was
ice-smooth, just like an arrow, I suppose. “Real life” isn’t like
that in gliders, apparently?

The tow rope keeps me up at night. Aerotow freaks me out. With my
inexperience in coordinated flight, I am terrified that these
oscillations I get into will upset the tow plane (and pilot). I feel
I’m doing this left bank, right bank, over correct, left, right, left
right…. I know my instructor is back there. This stuff does get
easier doesn’t it? I mean 14 year-olds do this…. (I’m 33.) My last
instructor (I’m in a gliding club in which we have a different
instructor each week), demonstrated boxing the wake and I was sure the
rope was going to break….but it didn’t, even going through the prop
wash of the tow plane.

And speaking of the tow rope. I need to get more confidence in it.
When that rope gets taught, I freeze up. I am terrified of it
breaking. However, I recently ran across a video (It’s on the SSA
site) of a real rope break. It really was no big deal. The rope
broke, the glider had a momentary shudder, the pilot muttered
something, then calmly landed the glider. It was no big deal. I
need more confidence in the rope!

I’ve been grounded for two weeks due to the flu, but I can’t wait to
get back up in the air!


--Michael

On Apr 24, 9:16*pm, Michael wrote:
Hi all,

I’m a new student glider pilot. *I have a grand total of 77 minutes
flying time in six flights. *The challenge of all of this has been
immensely satisfying.

I’m hoping yall can help me out with some “okay, that was a little
different than I expected” items.

First, when I am flying straight and level, the glider does not follow
a direct path, but rather is buffeted about a little bit. *The nose
will go a little left and right and also up and down and I have to
make small adjustments with the stick. *My instructor noticed I tend
to way over correct. *In my youth, I played those very primitive
flight simulators (Apple II SimLogic anyone?) in which the flight was
ice-smooth, just like an arrow, I suppose. *“Real life” isn’t like
that in gliders, apparently?

The tow rope keeps me up at night. *Aerotow freaks me out. *With my
inexperience in coordinated flight, I am terrified that these
oscillations I get into will upset the tow plane (and pilot). *I feel
I’m doing this left bank, right bank, over correct, left, right, left
right…. I know my instructor is back there. *This stuff does get
easier doesn’t it? *I mean 14 year-olds do this…. (I’m 33.) *My last
instructor (I’m in a gliding club in which we have a different
instructor each week), demonstrated boxing the wake and I was sure the
rope was going to break….but it didn’t, even going through the prop
wash of the tow plane.

And speaking of the tow rope. *I need to get more confidence in it.
When that rope gets taught, I freeze up. * I am terrified of it
breaking. *However, I recently ran across a video (It’s on the SSA
site) of a real rope break. *It really was no big deal. *The rope
broke, the glider had a momentary shudder, the pilot muttered
something, then calmly landed the glider. *It was no big deal. * I
need more confidence in the rope!

I’ve been grounded for two weeks due to the flu, but I can’t wait to
get back up in the air!

--Michael

I almost quit after three flights. Yet I thought myself pretty good at
similar activites so I kept at it. I came from an extensive background
in sailing and motorsports; it was the Z-axis that took me a while to
figure out.

On aerotow, once I realized there was a rudder it all came together.

Keep at it, it gets easier. If you are not at least comfortable in the
air after 20 flights than perhaps you ought to reconsider.

Good luck!
Adam

Michael,

Welcome to the club. I think all of us experience some kind of
trepidation at first, and it's probably a good thing since it makes us
more cautious and the best way to reduce risk is to be aware of it.

Turning to your specific issues:

It's important to remember that you are learning to fly formation at
the same time you are learning to fly. That's a tough load to carry
and will make you feel a bit clumsy at first. It's not you. It's just
that you're trying to learn two things at once.

Over-controlling is normal and the solution is to relax a bit. When I
first learned to fly about 30 years ago, every time the tow plane hit
lift and would bob up, I would pull back on the stick to follow him.
Then I hit the lift and would rise above him. Stick down to
compensate. What did we get? PIO (Pilot Induced Oscillations, in case
you haven't heard that one yet) My instructor told me to try something
counter-intuitive, but that worked like a charm. Next time the tow
plane bobbed up, DO NOTHING and see what happens. Amazingly, it worked
much better. I'd hit the lift a second or two later and bob up as I
should. Of course, only try this with an instructor along. But after a
while you'll learn how much control to use.

It's well known in control theory that over control can induce
instability, especially in systems with a delay (and your reaction
time as well as the glider's introduces delay). So it's not that you
should do nothing, but the amount of control you're adding is way too
much. Over time you'll learn the right amount and your current
nightmares will seem like a distant memory.

Along these lines, when I was learning to fly, I told my wife that I
thought I'd never get the radio calls down. It was like a foreign
language. (I now realize it is a foreign language. It just sounds like
English!) She reminded me that I'd learned much harder things and
assured me that it would come with time. Of course, she was right. So
try to remember how impossible it felt to learn to ride a bike when
you were doing that as a kid. Now? Simple pie. Soaring will become the
same, but try to remember some of the caution you currently feel. It
will make you a safer pilot.

Another things that might be good would be to read the articles on my
soaring safety web page

http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/soaring/safety.html

and look for similar ones elsewhere.

Again, welcome to the club!

Martin

Michael wrote:
The tow rope keeps me up at night. Aerotow freaks me out.

Been there, felt that.

While a book isn't something I would have expected to help me, I did find
"End of the Line" by Murray Shain - a book on just the subject of aerotow -
to be quite helpful (to the extent any external advice is helpful.) It's
available from Bob Wander's site if you don't already have it:

http://www.bobwander.com

I would also suggest buying Wander's "New Glider Pilot Package" if it
doesn't contain too much overlap with material you've already purchased.

The other book I'd strongly recommend is "Glider Basics" by Thomas Knauff.
Lots of concrete tips and guidance that I personally found useful - he also
provides advice on aerotow and of course lots of other stuff.

I’ve been grounded for two weeks due to the flu, but I can’t wait to
get back up in the air!

How can you have the flew and still be grounded? ;-)

Let me add one thing. The instructor knows all this and is in the back
seat to keep you out of trouble. You learn only from such mistakes and
correcting them. The instructor will take over if you exceed boundaries
uncomfortable for him/her. He/she will not let you kill you both. You are
not alone with these thoughts and you are not alone in the glider. Stay
with it; it will become as unconscious as walking while talking.

At 03:20 25 April 2009, Hellman wrote:
Michael,

Welcome to the club. I think all of us experience some kind of
trepidation at first, and it's probably a good thing since it makes us
more cautious and the best way to reduce risk is to be aware of it.

Turning to your specific issues:

It's important to remember that you are learning to fly formation at
the same time you are learning to fly. That's a tough load to carry
and will make you feel a bit clumsy at first. It's not you. It's just
that you're trying to learn two things at once.

Over-controlling is normal and the solution is to relax a bit. When I
first learned to fly about 30 years ago, every time the tow plane hit
lift and would bob up, I would pull back on the stick to follow him.
Then I hit the lift and would rise above him. Stick down to
compensate. What did we get? PIO (Pilot Induced Oscillations, in case
you haven't heard that one yet) My instructor told me to try something
counter-intuitive, but that worked like a charm. Next time the tow
plane bobbed up, DO NOTHING and see what happens. Amazingly, it worked
much better. I'd hit the lift a second or two later and bob up as I
should. Of course, only try this with an instructor along. But after a
while you'll learn how much control to use.

It's well known in control theory that over control can induce
instability, especially in systems with a delay (and your reaction
time as well as the glider's introduces delay). So it's not that you
should do nothing, but the amount of control you're adding is way too
much. Over time you'll learn the right amount and your current
nightmares will seem like a distant memory.

Along these lines, when I was learning to fly, I told my wife that I
thought I'd never get the radio calls down. It was like a foreign
language. (I now realize it is a foreign language. It just sounds like
English!) She reminded me that I'd learned much harder things and
assured me that it would come with time. Of course, she was right. So
try to remember how impossible it felt to learn to ride a bike when
you were doing that as a kid. Now? Simple pie. Soaring will become the
same, but try to remember some of the caution you currently feel. It
will make you a safer pilot.

Another things that might be good would be to read the articles on my
soaring safety web page

http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/soaring/safety.html

and look for similar ones elsewhere.

Again, welcome to the club!

Martin

and a view from across the pond.

Flying straight is the hardest thing to do that's why we leave it until
last when teaching it. Its much easier to turn.
Learning on a winch helps this process because the launch bit is over in
30 seconds and initially the instructor is doing most of it.

Then the student can experience free flight and see how the glider really
handles without having a sweaty, stressful workout that seems to last an
eternity before you can fly the glider properly. In short a new student
will be mentally (and maybe physically) exhausted before he starts his
lesson.

So you don't have several minutes of trying to fly straight and, has been
pointed out, trying to fly in formation behind a noisy, blustery tug and
furthermore where the tow combination is going to be affected by thermals
activity too. Sure its difficult. Very difficult and different from
normal flight. But just like riding a bike, which as a child you must
have thought was impossible science, magic even, it suddenly clicked, you
got more and more confident and then you wondered what all the fuss was
about.

The same will happen with flying straight in free flight.

I don't fly aerotows much and at the start of season check flights I have
similar thoughts to you. But a rope break, provided you have thought about
what you are going to do (landing options, height, turn considerations-
Trees!!, other traffic etc) is no big deal. Winching teaches you that in
spades - you have got to think about and plan for all the eventualities
during each stage of the launch before you accept the rope, rather than
react and hope. Your instructor probably hasn't got you thinking about
this yet but he will. You will then feel more in control because you are
involved in the planning of the flight,

You will master it - there are very few who don't. The beauty about
soaring is that it is similarly challenging on multiple levels:
flying in a straight line,
thermalling efficiently,
speed to fly,
choice of route,
searching for lift,
weather,
situation awareness
cross country,
outlandings,
competition
airspace
and for me dealing with a third and fourth language (Dutch and German).

I describe the challenges of gliding to my non-flying friends as 'three
dimension chess' Its always different and challenging whether it is a 5
minutes up, round and down on a winter's day to a huge cross country
flight. Each flight is challenging and fun..because you have to think
about it all the time. Just like a car your controlling skills will
become automatic but unlike a car there are no roads, street signs and GPS
navigator telling you the route to take, when to turn, when to speed up,
slow down - you have got to think all the time. Brilliant.

It must be an apt and enticing description because a German colleague at
work, who is a naval maritime-strike Tornado pilot (well ex now because
the German Navy has given up that capability) has booked a weekend of
flying with me in July!!! He is that determined to ensure he does fly
even though the majority of weekends he commutes back and from Hamburg.

Welcome to the club. You will master it and have a lot of fun doing so.
Good luck.




Gavin
Std Cirrus, CNN now G-SCNN, #173
LSV Viersen, Keiheuvel, Belgium

The tow will come with some more coordination. Just remember that you need
rudder every time you move the stick left or right. Any movement of the
stick creates some aileron drag and therefore need rudder to go with it. On
tow, think of trying to keep your wings parallel with the tow planes wings;
that way you are flying along the same circle. If you see your nose start
to go across the tow plane's wings then you need to make a correction in the
other direction; small corrections when you first see your nose start to
move will help stop the oscillations. If you are not using rudder when you
try to make your corrections with the ailerons, the nose will move in the
wrong direction due to the aileron drag, making the problem worse.
Remember, early corrections and move rudder with aileron.

Fred
"Michael" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I’m a new student glider pilot. I have a grand total of 77 minutes
flying time in six flights. The challenge of all of this has been
immensely satisfying.

I’m hoping yall can help me out with some “okay, that was a little
different than I expected” items.

First, when I am flying straight and level, the glider does not follow
a direct path, but rather is buffeted about a little bit. The nose
will go a little left and right and also up and down and I have to
make small adjustments with the stick. My instructor noticed I tend
to way over correct. In my youth, I played those very primitive
flight simulators (Apple II SimLogic anyone?) in which the flight was
ice-smooth, just like an arrow, I suppose. “Real life” isn’t like
that in gliders, apparently?

The tow rope keeps me up at night. Aerotow freaks me out. With my
inexperience in coordinated flight, I am terrified that these
oscillations I get into will upset the tow plane (and pilot). I feel
I’m doing this left bank, right bank, over correct, left, right, left
right…. I know my instructor is back there. This stuff does get
easier doesn’t it? I mean 14 year-olds do this…. (I’m 33.) My last
instructor (I’m in a gliding club in which we have a different
instructor each week), demonstrated boxing the wake and I was sure the
rope was going to break….but it didn’t, even going through the prop
wash of the tow plane.

And speaking of the tow rope. I need to get more confidence in it.
When that rope gets taught, I freeze up. I am terrified of it
breaking. However, I recently ran across a video (It’s on the SSA
site) of a real rope break. It really was no big deal. The rope
broke, the glider had a momentary shudder, the pilot muttered
something, then calmly landed the glider. It was no big deal. I
need more confidence in the rope!

I’ve been grounded for two weeks due to the flu, but I can’t wait to
get back up in the air!


--Michael

"Michael" wrote in message
...
This stuff does get easier doesn’t it?
Yes, it does. I learned in my 50's. For me, it was nearly impossible at
first. I had so much trouble learning the tow that I was terrified that my
instructor would tell me to take up some other hobby. It was one the
hardest and most satisfying things I have ever done. As others have noted,
you are learning to fly and learning to fly in formation at the same time.

I will never forget the first time I actually managed to follow the tow
plane through a turn. I knew I still had lots to learn because air was
pouring through the vent window (because I was uncoordinated) but I followed
the tow plane! I remarked to my instructor that "the tow plane looks like
it's not moving" and he said, "yea, that's what it's supposed to look like".
That was the moment when I finally started to "get it".

Years later when I finally became a CFIG, I think my own slowness in
learning helped me understand the problems of some of my students.

I mean 14 year-olds do this….

Yes, they learn fast compared to adults. Humbling aint it? Get used to it.
Soaring can be a humbling thing. I can't tell you how many times a simple
bird has made me feel like a stupid, untalented dolt. It is an honor that
they allow us to share the air with them.

...demonstrated boxing the wake and I was sure the rope was going to
break….but it didn’t, even going through the prop
wash of the tow plane.

No reason why it should break. As a primary instructor I have spent more
time that I really liike with my glider seemingly behaving like a freshly
hooked fish on the end of the tow line as one of my newer students learns
not to overcontrol; yet I have never broken a tow line that way.

And speaking of the tow rope. I need to get more confidence in it. When
that rope gets taught, I freeze up. I am terrified of it breaking.

Ideally, your tow pilot should never take you beyond gliding range of the
airport. If the rope breaks, you just go back and land. No big deal Low
rope breaks on takeoff are another matter, but will easily be within your
skill set by the time you solo. Ask your instructor about them.

Keep at it! You will do fine. Welcome to soaring.

Vaughn


Ask your instructor to show you


However, I recently ran across a video (It’s on the SSA
site) of a real rope break. It really was no big deal. The rope
broke, the glider had a momentary shudder, the pilot muttered
something, then calmly landed the glider. It was no big deal. I
need more confidence in the rope!

I’ve been grounded for two weeks due to the flu, but I can’t wait to
get back up in the air!


--Michael

On Apr 25, 3:15*am, Gavin Short wrote:
and a view from across the pond.

Flying straight is the hardest thing to do that's why we leave it until
last when teaching it. *Its much easier to turn. *
Learning on a winch helps this process because the launch bit is over in
30 seconds and initially the instructor is doing most of it.

Then the student can experience free flight and see how the glider really
handles without having a sweaty, stressful workout that seems to last an
eternity before you can fly the glider properly. *In short a new student
will be mentally (and maybe physically) exhausted before he starts his
lesson.

So you don't have several minutes of trying to fly straight and, has been
pointed out, trying to fly in formation behind a noisy, blustery tug and
furthermore where the tow combination is going to be affected by thermals
activity too. *Sure its difficult. *Very difficult and different from
normal flight. *But just like riding a bike, which as a child you must
have thought was impossible science, magic even, it suddenly clicked, you
got more and more confident and then you wondered what all the fuss was
about.

The same will happen with flying straight in free flight.

I don't fly aerotows much and at the start of season check flights I have
similar thoughts to you. *But a rope break, provided you have thought about
what you are going to do (landing options, height, turn considerations-
Trees!!, other traffic etc) is no big deal. *Winching teaches you that in
spades - you have got to think about and plan for all the eventualities
during each stage of the launch before you accept the rope, rather than
react and hope. *Your instructor probably hasn't got you thinking about
this yet but he will. *You will then feel more in control because you are
involved in the planning of the flight,

You will master it - there are very few who don't. *The beauty about
soaring is that it is similarly challenging on multiple levels:
flying in a straight line,
thermalling efficiently,
speed to fly,
choice of route,
searching for lift,
weather,
situation awareness
cross country,
outlandings,
competition
airspace
and for me dealing with a third and fourth language (Dutch and German).

I describe the challenges of gliding to my non-flying friends as 'three
dimension chess' *Its always different and challenging whether it is a 5
minutes up, round and down on a winter's day to a huge cross country
flight. *Each flight is challenging and fun..because you have to think
about it all the time. *Just like a car your controlling skills will
become automatic but unlike a car there are no roads, street signs and GPS
navigator telling you the route to take, when to turn, when to speed up,
slow down - you have got to think all the time. *Brilliant.

It must be an apt and enticing description because a German colleague at
work, who is a naval maritime-strike Tornado pilot (well ex now because
the German Navy has given up that capability) has booked a weekend of
flying with me in July!!! *He is that determined to ensure he does fly
even though the majority of weekends he commutes back and from Hamburg.

Welcome to the club. *You will master it and have a lot of fun doing so..
Good luck.

Gavin
Std Cirrus, CNN now G-SCNN, #173
LSV Viersen, Keiheuvel, Belgium



Don't be in such a big hurry to be in perfect position behind the tug.
I too would over correct and slide from one side to the other behind
the tug. I have found a slow drift back into position works better.
Don't wait to counter your correction, remember it takes time to stop
the momentum in which ever direction your correcting. As stated
previously what ever the tug flies through, you are to in a second or
two. Encountering lift at low altitudes will affect you more than the
tug, so you may pitch up a little more, but don't dive down to get in
position or will "over fly the rope". You will find it takes very
small, gentle inputs to stay in position.

remember: "Glider pilots need help getting it up"

In article
,
Michael wrote:

The tow rope keeps me up at night. Aerotow freaks me out. With my
inexperience in coordinated flight, I am terrified that these
oscillations I get into will upset the tow plane (and pilot). I feel
I¹m doing this left bank, right bank, over correct, left, right, left
rightŠ. I know my instructor is back there. This stuff does get
easier doesn¹t it? I mean 14 year-olds do thisŠ. (I¹m 33.) My last
instructor (I¹m in a gliding club in which we have a different
instructor each week), demonstrated boxing the wake and I was sure the
rope was going to breakŠ.but it didn¹t, even going through the prop
wash of the tow plane.

Others have talked about this but I just wanted to add my own emphasis.
Your instructor is going to keep the three of you safe. (You, him, tow
pilot.) You may annoy the tow pilot, but he should understand that
you're a student and are going to be doing some funky things back there.
If he doesn't, well, don't sweat it. It's expected that you're going to
give him a workout until you've had more practice.

As for breaking the rope, it's really hard, and except for a very narrow
band close to the ground it's not a big deal. (Depending on your
location even that narrow band may not be a big deal.) I've seen and
done some really terrible abuse to the tow rope and never seen one
actually break. Being badly out of position won't come close. I've hit
the end real hard after generating slack and it held. In the US, the
minimum legal rope strength is 80% of your glider's max gross weight.
Depending on what you're flying, that figure is likely to be in the
neighborhood of 1000lbs. Normal forces on the rope during tow are likely
to be more like 50lbs. That's a 20x safety factor for you to play with.

Practice will make perfect. Keep at it, and one day soon you'll look
back and wonder how you ever had any trouble with this.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon