by Bruce Estes

One item on my bucket list was to fly a glider. Yesterday, I checked that item off of the list. Flying the glider was cool. It was way different than flying my RV6. And, it was fun.

It all started when I called Richard Pearl, the president of the Truckee Tahoe Soaring Association that owns the Schweitzer SGS2-33 glider that is parked on the ramp at Lincoln Airport. Arrangements were made and I showed up Saturday at 9:30. Two additional students were also there. Three pilots/students are needed to help move the glider from the ramp and assist in getting the glider on and off the runway. In addition to the three of us, we had Richard (a CFI), another instructor, and the tow plane pilot. Richard showed me how to preflight the glider, how to enter and exit the glider without breaking anything, and the various items in the cockpit. There are only a couple of gauges in the panel airspeed indicator, vertical speed indicator, altimeter, and a compass. The avionics panel consists of a com radio and transponder. There is a big knob in the center of the panel; that’s the tow rope release. The most important instrument for the glider is not on the panel. It is the yaw string that is attached to the pitot tube in front of the windscreen. Gliders will definitely yaw a lot in the turn if you don’t use the rudder properly.

When my turn came to fly, I climbed into the glider and waited while the tow rope was attached.

Soon we were being towed. The glider gets off the ground pretty quickly It is REAL important when being towed to keep the glider behind the tow plane in the correct location. This was a little difficult at first. The glider takes a LOT of stick movement to get those long wings to respond. Richard assisted as necessary. Reaching 4,000’, we released the tow rope and it suddenly got real quiet. Richard showed me turns, stalls, steep turns, and other maneuvers. We flew for about 20 minutes till it was time to land. Richard handled the landing. We immediately hooked up the rope for another flight. This time we released at 3,000’. By now, I was doing most of the flying, except when Richard was showing me something new. Richard handled the landing on this flight also. Because of the slow flight speed, approximately 50 mph, the glider will turn real tight. This was cool. There is not much to watch on the instrument panel, so you spend most of your time looking out the windscreen. The Lincoln countryside was beautiful when observed from the glider, slowing and quietly gliding through the air.

The Schweitzer SGS2-33 glider has an empty weight of 600 lbs, wing span of 51’, and glides at about 50 mph. Stall speed is 36 mph. No medical is necessary to fly a glider, and if you have an existing power pilot’s license, an “add on” glider rating can be had pretty easily.

So, you just might see me out by the glider some more. It was definitely a great experience. Try it, you might like it.