Tag Archives: glider

Flying

Soaring Videos I have Made

Video

BLOG POSTS are most interesting when there’s visual content to go with the text. Interesting photographs make a difference. Adding video to the page can be even better as long as it’s something people might actually want to watch! I’ve made a number of videos that I’ve shared to YouTube. Some of the soaring ones are embedded below. Next time I do video I’ll try to get pictures of how I do it. That may be an interesting mini-tutorial for some readers.

Graham Saw survived doing some aerobatic training with me at Booker Gliding Club in High Wycombe, England, UK. This video is the product of multiple flights and multiple camera locations. At the time, it was perhaps the most complicated video I had done.

Aerobatic video number two was a learning event. I wish I had left the volume of the voices a bit higher and had lower volume on the music. I tried adding a title image to the beginning in an effort at “branding.” Notice the point where instructor Colin Short says “fantastic” in his Australian accent. I’d like to hear that more often! Lasham is the largest glider club in the world. (Oddly, this one is blocked in Germany.)


No aerobatics here, but this is one of my favorite videos to date. It consists of video from four different camera locations on four different flights. I like the Henry Mancini blues music. Occasionally you can see the shadow of the camera mount on the left with where the camera is looking towards the fuselage. This location disturbed the air enough that in a bank to the right I could feel the burbling air hit the tail/rudder. Hydration is important for the safety of flight. So is avoiding the other gliders. I really enjoyed flying the LS-4 with the Aeroclub Stuttgart where I was a member 2011-2013. The last 30 seconds of the video is just before landing; you can see my right foot on the rudder pedal, and it looks to me like I’m tapping with the music. 🙂

If I can tell a story, then I am a “real film maker,” nest-ce pas? This video was fun to make, and it is an effort to capture the flavor of launching and recovering a glider. Shot at Hahnweide, Germany glider field.

I hope you enjoyed watching a few of these. I had fun making them and sharing them with others.

Flying

Gliders I have flown

There are glider pilots I’ve read about online who have flown as many as 50 different gliders. I’m nowhere near that number – and likely never will be – but my own list of 24 is slowly growing. (Links are to Wikipedia.)

  1. Doppel Raab
  2. Krosno KR-03
  3. Schweizer SGS 2-33
  4. Schweizer SGS 1-26
  5. Schleicher ASK-21
  6. Schleicher ASK-18
  7. Schempp-Hirth Duo Discus
  8. Slingsby T-21
  9. Schleicher ASK-13
  10. Pilatus B4
  11. Rolladen-Schneider LS4
  12. Scheibe Bergfalke (BeFa)
  13. Schempp-Hirth Cirrus K
  14. Schleicher ASK-23
  15. LET L-23 Super Blanik
  16. Grob G102
  17. Schleicher K-7
  18. Schemp-Hirth Discus
  19. Glasfluegel Kestrel
  20. DG Flugzeugbau DG-10001
  21. Diamond HK36 Super Dimona (Motor Glider)
  22. MDM-1 Fox
  23. SF 25
  24. Grob 103 Twin
Right after my first flight in the MDM-1 Fox, a glider purpose-built for aerobic competition. It's at the top of the class!
Right after my first flight in the MDM-1 Fox, a glider purpose-built for aerobic competition. It’s at the top of the class!

The number of glider manufacturers has declined over the years. Although Wikipedia lists pretty much everyone who has ever made a glider, I’m only going to list companies here that are currently producing gliders or supporting gliders they’ve made.

DG Flugzeugbau in Bruchsal, Germany. I had the chance to tour their very spacious, modern factory during the summer of 2012 with some German glider friends, coworkers, and CAP Cadets.

Jonkers Sailplanes are produced in South Africa and becoming increasingly more popular.

Schemp-Hirth Flugzeugbau is located in the town of Kirchheim (Teck), Germany not too far from the historic Hahnweide glider field where I flew for two years.

Alexander Schleicher is in Poppenhausen, Germany, not far from the well known and historic Wasserkuppe where I did my initial German aerobatic training. On a rainy day during the aerobatic course we had a chance to tour the factory. I saw the mold that every ASK-21 I’ve flown came out of!

American Windward Performance is a new glider manufacturer, but has had good luck so far.

A brief edit to add a link to my personal page. As of the time I write this, I have flown 21 different airplanes. Maybe both lists will grown longer.