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Adult Gliding Trial Lesson with Lincolnshire Gliding Club at Strubby Airfield

Find-out what gliding is all about with this gliding trial lesson! When booking please enter your preferred dates, or email the club once purchased so that we can book you in.

Winch launching is the most exhilarating way to take-off & is the only launch method routinely used at Strubby.

The glider is connected to a cable approximately three-quarters of a mile long & is pulled up into the sky much like a kite. The glider runs on its wheels along the ground, then comes a few feet off the ground while picking up speed & when flying fast enough (about 60mph) pulls up at a 45o angle to gain as much height as possible. In the two-seater training aircraft, launch heights above 1200′ are common & in the right conditions can be over 2000′. To put this in context, a launch height of 1000′ would result in a flight of 5 minutes unless rising air is found, any more height gives additional time in the air & greater opportunity to find thermals & extend the flight.

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Description

The only sounds are the air moving past the glider, or occasional noises such as car engines from the ground. The ground flattens out into a rumpled patchwork quilt, a living photograph of the landscape with familiar landmarks from a superior viewpoint. The sky seems huge & empty other than for the tantalising mounds of bubbling white cumulus clouds indicating the presence of thermals. Rising air is what prolongs the flying time, & thermals are the likely source of this at Strubby, which means that much of a good flight will be spent circling to catch the strongest lift: climbing at first in tight, then in broadening rings, with the variometer beeping its happy song of lift.

Of course, where there is lift there will also be sink somewhere nearby, & then the variometer will sound its mournful bell & in the absence of any other lift, the pilot will start to plan the route back to the airfield. In the local soaring that is the chief component of early lessons, the airfield will always be comfortably in sight provided the student looks in the right direction! The circuit plan will be decided on to bring the glider on a final approach to the airfield at a good height & headed into wind (most times the same direction as launch) & this is the time when the glider has to be encouraged to come down from the sky by using the air brakes, which increase drag & allow a steeper, shorter approach. The glider lands softly on its wheel & runs on – a long way on concrete, less far on grass – & eventually comes to a standstill & one wing is lowered.