Here I got several photographs I took when gliding in Cambridge Gliding Centre yesterday.
It was also my first glider flight. My instructor was Andrew Watson, a really nice guy offering professional yet patient instruction and really letting me fly the aircraft around instead of just following his movements. Although I had loads of simulation experience, it was my first time really in the air and at the controls, and I have to admit it is really quite different from the theoretical stuff we did in front of a computer screen. It is certainly a new learning experience for me.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that we had to carry parachutes during gliding and the seat belts inside the cockpit was really fastened for security reasons, I did not manage to take photos in the air, although I tried to fetch my iPhone. Next time I go gliding, maybe I will try to borrow a GoPro or something alike and bring home the brilliant scenery up there.
A typical gliding flight is like 10 minutes for a winch launch to 1000 feet or so without finding any lift. However, we were lucky enough to have found a thermal and circulated inside it a little bit (I think it should be called soaring technically), and we climbed to 2300 feet with the vertical speed peaking at 600 feet per minute, which is really impressive. At that altitude, we even tried to stall the glider, which scared me much at that time, but when I got to do that myself I found the glider recovering itself pretty quickly and all you need to do is just leave it alone and let it fly itself.
The landing was quite impressive, we dived down from 1000 feet or so, all the way with the air brake and vertical speed exceeding 1000 feet per minute. Again unfortunately, I just kept looking at the instruments and forgot to look outside and pay attention to the flare Andrew did. The landing was quite smooth, and later Andrew told me that the right way to fly a glider is always to look outside. The glider cockpit offers a great vision and it is of great help to learning to fly. He said he never looked at those instruments when he lands, hence he cannot give me an answer when I asked about typical touchdown speed.
Cambridge University Gliding Club started flying since 1935, and they have been offering magnificent events taking student finance into account. I really wish to join them and do more flying.
Many thanks to those who organised the trial flights and especially to my instructor Andrew, I had a great time with him in the air.