It was very early last Saturday morning, about 7.45am I rushed myself to the gathering point in from of Portland building. It was very cold, temperature as low as 12 degree Celsius that morning. My breaths turned clouds of mist when I panting from quick run to there. As I reached I saw a few club members sitting on the stair case in front of Portland Building, some were international students and some were British students, they were Steven, John, Ken and many more. Attendance was taken while waiting for others to come. At about 8am we departed in three cars moving towards the South West for 1 hour and 5 minutes of ride. At first I was still very energetic for sightseeing and for route recognition however until half of the journey I finally failed to defeat the loads of my eye lids, I unconsciously napped in the back seat of the car. When I gained my vision it was just two more turns ahead to the destination—Cranwell.
Glider
There we were, a highly security restricted military training college in Cranwell, RAF. Only during Banks holidays and weekends there are opened to outsiders or gliding club members because during the normal days the airfield will be occupied for formal training purpose. We queued to collect our day pass and then we walked under the lead of an instructor to the garage where all the gliders are kept.
The garage
Front of garage
NU2 is owned by the gliding club of University of Nottingham. It was destructed like the plane model that we used to see in the toy shop when I first seen it. It was kept after the previous use with its wings, tails taken out and kept in a big container together with the glider body. It was towed by a car to the airfield and there we helped to build it up. Impressively, the instructor was a young lady, her name was Conny. She was really professional; she jumped into the glider, opened the canopy and unfixed the seater head rest to reach for the lock for both wings. Three to Four persons went to side of one wing, lifting and shifting for it to fit the wing nicely to the hole in the body and then locked it to the body properly. The same repeated for the other wing. This followed by the Tail.
NGreat Britain registered Glider of Nottingham University Gliding Club
Low visibility in the morning stopped us from flying=(
Happy smiling face..
Romeo 59
The glider above, R59 was made in 1969. We were able to fly on it as it belonged to University of Nottingham as well. Its age could easily told from its shape. Looking at it and make comparison with Romeo 2, you could see a revolutional change in the glider shape of construction whereby Romeo 2 is more aerodynamic enhanced than the R59 and other glider, therefore it is one of the best performance glider in the club. It can fly higher and longer. Materials of architecture had also improved from just steel and wood to steel, plastic, wood, fabric and carbon fiber.
Because of it was still foggy, we were unable to fly thus we went up the double Decker bus to have our tea, coffee, snacks and sandwiches. The bus was so cool that it was actually a mobile mini kitchen and resting stop for all of the gliding members. Steams puffing up the cold air from the chimney of the bus. Interestingly the lady of food and drinks seller was actually an experience glider driver, she had been flying for 25 years. She flew solo. That’s what really incredible!
The double Decker bus, our mobile resting stop
Sleek
After a short rest we were called for a pre-flight briefing in the bar. Life safety measure like how to wear and use the parachute was taught by the president of gliding club, this was the first time I wore parachute. Sunshine appeared and we push the glider one by one from the garage to the airfield then they were towed by jeep or four wheels drive to our launching point. Here you see how we moved the glider.
Some used BMW to tow the glider..
But we used the Jeep
My feet were soaked wet all the day. I should have worn Puah Chu Kang's boots..
Excited
Brian was my instructor of the day and he introduced me a lot about gliding. We helped other glider to set off by clinging the cable underneath the glider as well as holding one wing to help it balance then run with the glider during the launching.
AAlready in the air..冲上云霄
do you see? Im on the bird view
Yoo..hoo..
Hahaha! Finally my turn to fly, Brian sat on the behind seat while I took the front. After putting the parachute jacket on, I jumped onto the glider. Brian explained all the operational control to me. Closed the canopy and we were ready to fly. A powerful winch pull the cable connected to us and we launched like a kite. It was amazing that we reached 1500 feet high in 4 seconds. Fantastic experience! Yooo..HOo…. I was like driving a roller coaster on my own and then ‘TUCK!’ the cable was released and we were set free high up in the air. A sudden down speed when the cable was released. I felt my heart was just about to pop out. Yoo Hoo..we flew with the wind with having control of the direction. Peddles control the wings direction while the stick controlled over the glider tip. The coordination required some skills and experience. Over the time, Brian will shout ‘You are in control’ and I replied ‘I am in control’ to confirm and making sure that no two persons were doing the same job.
The tricky part of gliding is that It needs us to be always having a clear mind about our direction and route planning but at the same time watching out the sky for other gliders. Multitasker or risk taker is definitely suitable for this activity.
Temperature inversion is something that dealing with the length of time on the circuit, the thermal convection due to the flows of cold and hot air provide surges to the glider and make it able to glide like a bird for some time without using any energy. I was lucky that during our flight we encountered with a buzzard which was looking for thermal enabling it to spread its wing and glide like us. It was amazingly beautiful, we were on the top while the buzzard was below us gliding round in a circle. Unfortunately the thermal disappeared after a few minutes then lose our height slightly to about 700 feet, we did not get lower but we also did not get any higher. We maintained at the same height until we planed to land. Making a 90 degree turning to the right around the field directed the tip to the landing point then a pull at the blue break decelerating the glider. Smooth landing. Beautiful!
Isnt it fascinating?
Google Map look-alike..
The shadow of our plane
Inside view of the glider. Instruments telling the height, speed, compass and thermal avaibility.
How instructor helping the glider to launch, helping a wing for balancing
Will you wonder how does a glider launch? I know you will ask, I had recorded a video clip, click on the PLAY then you will know.
Setting off..
The flying members..
'No Smoking Near Aircraft'
The instructor who had been travelled to almost all around the world
Ken, from Sabah
This aircraft was so modern and handsome, G-CJLN
lethargic..
Is this look like a scene in War book?
Seeing people fly in a different angle of view
Stone and day dream..
Sunset
Lines of cloud across the yellowish sky
The best thing about gliding is being able to fly so as land quietly and gracefully as it did not require an engine to fly or land. I love this activity very much. One advise is that do not fly with full stomach. Haha!
The whole club was like a big family possessing the same interest, we had our drinks at the bar at very low price after we clean and kept the gliders one by one into the garage.
Game'd over..Keep the toy
Now come the happy hours at really low price. But but...I only drank Lemonade (carbonated drinks)..No worry..
Aware..
