Edmonton Soaring Club

Introduction

The best way to get a taste for this sport is by taking a familiarization flight. Let your instructor know you are thinking of training to obtain your license and he can give you a detailed explanation of all the facets of glider flight.

Once you commit to the training program, you will start learning on the ground. You need to know what all the controls and instruments do. You need to be able to safely move your aircraft on the ground. Safety in the sport is paramount, so you also need to learn how to perform a walkaround check before each flight as well as the required daily inspection of each plane.

In parallel with your flight training, you will also need to meet several regulatory and club requirements. As bureaucracies tend to move slower than the learning progress of a student, you are advised to arrange for each of these as early as possible in each phase of your training:

• You need to join as a member of the club and maintain a minimum balance on your flying account.

Prior to going solo, you will need to:

• Be at least 14 years old
• Write the club pre-solo written exam
• Write the Industry Canada Restricted Operator Certificate exam
• Meet medical fitness requirements which may require you to complete a medical with a Transport Canada-approved medical examiner

Once you meet the above, and your instructors agree you are ready, you can start flying solo while staying under the supervision of your instructors. Prior to obtaining your license, you will need to:

• Be at least 16 years old
• Obtain a class 4 or higher medical certificate from Transport Canada
• Take the Transport Canada Aviation English Language Proficiency Test
• Attend at least 15 hours of ground school
• Write the Transport Canada GLIDE exam
• Perform a minimum of 20 solo flights with a combined 2 hours of solo flight time

You will take one more flight with the Chief Flight Instructor who will check to see if you've gained sufficient knowledge and skill to pass the flight test. With his recommendation, you can schedule the test. This will consist of multiple flights where you'll demonstrate you can operate gliders in a consistently safe way with sound decision making.

That's just the beginning in what we hope will be your lifelong participation in soaring. From there, you can learn to fly out of gliding distance of the airfield in a discipline called cross country soaring. You can visit various other soaring facilities and get to know your destination from the sky. Maybe you can share the joy with others by becoming an instructor.

Ground School

You can begin your training without taking any classroom time. Before you go up for your first solo, we need to make sure you have basic knowledge of aircraft operations, communications and air law. To verify this you will the approval of your flight instructors, and write a club pre-solo written exam.

You will also need to operate the radio in your glider. During your first few flights, you'll have enough other things to learn, so your instructor will operate the radio for you. By law, you need to obtain certification before you work the radio to ensure your radio communication follows government mandated standards. You will need to learn the standards, published free of charge by Industry Canada, pass a multiple choice test, and pass a practical test. This will grant you an Industry Canada Restricted Operator Certificate - Aeronautical (ROC-A).

To continue your training and get your license, you need to take 15 hours of ground school and pass the Transport Canada GLIDE exam, which is a multiple choice test of your knowledge of the following subject areas:

1. Canadian Aviation Regulations
2. Aerodynamics and Theory of flight
3. Meteorology
4. Airframes and Systems
5. Flight Instruments
6. Navigation
7. Flight Operations
8. Emergency Procedures
9. Human factors including pilot decision-making

ESC offers an annual ground school free of charge, usually in February or March. This satisfies the 15 hours requirement. Once you've completed most of your flight training, our Chief Flight Instructor will recommend you to write the GLIDE exam.

Early Flights

During your first few flights, your instructor will perform the take-off, tow and landing. You can gently hold the stick and follow along, learning the control inputs required for great take-offs and landings. Once you release from the tow plane, you will take control and learn the basics of handling the glider.

First and foremost, you need to often visually scan your surroundings for hazards in the sky. We call it maintaining a good look-out. There's more to it than just looking out the glider canopy. It can be tricky to spot and assess risks to your safety so you'll learn some techniques to make your look-out effective.

You'll learn the effects of the controls. You'll see how rolling into a turn can yaw the aircraft in the opposite direction, and how to counteract that with rudder control to stay aerodynamically efficient in what's called a coordinated turn.

You'll learn to fly straight to a point at a constant speed. Sound easy? You may be surprised when you first try. It's a good chance to learn about the stability characteristics of your aircraft, and how our active atmosphere can affect your plane.

One key soaring skill is to make continuous turns at various bank angles so that you can remain in the center of an upward convective current of air, known as the core of a thermal. All the while you still need to maintain a good look out. You will learn to make elegant turns to suit any situation.

Next Few Steps

As you take more flights, you will gradually take control for a longer part of the flight.

After take-off, the instructor will give you control for the duration of the aero-tow. Hone your flying skills by trying to maintain perfect position behind the tow plane.

You will learn the characteristics of the propeller wash behind the tow plane, and how to switch between high and low position relative to the tow plane.

At high altitude, you will practice using the spoilers, or airbrakes depending on the aircraft, and how they affect lift on your wings.

You will learn to plan a proper landing circuit, and what to do if you are too high, too low, or out of position relative to the airfield. One step at a time, you will plan and execute your final approach. The first time you take control on final, you will manage the stick to control speed while your instructor manages the spoilers to keep your aircraft descending to a pre-planned landing reference point. The next flight, you will swap roles. Finally, you will combine what you learned to execute your first landing as a glider pilot. Congratulations! Soon you will take control for the entire flight and be well on your way to your first solo.

Preparing For Solo Flight

Though you can now handle all phases of flight, there are still some important skills to learn before you can safely fly on your own.

• You need to learn how to recognize an imminent stall, and how to recover from one
• You need to be able to recover from spiral dives and spins, both of which require specific steps to follow in order to resume normal flight
• You need to handle unexpected rope breaks and tow plane emergencies
• You need to be able to sideslip in case your spoilers or airbrakes are inoperable or not effective enough

Once you've demonstrated you can handle normal flight with reasonable finesse as well as these emergencies, and passed the club pre-solo exam, you are ready for your first solo!

Honing Skills

You'll use your new solo flying privileges to improve the skills you've already been introduced to. You can further improve your control on tow by practicing what we call boxing the wake, where you fly your glider around the complete perimeter of the tow plane's propeller wake. You can start fine tuning your ability to stay in thermals, and making crisp, coordinated turns.

In this phase, you will still fly with an instructor at least once every flying day. These flights will be a great chance to practice landing in various situations using advanced techniques like crabbing and slip turns. You'll be able to handle forced downwind landings, crosswind landing, or abbreviated circuits. You will become even more knowledgeable of the characteristics of your aircraft, learning various situations that can lead to stalls and spins.

Sooner or later as your flying takes you further away from Chipman airfield in pursuit of flying goals, you will be forced to land away from the airfield, called landing out. To be prepared for this, you will learn to select the best possible field for a safe landing using various cues.

Once you feel comfortable with the knowledge and skills you've just read about, you can take your flight test and, in conjunction with passing your written test and meeting other regulatory requirements, obtain your Glider Pilot License!