This website uses the UK Government access keys standard wherever possible.

Accessibility Information
Skip Navigation

NUGC - Nottingham University Gliding Club

Information

Contents

General Information

This page is a copy of the club handbook. Find out about our club, and what your first flight will entail.

You can also view this handbook as a PDF file here - NUGC Handbook (18 pages, 283kb)

If you would like to print this handbook, a PDF file laid out with 2 pages per A4 sheet is available here - NUGC Handbook For Printing (9 pages, 264kb)

A word from the president

Welcome to the NUGC website. My name is Joseph Bull, and I'm your President. That means very little - the more important members of the committee are the Flying Organiser, Dave Calder (07765 771680 - flyingorganiser@nugc.net) and the social secretary, Rich Thomas (07841 525092 - social@nugc.net). These are the people who actually organise stuff that happens, so they are the people to talk to if you want to come along flying, or join us in one of our socials.

We do all sorts of flying at NUGC. If you've never flown before, that's great. This is the cheapest and best way for you to get into aviation. We have our own two seat glider, and have access to loads of experienced instructors. On the other hand, if you have flown before, or have been gliding for a while, then that's great too. We also have our own single seat glider, and access to RAF Cranwell's extensive fleet, so we can help you on your way with your progression.

Feel free to have a read through our website, and a browse through the forum. It's got lots of useful information on it, but if you have any specific questions, email me (president@nugc.net, or grab me at our regular social in Mooch (Every Tuesday at 7:30pm), and ask away.

Hope to see you all on the airfield soon!

Joseph Bull - NUGC President 2007/2008 (07737 609120 - president@nugc.net)

About the club

NUGC is one of the oldest clubs in the University of Nottingham and provides one of the cheapest ways to experience the thrills of flying you will ever get. If you are ever going to take up gliding or just wondered what it would be like then NOW, as a student, is the time to do it! The club meets every week in Mooch (the student union bar - at the east end of the Portland Building), on Tuesdays at 7.30pm. Here we organise the flying lists for the coming weekend, and generally socialise. Just look out for people wearing blue fleeces with Uni of Nottingham Gliding Club on them. We fly at RAF Cranwell, about 50 minutes by car from Nottingham. In addition to normal flying weekends, we offer various social events (e.g. BBQ's, trips to Alton Towers...), weekend and whole week trips away to other gliding clubs around the country, so you can experience flying in other locations and generally have a good time.

Introduction

The sensations of flying in an un-powered aircraft are frustratingly difficult to describe. The only way of appreciating the thrills and beauty of soaring over the countryside, is to actually try it. During good soaring conditions, pilots can master the art of riding air currents, maybe flying cross-country, attaining high altitudes, or even just staying up and enjoying the views.

To get to this proficiency does not require any superhuman skills or hidden talent; if you are capable of driving a car then with patience, practice and training, you too can experience the thrill of controlling a glider and soaring on your own.

This information pack is meant to be a source of information for new members to the Gliding Club, covering some of the basic facts about gliding and airfield safety. It is not intended to be a flight instruction manual - in fact, there is very little about actually flying a glider here (that is what instructors are for). Unfortunately, instructors and other experienced pilots often forget that when you first take up gliding you know absolutely nothing about the basics. Hopefully you will find enough background stuff here to give you an idea of what gliding is about, and let you step into what can be an immensely satisfying sport. It also contains some essential info which means you can turn up fully prepared and then enjoy the day fully without having to worry about being totally new.

What can the gliding club offer you?

If you make the effort to go to the airfield regularly it is perfectly realistic to expect that you can go solo in time for the warm weather and thermal soaring conditions next summer. On the way to becoming a solo pilot there are many rewarding goals for you to aim for: learning how to fly straight and level; to turn corners; flying your first winch launch; landing; and planning your own circuit. Each of these achievements is a thrill in itself - people who have recently gone solo are often seen to sport a permanent grin for days. However, be warned: Regular gliding and the resulting achievements can lead to extreme smugness!

What will I need to bring when I go flying?

How do I actually go flying?

Right now, you are enthused and ready to reach for the skies. This section will cover the practicalities. Remember that the flying list is busy at the start of the year but much less so later on. Even if you do not visit the airfield before Christmas, come and fly when things are calmer in the spring.

Flying for the following weekend is arranged in Mooch (Lower Ground floor in the Portland Building) on Tuesday nights at 7.30pm. Up to ten flying members can go to the airfield on each day and these places are allocated on a first come first served basis. If the list is full, then you can give your name to the Flying Organiser, and he will make sure that you have priority for a place on the next available day. People with their own cars can reclaim petrol money for a trip to the airfield if they take other people along with them. You should find out who is driving on the Tuesday night. We leave the Portland Building steps at about 8.00am in the morning on Saturday and Sunday.

Where do we fly?

NUGC is affiliated to an RAF gliding club at RAF Cranwell, which is about 35 miles East of Nottingham. The gliding club is on a separate field to the main Cranwell airfield, which means that we don't get in the way of the powered flying on the main airfield, and they don't get in the way of us. NUGC is like an extension of the Cranwell gliding club, and we work as one big club, rather than 2 separate entities. This works out well for both clubs - they get more young people involved and have a lot more hands around to help out, while we benefit greatly from being around the Cranwell members: they mostly work in aviation and in the RAF, so their teaching, maintenance skills and all round gliding and flying experience is extremely valuable.

Cranwell operate a tug aircraft, a selection of gliders (including a motor-glider), and a number of winches. They also have hanger space, a workshop (where glider maintenance can be carried out), a bar (one of the more important facilities!), a bunkroom (so we can sometimes stay overnight at the airfield, to maximise available flying time), and a kitchen. Also, most importantly, they have several hundred years of accumulated gliding experience.

How do I get there?

As the airfield is about 35 miles away, and the club relies on the generosity of student drivers to get people there at the weekend. When you sign up on Tuesday, you will be put down on the list to go in somebody's car. If you are interested in driving, or just want to know about any other transport information, ask the Flying Organiser.

Diagram Of Glider Parts

What do we fly?

NUGC own two gliders:

At Cranwell, there are also gliders which we are also allowed to fly:

A typical glider looks something like the picture on the right.

Diagram Of A Glider Using A Thermal To Gain Height

How gliders stay up

The basic principles are easy to grasp - you do not need to learn a lot of technical theory to fly a glider. A glider is nothing more than a refined paper dart. If it is launched to a given height in still air conditions it will move forward horizontally fairly rapidly, and descend vertically fairly slowly. It can be turned during its flight and its descent can be steepened, but its glide path remains essentially downwards.

Fortunately the air is never perfectly still, and a pilot can actually gain height if he (or she) finds some air that is going up faster than he is coming down. The principal is the same as trying to walk down an up going escalator. If the escalator is moving fast enough, then in spite of your efforts, you will be carried to the top.

How are the gliders launched?

Most of the launches at Cranwell are by winch. The winch is big blue-and-yellow vehicles with powerful engines and a little winch driver inside. One or two cables are drawn out from the winches by a Land-rover and towed to the bus (cable retrieve driving is one of the jobs that you can do to help from early on, but in order to be allowed to do this, you must have a full car driving license and be taught what to do by a Cranwell instructor or an experienced NUGC member).

When a pilot is ready to launch, the ground crew attaches the ring at the end of a cable to a hook on the glider. The winch driver watches for a sequence of blinking lights on the control wagon so that he knows when to take the slack out of the cable. On another light signal the driver opens the throttle and the aircraft accelerates rapidly. When the glider has reached a safe flying speed the pilot gently eases into the climb. Within thirty seconds the glider can gain height from 1000 to over 2000 feet above the ground - higher than the World's tallest skyscraper! Occasionally cables do break but solo pilots will have practised what to do if this happens and are taught to land safely even after an abandoned launch. A tug aircraft is also available that can aerotow gliders higher still.

Diagram Of A Glider's Axis Of Movement

What controls will I use to fly the glider?

There are three ways in which the glider moves: roll, pitch and yaw. These are shown in the diagram to the right.

The controls are used to make the glider move. You use your feet on the rudder pedals and one hand on the stick. This handily leaves one hand free for harmonica playing, card games or using the remaining controls. The controls are as follows:

Diagram Of Airbrakes In The Wing

What should I expect once I get to the airfield?

When you arrive at Cranwell, after getting security passes and then arriving at the gliding club's area, you will have to help get the gliders out of the hanger. There will be someone experienced in charge of this operation because handling gliders on the ground is quite tricky. The essential thing to remember is not to step over the wings or fuselage and don't push on any soft bits or on the perspex canopy, as gliders can be very expensive to repair. Once the glider is out of the hanger it will be given its Daily Inspection to ensure that it is safe and fit to fly, taken to the launch point and as soon as an instructor has appeared, you are ready to fly. When you get to the launch point, there will be an A4 sheet going round - the flying list, showing what order people will fly in. Your name will then be put under the column headed "HPE", which is the name of our K13 training glider.

What will happen during my flight?

When it is your turn to fly, you and your instructor first will put on a parachute (you will be shown how to do so correctly before you fly) then you will climb into the cockpit and get strapped in. The instructor will go through a checking procedure to make sure that everything is OK and ready for take off.

Another person will then attach a winch cable to the glider. You will need to go through the checking procedure with the instructor, since they can't see inside your part of the cockpit. The checks are:

In order to remember this sequence, there is a mnemonic CB-SIFT-CBE which every glider pilot must memorize. The checks are always done in that order, and even if a control or instrument is not present it is checked anyway. Don't worry about remembering the checks on your first flights, as the instructor will largely take responsibility for these and will guide you through any you need to do. To make life easier, you will see that CB-SIFT-CBE is actually written on a sticker on the instrument panel in front of you.

Once the instructor is satisfied that everything is ready, he checks with the Launch Controller that it is safe to launch and a cable is attached to the glider. The Launch Controller will then signal to the winch driver to start the launch.

The winch itself is at the other end of the airfield, and it reels in the cable, with the glider on the end, so that the glider rises rather like a kite. The launch is very fast, and very steep: probably faster than you are expecting. But that's half the fun! The instructor will control the launch, and when the glider reaches the peak - probably between 1100 and 1500 feet - he will release the cable. Sometimes there can be a loud bang when the cable is released, but don't worry, that sometimes happens - the glider is NOT about to fall out of the sky.

After the launch, the instructor will fly the glider to where they think there will be some lift - to ensure the flight will last as long as possible. They will then demonstrate the effects of the controls and, if you want to, allow you to fly the glider, and do simple things such as gentle turns or controlling the speed, and the meanings of the instruments will be explained.

The flight itself should last at least ten minutes, depending on the weather conditions (although it is possible to stay up for several hours), with you doing at least some of the flying in that time (if you want to). Students usually take three winch launches at a time to keep continuity of the training. If the flying list is not full, you might be able to have another set of launches later in the day.

When your time is up, the instructor will fly the glider back to the airfield and bring it in to land. Once on the ground, he will discuss your flight with you whilst you both wait for people to come and retrieve the glider, and haul it back to the launch point. You will be given an RAF training card on which your progress is recorded so that you, and your subsequent instructors, will know what stage you are at (It is important that you bring this card with you every time you go flying).

Going solo

Obviously the first major step is to go solo and pilot the glider on your own. In general it takes about 50 launches (and landings, hopefully) which can be completed in less than a year if you fly regularly. In order to go solo you need to demonstrate to the instructors your flying skills and that you are able to deal with certain emergency conditions, such as stalls, spins and launch failures. When you do get sent solo, you will qualify for either an `A' or `B' certificate, allowing you to fly within gliding range of the airfield.

Who does what at the airfield?

On your first visits to the site it may be hard to see how the people at the airfield are organised. Whenever gliding is taking place there will be a Duty Instructor (DI) at the launch site. They are in charge of everything that happens and their word is law. The DI is there to see that safe procedures are followed. The DI has an assistant called a Duty Pilot (DP) who takes the pressure off the DI by arranging instructors for pupils, deciding who to launch next and allocating tasks to other people to do. On a typical weekend day there will be a dozen or so members of the Cranwell club at the launch point and ten NUGC students. There should always be at least one student present who knows the ropes and who can introduce the others to the Duty Pilot. If you find yourself at the launch point without a clear idea of what is happening, ask for the DP and let them know. All instructors have current qualifications for teaching people to fly. If you see anything that you think is dangerous, point it out to the DP or any of the regular folks, the worst that will happen is that they will explain why it is not a hazard.

What are all the different vehicles on the airfield?

On there airfield there will normally be a line of vehicles by the launch point. At the front is the yellow double-decker bus, which serves as the launch point control, kitchen and seating area. The lights on the front signal to the winch when to take in the cables, and which one. This is also where the flights are logged - information is recorded about the pilots and time of flight. The bus is used for the catering on the airfield - snacks are available here. There is a small kitchen on board the bus for breakfasts, with drinks, cakes and sandwiches also being sold here. There are more seats and tables here for briefing / debreifing / shelter.

Behind the launch point, there are a few club vehicles, including a brightly coloured fire car (it is a legal requirement to have one whenever powered aircraft are flying), and 2 Land-rovers These are used for towing the cables back from the winch, and for towing gliders around on the airfield when they have landed too far away to push.

You will sometimes find gliders here as well when they have been pushed to the side if they aren't being used at that time.

Lastly, behind the club vehicles and gliders is where all other vehicles are parked - cars of members. Behind this, you will usually find the motor glider and the tug.

What should I do when I am not flying?

Gliding is very much a team activity, even though a couple of people can fly at a time. It is very important that we help out around the airfield doing jobs such as hauling gliders about, or driving the land-rover that pulls the cables from the winch to the launch point. Students who disappear after their flights and sit upstairs on the bus for the rest of the day, will find that instructors, and others, resent it and become less helpful! Ask the Duty Pilot to find somebody to teach you how to drive the cable retrieve, or launch gliders. If you see people struggling with pushing a glider on the ground, help them out even if it is not our glider.

Safety Information

This section may be a bit dry but please read it before you visit the airfield. The chances are that if somebody sees you breaking these guidelines, they will let you know about it straight away (and more often than not, in a rather blunt fashion). Should you be on the receiving end of a harsh rebuke about a safety issue, do not take it personally - the RAF culture is strong on safety but less so on sensitivity!

At the launch point

The cables that tow gliders into the air are attached to a monster 6.5 litre V8 engine at the far end of the airfield and should be handled with great caution. Cables are reeled in at up to 60Kts, and if one cable snags on the other whilst launching a glider, then it too will be drawn in at that speed. At the launch point an audible signal and light will tell you when a cable is being reeled in. When this happens do not go anywhere near the cables. If you are helping out at the launch point, you may be tempted to take the other cable across to the next glider in the queue, to speed things up a bit, while the first glider is launching...

DON'T!

Ask somebody to show you how to hold a cable - there is a knack to it. When the land-rover comes back from the winch with a set of cables the driver will reverse to release the tension in them. Wait until this is done this before unhooking them from the tractor. When a glider is being launched, stand clear to the rear and side of it in case it veers sideways.

Crossing the airfield

When you do walk around, keep a good look out for landing gliders - you won't be able to hear them. If one is coming in near, stand still - the pilot will have seen you, but won't know where you are going. If you are in a car stick to the perimeter except when leaving to join the line of cars behind the bus. Always have a window fully open, so you can hear any instructions, and keep your stereo off. Look out all the time. Again, if a glider is coming in near you, or if you are near the launch point when one takes off, stop driving. If the launch fails, the glider will be making a quick landing and will need to know exactly what you are doing (if you're new to the airfield, it is a good idea to have someone experienced in the car with you). If in any doubt at all, ask somebody about the safe way to walk.

Parachutes

We wear high fashion red parachutes on all flights. Although it is almost unheard of for one to be used, they make sitting in the glider more comfortable because the parachute handily fills the parachute-shaped groove in the back of the seats. NEVER, NEVER leave parachutes on the ground in case they get wet or dirty, and take care to pick them up by the right-hand shoulder strap, so that you don't accidentally pull the 'D' ring on the left-hand strap and open the parachute.

When putting a parachute on, always put the leg straps on first. If you accidently deploy the parachute on a windy day, and you only have the chest strap fastened, you may will probably end up being dragged along the airfield by your neck.

Moving gliders

Diagram Of Where On A Glider It Is Safe To Push

Gliders need to be moved when taking them to and from the hanger and when pushing them back to the launch point after an inaccurate landing or cable break. Although the following information may seem tedious, it is important because gliders are expensive to mend and easy to damage while being moved. Gliders are very strong in the places they need to be, so that they can support their own weight during flight, but to minimise that weight they are more fragile elsewhere. The trailing edges of the wing, the canopy and the tail plane are all very delicate. Never put any force on these areas. The canopy is very expensive and should be locked closed at all times. If it has to be left open, it should be supported.

Gliders are usually moved backwards, pushing on the front (leading) edge of the wings whilst lifting the tail using the handles provided (in the case of our K13). One wing tip is held to keep the wings level, and it is always the into wind wing that is held. If the wind gets underneath a wing, it can flip the glider over, and it is easier to prevent a wing from lifting up, than it is to stop it from coming down. The person with the wing tip is responsible for steering the glider, and is usually in charge of the whole operation. Don't support both wings because that can produce unnecessary stresses across the glider, which may lead to a broken strut. One wing tip must be supported at all times. If for any reason you need to change wings, it must be clearly understood who is supporting the wing. Shout "Your Wing!" to the person taking the other tip. They will reply "My Wing!" as they take it. If a wing were to drop to the ground, it is likely to damage one of the struts which gives it its shape, and therefore destroy its lifting properties. A wing which doesn't lift is a plank. Remember never push on the trailing edge of the wing.

Over long distances, a glider may be towed forwards behind a car with one person supporting a wing and another walking by the nose ready to prevent the glider rolling forwards into the back of the car, and to release the tow rope. A good way to break the canopy is to walk alongside the glider, with your arm though the DV panel (the little window in the perspex), ready to release the tow rope. Open the whole canopy to release the towrope and only when car and glider are stationary.

Parking gliders

If a glider is to be left out on the airfield unattended, it should be parked so that the wind is coming across the wings and slightly from behind. For wooden gliders (e.g. K13s, K18s), the into-wind wing should be weighed down by one or two sandbags to prevent it from being caught by the wind, lifting up and flipping the glider over. Just to make life even more confusing, fibreglass gliders (e.g. K21s, Astirs) are generally left with the into-wind wing up.

Summary for glider handling

Pricing

The club charges £30 for a year's membership, that includes insurance, affiliation free use of club caravans and the infamous club punch at our annual AGM. The cost of flying itself is ridiculously cheap. A winch launch will set you back £3.75 and unlike other gliding clubs there are NO soaring fees when flying NUGC gliders.In other words, whether you stay up there for 5 or 35 minutes, it's still only £3.75 a flight. If that may seem a lot then take a look at some of our gliding links and you'll see that it is extremely cheap. Indeed we challenge you to find it cheaper! Here is a summary of all costs involved:

Please note that since most of the above prices are set by Cranwell Gliding Club, and not NUGC, they are subject to change occasionally. If they do change, we will endeavor to get any new prices put up on this page as soon as possible.

Health Requirements

There are no specific medical requirements for training in gliders but (like for any other AU club) it is your responsibility to tell the club if you have any medical condition that you think would affect your ability to fly. Before you fly solo you need to sign a self-declaration of medical fitness and get your doctor sign it too. This covers the same requirements as driving so if you are fit enough to drive you are fit enough to fly gliders solo. If you find you are flying often and progressing through the syllabus quickly, it is worth getting this sorted early so that it doesn't cause delays later.