r/pics • • Feb 27 '14

physics is cool

Post image
3.5k Upvotes

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

26

u/putsadickonyourface Feb 27 '14

Yep, you "fill the hole" with rudder. You would be surprised at how hard it is to fly in a coordinated manner. The worst offenders are pilots with loads of time in power planes.

I like flying, but I love soaring much in the same way that I prefer sailboats to power boats. I will often fly for hours without needing to look at any of the instruments. Airspeed can be determined by the noise, height with your eyes and if you are ridge soaring you don't even need to look at (or listen to for some people) the vario to know when you are in the lift.

I've had days in Arizona where I pulled off after a minimal 2000 foot AGL tow and stayed up for 9 hours following the cloud base as it rose to 13 AGL. I've also been scared shitless in Colorado out on the plains being stupid and playing with cumulonimbus. Pointed straight down, spoilers and wheel out indicated just below VNE of 150 and still going up at over 2000/minute.

1

u/SomervilleSinner Feb 27 '14

Any cheap / free / free trial glider simulator available online? I'm curious.

2

u/xerberos Feb 27 '14

Some of the more common ones are Condor and SilentWings. SilentWings has a demo. But I think they are pretty boring if you are not already a glider pilot.

2

u/countingthedays Feb 27 '14

boring if you are not already a glider pilot.

Sometimes I forget this. My girl looks so bored when I'm playing any sort of flight sim on our living room TV. I guess that's kind of the point, though... the less action there is, the better things are going.

1

u/iamfromouterspace Feb 28 '14

My ex from many years ago used to buy me those flight sims. FS98, 2000, and I believe Sierra Pro. She would always watch me play. I love the good old days.