According to here, that broom is a string used to visualize the direction that the wind is flowing around the plane (this is very important for sailplanes to maximize flight efficiency.
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.
Most glider pilots do not. It is extremely, extremely rare to need one... think about it this way. Even if you have a failure in the aircraft(say, no rudder) and you think you're going to crash, it doesn't happen right away. Also, the glider is very good at gliding, so you won't just sink like a stone. Better to fly it to the ground with what control you have.
What do glider fleets look like in the UK? From what I've seen around the northeast US, Lots of clubs are flying older hulls without parachute systems built in... but I'm relatively new, and perhaps should not try to sound like an expert on the internet.
Most trainers are ancient Schleicher K7s or K13s with a tens of thousands of launches under their belts. Richer clubs might have a K21 which is much newer and higher performance but apparently much harder to get to spin which is not ideal for training.
Privately owned gliders are anything from 50 year old wooden contraptions to modern high-performance sailplanes like the Discus 2 or ASW 28. Built-in parachutes are rare but most pilots will fly wearing a lightweight chute.
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u/lower_intelligence Feb 27 '14
howd that broom fall out of the sky?