On 24th May 2010 My mate Dave and I left Romford for Marlow, Buckinghamshire.Lucky enough we left early as we experienced traffic as roads were closed due to accidents. On the plus side it was a very hot and sunny day! I saw two Red kites on the way down, forgot there were in The Chilterns, lovely.
We arrived at Booker Gliding centre half hour early. As luck would have it the person whose lesson was booked before me hadn't arrived yet and I could get up early....RESULT!!
After filling in some paperwork, We headed over to the airfield where I met my instructor who was taking me up. We made our way over to the glider and the instructor got her ready for flight.
It was then explained to me what each instrument was for in the cockpit (airspeed, altitude etc) and what to expect from my lesson today. I was soon to be up and being in control of a glider!
My pilot then went on to explain how to fit my parachute and how to eject the canopy of the glider and climb out of the glider and pull my chute." I wouldn't mind a parachute jump , just not today" I remember saying lol.
I then got myself into the cockpit andf strapped myself in, and waited for my tow plane to make its way over to us.
Once hooked up to the tow plane, we were moving. I didn't expect the glider to be airborne before the tow plane though!
We were quickly up to 2000 ft where we were then released from the tow plane and allowed to glide. However there wasn't many thermals to be found and didn't rise up any higher.
Steering the glider with the stick and pedals to control the rudders , was easier than I thought it would be, however they are very sensitive and on one turn I was told its not a spitfire you can turn on its wings and that while he could do that sort of thing it was best I didn't for now lol
We were up for about 25 minutes, but eventually we run out of thermals and was losing height so we had to come down down and land. The landing was very bumpy to say the least! What an experience! It was extremely hot under that canopy, glad I took a baseball cap and sunglasses!
Don't think I'll be taking it up as a hobby though!!..... £995 for a 28 lesson course that will see me flying solo, then £615 pa to join the club plus extras eg glider hire etc
.JPG)