When I was a midshipman, the Naval Academy had access to a fleet of four Varga Kachinas and I believe one of them may now be among the stable I fly on weekends, the thought of which gives me a moment’s pause. My junior year one of them crashed, with the loss of two lives. The training squadron “VT-NA”, or Fixed-Wing Training Squadron – Naval Academy was disestablished.
Now it has been resurrected, in the form of a soaring outfit:
(Sailplanes) lack the major component that makes aviation cost-prohibitive for many: an engine, which adds complexity and the expense of fuel plus maintenance. The only fuel expended during an average 30-minute glider training flight is that required by the tow plane to get to release altitude. As a result, hourly sailplane training costs run about one quarter of light powered-flight training costs. In challenging budgetary times, sailplane instruction enjoys a clear benefit that most taxpayers can appreciate.
Glad to hear something’s going right back at the Trade School on the Severn.
I hear that future aviation students are cooling their heels playing Flight Simulator down in P-Cola because the budget money to send them off to C-172 training hasn’t shown up yet this year.
Heard anything about that?
Been hearing a lot about that, actually. A little concerned that the Navy is waiting to see how many aircraft carriers get cut in POM-12 before pulling the trigger on last year’s quota of flight students.
Times like these…
Is SNO one of the ones cooling his heels, or did he make it into the program before the crunch?
Sir,
What’s the gouge, via your closest source, re: the impact of the ultimate (and rapid) ingress on UAVs into naval/carrier aviation-specifically how that will impact selections out of primary and ultimately career progression?
Vr,CCC
Oh, it’s all fear, conjecture and superstition down at that level. You’d have to go pretty far up the CNATRA food chain to figure out what the ground truth is, I reckon.
And I’m pretty much out of that loop, any more.
Sir,
Understand. It was FACT that if you did not go through primary via VT-27 in Corpus you would. not. get. jets. So said all the students at API for that week and a half, anyways.
CCC
USAFA had been using gliders for many years for presumably the same reasons. As well, you really learn good airmanship (especially rudder pedals) when you don’t have a throttle for back up.
One would think the soaring possibilities in Colorado Springs would would beat the downdraft inducing relative coolness of the Chesapeake Bay. Maybe the thermals from the parking lot that is the suburban sprawl from DC makes up for it.
I guess having to land when you have to land is a good skill to instill early in those who will someday do night approaches to the pitching decks of carriers far, far away from 12000 foot ribbons of concrete is a good thing.
The fact its “greener” and takes less green to boot gives everybody something to cheer about.
You forget the perpetual thermals directly overhead here.
Would not a ‘glidda’ get shot down over such a thermal source?
The USFA has been using gliders as long as I can remember. I don’t know what they are using these days since the Firefly was canned. They may have said when I wasn’t listening.
They aren’t. The AF has contracted out basic flight instruction to civilian schools. Makes sense, really – no need to use a combat-qualified pilot to train students in the basics when the job can be done by a CFI with 300 hours.
Beyond primary training, I think they were also doing some aerobatic work as well. That was the reason for the Firefly. I don’t think you are going to find many 300 hr CFIs doing aerobatic work, but they may have dumped that part of the training as well.
Moved it, I think. The whole point was that after getting rid of the T-3s, the AF would up using civilian flight schools…and found that it was a very economical move. IIRC, they don’t touch aerobatics until they move into the T-6.
Excellent soaring over the Catoctins in western Maryland and the other Appalachian foothills in southern Pa. No mountain waves like out West but plenty of thermals. To hear tell, the proximity to airways is the real issue…
Those photos take me back. I learned to fly aerobatics in the Grob 103. My own sailplane had a 15-meter wingspan, and I figure the Grob’s must have been at least 17 meters. You don’t do aileron rolls in that baby – you fly it all the way around, including using reverse rudder during the oh, 5-10 minutes you are upside down! But seriously, what fun!
I flew at Les Horvath’s school in Estrella, Arizona, and the first time I looped the Grob solo, when I came down to the bottom I felt a brief shudder. Later in front of my classmates I mentioned it to Horvath, and he said “You flew through your wingtip vortices you made when you pulled up into the loop – nicely flown!” My shit-eating grin must have wrapped around three times!
He had a Pawnee towplane like that in the article, too. And it was flown by a little bitty 19-year-old cropdusterette who weighed maybe 98 pounds dripping wet. There was none of this “pop the glider off the ground, and then hold it down while the towplane takes off” bullshit, I will tell you! That girl in her Pawnee practically yanked me and that big fat Grob off the runway!
My understanding is that German ace Erich Hartmann cut his teeth on gliders as a young lad… his mom was an instructor.
He became a fair stick and rudder man, I believe.
A fine weekend to all.
Steeljaw,
There’s enough hot air coming from the source you specified to put a glider into orbit. What do you think the real source behind Global Warming is?
In my 10+year career as a gliding instructor, I found exactly one person who managed to fly the aerotow right off the bat. He was a Canadian Snowbirds pilot, and he correctly understood that it was formation flying, while everyone else seemed to have trouble with the idea that the towplane does not really pull you like you were in a little red wagon being pulled behind your big brother. And I mean everyone, including high time commerical pilots and even fighter jocks. Of course the fact that the trim “system” on our Schweitzer 2-33 trainers was essentially usless on tow didn’t help too much.
A good friend of mine’s daughter just got her first choice at Naval Academy Service Selection. Naval Air. It is my understanding that she already has about 25 hours of Cessna time, recently arranged by the Academy. She’ll graduate next May and then I guess it’s on to Pensacola.
Not arranged by Academy, that’s a Navy-wide program. Some people get to do it before grad, even summer before 1/c year. Others do it after grad, and the unlucky ones do it in Pcola vice Annapolis.
The flying squadron was disbanded back during my Plebe year if I remember correctly. It seems that some of the funding was diverted to “building the warrior ethos” through other means such as expanding the drum and bugle corps, ugh. Many of us were sad to see it go. However, a company-mate of mine, who was a CFI/II prior to starting at the Academy, took it upon himself to offer free flight instruction to any Mid, provided that they pay for the rental and gas. It was a pretty good deal for all involved, and he walked away with more than 1000 instructor hours under his belt before showing up to P’cola.
That was a pretty slick move.
Yeah, he pretty much had a free pass to get off of the yard whenever he wanted.
Head’s up if you are a sailplane-lover. The holiday “Historic Aviation” catalog has what looks to be a a great book for $80 on page 61, “Sailplanes 1965-2000″.
http://www.historicaviation.com Toll-free 800.225.5575
If you don’t get one of these catalogs periodically, you are missing some goodies for the boy (or girl) pilot in all of us. No, I don’t work there.
ps. Looked on Amazon – one used copy for $231.00! Huh?
Good choice on the gliders. Nothing teaches energy management like not having an engine. And those footrests? They actually are used in gliders. Best thing about gliders is that while they are easy to fly (min age to solo a glider is 14!) there is also no upper limit to the challenge to be found. Soaring is a highly competitive sport.
I’ve had a number of looong flights in gliders along the PA ridges that extend down into MD. Many hours with no motor. Too cool.
I learned in gliders, going from student to instructor in about 10 years. My wife, who had a private pilot license when we met, switched to gliders and said she fell in love with flying again. Just to be a good sport, I decided to take up powered flight. My wife told me the instructor (her former instructor) took her aside after my first lesson and said “Your old man flies stick and rudder better than I do! He just needs to learn about the noisemaker up front and how airports work!” Soloed on my 3rd lesson – in a taildragger, by the way (I have never flown a trike – honest). Sure I’m bragging , but it is true that if you really want to learn to fly, you start in gliders, and then add the motor.