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Gliding Is Soaring In Popularity
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The sport of gliding is never likely to attract vast crowds. It lacks the spectator appeal of hang gliding and although not so costly as P. ower flying, it is expensive enough to deter many who are mildly attracted. Quite a lot of people, on seeing graceful, slender, motorless craft wheeling slowly in the sky, climbing, it seems, smoothly andffortlessly like great white birds, call at their nearest gliding site and take a joyride or even sign on for a few instructional flights. They find. , of course, that the grace and poetry of soaring flight are only attainable with a good deal of sweat and the ascents turn out to be distinctly turbulent at times, especially on days that the more experienced pilots seem to love most. For all that, the numbers of those who do become dedicated to this form of flying increase each year; the gliding movement is growing steadily, and shows no sign whatever of stagnation even in a time of general economic recession. Currently about 700 gliders are operating.
New sailplanes are being added to the Australian Register in batches of five or10 cit a time, as the container ships come in. The largest containers can take seven or eight 15- metre gliders; when the doors are opened they are found in side packed like eggs in an eggbox, and often keen new owners are waiting on the spot to load their acquisition onto a trailer and tow it away to be fitted with instruments and flown. In thepast six months alone, a rough count of aircraft imported in this way totals more than 80, and even a con servative estimate finds more than a million dollars per year currently being spent on sailplanes. This does not take into account the instruments, parachutes, radios and oxygen equipment, nor the road trailers. It is easy to spend $300 on one good variometer, the glider pilot’s essential, super sensitive rate of climb meter, and hardly any self respecting pilot flies with fewer than two such instruments. More elaborate variometers, coupled to small electronic computers and displaying, at every instant, vital information not only about the aircraft but about the air in which it flies, cost $1600per unit, andthe glider still needs all the standard instruments such as altimeter, airspeed indicator, compass, and so on. Fully equipped, and ready to take off on a cross-country flight, a modern Standard Class 15-metre sailplane will have cost about $14,000-$15,000. One of the new so-called Racing Class will be more costly. (Actually, the name is misleading since all sailplanes are capable of racing and practically all types are flown in competitions. ) An Unrestricted or Open Class machine such as the mighty Nimbus 2 from Germany, which spans 20. 4 metres (67ft approx. ), can hardly be bought and equipped for less than $25,000. A marked shift towards private ownership, as distinct from club-owning of gliders, has taken place in recent years.
That the gliding movement has money to spend is ob vious. Flying charges and towing costs have all risen sharply and the Gliding Federation of Australia, which controls and administers the sport under delegation from the Department of Transport, has also been compelled to charge higher affiliation fees as the work has expanded. All pilots pay, through their clubs, the GFA’s equivalent of an Air Navigation Charge. Of course sailplanes are not generally allowed to operate at DOT aerodromes nor do they make much use of DOT services.
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