Comment by shafoshaf
13 hours ago
"it’s very important to be patient." I was a tow pilot in the Rockies for a ski season and got a whopping 3.5 hours of glider time. The spinning in circles to gain altitude was enough for me to stick with powered flight (patience indeed!) This is an amazing accomplishment, way to go!
I feel like most powered flight I see is just flying in circles around the runway, with a touch-and-go at each pass.
Well, I am not sure if it's easier in a glider but the approach and landing of an aircraft under various conditions is about 50% of PPL training.
(For the non pilots here, getting the private pilot license is equivalent to learning your first programming language/shipping your first app). All other accreditations and ratings are gated behind it.
It's not all thermals! There's also ridge and wave.
Yup! A lot of folks forget about mechanical lift and only think of thermic lift.