July 7, 2007 - Soaring

Pretty simple panel.  Altimeter, airspeed, vertical speed (two), and compass.  One of the vertical speed indicators has audio capability.  It "chirps" when you're going up.  This allows you to keep your head out of the cockpit.  You use the yaw string on the canopy to keep the glider flying straight, you use the horizon to gauge your pitch and you listen to the little bird to find the thermals. 

 

"In modern gliders, most electronic variometers generate a sound whose pitch and rhythm depends on the instrument reading. Typically the audio tone increases in frequency as the variometer shows a higher rate of climb and decreases in frequency towards a deep groan as the variometer shows a faster rate of descent. When the variometer is showing a climb, the tone is often chopped, while during a descent the tone is not chopped and the rate of chopping may be increased as the climb rate increases. The vario is typically silent in still air or in lift which is weaker than the typical sink rate of the glider at minimum sink. This audio signal allows the pilot to concentrate on the external view instead of having to watch the instruments, thus improving safety and also giving the pilot more opportunity to search for promising looking clouds and other signs of lift. A variometer that produces this type of audible tone is known as an "audio variometer".  -- Wikipedia

The Ka-8 looks kind of boxy, but it thermals pretty well. 

The Ka-8 is not a good photo platform.  The canopy is curvy and there's a lot of glare, which distorts any pictures.  Plus, the glider does not fly "hands-off".  For obvious reasons, you like to stay as high as you can.  You do fly close to other gliders, but you definitely want to be concentrating solely on flying at that point, not shooting a picture.  All this explains why I don't shoot pictures from the glider very often. 

 

Jan dropped me off in a nice thermal at 2000 feet and I zoomed right up to 5700 feet.  I spent the next two hours having fun thermalling, doing wingovers and stalls, playing around with the three other gliders that were up.