In late June I decided to go for a flight in a real glider at the Southdowns Gliding Club in West Sussex. It was a very hot day and there were nice white, fluffy Cumulus clouds in the sky and no shortage of thermals to stay up as long as we wanted. I sat in the front seat with the instructor behind and we were towed for a duration of 5 mins up to a height above ground of 800m (2625ft) before the cord was released. We then thermalled around in the sky to a max. altitude that flight of 953m (3127ft), which is not far off my radio-control electric flight record of 1017m (3337ft).
As well as taking along a compact camera I also rigged up a small head-mounted HD video camera to record the whole flight.
Unfortunately, the rise and fall motion of the glider combined with just having had lunch before the flight meant that I was sick in the glider a number of times (luckily they have sick-bags in the cockpit). Feeling unwell, I told the instructor he might as well take over the controls and bring the glider in to land, which was a shame as it was good flying weather and it would have been nice to have stayed up there longer had I not felt so nauseous.
Logging the flight with my GPS unit, it lasted 32mins; we covered 34 miles and our average speed was 64mph.
I might well try it again sometime, but not just after I've had lunch next time!
GPS track of the flight path
Looking down at the river Arun.
Pulborough from c.3000ft.
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